Includes bibliographical references (pages 273-291) and index
Origins of the genre : in search of the radio sitcom / David Marc -- Breaking and entering : transgressive comedy on television / Michael V. Tueth -- American situation comedies and the modern comedy of manners / David Pierson -- Who rules the roost? Sitcom family dynamics from the Cleavers to the Osbournes / Judy Kutulas -- From Ozzie to Ozzy : the reassuring nonevolution of the sitcom family / Laura R. Linder -- Against the organization man : The Andy Griffith show and the small-town family ideal / John O'Leary and Rick Worland -- I love Lucy : television and gender in postwar domestic ideology / Lori Landay -- Our Miss Brooks : situating gender in teacher sitcoms / Mary M. Dalton -- Talking sex : comparison shopping through female conversation in HBO's Sex and the city / Sharon Marie Ross -- The hidden truths in Black sitcoms / Robin R. Means Coleman and Charlton D. McIlwain --
- Segregated sitcoms : institutional causes of disparity among Black and white comedy images and audiences / Amanda Dyanne Lotz -- Negotiated boundaries : production practices and the making of representation in Julia / Demetria Rougeaux Shabazz -- Ellen : coming out and disappearing / Valerie V. Peterson -- Sealed with a kiss : heteronormative strategies in NBC's Will & Grace / Denis M. Provencher -- Poofs--cheesy and other : identity politics as commodity in South Park / Karen Anijar, Hsueh-hua Vivian Chen, and Thomas E. Walker -- Women, love, and work : The Doris Day show as cultural dialogue / Phyllis Scrocco Zrzavy -- Liberated women and new sensitive men : reconstructing gender in the 1970s workplace comedies / Judy Kutulas -- "Who's in charge here?" : views of media ownership in situation comedies / Paul R. Kohl -- Sex and the sitcom : gender and genre in millennial television / Christine Scodari --
- Cheers : searching for the ideal public sphere in the ideal public house / Robert S. Brown -- "It's just a bunch of stuff that happened" : the Simpsons and the possibility of postmodern comedy / H. Peter Steeves
