d on the superficial, with little exploration or time given to serious issues or personal matters. We see this most humorously when Dave (who becomes Bud) and Jennifer (who becomes Mary Sue) are transported back in time to the society depicted in the TV show Pleasantville. For example, when their Twilight Zone-like father George Parker comes home every night, he does so at the same time and greets the household with the same greeting, “Honey, I’m home” (Ross 1998). Such trite and superficial interactions are backed up with canned laughter, almost as if to comment on how absurd interpersonal relations could be in a society that did not question its values beneath appearances.
While Jennifer is repulsed at being Mary Sue, her brother Dave initially loves being Bud. He is a child of the broken-home, single-parent 1990s. He yearns for the id
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