March is Women's History Month, and while everyone should celebrate the accomplishments of females year round, we'd like to take advantage of the spotlight to herald the efforts of females in the entertainment industry. We'll concentrate on television series that deepen our understanding of the medium, as well as recognize notable female performers like Carol Burnett, who became the first woman in television history to host a variety sketch show.
While there are several programs that could round out this list, we'll limit our discussion to scripted series that offer breakthroughs in the areas of diversity, parenthood, and politics. So, with those criteria in mind, let's take a look at 20 American television shows that changed our cultural landscape and the way society views women.
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Lucille Ball led the charge for female comedians on television, with her show marking several landmark strides for women and the modern sitcom. Her insistence on shooting in Los Angeles on 35mm film with three cameras in front of a live studio audience was unheard of at the time, but became the gold standard as situational comedies grew to prominence in the decades to follow.
In addition to being the sitcom's star, Ball co-owned the show's production company (Desilu) with her husband Desi Arnaz. When the couple divorced in 1960, Ball eventually bought out Arnaz and took over as president in 1962. This made her the first female to head a major Hollywood company. Under her guidance, Desilu Productions went on to develop several popular series including The Untouchables (1959), Mannix (1967), Mission Impossible (1966), and Star Trek (1966).
Watch the first season of I Love Lucy free on the CBS website.
With the debut of The Carol Burnett Show on September 11, 1967, Burnett became the first woman in television history to host a variety sketch show. The program's format thrilled audiences by offering huge guest stars and lots of music as well as parodies of commercials, films, and television. Over its eleven-season run, the show earned 25 Primetime Emmy Awards, including three for outstanding variety-music/comedy series. In addition, triple-threat Carol Burnett won four Golden Globe Awards and the show itself received four other awards, including best television show – comedy or musical.
Watch The Carol Burnett Show at CBS All Access.
Dianne Carroll played the lead role of a widowed single mother working as a nurse at an aerospace company in this sitcom. This is notable because at the time, most series portrayed African Americans solely as servants or criminals. Julia challenged those stereotypes by having Carroll become the first African-American performer to star as a suburban professional in a primetime sitcom.
She went on to win a Golden Globe for this role in 1969 and received a Primetime Emmy nomination that same year. Because Carroll was already a movie star and Tony Award winning singer long before her role as Julia, the television series ended after three seasons so that she could pursue other projects.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show and its predecessor That Girl are often cited as indicators of the changing roles of women in feminist-era America by confronting such issues as equal pay and the sex life of the single gal. Women were also a big deal behind the scenes on this show. According to The Atlantic, 25 out of the show's 75 writers were female, which was unprecedented for a sitcom in the 1970s.
In its seven-season run, The Mary Tyler Moore show won 29 Emmy Awards — a television record that remained unbroken until 2002 — with three of them going to lead actress Moore. Her production company also produced such hit shows as Hill Street Blues , St. Elsewhere , and Remington Steele , but it's The Mary Tyler Moore Show that's often cited as an influence on today's small-screen giants. Tina Fey once credited Moore's series as an influence for 30 Rock: "I always wanted it to be about relationships in the office. Our goal is to try to be like The Mary Tyler Moore Show, where it's not about doing the news."
Watch The Mary Tyler Moore Show on Hulu.
Prior to The Golden Girls, sitcoms revolved around traditional families or a workplace bond. Audiences rarely encountered shows that centered on groups of adults living single, particularly mature females. Of course, nineties comedies like Sex and the City made friendship as a focus more common, but Blanche, Dorothy, Rose, and Sophia blazed the trial. The Golden Girls was also one of the first to deal with several controversial issues such as coming out, same-sex marriage, elder care, homelessness, HIV/AIDS, immigration, and assisted suicide.
During its seven-season run, the show remained in the Top 30 on the Nielsen scale, earned Emmy Awards for each of the leads, and inspired three spinoff shows: Empty Nest, Nurses, and The Golden Palace.
