Two Comedic Television Families, The Cosby Show and Rosanne

545 Words2 Pages

American families depicted in television comedy shows outwardly appear as stereotypical characters. Extreme contrasting types are used to exaggerate real life: wealthy or poor, urban or rural, and sophisticated or naïve. This is not only for entertainment value, it seems: the characteristics of these families can represent the diversity within the families across our nation. As a show develops it can reach out to the audience by touching on more realistic values. A demonstration of how a television family deals with an issue can make that family appear to be even more similar to each other and comparable to real American families as well. In this paper, the Cosby show and Rosanne will be compared.
The Cosby Show episode portrays the Huxtable family to possess a formal inclination regarding appearances. Denise invited her husband Martin’s ex-wife Paula to join the Huxtable family for Thanksgiving dinner. This decision resulted in expressed concern from Martin and Denise’s mother, Mrs. Huxtable. (“Cosby”). In the show, the piqued interest of remaining guests and played ou...

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