The Style of American Television

Probably the best way to explain the different kinds of shows produced for American television is to understand them in terms of marketing categories.  You can tell who these shows are produced for by the products that are advertised during the commercials.  Television, after all, is primarily designed to deliver consumers to advertisers.  And, since almost all animation produced in the US is aimed at children, you can easily tell that children are valuable consumers.  Indeed, producers of children's television are generally of the opinion that the quality of such television is not as important as the degree of marketability that the show has. (Marguilies, 1985)

Boys Series: These series tend to focus on action, conflict, combat and adventure.  They most often focus on a team, usually predominantly male, or a singular superhero, almost always male, who confronts evil forces that threaten the world, order, a single country, or sometimes just another person.  The theme is always clearly laid out good vs. evil.  These are generally heavily merchandised at the local toy store (G. I. Joe).  The president of Matel Toys, Glenn Hastings, was quoted in 1985 as saying "we looked for boys ages three to six and found that, unlike girls, they [liked] Good vs. Evil." (Blake, 1985)  These series have utilized both the hyper-dramatic and the serious styles of American animation.

Girls Series: Shows marketed at girls tend to focus more on relationships over action and adventure.  They often have mind-numbingly simple plot and dialogue, and the characters are almost always sickeningly sweet.  They tend to lack action and conflict.  Jem and the Holograms and She-Ra were exceptions to these rules and followed the model of the boys series except with predominantly female casts.  The height of these series was the 80's, they have virtually faded away.  The general premise is that girls don't watch cartoons, so even when anime is brought over that is aimed at girls (CardCaptor Sakura), producers often attempt to to turn them into boys series (Cardcaptors).  These series have utilized both the hyper-dramatic and the serious styles of American animation, but tend to stay mostly in the serious style.

Preschool Series: The first of the unisex categories.  Because preschool children seem to be generally assumed to have less gender differentiation than older children, the same show can be marketed to both boys and girls (Baby Looney Toons).  These shows are generally simple, sweet, and lack both action and plot.  These are virtually all hyper-dramatic.  However, despite the marketing of shows to both genders of this age, the differentiation of the gendered behaviors for male and female characters in these shows is generally just as apparent as in other types of shows.

Sitcom Series: These series focus on families living either in a world like ours, or more often in a distorted mirror of our world, a comic lens through which we can view reality.  Shows of this nature can focus on school relations and be aimed at kids (Disney's Recess), or at the entire family and air during primetime (The Simpsons).  The families in these shows are highly dysfunctional and painted in caricature with broad brushstrokes.  These shows are all hyper-dramatic, and generally owe a lot of their characterization to wacky series styles, dropping the wacky parodies into the 'real world.'

Wacky Series: These are shows that are straight out of the tradition of Warner Brothers' shorts - outlandish comedy, unrealistic in every sense, with bizarre occurrences being the hallmark of the show (Animaniacs).  Nothing is too far to go for a laugh.  The classic setup here is a Merrie Melodies short - you have a coyote, he's chasing a roadrunner and BOOM! an anvil falls on his head; then, holding up a sign with a funny line, he gets up and walks away.

Other Series: There is the occasional series that is produced that doesn't fall into one of these categories so neatly.  These are rare indeed, and tend to come out on cable channels that aren't known for animation.  The only one I've reviewed like this so far is Aeon Flux.