Sanctuary from the Storm: Making (My) Room with <i>The Torkelsons</i>

Reflecting on my teenage scrapbook, “Sam &amp; Friends,” I approach the televisual link between home and self via an autotheoretical reading of the fictional home centered in the white family sitcom The Torkelsons (NBC, 1991–1993). I argue that my teenage scrapbook, which references the series, functions as a self-portrait of domestic spacemaking with and through television spectatorship. Through an analysis of the The Torkelesons ’ domestic world as well as my own, I tune into broader living practices, looking relations, and meaning-making processes for Black viewers and audiences of dominant white television.