By Jennifer M. Fogel a Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
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A MODERN FAMILY: THE PERFORMANCE OF “FAMILY” AND FAMILIALISM IN CONTEMPORARY TELEVISION SERIES by Jennifer M. Fogel A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Communication) in The University of Michigan 2012 Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Amanda D. Lotz, Chair Professor Susan J. Douglas Professor Regina Morantz-Sanchez Associate Professor Bambi L. Haggins, Arizona State University © Jennifer M. Fogel 2012 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe my deepest gratitude to the members of my dissertation committee – Dr. Susan J. Douglas, Dr. Bambi L. Haggins, and Dr. Regina Morantz-Sanchez, who each contributed their time, expertise, encouragement, and comments throughout this entire process. These women who have mentored and guided me for a number of years have my utmost respect for the work they continue to contribute to our field. I owe my deepest gratitude to my advisor Dr. Amanda D. Lotz, who patiently refused to accept anything but my best work, motivated me to be a better teacher and academic, praised my successes, and will forever remain a friend and mentor. Without her constructive criticism, brainstorming sessions, and matching appreciation for good television, I would have been lost to the wolves of academia. One does not make a journey like this alone, and it would be remiss of me not to express my humble thanks to my parents and sister, without whom seven long and lonely years would not have passed by so quickly. They were both my inspiration and staunchest supporters. Without their tireless encouragement, laughter, and nurturing this dissertation would not have been possible. This dissertation on family is dedicated to them and how appreciative and lucky I will forever be that they are mine. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ii List of Appendices viii Abstract ix Chapter One: Introduction: Performing “Family” and Familialism on Television 1 Television and the Family “Myth” 3 Re-mediating the Family on Television 6 What is Familialism? 10 The Performance of “Family” and Familialism on Television 12 The Twenty-First Century Family 14 Mapping the Dissertation 16 Conclusion 20 Two: Literature Review 22 The Socio-Cultural History of “The Family” 23 The Nuclear Family and “Separate Spheres” Ideology 24 A New Kind of Companionate Family 26 The Nuclear Family as Historical Fluke 28 iii Underlying Tensions Mount Against the Nuclear Family 31 A Renewed Panic for “Family Values” 33 What is the Twenty-First Century Family? 35 The History of the Family on Television 37 Postwar Constructions of the Family 38 Suburban Family Sitcoms and the Nuclear Family 41 Social Change and Domestic Upheaval 43 After the Baby Boom: Working Mothers and “New” Fathers 46 Televisual Familialism and the Family “In-Crisis” 49 The Scholarship on Television and “The Family” 53 A Television Studies Approach 54 Critical Television Scholarship 57 Television, Family, and Familialism 59 Three: Resolving Flawed Fatherhood Through Domestic Masculinity 62 The “Culture of Fatherhood” 69 Pleck’s Four Phases of Fatherhood 70 Revitalizing Fatherhood 74 The Evolution of Patriarchy Will Be Televised 79 A Time for Paternal Adjustment 81 The Mock-Macho Father 84 Cyclical Paternalism 86 Paternal Domestic Crisis in “Guy-Coms” 87 The Inept Dad vs. The Hypermasculine Father 91 iv Paternalism and Blatant Sexism 97 Paternal Melodrama in “Missing Mother” Television Series 101 Flawed Fatherhood and Missing Mothers on Everwood 106 Exploring the Intimacy of Fatherhood 108 The Paternal Work-Life Balance 109 “Replacing” the Maternal Figure 112 Competing Fathers Finding Common Ground 116 The Friendly Rivalry 117 The Sage Absentee Father 118 “Turf Wars” 120 Domestic Masculinity and Single Fatherhood 123 Fatherhood for a New Era 124 Four: Pathologizing the Family in Teen Pregnancy Narratives 128 The Birth of “Teen” Television 135 Creating and Catering to the Teen Demographic 137 Reviving and Revolutionizing Teen Content 141 We Are “Family” in Beverly Hills 143 Pathologizing the Family in Teen Television 145 Love and Marriage and the Baby Carriage 150 Playing House: The Complexities of Creating a Family 151 Teenage Parenthood and Imagining the “Right” Kind of Family 160 The Consequences of Conception 161 Bad Mothers and Failing Fathers 165 v The Life and Times of the Teenage Family 172 Five: Familial Multiplex: Familial Melodrama and Familialism in 176 Multigenerational Families The Extended Family on Television 181 Extended Family Comedies 183 Extended Family Dramas 186 Familial Crisis, Reunion, and Rebirth 190 Celebrating Death by Burying Life 192 Navigating Life by Reconciling Death 194 Reaffirming “Family First” 198 Intergenerational Disparities and Reconciliations 199 Paternal Authority and the Performance of Fatherhood 200 “Modern Family” Fatherhood 204 Navigating Multigenerational Motherhood 209 A Portrait of Twenty-First Century Family Melodrama 215 Six: Real Familialism: Reality TV, Spectacle Families, and the 219 Performance of Family The Family and Reality TV 228 Ozzie and Harriet’s Star Sitcom 229 Re-Presenting “An American Family” 231 The Birth of the Reality Sitcom 234 Celebrity Reality Sitcoms 239 Celebrity and “Real” Life 240 The Domesticated “Rocker” 244 vi “Walk this Way” 246 “We Ain’t Your Next Door Family” 247 Celebrity Paterfamilias 250 Daddy’s Little Girl 252 A Pre-fabricated Cosby? 