Fall 2015
TFM 573 / History: Women in Prime-time Television
W 4:00 – 6:40 / LSS-244
Instructor:
Office:
Phone:
Office Hours:
Dr. Lauzen
LT 171B
594-6301
By appointment only Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and
Thursdays at 6:45
Course Description
How has prime-time television portrayed girls and women over the last 60 years or so?
How have programs defined what it means to be female in our culture? How do media organizations, executives, and members of the creative community interact to construct images of and messages about girls and women? What are the enduring types of female characters that populate the small screen? This course considers these questions within the context of scholarly research.
The goals of this course are: 1.) to acquaint you with the body of scholarly knowledge on women in television, and; 2.) to provide you with the critical thinking skills necessary to evaluate televisual representations of girls and women. As a result of taking this course, you should be able to demonstrate knowledge of the types of female characters that populate prime time, how these images have evolved since the inception of television, and how the representation of women working behind the scenes influences on-screen portrayals.
Prerequisites
Students must have successfully completed TFM 160, TFM 310, and TFM 330.
Course Reading
Packet available at Aztec Shops (copy on Reserve in the library)
Grading
Midterm Exam #1
Midterm Exam #2
In-Class Writing Assignments
Paper
50 points
50
20
60
Presentation
Respondent
10
5
______________
195 TOTAL
Make-up exams will be given only when proof of illness is presented. There are no exceptions.

There is no extra credit in this class.
In-class writing assignments will not be announced in advance and cannot be made up.
They may occur at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of class.
Students agree that by taking this course all required papers may be subject to submission for textual similarity review to Turnitin.com (or a similar service) for the detection of plagiarism. You may request, in writing, that your paper not be submitted to Turnitin.
However, if you choose this option you will be required to provide documentation to substantiate that the paper is your original work and does not include any plagiarized material.
Any form of academic misconduct, including plagiarism and cheating on exams, will result in an “F” in this course. In addition, all cases of academic misconduct will be reported to the University and may result in probation, suspension, or expulsion from the
University.
Please turn off and put away all phones and other electronic devices before class begins and refrain from using lap tops and tablets in class.
You must be in class and ready to present on the first day of presentations. If you are absent and are called on, you will forfeit your right to present.
There is a 10-point per day penalty for late papers.
If you are a student with a disability and believe you will need accommodations for this class, it is your responsibility to contact Student Disability Services (SDS) at (619) 594-6473 as soon as possible. Please note that accommodations are not retroactive, and that accommodations based upon disability cannot be provided until you have presented your instructor with a letter from SDS.
Course Schedule: (dates are approximate and subject to change)
Week 1/August 26
Introduction: The Television Industry and Gender
Week 2/September 2
Female Archetypes in Television
READ: Meehan, D. M. (1983). The good wife. In Ladies of the evening: Women characters of prime-time television (pp. 34-49). Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow
Press.
Meehan, D. M. (1983). The bitch. In Ladies of the evening: Women characters of prime-time television (pp. 57-63). Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press.
Meehan, D. M. (1983). The witch. In Ladies of the evening: Women characters of prime-time television (pp. 95-100). Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press.

Week 3/September 9
The First Woman of Television: Gertrude Berg
READ: Zurawik, D. (2003). Learning to be “more American”: The Goldbergs .
In The Jews of prime time (pp. 17-47). Hanover: University Press of New
England.
Week 4/September 16
The 1950s: Beulah, Our Miss Brooks, and Private Secretary
Sign Up for First Round Papers and Respondents
Week 5/September 23
The 1960s: Honey West, My Living Doll, and That Girl
READ : D’Acci, J. (1997). Nobody’s woman? Honey West and the new sexuality. In L. Spigel & M. Curtin (Eds.),
The revolution wasn’t televised: Sixties television and social conflict (pp. 73-93). New York: Routledge.
Week 6/September 30
The 1960s: Julia
READ: Bodroghkozy, A. (1992). “Is this what you mean by color TV?” Race, gender, and contested meanings in NBC’s Julia . In L. Spigel & D. Mann (Eds.),
Private screenings: Television and the female consumer (pp. 143-167).
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
The 1970s Drama: Police Woman
READ: Romm, T. (1986). The stereotype of the female detective hero on television: A ten year perspective . Studies in Popular Culture, 9 (1), 94-102.
Week 7/October 7
Midterm Exam #1
Week 8/October 14
First Round Papers Due
Presentations
Week 9/October 21
Sign Up for Second Round Papers and Respondents
Presentations
The 1970s Comedy: Mary and Maude
READ: Dow, B. J. (1997). 1970s Lifestyle feminism, the single woman and The
Mary Tyler Moore Show . In Prime-time feminism (pp. 24-58). Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press.
Osborne-Thompson, H. (2000). Right on Maude: Revisiting “TV’s First True
Sitcom Feminist.”
Spectator, 20 (2), 63-74.
Mitz, R. (1980). Maude . In The great TV sitcom book (pp. 307-311). New York:
Richard Marek Publishers.

Week 10/October 28
1980s: Moonlighting and Cagney and Lacey
READ: Williams, J. P. (1988). The mystique of Moonlighting . Journal of
Popular Film and Television, 16 (3), 90-99.
D’Acci, J. (1992). Defining women: The case of
Cagney and Lacey . In L. Spigel
& D. Mann (Eds.), Private screenings: Television and the female consumer (pp.
169-200). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Week 11/November 4
1980s/1990s Unruly Women: Murphy and Roseanne
READ: Dow, B. J. (1997). Murphy Brown: Postfeminism personified. In Primetime feminism (pp. 135-163). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Rowe, K. K. (1997). Roseanne: Unruly woman as domestic goddess. In C.
Brunsdon, J. D’Acci, & L. Spigel (eds.),
Feminist television criticism: A reader
(pp. 74-83). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Week 12/November 11
Veteran’s Day / No Class
Week 13/November 18
Second Round Papers Due
Presentations
Week 14/November 25
Thanksgiving / No class
Week 15/December 2
Presentations
Week 16/December 9
Midterm Exam #2
THERE IS NO CUMULATIVE FINAL EXAM IN THIS CLASS