Suburban Stories

Abstract

Suburban stories serve as an index of the state of suburbia and its role in the larger culture. This entry discusses the stories of US suburbia, focusing on the evolving representation of suburbia in US television. In 1950s sitcoms, suburbia emerged as an idyllic landscape of domesticity and middle‐class affluence. In subsequent decades, this idealized image of suburbia has been adapted to reflect contemporary social and cultural sensibilities, including gender equity. In the past two decades, much US television, including shows such as The Sopranos , Breaking Bad , and Mad Men , has turned this image on its head, instead representing suburbs as rife with crime, venality, and deceit.