255 Making Our Reality Yours 258 Non-Celebrity Reality Sitcoms 260 Mega-Families on Television 262 Documenting the “Real” Family 265 Jon & Kate Plus the Unexpected 8 270 The Ultimate Mega-Family Brood 272 Mega-Families and the Gifts God Grants 273 Mega-Families and Family Fellowship 278 The Mega-Family and Familialism 283 Conclusion 285 Seven: Conclusion: The Complexities of “Family” in 288 the Twenty-First Century Family and Familialism in the Twenty-First Century 289 The Limits of Familial Research 291 The Future of the Twenty-First Century Family 294 We Are Family 296 APPENDICES 299 REFERENCES 302 vii LIST OF APPENDICES APPENDIX 1. Pleck’s (1987) four phases of fatherhood 299 2. List of Extended or Multigenerational Family Television Series 300 viii ABSTRACT A Modern Family: The Performance of “Family” and Familialism in Contemporary Television Series by Jennifer M. Fogel Chair: Amanda D. Lotz This dissertation addresses the complexities inherent in contemporary television articulations of family life and organization that construct the discourse on the American family since the mid-1990s. In addition to surveying the history of a number of television genres, such as father-centered series, teen-oriented programming, multigenerational family series, and reality TV, the dissertation uses textual analysis to examine how television frames and constructs “the family,” while also attempting to locate this construction within larger political, social, and cultural contexts. I argue that the socio- cultural evolution and construction of parenthood, marriage, and childhood have led to alternative definitions of “family” in contemporary television programming; however, specific case studies indicate a seemingly resilient commitment to, or performance of, a particular familial idealism. Each chapter concludes with notable case studies that offer an in-depth examination of various depictions of families, the kinds of “family values” ix they promote, and the way they continue to perform familialism even as they depict modern-day familial realities. The goal of this dissertation was to provide a better understanding as to both why a mythic “ideal” family has inhabited our cultural consciousness for so long, and how recent television series offer a space to question the appropriateness, authenticity, and usefulness of the dominant familial ideology to the twenty-first century family. In the end, what it found was that even amidst a multitude of diverse sentiments and structures of families on television, the most successful images of family continue to be bound to a performance of familialism that reaffirms the values deeply rooted in the nuclear family. x CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION: PERFORMING “FAMILY” AND FAMILIALISM ON TELEVISION Family. Its iconography influences political rhetoric, entertainment narratives, social mores, and consumption ethics. Battles – both literally and politically – have been fought for its preservation, and social movements have centered on its transformation or rejuvenation. Family. Bourdieu (1996) writes that it is a “constellation of words” that “while seeming to describe social reality, in fact construct it” (19). Media scholar Sarah Harwood (1997) describes it as “a configuration of fluid relationships, intersecting through reproduction, affection, common interest and power, constantly in process” (37). Family evokes within each of us a particular image; a confluence of past, present, and future that is all at once idyllic and poetic yet impossible and amorphous. We often refer to the halcyon days of old – misleadingly known simply as “The 1950s” – when suburbia housed individual families charged not only with raising a next generation, but also taking up the symbolic fight against Communism or any subsequent challenge to America’s ideological center. Despite being infused with affectionate nostalgia, our cultural imagery of marriage, parenthood, and childhood is often fraught with contradiction. Our familial expectations – inspired and affirmed by decades of nearly static images of domesticity – are now overwrought and muddled as our familial experiences often fail to capture the flawless picture we