The Sitcom
The Sitcom by Jeremy G. Butler, published by Routledge in 2020, is a comprehensive exploration of the sitcom genre and its significance within American culture. This 261-page guide delves into the complex relationship audiences have with sitcoms, offering a historical overview of their evolution in the United States. Butler analyzes the genre’s enduring appeal and critiques, focusing on how themes of gender, race, ethnicity, and family are woven into its storytelling structures.
Readers will find a detailed examination of the sitcom’s role in today’s media landscape, with specific analyses of notable shows such as Sex and the City, Black-ish, The Simpsons, and The Andy Griffith Show. The book addresses the foundational American values reflected in these series while providing insights relevant to students and scholars in television, comedy, and media studies. This edition serves as both a valuable resource and a classroom text for those interested in the intersections of history, performing arts, and social science.
Official synopsis Publisher
In this new Routledge Television Guidebook, Jeremy G. Butler studies our love-hate relationship with the durable sitcom, analyzing the genre’s position as a major media artefact within American culture and providing a historical overview of its evolution in the USA.
Everyone loves the sitcom genre; and yet, paradoxically, everyone hates the sitcom, too. This book examines themes of gender, race, ethnicity, and the family that are always at the core of humor in our culture, tracking how those discourses are embedded in the sitcom’s relatively rigid storytelling structures. Butler pays particular attention to the sitcom’s position in today’s post-network media landscape and sample analyses of Sex and the City, Black-ish, The Simpsons, and The Andy Griffith Show illuminate how the sitcom is infused with foundational American values.
At once contemporary and reflective, The Sitcom is a must-read for students and scholars of television, comedy, and broader media studies, and a great classroom text.
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