Television's Moment -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Preface -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- Negotiating the Sixties -- Chapter 1 -- Three Sitcoms -- Chapter 2 -- Three Settings -- Chapter 3 -- The Era of Limited Choice -- Chapter 4 -- Alf Garnett and the British Lifestyle Revolution -- Chapter 5 -- Archie Bunker and the American Lifestyle Revolution -- Chapter 6 -- Alfred Tetzlaff and the West German Lifestyle Revolution -- Chapter 7 -- Comedy against Racism -- Chapter 8 -- Trading TV Bigots -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index
Summary
Television was one of the forces shaping the cultural revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, when a blockbuster TV series could reach up to a third of a country's population. This book explores television's impact on social change by comparing three sitcoms and their audiences. The shows in focus - Till Death Us Do Part in Britain, All in the Family in the United States, and One Heart and One Soul in West Germany - centered on a bigoted anti-hero and his family. Between 1966 and 1979 they saturated popular culture, and managed to accelerate as well as deradicalize value changes and collective attitudes regarding gender roles, sexuality, religion, and race
