The Brady Bunch Essay, Research Paper

THE BRADY BUNCH

The word sitcom is short for Situation Comedy. A good sitcom story idea places the star (or supporting character) into a situation in need of a resolution, which will cause the character to respond in unexpected, exaggerated, and hugely sidesplitting ways (Rannow, pg. 13). A comedy now days are different from how they were in the 1960 s and 1970 s though. Today directors use sexual content and foul language to make people laugh and do not usually have a purpose or point to get across to the audience with each show. In earlier comedy, such as The Brady Bunch, Director Jack Arnold tried have a lesson learned in each episode while still maintaining a sense of humor, minus the foul language and sexual content. Although the show is not extremely funny to most people it is still a classic show that deserves to be remembered.

The Brady Bunch tends to say that our society is corrupt in a way. It displays many problems that people deal with on a daily basis and expresses how they feel they should be fixed. The show tries to get across to the audience that even though there are some people out there that are not right in the head, you yourself still have to be. Mike Brady, the father always gives out these lessons. For example when Marcia s new boyfriend steals Greg s phony playbook for the football game, Mike tells Greg that in actuality, Greg would win the game by cheating himself, unless he confessed to Marcia s boyfriend and told him the truth. After doing so, Greg and his team prevailed as champions of that game.

Although The Brady Bunch sends out loving vibes every episode, as the hippie s did at that time, it did in fact portray surprising violence in one memorable episode. A boy by the name of Billy continuously calls Cindy Baby Talk due to her lisp. One time Peter stands up for her and ends up getting punched in the eye. Mike Brady then teaches Peter how to fight in order to defend himself if the time comes. Sure enough the time came and Peter knocks the boy s teeth loose and he ends up having a lisp himself. After Cindy calls him Baby Talk though Peter sticks up for Billy and tells her not to tease him because she remembers how bad it felt to be teased herself.

I am sure that this television program has some effect on its audience. I would like to hope that people take the advice that is given in the show and act accordingly. There are lessons to be learned at fictional character s expenses so that way, when the time comes for us to make choices, we might already know the answer.

The Brady Bunch did have quite an effect on some people. Katherine Elizabeth Hill offers word on how the episodes represent the times that they were living in, the 1960 s and 1970 s. She believes that the episodes reflected traditional and changing gender roles and the women s movement struggle. She feels that some episodes depicted civil rights issues and protested the bigotry that still exists (Hill, Pg. Abstract). The definition of a nuclear family is defined as a husband, a wife, and their offspring, all residing in one nuclear residence (Sussman and Cogswell, pg. 9). The Brady Bunch fit this definition but Mike and Carol were both divorced, single parents before they met. It just so happens that at that time in 1960, 28 of every 1,000 men and 42 of every 1,000 women were divorced (Olson, pg. 16).

At the time of the women s movement, The Brady Bunch was still depicting Carol as the stay-at home mom who did not work outside of the home (Taylor, Pg. 85). With the help of a housekeeper (Alice), Carol Brady was able to stay at home, manage the house, and care for a husband and six children (Hill, Pg. 50). This concept is seen in several episodes such as episode eight which is called The Grass Is Always Greener (Winans, WWW). In this episode, Mike and Carol argue about whose duties are easier. Mike is depicted as a man who takes out the trash and Carol is depicted as a woman that cooks and cleans.