The invisible generation: Portrayals of the elderly on prime‐time television

Characters 65 years of age and older continue to be an invisible generation on television. In a random sample of 100 prime time shows, only 2.8% (n = 34) of the 1,228 adult speaking characters were judged to be over 65. Only 8.8% of the 65+ characters were cast in major roles, suggesting that the role prominence of characters 65 and older has actually decreased since the 1970's. While the number of male characters 65 and older has decreased since 1975, the number of female characters between 50 and 64 years of age has increased slightly during that time. There is not strong evidence that television is graying with America, but there is reason to believe that characters between 50 and 64 are portrayed differently than characters 65 or older.