TV Family Values

ALICE LEPPERT is an assistant professor of media and communication studies at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania.

• ContentsIntroduction1          Selling Ms. Consumer                        2          "I Can't Help Feeling Maternal—I'm a Father!": Domesticated Dads and Career Women3          Solving the Day-Care Crisis, One Episode at a Time: Family Sitcoms and Privatized Child Care in the 1980s                       4          "You Could Call Me the Maid—But I Wouldn't": Lessons in Masculine Domestic Labor5          Disrupting the Fantasy: Reagan Era Realities and Feminist PedagogiesConclusionAcknowledgmentsNotesIndex

"The sharp and insightful analysis of 1980s family sitcoms we need! An engaging assessment of TV comedy in a changing culture of gender, work, and home during a transitional decade."— Elana Levine, author of Wallowing in Sex: The New Sexual Culture of 1970s American Television"Insightful, well-argued and carefully researched, TV Family Values gives a rich and multifaceted picture of the social, cultural and political currents at play in 80s sitcoms."— Joanne Morreale, author of Advertising and Promotional Culture: Case Histories"Recommended."— Choice"Leppert provides an excellent analysis of the significant storylines and "fantasies" that provided a lens with which to view the realities of the Reagan Era."— H-Net"Insightful, well-argued and carefully researched, TV Family Values gives a rich and multifaceted picture of the social, cultural and political currents at play in 80s sitcoms."— Joanne Morreale, author of Advertising and Promotional Culture: Case Histories"Recommended."— Choice"The sharp and insightful analysis of 1980s family sitcoms we need! An engaging assessment of TV comedy in a changing culture of gender, work, and home during a transitional decade."— Elana Levine, author of Wallowing in Sex: The New Sexual Culture of 1970s American Television"Leppert provides an excellent analysis of the significant storylines and "fantasies" that provided a lens with which to view the realities of the Reagan Era."— H-Net