Beginning with the iconic Indian Head test pattern, which followed television station sign-offs and preceded sign-ons from the mid-1940s through the 1970s, representations of Native Peoples have been a constant presence on TV. This book examines these representations, focusing on situational comedies of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Analyzing dozens of sitcoms from the United States and Canada, the book complicates assumptions that Native representations on TV are inherently stereotypical and escapist. From The Andy Griffith Show, The Brady Bunch, and Barney Miller to Different Strokes, K ... More

Beginning with the iconic Indian Head test pattern, which followed television station sign-offs and preceded sign-ons from the mid-1940s through the 1970s, representations of Native Peoples have been a constant presence on TV. This book examines these representations, focusing on situational comedies of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Analyzing dozens of sitcoms from the United States and Canada, the book complicates assumptions that Native representations on TV are inherently stereotypical and escapist. From The Andy Griffith Show, The Brady Bunch, and Barney Miller to Different Strokes, King of the Hill, and Mixed Blessings, the sitcom has long integrated politics and social policy into its comforting format to communicate competing visions of “America” and indigenous-settler relations. Examining in detail indigenous portrayals, producers, and actors in sitcoms, the book underscores the complexity of Indian representations in the genre of the sitcom to show how such representations have been critical contributors to indigenous identities and relations between Natives and non-Natives.