Sitcoms. Love them or hate them, they are an integral part of the TV landscape and have examined a whole range of themes throughout the years in a wide variety of shows that range in quality and success. One such theme is boyhood. Pomerance and Gateward define the term ‘boy’ in their book Where the Boys are: Cinemas of Masculinity and Youth (2005) as “males that have not yet reached adulthood” (Frances and Pomerance, 2005, 1) and suggest that ‘boyhood’ was once defined as “the phase of the male lifecycle before the assumption of full social responsibility” (Frances and Pomerance, 2005, 2), yet in the 20th century it has become more complicated as a result of societal change, meaning as “masculine youth is extended, and the moratorium of adulthood put back further and further, it becomes increasingly difficult to find the line where boyhood actually ends.” (Frances and Pomerance, 2005, 3). It has been the focus of many sitcoms throughout the 20th Century such as Leave It to Beaver (1957-1963: CBS), The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990-1996: NBC) and Boy Meets World (1993-2000: ABC), which all depict it in different ways that often reflect the time, such as hip-hop culture playing a significant role in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Mills suggests in Television Sitcom (2005) that previously the sitcom “has often been examined for the way it reflects changes within society” (Mills, 2005, 8) as well noting how “the genre has been read as a useful reflection of general social attitudes, with the growth and reduction of certain character types over time mirroring broader attitudes within society” (Mills, 2005, 102). As such, sitcoms have come to define the representation of boyhood by offering such a vast depiction of what those experiences are. These shows explore the relationships that often come to shape these experiences, and whilst some aspects do vary, there are many shared experiences such as first love. As well some shows shared similar traits that would arguably come to define boyhood sitcoms such as the period setting in a program like Happy Days (1974-1984: ABC) or the use of a narrator famously in the sitcom/dramedy The Wonder Years (1988-1993: ABC). Both these traits carried over into the 21st Century and are key aspects of the sitcoms that I will be discussing.
However, there is actually very little that has been written on boyhood in sitcoms and how it is represented, and even less about the three shows that I will be examining apart from a few key texts. Therefore, this dissertation will focus on how the 21st Century sitcoms Everybody Hates Chris (2005-2009: UPN/The CW), The Goldbergs (2013-2023: ABC) and Fresh Off the Boat (2015-2020: ABC) present boyhood in the 1980s and 1990s. These shows have all been chosen as feature aspects that are shared between them, such as use of voice-over and the period setting, yet all depict a different kind of character as Everybody Hates Chris focuses on a Black character, The Goldbergs focuses on a White character and Fresh Off the Boat on an Asian-American character, all bringing a unique perspective to boyhood.
The methods that will be used to conduct this research are contextual analysis and textual analysis. By doing so, it will allow for a study and awareness of some of the contextual knowledge from books about pop culture of the 1980s and 1990s, as well as the sitcom genre in general, while regarding texts such as journal articles, magazines and books about my case studies plus scrutinising the narratives, themes and characters that are featured in these sitcoms. Some of the theoretical figures and texts that will be used are Brett Mills books, Television Sitcom (2005) and The Sitcom (2009) as it provides a good insight into how the genre works and many of the conventions that are seen throughout, as well as how sitcoms use representation and the effect it can have; Bambi Haggins’ book Laughing Mad: The Black Comic Persona in Post-Soul America (2007) analyses Everybody Hates Chris and considers how race plays a key role in the relationships within the show, the plots of episodes and to Chris Rock’s voice over; Murray Pomerance’s chapter “The Man-Boys Of Steven Spielberg” in the book Where the Boys are: Cinemas of Masculinity and Youth outlines how some characters are presented as both being an adult yet retaining a childlike wonder, something which is relevant to my analyse of The Goldbergs; and Jiahong Wang’s chapter Fresh Off the Boat: Meeting whose expectations?, in Where is Adaptation?: Mapping cultures, texts and contexts (2018) discusses the problems with the TV adaptation of Eddie Huang’s memoir and how this may reflect on the networks decisions.
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