“The real McCoys” and it's audience: A functional analysis

Abstract

For more than, a half‐dozen years, a situation comedy about an atypical farm family remained high on the television rating lists. For some reason, this program struck a responsive chord from between twenty and twenty‐five million families each week. In the following article, Lawrence Lichty reports on the functions “The Real McCoys” performed for its audience, based upon an extensive analysis of intensive interviews with members of the audience for the program. This article was originally read before the Radio‐Television‐Film Interest Group at the Speech Association of America Convention at Chicago in December 1964. The author wishes to thank E. L. Qua‐rantelli, Associate Professor of Sociology, Ohio State University, for his help in planning and executing this paper. Lawrence W. Lichty is presently Assistant Professor of Speech at the University of Wisconsin and is a departmental editor for the Journal of Broadcasting, in which he has published a number of articles on widely varied topics. Dr. Lichty received his bachelor's degree in Telecommunications from the University of Southern California, and his Ph.D. in Speech from The Ohio State University.