Television: A Vast Wasteland

2654 Words6 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The role of the media in society

The Cosby Show was the pinnacle of American television. Based on an affluent African-American family in Brooklyn, New York, The Cosby Show demonstrated how to effectively raise a family. The sitcom starred Phylicia Rashad as Clair Huxtable, a confident, assertive, and eloquent attorney. Alongside Rashad was Bill Cosby as Cliff Huxtable, an eccentric and whimsical obstetrician. Together, Clair and Cliff reared five children in the midst of several complex obstacles. When faced with Sondra’s decision not to go to law school, Denise’s decision to discontinue her education, Theo’s satisfaction with mediocre grades, and Vanessa’s rebellious behavior, the Huxtables never ceased to use humor and discipline to convey strong moral principles. The Huxtables taught their children as well as viewers to work hard in school, challenge socially constructed gender roles, have strong familial relationships, and most importantly, not take themselves too seriously.

Despite The Cosby Show’s brevity of only eight years, it managed to leave a permanent mark as an embodiment of positive social change. Unfortunately, shows of The Cosby Show’s caliber are simply nonexistent in today’s television programming. Today’s television consists of over one thousand channels but little substance. Though May 9th, 2011 will mark the 50th anniversary of Newton N. Minow’s landmark “vast wasteland” speech, his words perfectly encapsulate the state of today’s television. Television was and still remains a “vast wasteland” by poorly shaping moral values, reinforcing negative stereotypes, misinforming viewers, containing violence, and causing viewers to make poor health and financial decisions.

One of the main contributors to viewers’ poor moral values is reality telev...

... middle of paper ...

...pril 2011.

Huston, Aletha C., et al. Big World, Small Screen. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of

Nebraska, 1992. Print.

Kirkorian, Heather L., et al. “Media and Young Children’s Learning.” The Future of

Children 18.1 (2008): 39-61. ERIC. Web. 5 April 2011.

Lowry, Brian. “Stereotypes: reality TV’s Dirty Little Secret.” Variety 4.16 (2010): n. pag.

Business & Company Resource Center. Web. 16 April 2011.

Lutz, William. Doublespeak. New York City: New York Times, 1981. Print.

Postman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show

Business. New York City: Viking Penguin Inc., 1985.

Molen, Van Der, and Juliette H. Walma. “Violence and Suffering in Television News:

Toward a Broader Conception of Harmful Television Content for Children.”

Pediatrics 113.6 (2004): 1771-1775. MEDLINE. Web. 6 April 2011.

Show More
Related

  • Socially Constructed Stereotypes in All in the Family, The Jefferson’s and The Cosby Show.

    1311 Words  | 3 Pages

    Palmer, Gareth. ““The Cosby Show”—an ideologically based analysis.” Critical Survey. 6:2. 1994. Pg. 188-194. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.

    Read More

  • Comparing the Huxtables with My Family

    838 Words  | 2 Pages

    Watching a comedy sitcom like The Cosby Show is a great way to unwind from a stressful day at school. The show's characters are likeable and the storyline is humorous, but halfway through the program I usually turn the television off and return to the kitchen to wash the dinner dishes. Watching The Cosby Show makes me feel guilty. The Huxtables are too perfect. Their house is too perfect. In comparison to the Huxtables I feel like an unfit mother in a slovenly, dysfunctional family. The characters on The Cosby Show should be portrayed in a more realistic manner; in fact, the program could be far more entertaining, not to mention relaxing, if certain aspects of the program such as weekday mornings, sibling quarrels and housework were made more believable.

