FRIENDS

After watching the documentary about class and TV, I realized that there are many different ways of approaching class on television.  I think the show Friends has good examples of a lot of the different types.  Generally the show appears to be about a group of twenty something friends that are middle  to upper-middle class Americans living in New York City.  However, after examining it and looking at the show throughout the all ten seasons we see that it actually does have many examples.  Joey is a working class citizen of Italian heritage.  He has that typical ethnic background of someone who has to work hard like was displayed on television shows before they became overrun with advertisements.  Then there is Rachel who is the example of the working class citizen who starts at the bottom and after a lot of work ends up making a lot of money for a designer in Paris at what she says is her dream job.  While these show examples of diversity in class amongst Americans, but we still see them all striving for a similar lifestyle.  They are all striving to upper-middle class Americans.  This is something that can be lead back to hegemony with a small group of upper class in our society putting these messages of ideal lifestyle into our homes and our heads.