gonna start off with the shameless 'weeds' plug.....get your hands on seasons 1&2 .even if it means using certain frowned upon methods. and watch it xD the writing is VERY clever and all the actors are grrrrrrrrreat .esp mary-louise parker and elizabeth perkins...the former beat out all the desperate housewives for the emmy or globe or some such award. now having said that...
it only takes the first scene (PTA meeting) to see the "conformist-oriented society" that spigel talks about in the 'dreamhouse' essay. it only takes two scenes to see "social sanitation" in every sense that spigel meant it..."safe, familiar, and predictable contexts" for social interaction with non-WASPs = nancy is buying drugs from a black family .who show a natural fluency in ebonics that nancy lacks. ..."undesirables" marginalized into the city = heylia and her family are living in downtown L.A. .prolly a couple blocks away from good ol' sc. ... 'weeds' basically does what any good t.v. show is supposed to do: shrink huge social concepts down into understandable, digestable and *gasp* entertaining bits for the masses to consume.
it surprised me that the historical context of spigel's article was still applicable to modern television, especially a show as forward as 'weeds'. 'dreamhouse' didn't seem static the way avila's disneyland article did...it bordered on being prophetic, even...
modern television programming still fits into the 1950s box that spigel built: one that houses a socially sterile environment. there are shows that are ethnically diverse...but only superficially. the 'ethnic' shows fit a certain 'ethnic' mold .upn's primetime lineup included. because the ones that don't get cancelled...it's all racialized stereotypes of some kind or another...it does what 19th century intellectuals hoped electricity would do--limits experiences of cultural differences.
BUT... television's also evolved into exactly what every square feared: a medium for mass contamination. and it's done a heckuva job too.....just look at what britney spears did to the innocence of every little girl .completely obliterated it, thats what. no WAY my parents thought watching t.v. would keep me out of trouble. television informs almost every aspect of modern life...it tells us what to eat, what to wear, what to say, what to think even...
*sigh* those amazing little boxes. according to the spigel article, 9% of americans had a t.v. in 1950...and by the end of the decade, that stat rocketed around 90%!!! and now, fifty years later, it's not how many families have a t.v., but how many t.v.'s does each family have. .gotta love exponential growth. i know we've got 5 in our house...for the life of me, i couldn't tell you why.
like, my family is huge on eating meals together. when both me and my li'l bro lived at home, we ate dinner together .at the very least. 5 times out of 7. .btw, it shocks and saddens me how rare it is for families to eat together nowadays. normally, we'd have awesome table talk during dinner, but whenever the t.v. was on, we'd watch w/o speaking for long periods...only breaking the silence for humorous/sarcastic commentary...hahaha...now that me and my bro aren't home as often, mommy makes us leave the t.v. off on those rarer occasions when we're all seated around the table. .something i greatly appreciate. that hdtv plasma can really tip the balance more towards seclusion from the real world rather than inclusion in it...
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I enjoyed your personalized take on the Spigel article--and she does, indeed, seem prophetic. Of course, she's writing in 2001, and I think she doesn't neglect television's legacy when she constructs its history. Funny you mentioned the stat about how MANY tv's fill one house...I had that thought while reading the article as well. Very entertaining post.
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