There was such a stark difference in the overall image of the family between the families in Leave it to Beaver and Modern Family.
To begin, in Leave it to Beaver, the main family was that of the "ideal" family. The attributes that defined this were, a husband and wife of approximately the same age with two sons who appear to be well mannered. The familial hierarchy was apparent- the man of the house brought in the income while the wife tended to the home and children. As far as I could see in the one episode I saw, the two children seemed to get along and were respectful to their parents and other adults.
The middle family in the picture above is the one I will be analyzing from Modern Family. This family carries the image of the more dysfunctional family we are more used to seeing. The roles of the mother and father are basically the same as the ones in Leave it to Beaver although there are some differences I will go into later. The children however are very different than Beaver and Wally.
A comparison and contrast:
(Leave it to Beaver/ Modern Family)
- In the opening scene, the mother was cleaning the refrigerator
- In the opening scene, the mother had made breakfast and was serving it to the family
- Married couple + kids
- Married couple + kids
In these examples the families appear to be parallel but these next examples will describe the differences in families today and in the past with the families from Modern Family and Leave it to Beaver as examples of each, respectively.
- Wally, Eddie, and Carolyn seem very innocent when it comes to sexuality
- They hardly flirt and when they do, it is very understated
- The whole meeting was very awkward
- The older daughter is not so innocent when it comes to sexuality
- She incessantly dresses inappropriately
- Carolyn seems to have a good relationship with her mother
- She talks to her mother about the boy she likes and asks advice
- There is hardly a close familial relationship between anyone in the family
- At the breakfast table, everyone is completely engulfed in their electronic devices and there is no communication
- The husband and wife are on the same page when it comes to parenting
- They both had the same reaction to Carolyn calling Wally
- We can infer that they will communicate what should be done about this situation together
- The husband and wife have a slight discrepancy when it comes to parenting
- When the son was eating his cereal without hands, the mother disapproved and the father said "thats awesome"
- During a family meeting, the father turned a disciplinary action into a game and made promises about the prizes without communicating with the mother about it
- The children are very polite to adults
- Wally introduces himself by his full name to Carolyn's mother and says thank you to the invitation of coming inside
- The children are disrespectful to their parents
- They did not listen to their mother's repeated order to put down their electronics at the breakfast table
- The older daughter asks the mom, "Oh my God, is that what you always sound like?"
- The younger daughter says, "No it would be good for you. It's terrible for me!" (about a grade of B on a paper)
- The older daughter calls her father "daddy-o"
In summary, the differences in these two families can show us how family roles have changed. It seems the standard for families today isn't even the same as the standard back in the 50's (assuming that the families are average for the respective time era).
First off I liked how you set up your blog with the compare and contrast in different colors, it made it easy to follow along. I also thought it was good that you talked about how a typical family has changed compared to the 1950's but why has it changed? Is it just because of advances in technology? or is it more because women are more or less equal now? For instance why is it children have less respect for adults now? Because usually the adults had to show the same respect demonstrated in leave to beaver so why and how has this changed? Thats just what your blog made me think about but I think you did a good job noticing the differences but you also seemed to pick out things that showed Leave it to Beaver in a positive way and Modern Family almost the one with problems but there had to of been problems with the family setting in Leave it to Beaver or else our society wouldn't have changed so that the family in Modern Family is more of the norm now a days.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you compared literally every aspect of both shows. I now completely understand the similarities and differences in both the shows. I also think that how you compared how the sexuality and flirting was so understated in Leave It To Beaver and how in Modern Family, the family with the older-ish daughter flaunted her sexuailty. I think its funny how much our society has changed in a relatively short period of time, to go from a very conservative outlook to an independent and outgoing society.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your blog post and how you came up with so many similarities and differences to really compare and contrast the two shows. I agree that things are completely different then they were in the 50's and you did a great job proving that point. Also, one of the main things that stood out to me when watching these two shows was that although both shows share differences, both opening scenes show the women of the families in the kitchen. Its ironic that although our society is way different now then back then, stereotypes on women have still stayed the same. Anyways, Great job!
ReplyDeleteI liked the creativeness of your blog. The color key made it easy to understand the comparisons you made, and the pictures helped me to remember the episodes better. I'm using modern family as one of my texts, as well as i love lucy, so I bet our papers will turn out somewhat similar. However, I think I will be arguing against you, saying that not much has changed since the 50s. Really good post, though.
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