Related Links:

Other Stories in Arts & Leisure:

“American Dreams” focuses on the Pryor family of Philadelphia. Father of four, Jack Pryor (Tom Verica) is the owner of an electronics store while wife, Helen (Gail O’Grady) is a homemaker. We are introduced to the racial issues surrounding this time as Jack employs a black man in his store. Helen raises a variety of issues also. Her desire to do more with her life leads her to begin using birth control, as she decides that four children are enough to handle. She also begins a college course where she learns of the feminist movement. The eldest Pryor child, J.J. (Will Estes) is a football star in his senior year of high school, ready to become the first Pryor to attend college, excluding the recent adventures of his mother. Daughter Meg (Brittany Snow) is a regular dancer on “American Bandstand” while the other children, spelling-bee wiz Patty (Sarah Ramos) and polio-stricken Will (Ethan Dampf) face their own problems. A variety of national issues, such as the assassination of President Kennedy, add to the nostalgic effect of the show. The rise of the Beatles sensation is another plot line explored in a variety of episodes.

According to an article in The Hartford Courant on Aug. 29, 2002, “Some observers say families are the focus in 15 new sitcoms because of the post-Sept. 11 nesting instincts.” However, Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television and professor of popular culture at Syracuse University, believes “nostalgia was a trend way before Sept. 11.” The time period, beginning with Vietnam and followed by Watergate, challenged traditional power and civic authority was lost, Thompson discussed. “World War II was the last time in history that there was a consensus of what was good and bad,” Thompson said.

“Given the complexity of American civic life in the years after the ‘60s, Vietnam, Watergate, and Monica (Lewinsky), there is a certain escapist appeal to returning to a time when our values and civic self-definitions seemed so much less complicated. We do this by watching reruns of shows from that simpler time on TVLand as well as by watching shows made about that simpler time—from ‘Band of Brothers’ to ‘Pearl Harbor’ to ‘American Dreams’,” said Thompson. However, the nostalgia boom was in place long before “American Dreams.” Therefore, he concludes that “the show is not inconsistent with Sept. 11,” but “we don’t need Sept. 11 to explain it.”

Though, according to Thompson, the show achieves two things: exploring how we got to where we are, with the exploration of mother-gender roles and racial issues, and reaching double demographics by appealing to the baby boom generation and the new generation of people who are the age of the children in the show. “It tells 40 years later about a time we have more of a perspective on,” said Thompson.

Richard Hanley, communications professor at Quinnipiac University, believes that “America has the propensity for nostalgic things” beyond just television. Stores like “Restoration Hardware” appeal to the nostalgic consumer just as “American Dreams,” “tries to fit itself in longing for the good ole days.” The period clothing and the music serve as the main elements of nostalgia in the show, according to Hanley. However, Hanley also believes that this exploration of the past, both in the historical and cultural sense, does not relate to Sept. 11. “The appeal for nostalgia after Sept. 11 is overused.”

Yet some still believe that recent reunion specials and other nostalgic television series can be “attributed to viewers’ desire to escape into the past after Sept. 11,” wrote James Poniewozik in a September 2002 article in Time magazine. According to Poniewozik, “If programmers are correct, the state of the American psyche is such that suicide attacks and anthrax anxiety have made the cold war seem cozy.… The networks are looking to capitalize on this trend with new comedies and dramas that look back to the Kennedy and Reagan eras.” Poniewozik quoted creator of American Dreams, Jonathan Prince, “‘In the shadow of 9/11 are people looking back for comfort?’ Well, yes. Shouldn’t they be? That’s what (TV) is supposed to do.”

Although there is debate over the driving force behind the show, “American Dreams” has proven that sitcoms and dramas based on nostalgia are more popular now than ever. According to a Nov. 17, 2002 article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, the show “made a Nielson splash when it debuted, although now it’s settled in with a more modest, but decent-sized audience, ranking No. 35 in the ratings out of 139 series broadcast.” “American Dreams” might have already been in the works before Sept. 11, but it is quite possible that the search for a more simple time, when biological warfare and terrorist activities were not as prominent, is the reason why “American Dreams” is doing so well.