Studying TV sitcoms

Tackling the exam

This topic is new to OCR AS level Unit 2731: Textual Analysis, as an optional topic on Section B. The first exam session in January 2003 for this year’s AS students.

Exam requirements

• Choose two specific episodes from two different sitcoms on British television (so this includes US sitcoms shown on British TV – you could do one of each)

• Study how gender is represented in the two programmes

• Compare the similarities and differences between the gender representation in two programmes.

• The OCR specification lists the following possible areas for questions:

Representation of the construction of gender in characters; construction of characters by appearance and dialogue; the characters’ function in the themes and narratives of the programmes; stereotypes and archetypes; casting issues; characters’ values and beliefs and how they are positioned by the narrative and preferred reading of the programme.

Top tips for the exam

• You need to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the processes of representation in media texts: do this by comparing the messages, values and social signification, in respect of gender, in two texts (you can choose US or British programmes, or a combination of the two).

• Be clear about what the concept of representation is, and how you can analyse it in television texts.

• You can study the institutional, social and cultural contexts of the TV sitcom as part of your preparation for this topic, but don’t get too bogged down in this – remember that you need to focus your answers firmly on a comparison of two texts and on demonstrating your conceptual knowledge and understanding.

• Study a variety of programmes at home (on terrestrial TV, or on Paramount Channel and UK Gold – many are on VHS and DVD and available in local libraries) but (if your teacher hasn’t already done this for you) choose two episodes to study in depth for the exam answer. You can briefly mention other programmes – as long as you answer the question.

• Be thoroughly prepared for the demands of timed answers (45 marks in 45 minutes) and on structuring an answer to an exam question. Address the key words in the question straight away in the first paragraph and ‘touch base’ in each paragraph, finishing with a conclusion which refers to the specific wording of the question.

• An answer on the history of the sitcom or a summary of TV gender representation through the decades will not earn you marks, no matter how good it is. Answer the question set and offer lots of examples to back up your points.

• Bear in mind that characters in sitcoms are the result of a variety of processes of construction – ideological, institutional and production processes (such as in the writing, casting, acting, direction, narrative, mise-en-scène, including costume, make-up, audience interpretations etc.) and are not self-determining entities. No matter how strong a star persona might be, they are following a script and are directed by a director – so beware of producing character sketches or descriptions of characters as if they were real people!

• You need to research and provide the following details in your answer, to show attention to detail:

– title of each programme and date or title of episode
– names of writer, director, producer, main actors’ names (previous roles where relevant)
– production company name and other programmes made by them, if relevant to your point
– channel of broadcast and time in schedule (original or subsequent)
– names of any writers whose critical work is quoted and their sources.

• Don’t be deceived by the comic aspect of the topic into using slang or a casual mode of address. Write formally and attend to issues of presentation, spelling, grammar, punctuation and so on.

Vivienne Clark is Principal Examiner for the Textual Analysis paper for OCR Media Studies