Sitcoms have been around and an important aspect of television for a long time.

They can represent the beliefs, attitudes and values which were demonstrated in their era. Over time, sitcoms have demonstrated social changes such as how much families and family life has evolved over the years. Therefore, sitcoms can entertain and provide useful evidence about society at that time. In the past few decades, sitcoms have changed in ways that would never have even been thought about in the 1950 s. There s a lot more talk about issues such as sex and family separations which weren t as common in the beginning sitcoms. The two sitcoms that I will be comparing to show how society has evolved in the past fifty years are I Dream of Jeanie, which was produced in the 1950 s and is rated PG and the recent sitcom, Cougar Town, which began in 2009 and also rated PG. These two shows reveal definite social changes over time which I will clarify in this speech. I will show to you how not only the entertainment but the moral values and beliefs have changed in the past fifty years and I will explain and compare the dominant discourses, gender stereotypes and social issues within these two sitcoms. In the 1960 s the typical dominant discourse of sitcoms was a white, middle class American professional young male. In I Dream of Jeanie this was reinforced clearly. This sitcom is about Captain Tony Nelson who is a young bachelor working as an a stronaut who finds a 2000 year old female genie in a bottle. He soon becomes, as Jeanie calls it her master and Jeanie dedicates her life to him. Most of Jeanie s problems arise from her obsessive devotion to please her so called master . The idea of a female Genie serving a male master was almost symbolic of the gender stereotypes evident in the 60 s. Women were simply expected to obey their husband s wishes. This is very different in the more recent sitcom, Cougar Town in which Courtney Cox p lays Jules; a recently divorced, forty year old mother re -joining the dating life. She is often presented with challenges which are solved usually in a humorous way incorporating her closest friends such as her best friend and neighbour, her younger assist ant, ex-husband and seventeen year old son. The dominant discourse shown in this sitcom is the middle -aged newly single woman who devotes her time to her job, her son and friends and finds little time being the stereotypical housewife. This is very diffe rent in comparison to the early sitcom in which portrays the female as the weak obedient woman who devotes herself to the man in her life. In spite of the social changes that have occurred in the past 50 years, whether they are reinforced or challenged, most gender roles are still stereotyped. For example, traditionally men were superior, the leader of the family and the money makers, whereas woman were expected to stay in the house and were in charge of raising the children, cleaning and there to support the male in any way possible. In I Dream of Jeanie these perfectly painted stereotypes are reinforced heavily. In the episode There Goes the Bride season two, After finding out that Tony is going to be best man at a friend's wedding, Jeannie schemes to get married to Tony. Despite being warned by Haji ("Master of all genies") that she would lose

her powers, she puts a love spell on Tony. This stereotype is somehow challenged in a way that Jeanie schemes behind his master s back rather than being an obedient female. Although her love is striving her to cast a spell on Tony which shows she is devoted to him and would rather be married to hi m than have her power therefore the stereotype is reinforced as well. This stereotype is challenged in Cougar Town as Jules is less concerned about having a husband to devote her life too and more with her work as a real estate agent and doesn t want any serious relationship. Another more modern stereotype is the middle-aged woman who feels to old in single life and married to her job, as she is older she is self -conscious about her image and wishes to be young again and doesn t want to be alone. This stereotype is reinforced in this sitcom and an example of this is in episode fifteen of the first season named When a Kid goes bad which is about valentine s day and Jules is lonely as it will be her first valentine s day single so she clings to one of h er male neighbours just so she won t be by herself. So this sitcom does reinforce the stereotype of its era to an extent and I Dream of Jeanie heavily outlines the stereotypes of its era.