PBS Special- An Independent Woman

The PBS special, “An Independent Woman,” was a rather interesting piece on the evolution of women throughout the history of television.     

Starting with Lucille Ball, this show takes us thru a timeline of different women in TV, showing how they were portrayed and how they were an influence to the actresses that followed them. The show ends with Nancy from “WEEDS” and Nurse Jackie.  

I liked how the directors of the show used use of newspapers titles, i.e., “Mother Load”,” Women on a tight room, ” to give the piece a more genuine feel of its time.  Another excellent vehicle of impact for the viewer were the quotes and narratives that many of the guest speakers used.

With Lucy, we see a woman who will not just accept “no” for an answer.  She was set style of the conservative woman in TV of her time, her role as a wife is one that is somewhat submissive.   The evolution begins.  We see Mary Tyler Moore, perhaps a new and improved Lucy, first as the wife in the dick van dyke show, then later we see her in her own show, but now she is single.  I thought it was amusing as how the writers of the show did not want to make her a divorced woman as that would make the public think she was divorced to Dick van Dyke.  She states, “it is more comfortable to show ones faults then having to hide them,” in describing her role.

We see Murphy Brown, no longer in an employee type role, but as a women in-charge, yet with a past of having been in rehab.   We get to meet Rose Ann Barr.  She represents the everyday/real women of America.  She represents those that are “fat,” as described in the show, those unemployed and barely making ends meet, women that are underappreciated … but ultimately, she stands for those who said, “it is OK to be just OK!

Ahhh…Sex in the City, luckily for both of you and me as well, I will spare you that part, as I’m not a fan, Never saw an episode and never will. And you might as well include Desperate Housewife in this category.  There’s a part of “Gray’s Anatomy” that portrays the complex woman, one who is self-assured, career minded first and foremost and feeds off being competitive.

WEEDS….with NANCY, I love this show.  Someone who juggles life, period.  It’s about how she deals with the problems at hand on how the things on the periphery suffer, which includes families and relationships.  It’s about the “collateral damage” in our lives.

NURSE JACKIE:

Inner chaos

Indifference

Addicted

Pain

Drama

Drugs

Sorrow.

This was a nice piece about the transformation of the roles women play, from conservative to the uninhibited.  Although the show really doesn’t include the evolution of sexuality of women on TV showing how far they have come, it is still within the background.  All the women are beautiful in their own right, of course they would have to be, if not, mainstream might not follow them.  But what I found interesting, is that Sexuality, although not mentioned per se, the intro to the show shows a woman putting on eye-make up, then lipstick.  The camera focuses on her lips for a bit.  It grabs your attention.  I’m thinking …, not everything has changed!