Watch The Golden Girls on Hulu.
Candice Bergen plays Murphy Brown, a single 40-something news reporter determined to break new ground for women in media. Created by accomplished screenwriter Diane English, the series ran for ten seasons and commented upon many of the country's political headlines, even though the show itself is notably known for becoming a political headline during the 1992 presidential election. During a campaign speech, vice president Dan Quayle criticized the character's decision to become a single mother, labeling the choice as "irresponsible" and detrimental to our country's family values. The show aired portions of Quayle's argument and had the fictional characters react to the controversy.
While the original series ran until 1998, CBS revived it for a thirteen-episode run, which premiered in September of 2018.
Watch the Murphy Brown revival free on the CBS website.
Created by Roseanne Barr, Marcy Carsey, and Tom Werner, Roseanne centered on the Conner family and gained acclaim for its realistic depiction of blue-collar life in America. Although much of the humor derived from the complexities of raising a family on a fixed income, Roseanne also tackled hot-button social issues such as abortion and the traditional roles of husband and wife. The show ran for nine seasons and ended in 1997, only to reemerge in 2018 during the TV revival craze.
The reboot utilized most of the show's original cast and explored issues that divided Americans after the 2016 presidential election. Although the reboot was initially a ratings hit, Barr torpedoed the show's early support with a racist tweet about former Obama aide Valerie Jarrett. ABC fired Barr and retooled the show into a spinoff called The Connors, which follows the original show's themes with a mix of old and new characters. Fans supported the decision as a sign of the network's commitment to tolerance, and the new show is up for a second season renewal.
Watch the original Roseanne on Amazon Prime.
With the creation of Living Single, Yvette Lee Bowser became the first African-American woman to develop her own primetime series. Produced by Bowser's Sister Lee Productions in association with Warner Brothers Television, the show was an early success for the fledgling Fox network and portrayed the friendships of six twenty-something African-American professionals living in a Brooklyn brownstone. Anchored by comedian Kim Cole and rapper Queen Latifah, the show lasted five seasons. However, its formula has survived the decades as seen in shows like Friends, Girlfriends, Girls, and Insecure — all have replicated Bowser's idealistic-youngsters-in-the-city motif.
You can watch Living Single on Hulu.
This landmark comedy starred Ellen DeGeneres as Ellen Morgan, a neurotic bookstore owner in her thirties, surrounded by her quirky friends in Los Angeles. In 1997, the series made television history when Ellen came out as a lesbian in a two-part story arc called "The Puppy Episode." Despite threats from advertisers and religious groups, the episode was a ratings success with an estimated 42 million viewers. The episode also won a Primetime Emmy Award for writing, along with a Peabody Award. While the show only continued for one more season, the culture significance of this moment is vast.
To put it in historical perspective, Ellen's coming out occurred nearly a decade before Massachusetts became the first state to perform same-sex marriages in 2004 and almost two decades before same-sex marriage became legal nationwide in 2015. Or to put it TV terms, this was years before Will & Grace, Queer as Folk, The L Word, and Modern Family. In the years following her sitcom, DeGeneres stayed out of the limelight until her talk show debuted in 2003. According to a 2015 poll by Variety and branding expert Jeetendr Sehdev, DeGeneres's presence on the cultural landscape has done more to influence our nation's attitudes about gay rights than any other public figure.
Watch Ellen on Amazon Prime.
Decades before Fresh Off the Boat and Dr. Ken, ABC's All-American Girl became the first primetime sitcom to feature an Asian-American cast. The show revolved around stand-up comedian Margaret Cho who played Margaret Kim, a modern teen butting heads with her traditional Korean family. Although All-American Girl only lasted one season, Cho has remained in the spotlight. She's earned a Primetime Emmy nomination for her work on 30 Rock, received two Grammy nominations for her comedy albums "Cho Dependent" and "American Myth," and headlined her own Netflix stand-up special Margaret Cho: PsyCHO.
