Pleasantville reminds us that the 1950s- a conservative Utopia- were, in reality, a time of sexism, intellectual repression, censorship, racial violence, and narrow-mindedness. When you first look at Pleasantville, it is a harmonious community where everything there is "pleasant". But Bud and Mary Sue soon learn that everyone is pleasant because nothing ever changes, and routine is the only thing that the people of Pleasantville know. As Mary Sue and Bud incorporate their lifestyle from the nineties the teenagers and some of the other townspeople begin to gain color. The color that the townspeople gain represents the ability of them to think freely and break away from the conformist town.
The story begins with David and his sister Jennifer fighting over the new remote control that was delivered to them by an eerie TV repairman, played by Don Knotts. A button is pressed on the magical remote control and David and Jennifer are transported into the television show "Pleasantville", which David watches religiously. David and Jennifer are transformed into Bud and Mary Sue, who are the children of George and Betty. At first Bud (David) likes the chance to live in the town. He thinks it is a neat town and he wants to conform and just "play along" until he and Mary Sue (Jennifer) can find a way out of Pleasantville. But Mary Sue does not want to just play along. She ends up taking Skip up to Lovers Lane, and forces herself on him. Soon after, it seems as if all the teenagers are up at lover's lane having sex. After most of the teens had sex they began to gain color and see color. The people in the town begin to start thinking on their own. The conservative black and white people of the town do not like the change in "colored" people of the town and become prejudice towards them. After getting arrested for painting on the side of a building with illegal colored paint, Bud tricks the mayor into getting mad at him and suddenly the mayor gains color.