We all know the phrase, “You can’t choose your family,” with many of us–perhaps even all of us–relating to that sentiment more than a few times in our lives.
Yet even by our individual standards, few families have proven as overarchingly dysfunctional as the ones that appear on TV.
Over the years, the television medium has introduced audiences to an unending assortment of colorful families, many of whom bicker, fight, and constantly hurl themselves at each other’s throats throughout their series’ runs. As often as they might squabble and argue, these TV families also express obvious love and admiration for one another, supporting each other through emotionally uncertain times whenever they need a helping hand.
Perhaps the most famous TV family of the 1970s (perhaps even of all time), the titular Bradys of The Brady Bunch existed as a wholesome caricature of the average American family. Addressing plenty of poignant issues related to age, adolescence, and unreciprocated romantic feelings, the Bradys took every chance they could to come to one another’s aid. Lending a shoulder to cry on and some cathartic words of wisdom whenever their family members needed it most, the Bradys served as the perfect model family in the latter half of the 20th century–a family we could all learn from and emulate in our average household relationships.
In oh so many ways, few TV families have earned as cherished a place in pop culture as the titular Addamses of The Addams Family. Adapted from Charles Addams’ lauded New Yorker cartoons, The Addams Family combined light-hearted humor with plenty of macabre stories, delighting audiences with the series’ Gothic settings, grim characters, and bizarre episodic storylines. Throughout it all, the Addamses never stopped being entertaining, causing us all to break out and chuckle at the mischievous antics of Wednesday and Pugsley or the quirky flirtations of Gomez and his doting wife Morticia.
While the Bradys of The Brady Bunch came across as the kind of family everyone wanted to have, All in the Family’s Bunker brood appeared as the type of family everyone actually had. Whereas most sitcom families of the 1970s expressed nothing but more love and affection for each other, the Bunkers introduced a more realistic portrayal of a working-class household, filled with cultural and political tensions between the younger and older members of the family.
Filling in the worn working boots shoes left behind by All in the Family’s Bunkers, Married… with Children’s Bundy family brought a whole new level of anarchy to viewers’ living rooms. In contrast to the sentimental life lessons espoused in series like Full House, Married… with Children underscored the harsh reality of Chicago’s blue-collar neighborhoods. From arguing with his materialistic wife to lecturing his sarcastic children, Ed O’Neill’s world-weary Al always seemed to have his hands full contending with a new issue in the Bundy residence–something most audience members could probably sympathize with.
A far cry from the wholesome attitude of the aforementioned Bradys, the Simpsons carried on the tradition of the Bundys and the Bunkers from the previous decades, offering a more realistic portrayal of the stereotypical suburban family. While they occasionally enjoy the rare heart-to-heart conversations, the Simpsons humorously personified the interpersonal tension that exists between family members, be it between the immature father and his ne’er-do-well son or the overachieving sister and her smart-mouthed older brother.
Say what you will about Tony Soprano and his troubling criminal career, but viewers never had any doubt about the love Tony held for his family in HBO’s The Sopranos. Yes, he might commit any number of heinous acts whenever he left the house “on business,” but whenever he was at home, Tony was nothing short of the perfect father, cherishing his wife and two children any way he could. When it came to the Sopranos’ extended family, however, such as Tony’s uncle or mother… well, that’s an entirely different story.
There’s dysfunctional families–and then there’s the Bluths. Making the Mundys, Bunkers, and Simpsons look almost normal by comparison, few TV families came across as overwhelmingly odd as Arrested Development’s Bluth family. Whether looking at the family’s self-obsessed, borderline alcoholic matriarch or any one of the Bluth’s middle-aged adult siblings, Arrested Development’s main cast ranks as the most idiosyncratic in the entire realm of television, bar none.
