Patterns in Sitcoms

The Waitress: What do you want, Charlie?
Charlie: I like your bracelet.
The Waitress: Great.
Charlie: That’s one of those, uh, Lance Armstrong, “Race for the Cure”… “Live Strong” kind of things.
The Waitress: Yeahhh.
Charlie: Cool. That’s very cool. You must be a very compassionate person—
The Waitress: I’m not.
Charlie: Uh—
The Waitress: Did you want something from me, or…
Charlie: What time are— are you getting off work? It’s not a… thing to walk away about. Whatever.

One of the primary characteristics of the sitcom genre is repetition and cyclical action. These repetitions are usually linked to patterns of behavior of the characters in the sitcom, as certain characters usually have something they do regularly over many episodes, such as Homer Simpson frequenting Moe's Tavern, or Charlie from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia flirting unsuccessfully with "The Waitress" character. Usually these types of actions can be instrumental in episode plots, or, as masterfully done in the series Arrested Development, can become running jokes that span over many episodes, rewarding viewers devoted to the show.

Charlie Kelly's infatuation with the Waitress is a good example of a pattern that serves both of these purposes within It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. There are multiple episodes where Charlie tries to charm the Waitress, with differing levels of success (that all ultimately end up in failure). He tries to impress her by volunteering to become a ref in a children's basketball league, gain her pity by feigning cancer, among many other half-baked, doomed attempts to win her affection. The humor in the relationship between these characters is the irony that we, the audience, know that Charlie will always fail because the waitress hates him (and is actually attracted to Dennis, Charlie's "friend"), although this does nothing to stop Charlie's repeated, comically hopeless efforts.


Above:

http://itsalwayssunny.tumblr.com/post/213311084/the-waitress-what-do-you-want-charlie-charlie

Shots of Heroin

Around 30 minutes into the film Trainspotting, the characters Spud, Sick Boy and Renton make a "healthy, informed, democratic decision to get back on heroin as soon as possible." What follows is a montage exploring the characters' drug use the lifestyles they subsequently lead. Of course the most direct image in this series is an extreme close-up of a spoon in which heroin is mixed, cooked, and sucked into a syringe. This shot provides a defining focus of the interconnected images of the characters, as it is the singularity that their lives revolve around. The extreme closeup presents heroin directly and absolutely, providing the one of the centralizing images that runs throughout the film.
Another shot is a low-angle long shot of Sick Boy, standing over Renton after having presumably shot up heroin, explaining the importance of Ursula Andress to the James Bond series. This shot empowers Sick Boy in an ironic way, partly showing his inflated ego and sense of elevation over the other characters, justified by a perhaps superior intellect and an impressive familiarity with Sean Connery films.
When Tommy asks Renton if he can try heroin for the first time after being dumped by his girlfriend, his discourse is presented by a medium shot, from a slight low angle. This places emphasis on his facial expressions/emotions and body language, which when combined with the murky lighting of the scene show a sense of sadness and desperation that has led him to make the decision to try heroin.


image:
http://www.husar.us/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/trainspotting.jpg

Hollywood Classique, Le Système des Vedettes, et Film Noir

One defining aspect of how the Hollywood studio system in the 1930s and 1940s produced its films was the repeating use and promotion of films through star actors. In many cases, the pure celebrity of names like Humphrey Bogart, Mary Pickford or James Cagney would draw audiences to a film more effectively than the film itself. As a result of this practice, many stars would be typecast into similar roles in similar films multiple times, and studios would churn out movies of the same genre repeatedly using these star-driven characters as templates. The tough, dark, anti-hero private eye is a perfect example of this effect, as such a character type was central to the development of the film noir genre. Humphrey Bogart exemplified this type of character, playing private investigator Sam Spade in the genre-defining The Maltese Falcon, then Philip Marlowe in The Big Sleep. His star power and that of similar actors like Robert Mitchum were a driving force behind film noir, a genre whose power and impact can be seen even today, as it is frequently referenced and modeled in contemporary media by the likes of Calvin and Hobbes.

images:

http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/files/2008/07/gun1.jpg

http://webspace.webring.com/people/lm/mbarton/bullet.jpg

All In The Family vs Family Guy

All In The Family is an iconic example of 1970s formulaic family-based sitcom television. It was a pioneer in controversial TV, due to the often comically bigoted nature of Archie Bunker, one of the central characters. Through him critical issues such as politics, racial issues, and homosexuality were addressed in a way that no other sitcoms had previously. Nowadays it seems these themes, which would have been incendiary in earlier years, are ubiquitous in TV. A new breed of family sitcom that has spawned out of the exploration of these themes is the animated family sitcom, one of the best examples of which is Family Guy. This show raises contemporary issues constantly, including issues of sexual orientation, drug use, censorship, and religion, among many others. However, the manner in which they are addressed are entirely different from All In The Family. Family Guy heavily satirizes its subjects by creating caricatures out of them, using extreme hyperbole to create parody, revealing their absurdity in a similar fashion that Archie Bunker's exaggerated bigotry serves as a pedestal/hot plate for these issues. Both shows present controversial issues using parody, however Archie's existence as a vehicle for critique is much more intentional (although perhaps not widely received by its audience) than Family Guy's style of extreme parody that frequently borders upon the absurd (but, for the most part, retains its humor).

images:
http://www.free-extras.com/images/peter_griffin-1115.htm
http://nationallampoon.com/files/2009/05/15-archie-bunker.jpg

Radio and Technology

One of the central forces that aided the growth, rise to prominence and widespread dissemination of radio (and radio culture) was the constant improvement of radio technology from its inception to the present.

