The Jefferson television show can be classified as an American television series broadcast on CBS for eleven years. The Jefferson show started in the year nineteen seventy-five to the year nineteen eighty-five, creating content for around eleven seasons; that is two hundred and fifty-three episodes of the television show. The show was created and focused on an African American couple known as George and Louise Jefferson. They had moved to Manhattan from Queens after George had successfully established Jefferson Cleaners, A dry cleaning chain of businesses. Jefferson’s family consists of his wife Louise and their son Lionel who was attending a local college for his major in engineering (Sebro, 2019). The show mainly revolved around the neighborhood in which they settled, where the series episodes mainly focused on alcoholism, racism, transgender, suicide, and adult illiteracy, among other issues found in the society. The whole series was organized and evolved around the situation comedy that featured different artists playing different episodes, thus aiding in the development of the television series.
Over the years, the series has been aired. The cast received numerous awards and fourteen Emmys award nominations, including bests actors and actresses in the comedy and Emmys award. The television series development was well panned and created where the events unfold each other continuously, which favored the show. The Jefferson dry cleaning job was introduced into the show in the third episode after the crater had introduced the main characters helping establish a firm foundation for the series. The entry and exit of characters in the series occur in a carefully planned manner that leads to different incidents and continuation of incidents where the viewers are not left in the dark after watching the series (Joyrich, 2018). Throughout the series, George continuously faced challenges in his business due to the competition present in the market, like from the dry-cleaning franchise, which was hindering the expansion of George’s business. The series shows how people can outgrow each other and better themselves, like how at the being, George disliked Tom and his wife, Hellen Willis. Later, they formed a strong partnership at the end of the series, where they purchased their favorite hugging-out spot, Charlie’s bar.
The culture in the United States of America promoted the relationship between African Americans and white people and shaped the communication of the people in the country. This is seen in Jefferson’s television series, where George and his wife Louise are African American. At the same time, Tom Willis a white thus, communication between George and Tom faces different challenges. The first thing that hindered was the prejudice between the two characters in the Jefferson television series (Stamps, 2021). Prejudice refers to a preconceived opinion about another person without having any reason or experience to support your judgment about the other person. The prejudice that people had been established between the African Americans and the white people led to communication being difficult between the two parties as they did not trust each other. George dislikes Tom not because he has done anything to harm him or his family but because he was from the white community. This dislike hinders communication between George and Tom despite being neighbors who should be friends and ready to help each other in the hour of need.
The white people lived in isolation from the African American people, whereas African American people lived in poor regions. In contrast, the white people lived in the secure regions of the United States of America. The shifting from Queens to Manhattan place known for the rich, must have caused conflict between Tom and George as they were neighbors. Tom did not like the idea of an African American family living next to him. Since Manhattan was a new environment to George and his family thus making it was hard for them to settle down in the white people region. The white people viewed the African Americans as criminals and thus felt insecure around them, and this is likely to affect communication between George and Tom. George did not support marriage between white people and African Americans like Tom and Hellen marriage, as he believed marriage should occur between people from the same race. Divorce and separation of George’s son Lionel and Jenny, who was Toms’s daughter, affected the relationship between the two families united through marriage, resulting if communication challenges. This caused a strain between the two families as they both wanted what was best for their children despite not having any say in the marriage. Communication existed as George and Tom could not communicate with each other as a sign of supporting their children’s decisions despite their granddaughter Jessica being involved.
George is a boastful man in the society and the neighborhood since he has established his chain of dry-cleaning businesses, thus making him unapproachable to talk. Being boastful in his work does not favor him as he is bound to look down on other businesses or jobs and compare the two. Despite this, he learned that business success is not a guarantee of happiness or everyday life, but he should be humbled as his success is from the community. Being humble with help reduce the change of communication between him and Tom as he is approachable and ready to listen to the suggestions and recommendations to improve his business operations.
The experiences George and Tom experienced in the society as they were completely different people living in one environment. In the Jefferson television series, Tom experiences Vary from George’s experiences, thus affecting the type of communication. They all talk about the negative experiences they have experienced from the white or African American people (Joyrich, 2018). Tom’s communication may dwell on how the region where African American are living are characterized by high crime rates and drug and substance abuse and how the white people are not treated well by the African American. George’s communication revolves around the racism he experiences in his daily operations, especially when running a successful chain of dry-cleaning businesses. Tom and George’s communication in the series of ills revolve around the ills of the other person, thus hindering any meaningful communication that would have occurred.
The line of operations between Tom and George varied, leaving them to have the type of communication that would link them in having the conversation. Each person’s activities limit the type of communication due to talk poof common goals established that connect them. George’s primary communications revolved around his businesses and family, while Tom revolved around his family, thus lacking a common thing joining them. The communication could have been excellent when their children married each other thus could have heard communication because they were connected. The connection broke when their children divorced, forcing Tom and George to cut out any communication with each other as they had to support their children’s divorce. Family communications are meant to create a tremendously strong bond for the family members and the future generation to show them the importance of growing up in a family that bonds together through good communication.
In conclusion, Jefferson’s television show talks about the issues facing African Americans while they strive to succeed in their businesses and work. Racism is a constant issue that people are addressing in the United States of America; it affects many people among the minority, and the television show helps disclose how racism occurs. For communication to occur effectively, people must forget the differences that have been implanted by society about other people and not allow prejudice to affect communication. The family joins different people from the different communities, thus unifying the society, like how Tom marrying Hellen unified the white and African American people, thus eliminating the prejudice that affects the society. We should learn to leave with each other and respect other people’s onion and cultures, thus creating harmony (Sebro, 2019). Identifying the ills happening in society in the television show helps create awareness of what is happening in society. People can develop different ways to develop strategies that will aid in fighting the identified issues. Divorce destroys the united families joined together, thus affecting how the family functions, especially where the divorced couple has children. Parents are forced to take sides in the divorce to support their children despite knowing the consequences they will have on them. Parents should educate people that marriage is not a smooth journey and should learn to embrace each other strengths and weaknesses and build each other.
References
Joyrich, L. (2018). American Dreams and Demons: Television’s “Hollow” Histories and Fantasies of Race. The Black Scholar, 48(1), 31-42.
Sebro, A. P. (2019). Scratchin’and Survivin’: Hustle Economics, Gender Politics, and Creative Dissent in the Black Sitcoms of Tandem Productions (1972-1975). University of California, Los Angeles.
Stamps, D. L. (2021). B (l) ack by popular demand: An analysis of positive Black male characters in television and audiences’ community cultural wealth. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 45(2), 97-118.
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