Xena began as a spinoff character from the television series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, but she quickly outstripped her predecessor in popularity and has since become a feminist icon for her unapologetic heroism. Played by Lucy Lawless, Xena has been credited as paving the way for a new generation of female action heroes such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Max of Dark Angel, and Sydney Bristow of Alias. By opening doors for female action heroes on television, Xena also strengthened the stuntwoman profession.
Watch Xena: Warrior Princess free at the NBC website.
Audiences may remember Buffy the Vampire Slayer for its pithy language and its comedic Valley-girl style, but the show's ability to combine horror and fantasy tropes with the universal angst of high school is what made the show a phenomenon. Nearly two decades before Netflix became synonymous with binge-worthy television, Buffy (played by Sarah Michelle Gellar) made every episode must-see TV with the invention of "The Big Bad" — a villain or antihero who loomed large in the background of every episode while simultaneously intertwining with the destiny of our hero and her friends.
Along the way, Buffy would battle minions of "The Big Bad," better known as "Freaks of the Week," due to problems of her own making. This heightened formula was one that other teen dramas, like Veronica Mars (2004), would adopt to ensnare young audiences. The approach proved revolutionary in 1997 and put The WB on the map as the premiere channel for teen stories, though the network would fold in 2006 and its shows would transition to The CW.
Watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Hulu.
NBC's Will & Grace debuted in 1998 and immediately became one of television's most remarkable relationships. The plot revolves around a gay man (Eric McCormack) and his straight female friend (Debra Messing) sharing an apartment. In its early episodes, the program uses this coupling to put a twist on the typical sitcom formula. That is to say, McCormack's straight-laced Will seems like the headlining hero audiences expect to sweep a woman of her feet, but the leading lady in his life is actually his staunchest supporter in finding love . . . with another man.
While the show sometimes plays this relationship for laughs, the foundation of their bond trumps most obstacles and provides a safe haven from the social and political rejection often given to the LGBTQ+ community. Grace's love for Will shows not just tolerance but acceptance. They find shelter in each other.
This small shift in narrative focus proves unique when we consider the political climate in which the show emerged. Ellen DeGeneres's character had come out a year earlier on her ABC sitcom to a myriad of critical acclaim, but the backlash became overwhelming. Gay activists faced turmoil. The country continued to debate over the constitutional merits of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, a federal law that defined marriage as the union between a man and a woman. But still, Will & Grace endured for eight seasons and aided in easing those tensions. When the show went off the air in 2006, the series had earned 83 Primetime Emmy Award nominations, winning 18 of them.
The show rebooted with new episodes in September 2017 and has been renewed for a third season.
Watch the Will & Grace revival free on the NBC website.
Based on the 1997 Candace Bushnell book of the same name, the show follows the careers and sex lives of four thirty-something women played by Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, and Cynthia Nixon. Each episode delved into modern social issues such as safe sex and promiscuity while dissecting the life-defining differences between friendships and romantic relationships. These frank examinations gave the modern woman permission to discuss their personal issues as freely as men talk about sports or politics. The show's six-season run also marked the start of a golden era for HBO.
The series gained a cult-like following during its Sunday-night time slot and ushered in the concept of prestige cable programming that has become synonymous with the network to this day. (We won't talk about the spinoff films, one of which is pictured here.)
Watch Sex and the City on HBO Go.
The ABC series Ugly Betty found its roots in Fernando Gaitán's Colombian telenovela Yo Soy Betty, La Fea, and adapted the basic premise to fit the glamourous New York fashion world. The American series focuses on Betty Suarez (America Ferrera), a 22-year-old Mexican-American woman from Queens whose naiveté and less-than-stellar fashion sense threaten to undermine her career as a personal assistant at Mode Magazine. Naturally, after four seasons, Betty overcomes her inexperience and finds the inner voice that makes her a pretty tough contender. However, that's not the big takeaway.