    Read More

  • My Pop Culture: The Cosby Show

    1063 Words  | 3 Pages

    The show was centered around an African-American family; but it was mostly grounded on comedy and ethical messages. Even so, NBC exposed a family that many people along with myself, could relate to. Cliff Huxtable, was a hard working doctor and dedicated father. Clair Huxtable was his wife and a nurturing mother, whom also had a notable career as a Lawyer. Their children Sondra, Denise, Theo, and Rudy were the typical American children who got into everyday mischief. Being a parent myself, Today I can relate to Cliff and Clair, similarly they wanted nothing more than for their children to have an opportunity at the best imaginable. However, during the airing of the sitcom I was around Theo’s age so I related more to him during that time period. Theo was the only male child in the family. Also like to Theo; I was athletic, obsessed with obtaining a sports car, somewhat of a troublemaker, and I was protective of my sisters. Likewise, I too struggled in high school academically. Nevertheless, the show represented a family with ordinary problems from ear piercings (Theo), getting children to eat vegetables (Rudy), and even complications with the firstborn child dating (Sondra). While the Huxtable children did indeed reveal ordinary mishaps; in my opinion, their father Cliff is the one who finalized the genuine impression of ‘The Cosby Show’. Cliff Huxtable also educated me on a

    Read More

  • Gender Roles in The Cosby Show

    1537 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Cosby Show is a wonderful sitcom about Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable, commonly known as Cliff, and his family. The show revolved around the day-to-day situations faced by Cliff and Clair Huxtable and their five children. The show goes away from the one-liners that most sitcoms boasted and focused on the humor of real life situations that often occur in an average middle class family.

    Read More

  • The Cosby Show Essay

    710 Words  | 2 Pages

    Starring Bill Cosby, the show was centered on an upper middle-class African-American family living in Brooklyn, New York, and were known as the Huxtable family with that being their last name. The members of the family included the father Cliff (Bill), mother Clair, five children (four daughters and one son); Sondra, Denise, Theo, Vanessa, and Rudy. This show is viewed as a comedy but does a very well done job integrating the struggles and issues of the mid-1980s to early 1990s. A few good examples of issues represented are race/ethnicity, education/intelligence, and generation.

    Read More

  • African Americans role of Television

    2271 Words  | 5 Pages

    portraying two comedic black men. When the show was transferred to television, two African American men were cast in the roles, acting as buffoons. The popularity of the show was overwhelming. This was the initial image of African Americans in television, which reached mainstreams Caucasian America and was the foundation for which future stereotypes were created. A new image of African American families was presented in the eighty’s with the Cosby Show. The Huxtable’s were a successful African American family with a life similar to the accepted and established Caucasian mainstream. This show was not accepted fully because it failed to represent the full cultural scope of African Americans. The current...

    Read More

  • Racial Stereotyping And Racism In The Cosby Show

    1178 Words  | 3 Pages

    It showed an African-American upper-middle class family with the father of the show, Cliff Huxtable, as a doctor and the mother, Clair Huxtable, as a lawyer. The network, NBC finally ordered only six episodes of the show, but soon that changed as The Cosby Show outdid every regular show on television at the time. The Cosby Show reformed the perceptions of African Americans on television and paved the way for other African American based sitcoms. African Americans were often portrayed as maids, butlers, custodians and clowns on television until The Cosby Show was introduced to television. As a result of The Cosby Show breaking barriers for Blacks, the negative views of Blacks were altered. The show features the Huxtable family consisting of Cliff and Clair Huxtable, and their five children; Sondra, Denise, Theo, Vanessa and Rudy. The Cosby Show displayed universal values that many people from different ethnic backgrounds could relate

    Read More

  • Impact Of The Cosby Show

    2301 Words  | 5 Pages

    The show also demonstrated how we were just as cultured and enjoyed music from every genre, art and sport all the while encompassing what simply grounds us as a race because after all the show was projected an image that we would most relate to. For many Americans, despite the show's enormous popularity, a healthy, economically stable Black family with two white-collar professional parents was simply beyond their comprehension. The inspirational aspects of The Cosby Show are reflected daily in the resiliency of Black families that overcome tremendous economic and social barriers while succeeding against the odds. It was not so much that Bill Cosby was a successful pediatrician and his wife a well-heeled attorney; it was the values they represented that are found in homes across the economic spectrum in the Black Burks I 3 community. Looking at the trail of statistics that point to the implosion of the Black community, it would be easy to tag Bill Cosby's depiction of Black family life as a fantasy since we seemed to have derived from slavery and were still living in some parts of it despite what life looked like on the surface.

