American Television In The 1950s And 1960s

American Television In The 1950s And 1960s The televisual representation of black people had been a highly contested phenomenon since the television broadcast of ‘Amos ‘n’ Andy’ in June 1951. It is believed that ‘Amos ‘n’ Andy’ defined for the first time the side that television was to take in the postwar to represent Black people in America. In Amos ‘n’ Andy, Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll created and fixed an image of blackness, black people believed, which made racist Americans fight against them more and more. The program lasted just two years and was cancelled in the midst of growing protest by the black community in 1953. Because ‘The Jeffersons ‘ not only was the first TV programs which featured African-Americans in leading roles since the cancellation of the infamous ‘Amos ‘n’ Andy’ show in 1953, but also the first television program to feature black couples. Because it was the first time television showed a ric h, successful African American family, many people believed that the appearance of ‘The Jeffersons ‘was the first positive image of a new role model of Black African American families on television. However, John D.H.   [ 1 ]   pointed out that this television show may have been just ‘a typical of American television fare’ because ‘media image of American of African descent have ranged from the blatantly to the latently racist’. ‘Father knows best’ was, the first white family television sitcom and popular around 1950s-1960s. Therefore, I would like to use both ‘The Jefferson’ and ‘father knows best’ as examples to examine how ‘race’ was constructed by American televisual representation. Just a few years after the Second World War, how to attain and live the American dream became one of the most prominent themes of the 1950s .Therefore, for helping Americans rebuild their dream, television p rogram in 1950s was made as a creation of American dream rather than a reflection of society.   [ 2 ]   The television producers believed when people conformed to the ideal of beneficial families bring those family audiences stand up to the same level and made people more enjoy the sitcom and their life.   [ 3 ]   According to Census, in 1950, â€Å"families with both the head and his wife present,† were apparently the norm, accounting for 87.1%. A non-couple household was counted for 3.6%. The figure of independent female household just was 9.3%. it mean, during that period, most Americans demanded to see a family television shows which ‘defined a household in patriarchal and nuclear terms, with the centre assumed to be a male breadwinner heading a household of his dependent wife and children’. Therefore by adopting that idea, in ‘Father knows best’s world Andersons family has an upper-class, white-collar fathers, a stay-at-home wives, and t wo or three children whom lived in suburban. The television show offered viewers a comforting unified vision of the American family. In most episodes of ‘Father knows best’ the stories were all about how the father helped the family find out one or two beneficial social formations from their everyday life. Moreover, by showing a special episode ‘the importance of a strong American democracy’ in ‘school, churched, civic organization ‘, United State Treasury Department promoted U.S. Saving Bones. Given the sitcom show title â€Å"father who knows best,† the television producers hoped that the way of lived in â€Å"father who knows best† would made the majority of Americans understood what real meaning of â€Å"beneficial family† was.