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‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’ was one of the greatest television shows of the early 1960s. By genre classifications, the show was a situation comedy (sitcom). The show was created by Cark Reiner and ran from 1961 to 1966. It was based on the ideal suburban American family through the personal and professional life of Rob Petrie. Rob’s profession is being a writer working for the fictional Alan Brady Show. He faces competition from other workmates like Buddy Sorrell and Sally Rogers. Rob is married to Laura Petrie with whom he has a young son named Ritchie. One of the episodes of ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’ was the ‘My Blonde-Haired Brunette’. The episode featured the issue of beauty standards based on the natural hair. Laura in this episode had dyed her hair blonde and has to re-dye it back to brown when Rob tells her over the phone that he loved her better as a ‘brunette’ (‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’, ‘My Blonde-Haired Brunette’, 2:23-4:07). The ensuing comic effect revolves around trying to dye the hair back to brown in a limited amount of time before Rob could come back home. ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’ was a masterpiece that embraced and portrayed the American culture and way of life. Through episodes like ‘My Blonde-Haired Brunette’, the show explored various aspects of the American culture and its ideals, such as perceptions of beauty, in a more comic manner.
‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’ was well situated in terms of the cultural and economic context. During the 1960s, the cold war between the Soviet Union and the USA was still in progress. One of the fields that were exploited by both sides was the cultural dominance, where the USA enrolled cultural relations programs aimed at promoting the American culture both within and outside the USA (Bu, 393). ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’ promoted various aspects of the American culture and general quality and way of life. First, Rob Petrie lived in a suburban residence and worked in the city, where he travelled with his case. The rise of suburban communities started from the reign of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1950s as part of the urban sprawl (Drewes, 315). The main mode of transport for the residents of suburban areas was their personal cars given that majority of them were in the middle class and could afford personal cars. The show thus promoted the American ideals of home ownership and capitalism, where the prosperity was based on meritocracy. The show also reflected the JFK New Frontier Programs, which supported ideals such as equal pay, trade expansion and housing (Bernstein, 30). These programs were a reflection of the important role of capitalism in improving the society at the general and personal level. Trade expansion is particularly covered in the case of Rob Petrie, who was a writer for a show. Rob’s job was a new kind of trade that had developed due to the rise of the television in the 1950s and which was based on creativity. The show therefore represented the ideals of the American society.
Cultural practices of the 1960s were also evident in both the show and in episodes such as ‘My Blonde-Haired Brunette’. American beauty for adult white women has been tied to blonde hair for numerous years due to the promotion of such standards by beauty magazines like Playboy (Rich & Thomas, 113). The issue of ideal American beauty in women is very elaborate in the episode ‘My Blonde-Haired Brunette’. During the episode, Laura tries to improve her looks by choosing a blonde hair dye. The ensuing conversation with Rob proves that feminine beauty at the time was tied to blonde hair, as exemplified by Marilyn Monroe. Rob stated that his beauty standards were based on dark hair, and that if he had inclinations to the mainstream definition of beauty, he would have married Marilyn Monroe or any other top model (‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’, ‘My Blonde-Haired Brunette’, 2:23-4:07). These sentiments of beauty are echoed by Ritchie towards the end of the show, where he stated that he did not want his mother to be ‘beautiful’ and in fact preferred her with dark hair. The ideal American family is also clearly promoted in the episode and the show in general. Rob Petrie was the ‘head’ of the family in accordance to the American society’s culture. He worked in a big firm, while his wife Laura was a stay-at-home mother (Liebenson, par. 4). The family was also small, with only one child, to portray the American ideals of family planning as a method of improving the quality of life. These factors were a reflection of the American traditions at the time. These traditions were based on gender roles where the man was the provider and the wife was the principle caregiver whose main work was to bring up the family based on American ideals. The show therefore supported ideals of gender roles and masculinity in the society.
‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’ was a great comedy creation of the time. It existed based on creation of situations which would evoke comedy. In the case of ‘My Blonde-Haired Brunette’ episode, the situation created was the dying of Laura’s hair, which, though it conformed to the beauty standards of the day, did not align with Rob’s beauty preferences. Such irony was used to bring laughter among the audiences of the show. In total, ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’ streamed 156 episodes over the 5-year period during which it ran (Liebenson, par.6). Based on ratings, in present day, the show retains good ratings of 8.3/10 on IMDb, 5/5 on Common Sense Media, and 8.9/10 on TV.com. These high ratings are an evidence of the good acting skills of the actors and the creativity of the producers to create comedy that would still be funny even 50 years later. ‘My Blonde-Haired Brunette’ episode in particular remains as one of the most liked episodes of the entire show. The show was therefore an epitome of creativity as exemplified by the popularity of some of its episodes.
The media is a tool that can be used to spread propaganda or influence a certain way of thinking for its viewers. In the case of ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’, the comic effect of the sitcom was used to deliver certain sentiments on the superiority of the American culture, as well as to show typical ideals of the time. The roles of the various actors in the play are also a reflection of the masculine American culture. It is also a reflection of the political ideals of the regime at the time. Some of the ideals, such as the support for suburban lifestyle by JFK’s New Frontier housing program, are also exemplified by the comfortable living of the Rob Petrie family in a suburb. The show was therefore a reflection of what an ideal family had to be like based on American culture.
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