Despite the disparaging title, Ugly Betty works to embrace issues of self-worth and body positivity. Betty always seems comfortable in her own skin and often advocates for Mode to hire models that look like real women. The show also became one of the first primetime comedies to address real Latino issues like immigration laws and assimilation into American culture. While working at Mode, Betty shows how minorities must traverse two worlds — the white professional land of Manhattan and the working class Mexican community in Queens. Although the show was preceded by family comedies like The George Lopez Show, Betty opened the door for more female leads of Hispanic decent and led the way for shows like Jane the Virgin.
Watch Ugly Betty on Hulu.
As creator, writer, and star, this is truly Mindy Kaling's project. The series follows ob/gyn Mindy Lahiri as she attempts to juggle her personal and professional life in a small New York City practice. While the show is often commented upon for how it downplays issues of race for the more universal tale of a female's struggle with love and motherhood, The Mindy Project is notable for being the first show to star an Indian-American female.
Watch The Mindy Project on Hulu.
Scandal holds the distinction of being the first primetime drama to headline an African-American female since Teresa Graves starred as the title character in the undercover police detective series Get Christie Love! (1974). Created by Shonda Rhimes, Scandal drew inspiration from real-life Washington crisis manager, Judy Smith, a former member of the George H.W. Bush White House. Kerry Washington plays Oliva Pope on the show, and through her character, the audience gets to examine the machinations behind the political power shifts in the United States government.
Although the series was slow to gain popularity due to its truncated first season (only seven episodes!), the cast and series creator committed to live tweeting their responses to the episodes as they aired. While this phenomenon is commonplace today, the introduction of the practice in 2012 revolutionized how audiences experience and consume entertainment.
Watch Scandal on Netflix.
Creator Lena Dunham stars as Hannah Horvath, an aspiring writer, living in New York City with three of her college friends. Much of the show's premise centers on the harsh realities of learning to succeed without the financial support of well-meaning parents. Based on experiences drawn from Dunham's life, critics praised the show for its sardonic portrayal of millennial angst, its frank approach to sex, and its attempts to redefine female beauty.
In this way, Girls has an impromptu, fly-by-the-seat of your pants, candid feel that strikes a chord with the smartphone generation. This organic approach to storytelling created personal stories that helped give rise to other cable series created, written, produced, and sometimes even directed by stars who want no part of the girl-next-door mold — actresses like Issa Rae of Insecure and Frankie Shaw of SMILF.
Watch Girls on HBO Go.
Created by Jenji Kohan and based on the true-life experiences of Piper Kerman, Orange Is the New Black helped established Netflix as a major player with critics and audiences alike. The series focuses on prisoners in an all-female facility without forcing the characters to apologize for their flaws and without utilizing exploitative stereotypes. Storylines have depicted female sexuality, racism, homophobia, and religious extremism.
The series is also one of the first to feature a transgender actor, Laverne Cox, playing a transgender character, and the realities she would face in prison. Cox has received two Primetime Emmy nominations and a Critics Choice Award nomination for her role as Sophia Burset.
Watch Orange Is the New Black on Netflix.
On the surface, Grace and Frankie appeals to a mature audience with its title characters being 70-something divorcées beyond childbearing age, but the show has much to offer millennials — particularly on the matters of friendship, feminism, sexuality, and independence. Growing old is often portrayed as growing weak by movies and TV, but the sisterhood formed between Grace and Frankie in the wake of their husbands' love affair is a testament to women supporting each other rather than tearing each other down.
These women have learned to use their age as both as B.S. detector and a gage for how to navigate our ever-changing world. We may cringe at their attempts to be hip or chuckle at their sexual exploits, but we're also drawn to those situations because they show two women confident in their own skin. Not to mention, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin are downright hilarious together.
Now if we could just get more details on that 9 to 5 reboot.
Watch Grace and Frankie on Netflix.
