Press and the Golden Age

After reading Press's piece on the "golden age" of television, it's hard to judge just how much we've progressed along the years. LIke the piece mentioned, it is almost impossible to think about early television (let alone early television feminists) and not like of Lucile Ball in I Love Lucy. Even as a 50s housewife, Lucy "never gave up her repeated attempts to escape the confines of her domestic situation to enter show business, start a business, get a job" and so on. Shortly after the reign of Lucy came the "golden age" of television where a more accurate depiction of women was replaced with a "plethora of white, middle-class families showcasing very simple problems (happy people with happy problems)." This is where we saw the Brady Bunch type of families. It wasn't until postfeminism television did views see a different view of family dynamic, and I believe the best example of this is Roseanne Barr's take of the modern family in her self titled television series. She was one of the first women on television to paint a realistic picture of the working class/blue collar family dealing with real issues. There was no veil or fake image of what a middle aged woman (who also happened to be a mother and a wife) should act like, but instead felt more relatable. It was as if she captured the image of the real working class woman and not this ideal image of what middle-class woman should aspire to be. Best of all, she portrayed this image through comedy, proving that women, in their realistic image, can be funny.