MTA 400, Section 3 ("The History of Television")
Instructor: Walter Metz
Lecture: "1980s and 1990s Television"
I. Postmodernism
1. Play with high and low culture
CLIP #1: Moonlighting ("Big Man on Mulberry Street", ABC, November 1986): the dream ballet
Compare with Ernie Kovacs and Westinghouse Studio One
2. Referencing the History of Broadcasting
CLIP #2: Moonlighting ("The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice, ABC, Spring 1985): Orson Welles introduces the show
3. Surrealist television
CLIP #3: Twin Peaks (first season, episode 2, ABC, 4/19/90): the dream sequence
II. 1980s Reaganism vs. 1990s
A. 1980s Domestic Family Sitcom vs. 1990s Dysfunctional Family Sitcom
1980s
CLIP #4: The Cosby Show ("The Track Race", NBC, 1984-1992): the race ends in a tie
The avoidance of the effects of capitalist competition. Everyone wins on The Cosby Show’s vision of American capitalism.
Mark Crispin Miller: "And daily life in this bright house is just as easy on the viewer as it is (apparently) for Cliff’s dependents: The Cosby Show is devoid of any dramatic tension whatsoever. Nothing happens, nothing changes, there is no suspense or ambiguity or disappointment. In one episode, Cliff accepts a challenge to race once more against a runner who, years before, had beaten him at a major track meet. At the end, the race is run, and--it’s a tie!" (209).
vs.
1990s
CLIP #5: The Simpsons ("Dead Putting Society", FOX, 11/15/90): the kids quit
The kids are the only ones with the sense to reject the suburban middle-class competition which their fathers live by.
B. 1980s MTM neoconservative shift vs. 1990s utopian drama
1980s
a. Neoconservative dramas
CLIP #6: Hill Street Blues ("Trial By Fury", NBC, 1981-1987): Frank and Joyce argue over the treatment of the criminal
--Frank threatens to let the nun’s rapist out on the streets where the angry mob awaits him: This forces him to confess.
--Romanticization of the police state, scorn for liberal sympathy for criminals
b. Apolitical sitcoms
CLIP #7: Cheers (NBC, 1982): Cliff annoys bar patron
Romanticization of a family of alcoholics
vs.
1990s
a. Utopian dramas: Northern Exposure
CLIP #8: Northern Exposure ("I Feel the Earth Move", CBS, 5/2/94): Maurice learns of the gay wedding
b. Politicized sitcoms: Murphy Brown, Roseanne, Ellen
CLIP #9: Roseanne ("Sweet Dreams", ABC, 11/7/89): Roseanne "kills" her 3 children
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This page was last updated on January 8, 2001
Questions or comments? Please phone me at (406) 994-6403 or send e-mail to: metz@montana.edu
Walter Metz, Department of Media and Theatre Arts, Montana State University--Bozeman