(Then)
Depictions of family life in sitcoms have changed dramatically over the past 40 years. In order for sitcoms to seem realistic, they try to create families that reflect current-day norms, and societal norms have definitely changed since the ‘70s. Everything from family dynamic to dialogue in sitcoms are directly related to how a normal society of the day functions.
I decided to compare the episode “Judging Books by Covers” of All In The Family that we watched in class to the episode “Coal Digger” of ABC’s Modern Family. Both shows focus on a typical current-day family, but are very different in how they are portrayed because times have changed a lot since the days of Archie Bunker. Even though the episodes have numerous differences, they do have some small similarities, and I’ll focus on a few of each.
All In The Family is about a typical middle-class American family and in the 1970s that consisted of a husband and a wife, both white, and their daughter and her husband, living in an average sized home. The episode we watched focused on the main character Archie Bunker and his views of homosexuality regarding his son-in-law’s friend Roger. Roger in the show is depicted as a classy, fashionable, polite, enthusiastic, verbose gentlemen who Archie thinks is very unmanly by referring to him as a “fairy,” “flower,” and “little birdie,” to which the audience always roars with laughter. However derogatory terms like that are not socially accepted today (for good reason), which was actually demonstrated in class whenever he said those words, especially when he used the harsh term “fag,” there was no laughter in the classroom watching the video, because we all know that that type of language is not only extremely offensive, but in today’s society with a much more open view of homosexuality then was in All In The Family, it is not regarded as normal or acceptable speech.
Modern Family is quite different in that it has a larger main cast, including three smaller households that are all related to one another and part of a big family. One household is a husband, wife, two daughters and son, all white. The second is a white, wealthy man (the wife of the first household’s father) and his young Columbian wife, and her son. The third household is the one that differs the most from All In The Family in that it consists of the wealthy man’s son who is gay and his partner, and their adopted Vietnamese baby daughter. Homosexuality in this show is obviously much more open and regarded in a much more mainstream fashion than All In The Family, which is the main difference between the shows. There is nothing strange about the relationship with the two men and no one in the family ever calls them derogatory names or finds offense in the fact that they are gay.
The ways in which the two episodes are similar is that when Archie finds out his strong, tough, ex-football playing bar buddy is also gay, he is very confused because he doesn’t fit his typical view of a gay man. In the episode “Coal Digging” of Modern Family, Cameron (the gay son’s partner), is not only feminine, but also an ex-football player who enjoys sports and camaraderie as much as the next guy. The episodes both show that just because someone is gay does not mean they don’t enjoy certain things that are unfortunately usually labeled as “straight” (like football for instance).
The two shows both reflect current-day situations and society. In the ‘70s, homosexuality was not as open or accepted as today (even though there still is a lot of work to do today but that’s a whole other story) and it was reflected in the episode with the offensive language and humorous reaction from the crowd. Even when the episode ends you never know whether or not Archie accepts his friend for being gay, which in turn does not show the audience that homosexuality should be accepted or not. In today’s society however, homosexual couples are very common and even able to marry in many places worldwide. Offensive and snide remarks towards gay people, although unfortunately still used, are not as acceptable in society and many people, homosexual or heterosexual, would take great offense to them. These episodes greatly demonstrate how times have changed in America and how views on people and their lifestyles have grown more accepting and for lack of a better term “regular” over the past few decades.
(And Now)
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