Friends title sequence

Media language

Shows that location of where the sitcom is set-New York

The lyrics reinforce friendship and support from others when they need it. Not lonely, feeling loved and united as a family.

Showing clips of episodes that will attract a mainstream audience to watch the sitcom.

All smiling representing happiness most of the time and when they are feeling down they will not be alone, a comforting factor that will attract audience as they hate conflict.

Institution

Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television. Warner bros is a globalised institution that will be known anywhere around the world. It is well known as a result providing positive advertisement for friends attracting a larger audience.

Genre

The genre of the title sequence is an American sitcom
In particular it has elements of comedy, romance and drama.

Representation

Each character has their own qualities such as Monica (Cox) is the neat freak who likes things clean and tidy
Rachel (Aniston) is the bimbo
Phoebe is the funny, laughable character
Joey is the himbo, a male version of the bimbo
Chandler is the comedian
And Ross is the geek who likes dinosaurs.

Audience

The target audience for this sitcom is teenagers and provide escapism for the audience.

Ideology and values

The title sequence is not male dominated, 3 males and 3 females reflecting equality. Challeges patriachy as women as shown in equal positions as males in te sitcoms.

Narrative

The narrative will focus around the characters that are showing the title sequence.

Wider context

The equality of males and females is being presented such as 3 male protagonists and 3 female protagonists. This could be because of the effect and success of feminism.

Audience profiling

The sitcom was attracting aspirers because of some of the aspects that are mentioned. An example is Rachel, who may promote fashion amongst female audiences. They will aspire to be like her and even own similar clothes to her and may be seen as a role model. Also, she works in Ralph Lauren and so aspirers would want to follow then lifestyle.

Globalisation

Friends were produced by Warner bros. This institution is a globally successful institution and so would attract a mainstream audience.

Hope and faith

Media language

Family environment attracting a family audience.

The mention of sisters in the theme song given audience the idea of the characters that are involved in the sitcom.

In the title sequence of Hope and Faith, clips from the sitcom are shown to engage the audience and persuade them into watching it.

Institution

This is an American sitcom like many other sitcoms.

It is aired on ABC channels, this being an American channel.

Genre

The genre of this sitcom is a comedy.


Representation

There are two sisters who live together. The younger sister could be represented as a bimbo. This is a stereotype because she has blond hair that is associated with bimbos.

Hope is the stereotypical housewife who looks after the children and her sister and cooks, cleans and does the shopping.

Her husband in the breadwinner and does the job to bring in money.

Her sister is the fun, wild child who gets her sister into trouble and enjoys doing something wild and crazy.

Audience

The types of audience this sitcom will attract are teenagers as there are teenagers in the sitcom who get into trouble. This will create identification with the teenagers and the characters.

They other audiences will be a family audience. This is because the sitcom is focused on family audiences and so it creates family atmosphere.

Ideology and values

The sitcom reinforces patriarchy because the husband is working and bringing in the money whereas the mother is the housewife. This means that they are still living in a patriarchal society where women are subordinate to men.

Narrative

The narrative of the sitcom is based on the two sisters and how they can’t imagine their life without each other.