I'm watching a USA television sitcom right now, called Everybody Loves Raymond. I've only seen it a couple of times. The wife on the show has decided to go and get a job, like she hasn't had one before, or at least not recently. The husband is making a big fuss about it.

What's the big deal? How can they make an entire half-hour show about it? Does this show actually resemble attitudes in the US about women working?

Personaly i am all for SOMEONE to stay home and look after the kids (not specificaly the woman but either\or)


apart from that why would it matter if a women works:confused:

I'm for independent women, if they wanna leave me, go ahead and fuckin leave.

BUt don't cling on to me for "financial's sake" :rolleyes:

Adam, you seem to keep starting up threads about wimmin. :p

Originally posted by Asguard
Personaly i am all for SOMEONE to stay home and look after the kids (not specificaly the woman but either\or)
Do you approve of nannies? And besides, wouldn't the kids be at school for most of the day?

Originally posted by Firefly
Adam, you seem to keep starting up threads about wimmin. :p

Well, it's my favourite topic. :p

What's the big deal? How can they make an entire half-hour show about it?

It's a sitcom.

Does this show actually resemble attitudes in the US about women working?

No.

The majority of the women I know work, with the exception of a very small amount. My brothers wife does not work because he does not want her to. I dont know what the big deal is, some guys I guess have such a low self-esteem they require the female to stay inside all the time. That is the only reason I can think of. Nowadays in the states, it is almost mandatory that both parents work. Unless your a doctor or something:D

Two things - that show is horrible
and
Raymond is getting in a big fuss over it because they have three little, little children at home and the wife working would mean that his mother spends all day, every day at their house. And Raymond, as practically any grown up male, would prefer Satan as a permanent houseguest over his mother. Therefore - fuss.

Some men feel that they are not taking care of their "manly duties" if they cannot provide for a family, and that having to have help from they person they are supporting is an insult... :rolleyes:

but mostly, no,.. i think the bigger problem is when one person of a couple *refuses* to work... lol...

personally, id prefer tha one parent stay home with young children (as long as it isn't me) until kindergaten age or so.. that way the child doesn't feel neglected, or begins spending so much time with the babysitter, it gets confused who mommy is...

One thing to bear in mind: Sitcoms need old, overvalued stereotypes. In the US, we've switched to "reality TV" because it's too expensive to pay writers enough to eat for the pitiful results the networks force them to achieve.

An example: The NBC "Formula"

The NBC formula is an old one, and goes back a long way. Neil Simon, acclaimed American playwright, earned his start writing for television, including classic shows like The Phil Silvers Show, among others. His play Broadway Bound details the workings of Stan and Eugene Jerome (Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues) as they try to break into the television-writing gig. There is a sketch-development scene where Stan and Eugene talk about conflict in a scene and the "formula". The "formula" is very evident all these years later.

Other formulas you might be familiar with are "Carsey/Werner" (Roseanne, Cosby Show), and "Thomason" ("Designing Women"), and "Burrows/Charles" (Taxi, Cheers, Frasier). The "formula" refers to joke setups, timing devices, and presentation consistency between shows. Note the "Burrows/Charles" forumla: a taxi garage, a bar, a radio station (workplaces); or the "Carsey/Werner"--family homes.

The NBC formula is conflict-oriented. People cannot have comedy without conflict. This sounds like a reasonable principle except the formula is written under massive constraints, so that the writers are turning out as fast and as shallow as possible. Hence we see the produce of the formula:

• Seinfeld: What in the world was this show about? I could never figure it out until I saw the "marble-rye" and masturbation episodes in rerun. Another series helped me figure it out, as well. But Seinfeld took a broad conflict formula and worked to creep the audience out. It wasn't just puerile, useless conflict, but downright creepy: mugging old ladies, agitating business owners, conning friends and strangers alike. Anyone remember the Seinfeld American Express campaign? When he played the "Newman" bit with a frumpy petrol jockey? What was any of that conflict about?

• 3rd Rock From the Sun: Like Seinfeld, this NBC powerhouse innovates the conflict-formula very little. The situations one sees between its characters are utterly familiar through repetition, and part of our laugh comes from watching the quirky resolutions to the same-old. 3rd Rock is different from Seinfeld, though. Seinfeld worked to make the formula as creepy as possible. 3rd Rock attempts to expose it for what it is. Consider the classic "men in the locker room" gag. Lithgow said nothing, did nothing, merely stared. The writers, sick of the gag, set it up according to instruction, and simply let the actor do his job. In this case, we all know we're seeing the "men in the locker room" gag, but with only "Dick" staring at some guy's schlong in disbelief, we get some relief from bad dialogue that would otherwise spoil a gag that hasn't lost its punch yet.

Everybody Loves Raymond, incidentally, is a CBS show, and CBS hasn't had a groundbreaking, market-seizing sitcom in ages. I'm looking around the CBS page for some production information, but there's only a couple of cast notes and a poll question: Who do you think is to blame for the "Mother's Day" fight? Debra or Marie?

Hmm ... it's a "KingWorld" production or distribution ... Philip Rosenthal is the Exec. Producer, though I don't recognize the name. KingWorld is associated with ... I can't remember his name. The Matlock guy. He's rich. He's powerful. He's paid the Thomasons before, as I recall.

But essentially what happens when you start looking into American television production is that you find that sitcoms are the worst possible television we could have over here. Soap operas, incidentally, are starting to have better writing.

Everybody Loves Raymond should never have gotten onto the air. Of course, neither should Dharma and Greg (ABC's sitcom presentations could use an enema), Will and Grace, or any number of ratings shows. Thankfully, it's getting to be like radio; another couple of seasons, and I won't have a clue who's showing what.

Think of it this way: the last "glory days" of sitcoms was an NBC Thursday night featuring The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Cheers, and Night Court, in that order. The nearest thing to it since has been the Fox Sunday night with Simpsons, King of the Hill, X-Files, and Futurama. Notice, though, that the insertion of a sitcom into that lineup (Malcom in the Middle) does not bring a standard-format sitcom to the lineup.

American sitcoms should only be watched internationally by professionals trying to figure out what the hell is wrong with Americans. They should not be watched for entertainment; nor should they be watched as anything more than the grossest address of social conscience. If it's on a sitcom, you can bet someone was thinking about it, but it would be unwise to wager that they were thinking clearly.

My two cents on Ray Romano, sitcoms, and television in the US.

I feel badly for sitcom writers; the dignity one will forfeit in order to feed a family is ridiculous.

thanx,
Tiassa :cool:

Malcom in the Middle

Now thats a funny show!:D

Mum and dad decided that mum would stay home and look after us

that was because dad's job pays more than a primary school teachers job does

of the 2 i think mum actully worked harder

she was always volenteering at our school for stuff as well as doing the cooking, cleaning and what not

she was looking after 4 kids (yea i have 1 brother and 2 sisters) and that DOES take a full time job

the only thing i can ever rember mum doing for herself was playing netball with some other mums for the twinsclub and dad used to play basketball with the fathers from there as well

if we ever needed parents for school exsursions mum would happierly go

If i ever have kids i KNOW i would prefer them to be looked after by me or my partner than some stranger in childcare

don't you just love to see her sweat!;)