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Philip Bachman
Professor Blandford
UWRT 1101
12 November 2015
Genre analysis
For my genre analysis project I chose to do Television shows. The three sub-genres I
chose for my analysis are horror, dramas, and sitcoms. For each specific sub-genre, I picked an
individual television show to pair with it. The shows each explain a different audience and
message. For horror television shows, I chose The Walking Dead. This is one of the most
watched TV shows on television today, but why? What makes surviving the zombie apocalypse
so appealing to its audience? For dramas I chose Suits, a show about lawyers fighting to win
their cases and get their names on the door. Lastly, I picked sitcoms for my sub-genre that had to
be older. The sitcom that I thought would answer the questions the best was the very
controversial, very offensive 1971- 1979 sitcom called All in the Family. Although this show
pushed the limits and drove some viewers to stop watching the show, there was always a
message to be learned by the end of the show.
The horror genre is currently very popular with teens and young adults. Millions of
viewers are tuning in each week to see the latest episode of the popular horror shows such as The
Walking Dead and American Horror Story. This genre is presented to the audience by setting the
story in places where many people feel uncomfortable and scared such as a prison, an asylum or
a haunted hotel. The message or main argument in a TV show that falls under the horror
category is that no one is safe and anyone can be killed next. Horrors are meant to scare us, to

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always keep us guessing who is next and to build up our suspense throughout each episode until
we reach that final episode where everything falls into place. A show like The Walking Dead
allows its viewers to root for a specific character in hopes that they will make it to the end. We
do not know who will be bitten by a zombie or who will die because horror TV shows are
supposed to keep us guessing and on our toes. People who tune in to watch The Walking Dead
are people who want to be scared or thrilled and kept guessing what is going to happen next, they
are not people who want a show where there is only one main character and it does not matter
what situation they are put in because they are always going to come out alive and unharmed.
Horror shows such as The Walking Dead allow for characters to have an effect on other
characters because of choices they make, the effects are generally bad, and almost always end up
with someone dying a terrible death. In The Walking Dead, Shane who is a major character
becomes involved with Lori, who is Ricks wife. This leads to a power struggle and eventually
results in Shanes death. The people who have the power in TV horrors are the writers. The
writers are supposed to keep the viewers watching and wanting to see what happens in the next
episode. If the audience had the power in a horror show the message would be the same as every
other television show, where the main character always prevails and the bad guys bullets always
seem to miss. However, in a horror show the message is that anyone, even your favorite
character, could get killed off next episode. This imbalance of power is what makes audiences
keep watching and causes them to become more emotionally invested.
TV dramas are in abundance today. They are usually directed towards adults. This genre
is presented to its audience having it set in a serious setting, such as a police department, F.B.I.
office, or a prestige law firm. For my TV drama I chose the show Suits, a show about a
brilliant college-dropout who finds himself a job working with Harvey Specter, one of New York

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Citys best lawyers. The message for this show is to entertain its viewers and the main argument
is whether they should do what is right or do what the firm tells them to do. The purpose of this
genre is to create drama and tension between partners of the firm. In Suits there is always two
sides and sometimes there is no good side there is only the lesser of two evils. In dramas there
are many ongoing moral and ethical arguments, emotional come-togethers and heartbreaks.
There are also unexpected plot twists so each of characters can gain more power within the firm.
Dramas allow for the characters to backstab each other for power and money, it allows them to
feel guilty and unimportant when they make a mistake, and it allows the main characters to make
cutthroat power plays without actually cutting anyones throat. However, it does not often allow
for much suspense and fear of losing your favorite character because usually they will rebound
and come back with a vengeance. The main drama in suits is that one of the main characters,
Mike, is working at a law firm, conducting law with no law degree while most all of the senior
partners know about this, whoever learns this secret can use it as blackmail to further their own
agenda and gain more power within the firm. The power in TV dramas is found in the audience.
There are a massive amount of drama shows one can choose to watch on TV today. If the
audience dont like it they dont watch it, so they decide who get to stay and who gets the boot.
Suits is no exception, characters like Katrina Bennett and Harold Gunderson who become
unnecessary and are not perceived well by the audience find themselves conveniently obtaining
job offers at other law firms in the city.
Family based sitcoms are not as abundant as they used to be. That is why I chose sitcoms
to be my older genre. The sitcom that I chose to focus on was All in the Family, which was a
show about an elderly couple living with their daughter and son in law and their constant
clashing views and opinions. Although a lot of the topics brought up in the show were not suited

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to children, the audience was families. This genre was presented to families by placing the main
setting in a living room. A spot where families in the 1970s would gather around as a family and
watch television. Older sitcoms often very seldom changed locations. Almost all of the episodes
for All in the Family were filmed in the Living room, a room in which Archie and his family
would debate, argue and eventually reconcile their differences in this room. Throughout All in
the Familys eight year run the main argument varied with each episode but message remained
the same, that families can overcome any differences and obstacles. The purpose of sitcoms is to
bring families closer together and make them laugh about controversial issues that are normally a
sore subject to bring up. This genre, specifically All in the Family allowed its users to get
away with talking about pretty much anything they wanted to. They spoke about subjects like
abortion, sexism, homosexuals, racism, religion, and stereotypes. However, when they talked
about these sensitive subjects they made us laugh at them rather than make us feel uneasy.
Because of this, many people found this sitcom to be offensive and didnt want their family
watching the show. This genre enables its users to represent themselves fully, sitcoms always
make a bad situations easier to laugh at and live under the assumption that everything is going to
be okay, but that doesnt stop shows like All in the Family to have serious topics that can
almost bring tears to the audiences eyes. All in the Family definitely allows doing and saying
things at the expense of other people. Archie often makes jokes about black people, Jewish
people, and atheists the cost of Archie making these jokes were that he was alienated and
shunned by his family until he learned that these things are not okay. The rhetor has the power in
sitcoms, Archie Bunker held the power in this show because he was the patriarch of the family
and he was at the center of all the controversy and revealed the underlying message for the
episode. This imbalance of power often created a stronger message because if someone like

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Archie was able to overcome and see past all the issues that arose in the show than anyone else
could too.
Each genre of television show: horror, drama, and sitcom has a different rhetor, audience
and message. The rhetor for horror TV shows are the people writing the show. In The Walking
Dead the writers loosely follow the comic book series and are responsible for bringing them to
life. It is their job as the rhetors to keep the audience coming back each week to see if their
character makes it to the next episode. The typical audience for horror shows like The Walking
Dead or American Horror Story are teens to young adults and the message in these horrors
are that no one character is always safe. On the contrary the rhetors for drama shows are the
people. Drama shows tend to be kept on air based off the ratings they receive. So the people
essentially have the power to make the writers decide who stays or who goes. People who watch
dramas are young adults and up. The message is also very different than sitcoms and horrors.
Harvey Spector (character of suits) gives a solid message for TV dramas When youre backed
against the wall, break the goddamn thing down, meaning there is always a way to reach your
goal but sometimes you have to get dirty to get there. Finally we have sitcoms. Sitcoms the
rhetors are usually the main character. In All in the Family Archie Bunker is a very
controversial character and I feel that if it was not Carroll OConnor executing that role the
messages delivered throughout the show would not have been as strong as they were and would
be very different. The messages of the show were directed at the families watch them, and
always spoke about over coming societies issues. Although these three genres are very different,
they each attract a large audience and all manage to get their message across to their viewers.