On this website, we will be looking at the representation of gender in sitcoms. To do so, we will be comparing and contrasting two specific sitcoms - The Royle Family, and Friends.

US sitcom "Friends" and UK sitcom "The Royle Family" appear to approach gender in different ways. Despite both sitcoms being made at around the same time (1990's), it can be argued that The Royle Family differentiates gender more explicitly than Friends, and hence we are more aware of gender in the former than the latter. On this website, and in other aspects of the presentation accompanying it, we will tackle this hypothesis by examining the ways different characters relate to one another, what their narrative role is, and whether their gender effects how audiences view the characters and their actions.