Its Importance

 ·       Its Importance

During the 1970s, television program ratings began using such viewer characteristics as age, income, education, and ethnicity to break down the mass audience into smaller groups. Once the networks could collect more detailed data about the audience, they began creating programs to appeal to specific groups. Around this time, the networks also shifted their general focus away from older, rural viewers and toward younger, urban viewers, who were more likely to spend money on sponsors' products. This change in audience focus led the networks to tackle more frequently debated issues in their programs. Another important minority show of the 1970s was Good Times, which aired on CBS for five years beginning in 1974. This situation comedy focused on the struggles of an African American family living in an inner-city apartment building. Each week the Evans family relied on love and humor to overcome discrimination, unemployment, crime, and other problems faced by many black families in the United States. Many TV critics praised the series for dealing with these issues in a realistic way, and many viewers identified with the family's struggles during tough economic times. But some African Americans felt that the character of son J. J., played by Jimmie Walker (1947–), was a ridiculous stereotype. In fact, the actors who played his parents, John Amos (1939–) and Esther Rolle (1920–1998), left the show in protest when its focus shifted from the family to the clownish J. J. During the 1980s and 1990s, American television viewers gained many new channel options. The growth of cable TV services—and the introduction of new broadcast networks such as Fox, UPN, and WB—greatly expanded the amount of programming available on television. Many of the new cable channels and smaller broadcast networks directed their programs toward minorities, since these audiences were not being well served by the major networks. Black Entertainment Television (BET) and UPN focused on African American viewers, for instance, while Univision and Telemundo aimed at Hispanic audiences. In general, television programming became more segregated (separated by race) in the age of cable, with individual shows tending to feature casts that were either white or black. As of 2006 The Cosby Show was the last major network program with equal appeal to black and white viewers. Polls showed that black and white Americans tended to watch completely different sets of shows. Most of the programs that attracted large numbers of minority viewers aired on the smaller broadcast networks or on specialized cable networks. Critics argued that these separate viewing patterns prevented people of different races from developing shared interests and common cultural references and thus contributed to the racial divisions in American society. Over the years, many other special interest groups have recognized the impact of television on the way Americans think about various issues. Like the NAACP, these groups have increasingly tried to work with the TV industry to make sure that programming reflects their viewpoints. smaller percentage of the major roles on prime-time TV series—especially drama series. But the history of American television also includes several progressive programs that helped viewers come to terms with the expanding role of women in society. In the 1950s, television was considered a form of family entertainment. Most American homes only had one TV set, and many families would gather around it in the evening to watch programs together. Recognizing this trend, the networks produced programs that were suitable for a general audience, such as variety shows and family comedies. From the beginning, fictional TV families have often reflected—and sometimes influenced—the real lives of American families. TV families of the early 1950s showed some diversity, although they did not represent all American lifestyles. There were traditional, nuclear families composed of parents and children, for instance, as well as childless married couples and extended families living together under one roof. Some TV families lived in cities, while others lived in suburbs or rural areas. But the only ethnic families shown on TV were recent immigrants from European countries such as Ireland or Italy. TV programs did not feature African American or Hispanic families until the 1970s. Some of the most popular TV programs of the 1980s were prime-time soap operas about wealthy, powerful families. Shows such as Dallas and Dynasty presented views of a luxurious, upper-class lifestyle. But the families at the center of these dramas had all sorts of emotional and relationship problems. During the 1990s, television programs in general began featuring more dysfunctional families—from the real-life family feuds on shocking daytime talk shows to the family conflicts on sitcoms such as Roseanne and The Simpsons. At the same time, many cable TV channels attracted viewers by showing reruns of old shows, such as Leave It to Beaver and The Brady Bunch, that provided a comforting view of family life in the 1950s and 1960s