Episode Details

Breezy and silly to witty and intelligent, romantic comedies have been with us since the 1930s. But the surface humor has often just barely masked issues of gender and sexuality. This program looks back on screwball comedies including “It Happened One Night” and “His Girl Friday” and analyzes recent interpretations of genre by directors, including James Brooks and Nora Ephron, that reveals the underlying social and psychological messages.