Mothers don't get enough credit. Whether it's a stay-at-home wife or a single mother who works two jobs just to feed her children, it seems that over time, mothers are far and away underestimated. This extends beyond the mother, all women seem to face a sort of glass seal and television is no exception to this cruel reality. After reading Neil Postman's Amusing Yourself to Death and Ella Taylor's Prime Time Families, and then watching family-centered sitcoms from the 1950s to today, it's clear that women have begun to slowly break the seal glass. In the 1960s, there was a family that imposed traditional gender roles on the public, the Petrie family from The Dick Van Dyke Show. It's shows like this that pushed Ella Taylor into feminist discourse in her book, and rightly so. Laura Petrie, played by Mary Tyler Moore, was a housewife who loved being a housewife, glorifying this character. However, one episode in particular helped show just how much things improved in the sixties when it came to gender roles. This episode was called "The Bad Old Days". The episode contrasts the usual setting with a dream world where Robert Petrie is back in a time when men ran the house, but his fantasy turned into a nightmare when he realized his wife was unhappy and he had become a tyrant. This episode was a step forward, the male writers and producers chose to air it even though they admitted that women have been oppressed for so long and to this day. Although at the time this was probably not the intention and in the end Postman would have declared this episode impotent because even though female oppression is happening no attempt was made to stop it . The next big step...... middle of paper...... She moved from housewives and husbands giving permission to same-sex couples and single parents. Gender roles may have been diluted over the decades, but that doesn't mean other roles haven't arisen from the death of traditional roles, only time will tell. The Cosby Show. BNC. October 1985. Web. April 17, 2014. “Just say no. " Full house. ABC. March 30, 1990. The web. April 17, 2014. “Mother’s Day.” Modern family. ABC. May 4, 2011. the web. April 17, 2014. “Party is Such Sweet Sorrow.” The Mary Tyler Moore Show. CBS. January 9, 1971. Web. April 17, 2014. Postman, Neil. Have fun to death. New York: the Penguin Group, 2005. Print. Taylor, Ella. Prime Time Families: Television Culture in Postwar America: University of California Press, 1989. Print. “The Bad Old Days.” The Dick Van Dyke Show April 4, 1962. Web. April 17. 2014.