![]() ![]() #One dog story tv tropes full#Considering the 1980s were a big time for sitcom premises (including Full House‘s) based on a mom having just died in some manner, a dead dog isn’t the heaviest of situational subject matter - not to mention it’s nothing like the sexual predator or drugs and alcohol special episodes on various sitcoms. ![]() Of course, the main nod to sitcoms of the era was in having some of the episode’s plot revolve around a new pet, which then is quickly killed off. Similarly, Growing Pains added a new baby girl in Season 4, who became a toddler in Season 5, then a five-year-old by Season 6. In the fourth season, a new baby boy was part of the central family, but then for the fifth season, that child was suddenly four years earlier. In the third season of Family Ties, Meredith Baxter’s own pregnancy was written into the show for her character. The former two sitcoms also employed a production decision that relates significantly to a plot point of the WandaVision series: the magically advancing ages of Wanda and Vision’s newborn twin sons. The fifth episode of WandaVision brings the show into the 1980s with an opening credits sequence referencing those of Family Ties (1982-1989), Growing Pains (1985-1992), and Full House (1987-1995) and set decoration paying tribute to the Keatons’ home in Family Ties and the nosey neighbor now turned into the brashy budding-in-whenever-neighbor. ![]() There’s nothing really here that fits the pastiche. This episode took a detour from the usual format in order to show what’s been happening outside of the fake TV sitcom land during the events of the first few episodes. I first noticed it in the 1980s and 1990s with the sitcoms Newhart, Cheers, The Cosby Show, and Married… With Children. #One dog story tv tropes series#But memorable examples do go back to the aforementioned series I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and I Dream of Jeannie, so it’s been a common practice throughout television history. The only equivalent for The Brady Bunch was with Maureen McCormick being pregnant during a gimmicky episode of Day by Day in 1989 and the only relevance to The Partridge Family would be Shirley Jones acting while pregnant years earlier for the film The Music Man. I don’t know how much this trope was necessary or done in the 1970s. In WandaVision, however, Wanda is trying to hide her baby bump from neighbors who’d question how she’s already so far along, so she wears an oversized coat and holds a bowl of fruit or pot of flowers in front of her midsection. Or they’d wear baggy clothing, which was notably easier in the 1980s and 1990s. Often the actress will stand behind kitchen counters or bags of groceries or pillows, etc. It’s something that typically concerns a real-life pregnancy by an actress playing a character who can not be written-in as pregnant and how the production conceals the physical change. I’m not sure how many others are familiar with the hide your pregnancy trope or if the apparent nod to this trope is intentional on the part of the makers of WandaVision, but the latter feels true. While the episode follows the usual Murphy’s Law scenarios that fuel sitcoms overall, namely with the doctor going out of town at just the wrong time and various obstacles to Wanda attempting to keep something a secret from her friends, there’s another trope in “Now in Color” that isn’t related to sitcom narratives so much as television production. The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-1977) and The Courtship of Eddie’s Father (1969-1972), are also, along with The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family, paid tribute via the opening credits. I say family-friendly because the 1970s also brought about sitcoms (mostly created by Norman Lear, such as All in the Family and Maude) that dealt with more serious issues of the world. But you could still find implausibly wholesome and upbeat - and often musically inclined - shows like The Brady Bunch (1969-1974), which inspires Wanda and Vision’s home, and The Partridge Family (1970-1974). From its opening through its set design and comedic tone, the episode’s pastiche is focused on the family-friendly sitcoms of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The more fitting title of the third episode of WandaVision would be “Now Entirely in Color” since we already did get that historically relevant transition in the previous installment of the series. ![]()
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