    Read More

  • Bill Cosby's Accomplishments

    278 Words  | 1 Pages

    America’s dad, Bill Cosby, rose to popularity in 1965 first with his role in the espionage series “I Spy”, which made him the first black actor to star in a dramatic role on network television (biography.com, 2016). Following that role came what many considered some of his most successful work in “The Cosby Show” which aired on NBC from 1984 to 1992 (biography.com, 2016). The show was reportedly the highest-rated sitcom for five consecutive years (biography.com, 2016). But, people’s discourse does not echo excitement around the once admired television dad or Cosby’s other accomplishments now. Instead, people have decided to discuss the sexual assault allegations being leveled against him from more than 50 women. Media outlets, some more than

    Read More

  • The Plug-In Drug by Marie Winn

    546 Words  | 2 Pages

    In an article ' The Plug-In Drug ' the author Marie Winn discusses the bad influence of television on today's society. Television is a ' drug ' that interfere with family ritual, destroys human relationships and undermines the family.

    Read More

  • The Cosby Show Research Paper

    1365 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Cosby Show is iconic and highly praised and respected. It was created by successful comedian Bill Cosby and was based off f his real family life. The Cosby Show was one of the first television show to represent African Americans in a positive light. The show focuses on the Huxtable family who is an upper middle class black family living in Brooklyn New York. Bill Cosby played the husband and father, Dr Heathcliff Huxtable who was a doctor. Phylicia Rashad played the wife and mother who was a lawyer. The Huxtable had 5 children Sondra, Denise, Theo, Vanessa and Rudy. The Huxtables were educated, intelligent, and respectful. The family was very kind and loving toward one another. The show had a comedic tone, the family would laugh and joke with each other. The show also touches on serious issues as well. The Cosby Show was an example of a happy, loving functional African American

    Read More

  • Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman

    1447 Words  | 3 Pages

    Postman has valid points when he claims that television and media are destroying the American society. Postman is right to assume that television is manipulating the way Americans think. However, television can provide Americans with both right and wrong morals. Since this book was written in 1985, Postman could not have predicted the influence technology has on the current American population. The theory he applies to television is similar to the theory he probably would have used on modern day media. The dependency we have on media reiterates Postman’s thesis that Americans are losing critical thinking skills and basic human values.

    Read More

  • Blacks In Film

    1164 Words  | 3 Pages

    States and the world. But just a few short years after Cosby, television's way of dealing

    Read More

  • George Orwell's 1984 and Today

    1457 Words  | 3 Pages

    Presently 98% of the households in the United States have one or more televisions in them. What once was regarded as a luxury item has become a staple appliance of the American household. Gone are the days of the three channel black and white programming of the early years; that has been replaced by digital flat screen televisions connected to satellite programming capable of receiving thousands of channels from around the world. Although televisions and television programming today differ from those of the telescreens in Orwell’s 1984, we are beginning to realize that the effects of television viewing may be the same as those of the telescreens.

    Read More

  • Television and Media - Effect of TV In The Age of Missing Information

    1056 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Effect of Television In The Age of Missing Information Bill McKibben, in his book The Age of Missing Information, explores the impact of television on modern cultures both in America and around the world. In the book McKibben carries out an experiment; he watches the entire television broadcast of 93 separate cable channels for one entire day. In all McKibben viewed 24 hours of programming from 93 separate cable stations, that is more than 2,200 hours of television. His purpose in this formidable undertaking was to determine how much actual information that was relevant to real life he could glean from a day of television broadcasting. McKibben also spent a day camping alone on a mountain near his home.

    Read More

More about Television: A Vast Wasteland

Open Document