In practically every area of the media, the force of technological change is responsible for large-scale improvement and increased accessibility by the public. What technology ultimately strives to do is to reduce the need for human effort in exchange for increased efficiency and flexibility, thus making any medium easier to utilize and spread amongst the populace. The Internet is perhaps the best example of this, as recent online innovations like iTunes, Hulu, and Netflix have revolutionized music, television, and home video respectively, each by bringing their intended service directly to the consumer’s home with increased speed, efficiency, and ease.

With respect to radio, technological innovations are what made the medium into the widely appreciated media giant it has become. This is due to the nature of radio as one of the earliest wireless mediums that could be broadcast directly into the home. When Gugliermo Marconi created the wireless telegraph, which was the first machine to use radio waves to broadcast messages wirelessly, it was restricted in the sense that it could only transmit messages through the medium of Morse code. Later, when Lee de Forest’s vacuum tube was applied to this technology, it enabled the transmission of sound, opening radio’s potential to broadcast music, talk shows, and ads to home receivers. With such technology in place, all it took was the ideas of men like David Sarnoff, who predicted radio’s status as a household utility, to launch the long and evolving phenomenon that it has become.

Social Learning, Outcome Expectations & M. Night Shyamalan

     The films and reputation of M. Night Shyamalan illustrate how outcome expectations and the social learning theory have a mass effect on his audience and their reactions to his movies, which range from praise at his initial hits like the Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, to ridicule for The Happening and The Last Airbender, some of his recent critical bombs.

     Social learning theory explains how mass media may affect the behavior and attitudes of audiences. A more specific facet of this theory - that of outcome expectations - explains that we consume and enjoy specific media based on how we predict that media will positively or negatively affect us. For example, someone in the process of reading the Harry Potter books will probably read the entire series, as they expect to be entertained, gratified, or fulfilled by each subsequent volume, based upon their previous experience with Harry Potter. They will probably go see the movies as they come out, expecting a similar feeling of enjoyment that they got out of reading the book.

     M. Night Shyamalan's films are a great representative of this effect. His first film, The Sixth Sense, was a critical and commercial success, praised and loved by many. When Shyamalan released his second film, Unbreakable, many of the people who went to see it were expecting to be gratified by another great movie, based upon their experience and satisfaction gained from watching the Sixth Sense. These films were both great successes and established Shyamalan's reputation as a powerfully creative and entertaining filmmaker. When we look at his reputation now, however, we see a man who is popularly seen as a fluke, unable to make any good films at all, and far past his prime. This is due to a series of critical failures he released, which include Lady In The Water and The Happening to name a few. Because audiences have been so repeatedly disappointed by Shyamalan's consistently bad films, whenever a new film of his is announced, it is immediately met with critical skepticism. The Last Airbender and Devil (although Shyamalan didn't actually direct or write its screenplay) are examples of this - many people took neither film seriously due to Shyamalan's regrettable track record. Outcome expectations dictates that the audiences who were so disappointed by Shyamalan's films will expect any subsequent releases of his to be equally disappointing, thus destroying the reputation he had gained from the few good movies he made.

A Meditation on Hegemony, or Idealization vs Reality

     The negative effects of Hegemony through advertising can be clearly seen in this "spoof ad" from adbusters magazine, in which the typical Calvin Klein ad is parodied by the image of a nude, presumably bulimic woman leaning over a toilet bowl.
     Hegemony refers to the practice of using advertising and media outlets to instill a certain set of values in the minds of the public, with the intention of almost subconsciously establishing those values as culturally accepted norms. Those responsible for hegemony are usually people in power, or who have control over many aspects of media, and the values they project tend to be financially or otherwise beneficial for them. For example, much of the profitability of the women's fashion and beauty industry is due to the hegemonic ideal of constant inadequacy. In other words, many women spend a large amount of money on fashion and beauty products because of advertisements that emphasize the idea that they are not attractive enough without the advertised product.
     As the image shows, there are troubling and widespread negative side effects to this practice in advertising. It can be said that the media portrayal of the ideal woman is so impossibly perfect that many who try to shape themselves into that image are inevitably going to fail, leading to extremely high amounts of self-consciousness issues, anorexia, and bulimia among women. The title "Obsession" is appropriate for this "ad," because these hegemonic ideals drive many women to become obsessed with their own image, consistently reminded by media that they will never be good enough.