Abstract
Lucy and Desi. Burns and Allen. Ozzie and Harriet. Ethel and Albert? The first three television couples tend to be the familiar husband-wife pairs that typify American 1950s sitcoms. These characters and their namesake programs, along with the Andersons in Father Knows Best and the Cleavers in Leave it to Beaver, are credited as templates for the domestic sitcom genre, where the narrative logic oscillates between morality lessons and outlandish plots to escape domestic life. When we study or reminisce about 1950s television, Ethel and Albert and their namesake program do not readily come to mind. However, the popularity of Ethel and Albert(1953-1956) on radio and television, and its critical acclaim, warrants examination as to why and how this program, and really any program with similar levels of notoriety in its time, remains obscure.
Recommended Citation
Bratslavsky, Lauren. "Broadcast History Gaps When Archival Material Exists: Inserting Peg Lynch and Ethel and Albert into Sitcom History." Journal of 20th Century Media History 1, 1 (2023): 46-72. doi:10.33470/2997-2523.1016.
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