Download Love/Hate Relationships in Comedy TV Shows: Absolutely Fabulous and Other Sitcoms and more Papers Media & Society in PDF only on Docsity!
Love/Hate Relationships in Comedy TV Shows
By: Group 15
Volume 1, Issue 1 November 2002
Love/Hate Relationships 1 continued on page^3
Ab Fab!
Absolutely Famous a British Comedy
By: Katie Tinker
Absolutely Fabulous is one of the many ‘britcoms’ (British comedies) that are shown on American television, and has been airing on Comedy Central. Jennifer Saunder’s caustic(and allegedly based on real people) comedy is about two women in the fashion and PR world of London. Absolutely Fabulous is a BBC comedy centered around the life of Edina Monsoon, Edina’s daughter Saffron, and best friend Patsy Stone. The show has a unique “role reversal” with Edina as the wild parent, and Saffron as the sensible straight-laced daughter. This particular show is one of the models that were chosen for comedy sitcoms, which utilize a love/hate relationship between characters. To dissect and explain this relationship, here is a quick summary of each of the characters involved within the show, so you may become familiar with them. First, there is Edina Monsoon(Jennifer Saunders). She is the principle character of the show.
Grounded For Life
Grounded For Life; the sitcom
By: Travis Smith
In Grounded For Life , Sean Finnerty is a young dad trying to raise three kids while keeping his beautiful wife, Claudia Finnerty, his overly critical father, Walt Finnerty, and loitering brother, Eddie at bay. Grounded For Life is a new, light-hearted comedy, which tackles the tough role of being a loving, young, “cool” dad, while coping with adult not-so-cool responsibilities. Sean Finnerty, played by Donal Logue, runs into a lot of problems mainly with his 14 year old daughter, Lily. Lily is a typical teenage girl who doesn’t want to hear her father’s “words of wisdom.” Sean and Claudia married at the early age of 18, not having any experience on how to raise children. Sean works a full time job doing construction in New York City and then must come home to a loud, drama queen daughter, and two young boys constantly finding themselves in trouble at Catholic school. Each episode the family deals with a different issue in parenting. In episode #108 Sean is looking for stamps in hi daughter Lily’s room and instead finds a fake ID. Instead of going straight to her to confront her, he decides to break into her email account to find out why she has the fake ID. Sean finds that Lily is going to use the ID to get into a rave. Sean and his brother Eddie attend the rave hoping to catch Lily in the act. While searching for Lily the two brothers end up at a dry cleaners in Yonkers. It turns out that Lily had known her dad had been through her email account so she set him up to be able to prove that he had invaded her privacy. In this show the family loves each other very much but seems to have a problem showing it in
continued on page 2
I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E
1 Absolutely Famous a British Comedy
1 Grounded For Life
2 Frasier
3 The Hughleys and Everybody Loves Raymond
4 That 70’s Show
Surrounding Edina are Patsy Stone her best friend, Saffron her daughter and June her mother, and occasionally her ex-husbands Justin and Marshall. Edina is divorced and lives off the income generated from her two businesses, a PR firm and a furniture store, and alimony from her to ex-husbands. Second, there is Patsy Stone (Joanna Lumley). Patsy is Edina’s best friend, and works for a British fashion magazine as Executive Fashion Director, which she got by sleeping with the publisher. Saffron Monsoon (Julia Sawalha) is Edina’s college-bound daughter. She has a strong sense of morals and a generally clean image, which contrasts sharply with her mother (and Patsy) and is the source of friction between them. Justin (Christopher Malcom) is Edina’s second husband, and Saffron’s father. Justin is gay and owns an antique store with his lover Oliver (Gary Beadle). Justin visits his daughter frequently and thus runs into Edina. Marshall, (Christopher Ryan) is Edina’s first husband. 15 years ago Marshall went to Hollywood to develop a screen play.
Now that we are familiar with the characters and their relationships with one another, we can dissect the love/hate relationship between them. For instance, the main characters Edina and Patsy are best friends, which factor into the love part of the love/hate complex. Best friends do fight and disagree which fits into the “hate” side of the complex, however it is not that evident as to the relationship between Saffron and her mother, Edina. Edina does love her daughter however there is such a difference between their personalities that they are constantly fighting and putting one another down. The “hate” side of the love/hate complex is most exemplified in the relationship between Patsy and Edina’s daughter Saffron. Saffron feels that Patsy is a parasite, living off Edina and corrupting her, and Edina does not like saffron otherwise. Saffron and Patsy argue quite often but have to tolerate each other because they both have a commonality, which is Edina.
