Contents

Chapters in this book

1. Front Matter i
2. Contents vii
3. Illustrations xi
4. Introduction xv
5. Origins of the Genre 1
6. The 1950s 13
7. Who Rules the Roost? 17
8. I Love Lucy 31
9. To the Moon! 43
10. The 1960s 55
11. The Rural Sitcom from The Real McCoys to Relevance 59
12. The 1960s Magicoms 75
13. Negotiated Boundaries 91
14. The 1970s 105
15. The Norman Lear Sitcoms and the 1970s 107
16. Liberated Women and New Sensitive Men 121
17. “Who’s in Charge Here?” 133
18. The 1980s 145
19. The Cosby Show 149
20. Roseanne, Roseanne, Reality, and Domestic Comedy 165
21. Cheers 177
22. The 1990s 185
23. Seinfeld 189
24. Cybill 199
25. Talking Sex 217
26. The 2000s 231
27. “It’s Just a Bunch of Stuff that Happened” 235
28. Breaking and Entering 247
29. Sealed with a Kiss 259
30. The 2010s 273
31. The Hidden Truths in Contemporary Black Sitcoms 279
32. Disability and Sitcoms 295
33. Transparent Family Values 305
34. The Evolving, Resilient Sitcom 319
35. Bibliography 323
36. Contributors 345
37. Index 349