Media representations of families today Essay

Submitted By maye_day
Words: 3351
Pages: 14

Media representations of families today
FSGN 1100

Document the imagery and content of one popular mainstream North American television situation comedy based on the representation of characters and the interactions of family members is the requirement for this assignment, in which I chose to do watch and document my findings on the show Growing Pains. Growing Pains is an American television sitcom about an affluent family, which aired on ABC from September 24, 1985, to April 25, 1992. The show ran for seven seasons with a total of 166 episodes aired. (INC, 2014). I personally chose to watch Growing Pains because I wanted to watch something different then what is on television today. I wanted to watch a show on a family that experienced things a little bit different then what was expected from the society’s point of view during that time. In my opinion today is a lot more accepting then it was years ago for many things, such as fathers staying home to take care of the children while the mother goes to work, divorce was not as popular, having children out of wedlock, Children getting into trouble was hushed a lot more, but with the expansion of media source, nothing is really kept personal. I wanted to watch a show that as able to take a typical family and show success in every trial and error. That doing things a little different is not always a bad thing. What looks like a typical family, with two working parents, and three children (later a fourth child is born, but not included in my research) I wanted something that was a little different, and I found that in Growing Pains. I decided to go on a website called kick ass torrents and download the full first season of Growing Pains. I downloaded the episodes on my computer through Utorrent. I was able to watch the episodes once downloaded through a program I had previously on my computer called Media Player Classic. I decided to just watch random episodes throughout the very first season. In my opinion this shows intended audience was for young teenagers, because it is a comedy sitcom of a family, which the children characters are going through teenage years. I feel that teenagers would be able to relate and find some of the actions by the characters funny. I personally believe that some adults would also benefit from watching the show. I feel this way because from the episodes I have watched they show the same family dealing with different problems, and solving them as a family, or as adults. They never give up and they listen to each other. They show a family that supports each other, and never gives up. No matter what they have faced with, they face it together as one. The parents solve their issues as adults without having the children involved, or having the children feel like they need to worry about it. The children are not involved in adult problems and get to live their lives in their age category. I really like this because in today’s society and face paced world, children are growing up way to fast, they are making adult decisions before they are adults, and parents sometimes involve their children in circumstances and situations that they do not need to be involved it.
Season 1 Episode 1 watched November 3rd 2014 8:00pm This first episode was an introduction to the family. We are introduced to the father Dr Jason Seaver, a psychologist and his wife Maggie Seaver, a journalist, try to do their best raising their family, including their children Mike, Ben, and Carol. Mike was the chronic underachiever who was always trying to talk his way out of trouble. Carol was brainy, deep and struggled to fit in. Ben was the cute as a younger brother. He wasn't as outgoing and charming as Mike and wasn't as smart as Carol. Maggie decided to go back to work as a journalist, and doctor Seaver decided to move his office into their family home, so that way he can be around for the children. Maggie took fifteen years off from work to raise her children, and has decided it