This week in class we continued the discussion and viewing of television. Starting off the week with watching Pioneers of Television: Funny Ladies. The Pioneers of Television video showed the growth and power of these women. The television industry for women started in the early 1950s to the mid 1970s. This documentary introduced me to great actors like Lucille Ball, Betty White, Joan Rivers, Carol Burnett, and Mary Tyler Moore. These women faced many hardships just for being a woman in the television industry but looked past that the hard times to get to the fame. The first women to gain fame at a time where women weren’t allowed to be funny or express what they think is right was Lucille Ball. What’s interesting to me is that Lucille Ball was born in Jamestown NY, which is less than an hour from my hometown. Growing up and going to Jamestown for many things, I have always seen murals of Lucy when she was in her acting days, statues in town parks, and the house that she was raised in. Jamestown NY chereshes Lucille Ball all over the city to this day.

Women back then were expected to dress and act in a manner in which was to be funny but not too attractive. In Lucy’s acting days she was portrayed as a hilarious, beautiful, relatable actress that everyone loved. She portrayed these characteristics in every skit or scene she was in. She paved the way and set a standard for female actresses to act on. The women who I had listed were at the front of comedy and helped generations of women actresses after them, feel comfortable. In 1970 television industries were against casting African American women because of segregation back then. Until Marla Gibbs came around, she was the first African American women to have creative control and casting opportunities in the industry. Marla created her first ever sitcom called “227”. Joan Rivers appeared on television during her pregnancy and many critics did not think that was okay. There were many standards and regulations that actors had to follow in order to stay in show business. Many of the women on Pioneers of Television spoke about how there job was to speak about the things other women wanted to say but couldn’t. These actresses have the ability to speak their minds and will be heard by many people, but someone without a celebrities influence and platform, may not be heard by as many people. Over the years, television for women has seemed to feel like home. These women want to be remembered by making people laugh because they adore acting so much. At the end of the documentary Phyllis Diller says “laughter is the best medicine”, I believe you can always cheer someone up with something to make them laugh.

In the episode Hush in Buffy The Vampire Slayer it starts off with students waking up and realizing their voices are gone. The characters come to find out on the news it’s being called laryngitis infection. The vampires know it’s not this a laryngitis epidemic that’s on the news. The only way to get their voices back was to kill the creepy, zombie-like men and that could only be done by screaming. While everyone was losing their voices, communication becomes difficult for everyone. During the pandemic Buffy and her friend find small $10 white boards to use as communication. Some of the forms of communication they used were hand gestures, mouthing words out, sketching pictures, and electronics such as computers.

This episodes portrays a message to the audience that speaking is not the only way of communication. There are different ways to communicate with people then your voice. In America today, online communication is more common than in person communication.

Question to the class: Do you prefer online communication or in person communicating?