Television's messages about sex role behavior were analyzed by collecting and coding spot samples of the ten top ranked programs in prime viewing time and proportionate numbers of daytime soap operas and Saturday morning children's programs. The content analysis was based on a relational coding system developed to assess interpersonal communication between two people. The results indicated that the depicted communication patterns were dominated by young, white, male characters; that most messages were dominance messages of a "masculine language style," whether delivered by male or female speakers; and that the communication patterns tended to place the female receiver in a more submissive position. Analyzed from a symbolic interactionist perspective, these results suggested that television and the interpersonal communication patterns it projects act as socializing agents on the viewers, creating a distorted view of society's expectations for sex role behavior. (Author/RL)