Woman Up: Invoking Feminism in Quality Television.

Whilst this may suggest that Havas feels on firmer ground discussing comedy, the inclusion of this chapter is justified both by the centrality of the body to comedy and feminism and by the depth of analysis that she provides. Identifying quality television's concerns with gender issues as well as aesthetic and structural experimentation in shows such as I The Mary Tyler Moore Show i (1970-77) and I Cagney and Lacey i (1981-88), Havas demonstrates that rather than being separate from it, feminist concerns have been central to quality television since its beginnings. Havas argues that what makes I Parks i so unique in the quality-television canon is how it shifted the content of mockumentary away from the mocking, cringe comedy that had previously been its forte, to focus instead on the challenges of constructing and maintaining feminist ideals in a patriarchal world (96-102). [Extracted from the article]