The Evolution of the Family on Television

Today's television shows offer a diverse and broad depiction of the family. This depiction of the family ranges from the traditional view of the family to the many modern views of the family. The changes of the family on television often changes to reflect the change in family structure in modern society.

Television offers a variety of structures and images. These images range from the traditional image of the family to the modern image, in both older and newer shows. People often believe that older television shows depicted the traditional image of the family, which was with the traditional woman role of the housewife and the traditional male role of the supporter of the family. However, if one looks at the wide range of older shows, one can see that there is a range of family images. For example, in the 1950's series The Andy Griffith Show, the image of the traditional family was slightly detoured from. Rather than have the traditional mother and father figure, there was no mother present. However, the show was still able to relatively maintain the traditional image by filling the role of the mother through the character of the aunt. Most shows in the 1950's did follow the traditional image of the family. For example, the show Leave it to Beaver contained the perfect traditional image of the family, with the mother fulfilling the role of the housewife and the father as the breadwinner and authority figure. This traditional image of the family reflects the situation of the family in that current time period: the traditional image. Women mostly stayed home to play the role of the housewife while the men worked to support the family. Television provided a guideline for what "normal" families should have been like and what roles each member was supposed to play.

As television moved into the 1960's and 1970's, changes in the traditional image of the family began to occur to reflect the changes in society that occurred. In this time period, the structure of the family began to change as divorces became more common and women began to work outside the home. This change in family structure was slowly reflected in the image of the family on televisions. More shows began to present a non-traditional structure of the family. For example, in the television show The Brady Bunch, the family was presented as a mixed family, instead of the traditional biological family. Another example was the 1960's show Family Affair, which consisted of a family headed by a single father. Of course, this change in family structure was always explained along the traditional image, as "...censorship codes demanded that the single parent not be divorced; instead the missing parent was always explained through a death in the family"[1] And of course, the traditional image of the family was still widely represented in television, for example in shows such as Happy Days and All in the Family, where the traditional role of the housewife and male breadwinner was portrayed.

In the 1980's, television began to reflect the modern image of the family more through comedy. Shows were aired that were satires of the earlier traditional image shows. For example, the show Married...With Children consisted of the traditional structure of the family, with the housewife and the working father, but was really a satire of that image, as the characters would "...spend the majority of their time exploiting one another ... making insulting wisecracks, and sitting on the tacky couch in the living room ... swilling beer and watching TV."[2] Another example of this image of the family is the show Roseanne, which also consisted of the traditional family structure but differed again as it "...includes such unconventional sitcom topics as teenage sex, spousal abuse, and lesbian romance."1 The image of the family on television has now by the 1980's become more of an entertaining parody than a moralizing guideline for families in society.

Finally, the image of the family in recent television shows has become more diverse and colorful. Television shows now portray families in both the traditional image and also in the non-traditional image. However, most shows portraying the traditional family are comedies that are satires of this image. This reflects society's structure of the family. Families no longer follow the traditional image and are made up of many compositions. Most current shows that portray a family in the traditional image are really satires of that image, and really are about dysfunctional families. An example of this is Everybody Loves Raymond, which portrays a moan in the traditional family image setting. However, the comedy comes into play in the interaction of Raymond and his family members, who are portrayed as eccentric. Another example of this type of show is Malcolm in the Middle, which portrays a family in the traditional structure that is quite dysfunctional. On the other hand, there are many shows that depict a completely different family than the traditional model. For example, in the show Will and Grace, a gay man and a straight woman decide to have a baby together and create their own unique family. Another example would be in the show Friends, where the character Ross has one baby with a lesbian couple and another with a straight woman whom he is not married to. As society begins to accept the non-traditional structures of the family, this acceptance is shown through such television shows as these.

There are many reasons why the depiction of family in television has changed. One reason, the main reason, is because society itself is changing and the television is a reflection of that change. As the family in society began to break away from the traditional model, the family on television gradually began to break away as well. There are also two other theories to the change in the portrayal of family on television. One theory is that those who live in a family unlike those depicted on television will enjoy laughing at the antics on the show. The other is that those who do live in a family like those portrayed will relate to the show and even enjoy being able to compare his or her family to the own shown on television.2 As society begins to accept the non-traditional family even more, the television family will follow suite.

[1] Spigel, Lynn. "Family on Television." 27 November 2003.

[2] Potter, Jill. "Families on Television." AToday. Jul/Aug 1993. AToday Online.