I’m all for realism in television, which is why I think HBO’s The Wire was one of the greatest programs ever produced for the little screen. But, as a child of the 1970’s, I have a soft spot for a good situation comedy. I know that television started out showing sitcoms with very idealized families. The parents loved each other and never fought over anything that might destroy domestic tranquility and end in divorce. None of the kids were depressed and sullen and hostile and secretly having sex and doing drugs. That stuff isn’t funny. But it began to creep in over time anyway. Even Andy Griffith was a single dad. Most of the changes represented an increase in realism. Single moms raising teenage daughters who had teenage problems. Widowed fathers with eight children. Black families in various states of disrepair. Eventually there were gay men on television, and then lesbians. Most of these shows simply added to the idea of what makes up a family. The only show I ever watched that I thought was hostile to family values was, ironically, produced by FOX. It was called Married…With Children. It seemed to have the singular goal of tearing down every taboo about what could be done on television, but without the goal of greater realism. The show could be hilarious, but it presented marriage as unending misery and fatherhood as a thankless burden. In comparison, Murphy Brown’s family life was bliss.
As sitcoms explored more non-traditional family situations it prepared people to accept them as normal. Shows like Will & Grace made gay people seem non-threatening and promoted gay rights.
But the idealized families of the 1950’s and 1960’s were never as normal as people wanted to believe. There’s nothing wrong with having parents who never fight and children who are never miserable. It’s just not very common in practice.