In examining another relationship, between Justin, Edina’s second husband, and herself, the love/hate relationship is based on tolerance. As Saffron’s father, much to Edina’s annoyance, is supportive of his daughter and visits often. Edina and Justin are faced with each other but deal because they too also have a commonality, which is their daughter,
Saffron. Another love/hate relationship is expressed through the character of Edina’s mother, June, and also Edina and Saffron. June and Saffron get along great and are always in opposition to Edina: Grandmother and grandchild against the daughter. In terms of their relationship they always tend to disagree and not see eye-to-eye, but they are family and in relation do love each other indefinitely, despite their hateful quarrels. The love/ hate relationship between characters is a useful tactic is making and maintaining a good comedy sitcom. The conflicts during the show are often funny and easy to relate to, which makes means for a successful show. When sitcoms make parodies of our everyday relationships with people, whether good or bad, that comic relief, in a sense to audiences, makes them feel that they are not alone in their conflicts, and hey, they can be funny too!
Frasier
Frasier the sitcom
By: Mike Storey Frasier is a comedy sitcom that shows the love/hate relationship between the characters. The show first aired on September 16, 1993 and was instantly a huge hit on American television. This show has many similarities to the comedy show Friends because all of the characters are living in one house together and trying to have friendly, loving relationships with each other and not having the occasional hateful disagreement or argument. This sitcom is entering its tenth season on NBC and has won twenty one Emmys. The lead character Dr. Frasier Crane and his brother Dr. Niles Crane are the two main characters in the sitcom. Martin Crane, their father, Daphne Moon, Roz Doyle, and Eddie also play significant roles in this comedy because they are all characters that take part in a love/hate relationship with at least one other character. This sitcom deals with the love/hate relationship between all six characters in every episode because there is always some kind of confrontation going on between at least two of them. The characters are usually fighting about something
continued from page 1
Debra is always getting upset with him for things that he does and says. One detriment to their relationship and a major cause to most of their fights is Ray’s mother, Marie. Marie is always meddling in the ways that Debra runs her household, mostly commenting on how the kids are raised, cleaning the house, and how to cook. This makes Debra and Marie commonly bump heads and then in turn makes Debra and Ray bump heads. This then puts Ray in the middle between his mother and his wife. This relationship helps viewers to associate with the characters in familiarizing themselves with the situations that go on between Ray and his wife and Ray and his mother.
Ray’s brother, Robert, has always been jealous of him. Ray is a successful sportswriter, who has his own house with his wife and three kids, “the perfect family.” Robert is a divorced policeman who moves in and out of his parents” home, and loves to drop over and resent Ray’s successful career and happy family life. Whenever Debra, Marie, or even Frank, are mad at Ray, Robert gravels in their anger, enjoying that Ray’s life is maybe not so perfect. Viewers of the show may recognize the sibling rivalry.
Ray and his mother have a common, “mother knows best” relationship. Ray has always been mommy’s little boy so now when things heat up between his mother and his wife he doesn’t know who’s side to choose.
These relationships show how television shows use them to relate to their audience. When a viewer relates to a television show they watch it often. Common relationships between characters in a show are used to capture its audience and make them familiarized with them characters.
Three different relationships From That 70’s Show
By: Cheryl Spanower Now in its fifth season That 70’s Show has been an instant hit. The show features an average family of four, and the teenage son’s weird and wild friends. The main character, Eric Forman, played by Topher Grace, lives at home with his constantly disagreeing and arguing parents, Red played by Kurtwood Smith and his mom Kitty played by Debra Jo Rupp. Eric and his group of friends spend most of their time just hanging around in his basement and talking about their problems. Eric has spent many years of his high school life being friends with his next door neighbor, Donna, who later becomes his girlfriend. The two teens get along great most of the times because they had been friends before they became lovers. Eric and Donna are very much in love and usually show it openly. The two make out in front of their friends and in public all the time because they don’t care who sees them displaying their love for each other. While most of the time everything between the two is fine, sometimes things aren’t so good. When the couple fights they usually end up yelling at each other and saying really mean and hurtful things to each other. The two for a short time act as if they hate each other or dislike the other until they reconcile their differences. The couple always makes up when both Eric and Donna apologize to each other for being wrong. Eric’s friend Kelso is also in a loving relationship with Donna’s best friend, Jackie. Kelso and Jackie have a very odd relationship. When Kelso and Jackie fight it is usually because one of them blows the situation out of proportion. The two will act very immature and act as if they hate each other for a few hours before they both run to the other to make up. The couple always makes up when both of them say that they were wrong and then by having sex.
Eric’s parents Red and Kitty also have a love/hate relationship. While the two are married and very much in love they often fight because Red gets upset easily over something he blames Kitty for, that really wasn’t her fault. Kitty responds to Red’s misplaced anger by ignoring him. Kitty will walk right past Red pretending he’s not there, and even go as far as to not make him dinner. In the end, Red will come to Kitty and ask for her forgiveness. She gives him a hard time at first but always excepts his apology in the end and then the two give each other a big kiss and all is well.
That 70’s Show(2002). Available online:http://www.that70sshow.com(accessed October 31, 2002)
Newsletter designed, typed, and edited
By: Cheryl Spanower
