I was thinking about how the TV family has been an institution that has shifted with culture from Lucy and Desi up to Modern Family or whatever. They've been animated, aspirational and satirical. What is your TV family? I'd put in a survey but there are just too many.

Quick survey with so many missing:

Family Ties, Charles in Charge late 80's early 90's wholesome.
Cosbys- breaking through the white wash of TV with some very classy black folks.
Fresh Prince- see above but with a fish out of water story and updated cultural humor.
Roseanne- working class centric, more cynical, aiming to be more raw or real (pissed off my grandma)
Simpsons, Family Guy- surreal levels of dysfunction.
**Bob's Burgers- quirky but functional. The Belchers are my pick. Everyone in their family is weird. Their life is not glamorous, but they're good to each other.
Modern Family, Gilmore Girls- earnest, drippy, blended and modern.
The Bundys- hysterically dysfunctional. The anti Nick at Nite sitcom.
Friends/Seinfeld- The purposefully not married family of friends. The chosen family (Friends annoys me).

Also a response option: Fuck the family. Maybe this convention of episodic story telling is past its prime.

Sometimes I feel like Ralph Kramden thrown into Fresh off the Boat.

Malcolm in the Middle is the only one that got close. The rest feel like a writer with a gun to his head, being told by some Hays Code wash-up to "write something sentimental people can relate to."

Way too many "hot wife, slob husband" tropes, too. Go fantasize about fucking your mom on someone else's time, bub.

The Wonder Years. (as a kid)

How I Met Your Mother. (as a young adult)

Young Sheldon. (as a parent with two neurodivergent kids)

gotdamn wrote: Sun Sep 14, 2025 6:31 pm Malcolm in the Middle is the only one that got close. The rest feel like a writer with a gun to his head, being told by some Hays Code wash-up to "write something sentimental people can relate to."

Way too many "hot wife, slob husband" tropes, too. Go fantasize about fucking your mom on someone else's time, bub.

Ah yes, those sentimental glurge-fests, Seinfeld and Married...With Children

joe_lmr wrote: Sun Sep 14, 2025 7:11 pm

gotdamn wrote: Sun Sep 14, 2025 6:31 pm Malcolm in the Middle is the only one that got close. The rest feel like a writer with a gun to his head, being told by some Hays Code wash-up to "write something sentimental people can relate to."

Way too many "hot wife, slob husband" tropes, too. Go fantasize about fucking your mom on someone else's time, bub.

Ah yes, those sentimental glurge-fests, Seinfeld and Married...With Children

You know goddamn well that Seinfeld isn't a TV family - even Jerry Stiller plays a caricature of a father - and that Married With Children is satirizing the trope.

For all of the dysfunction, Malcolm in the Middle is pretty genuine!

Don’t get me wrong, Malcolm in the Middle is hilarious, but it wasn’t my TV family due to timing and the fact that I have no brothers.

All In the Family
The Jeffersons
The Flintstones/The Jetsons
Happy Days

jfv wrote: Sun Sep 14, 2025 7:10 pm The Wonder Years. (as a kid)

How I Met Your Mother. (as a young adult)

Young Sheldon. (as a parent with two neurodivergent kids)

Yeah, The Wonder Years probably. As for film, The Ice Storm.

I can't remember any TV families that resembled mine, but the original Roseanne series was the most relatable as far as yelling a lot and still loving each other.

The more I think about it, Diff'rent Strokes was close in that it involved an interracial family, but we were't rich and I wasn't adopted. Also I met Gary Coleman when I was about 9 and he was about 21 and we were the same height.