大象传媒

In the third programme in this star-studded series that examines the social history of America through the prism of popular primetime TV shows, Alan Yentob considers the remarkable journey made by women in the 'United States of Television'.

Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie), Roseanne Barr (Roseanne), Mary Tyler Moore (The Mary Tyler Moore Show), Sarah Jessica Parker (Sex and the City), Sandra Oh (Grey's Anatomy) and many more stars, creators, writers and producers reflect on the dramatic social changes that transformed the homemaking, apple pie-baking CEO of the kitchen sink of the 1950s into the 'independent woman' of today, struggling with the push and pull of having it all.

Dependent on advertising dollars controlled by conservative corporations, mainstream primetime television was slow to reflect the revolution that was taking place in the economic, sexual and domestic situation of women in the America of the 60s and 70s, but into the breach opened up by non-conformists like Lucille Ball (I Love Lucy) came other unforgettable characters who changed the way that women were perceived and how women were expected to behave: Mary Tyler Moore, Murphy Brown, Roseanne and not forgetting Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte of Sex and the City fame/notoriety.

Today, the independent women of primetime have to struggle with challenges that Donna Reed, the perfectionist queen of 1950s TV, could not have dreamed of - careers, childcare, infidelity, drug addiction (or in the case of Nancy Botwin of Weeds, drug dealing) and, of course, the eternal questions of love - where to find it, how to keep it and at what cost.