The first thing we have to do is

“The first thing we have to do is to separate out the things that are pleasant from the things that are unpleasant”: Gary Ross’ Pleasantville and the Classic Era of Television HUM 3085: Television and Popular Culture Spring 2014 Dr. Perdigao January 8, 2014

Pleasantville (1998) • Fin de siècle mentality? • Twenty-first century: 1950 s culture • Normative identities for women, men • Social constructedness

The End of the World…? • Film begins with 20 th century contexts, famine, poverty • Escapism through the show (from familial problems) • Geography class • End of Main Street is its beginning • Overemphasis on order

Television History • 1950 s programming • Clip from Leave It to Beaver (1957 -1963)when David and Jennifer are first in Pleasantville, self-conscious reference to the types of shows being watched at the time, contemporaries of Pleasantville • Don Knotts as repairman (Andy Griffith Show [1960 -1968], Three’s Company [1976 -1984]) • Dick Van Dyke originally to play television repairman in script—Rob’s TV Repair (named after Van Dyke’s character in his own show [1961 -1966]) • Jukebox—from Happy Days (1974 -1984) • “Mary-Sue” as character that inserts self into the show, fixes problems— originating in fan fiction as plot device

Don Knotts in Television History • The Andy Griffith Show (1960 -1968): http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=9 DU 5 o. Eg. JKg. Y • Three’s Company (1976 -1984; Don Knotts in 1979 -1984): http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=4 std. MIqjs. Sc

Television History • Twin beds—Mary Kay and Johnny (1947), I Love Lucy (1951 -1957), The Brady Bunch (1969 -1974) • Most special effects in a film until Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace, capturing characters in color alongside those in black and white • Set in Burbank, CA—façade of their house for the film but others in neighborhood recognizable from 1960 s television series: Gidget (1965 -1966), Hazel (1961 -1966), and Bewitched (1964 -1972). Margaret’s house is the family’s house in The Partridge Family (1970 -1974).

Utopia in TV Land? • Shifts with rock and roll, rebel culture • Books filled in when remembered: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Catcher in the Rye • Book burning, censorship • Garden of Eden, loss of paradise • Eve offering apple, replayed, “go on, try it. ” • “You don’t deserve this paradise. ” • Question of values, “holding onto those values that made this place great”

“Across the Universe” • Civil Rights in 1950 s • “Whitey” • “colored girlfriend, ” “no coloreds” • Now violence, threat of rape, looting, mob, book burning—dystopic • Non-changes view of history in classes, favoring continuity over alteration, new rules • Mural on wall: woman, kiss, records, bowling, town hall into water, Catcher in the Rye, Huck Finn, Moby Dick burning • Now court system, first trial • After court case is resolved, color tv, images of world, history • Multiple possibilities at end? Multiple universes?