Are fathers being portrayed as
‘hapless benign man-children' in today's sitcoms?
by Maggie Carr
In the mid 20 th century sitcoms were all about “father knows best” with shows such as I Love Lucy, Leave it to Beaver and Happy Days to name a few. In the days these shows were on we were living in a very male-dominate society. It was only normal for the husband to call all the shots and the wife to obey. The Toronto Star describes the Mr. Cunningham type of dad as “absentee, with a real job, the father you were a little afraid to approach as he sat slumped in his chair with a drink” (Brownfield, 2004). Although times have not changed drastically and today's society is still semi male-dominate the way our society is portrayed in today's sitcoms differ greatly then in years past.
Today's sitcom dads are not depicted as the head of the household anymore, they are more childlike and the “butt of one-liners from the wife and children of the show” (Brownfield, 2004). With shows such as According to Jim, Everybody Loves Raymond and King of Queens, the tables have turned and the leading males in these sitcoms are shown to be in superior to the women. The women are made known by how hardworking they are in their jobs as well as around the house and by their strong motherly abilities, while the men “don't own much of anything, except a kind of childish entitlement” (Brownfield, 2004).
Eager to get back to where sitcoms used to be, producer Mike Scully along with wife Julie Thacker-Scully, created a new sitcom that came out this fall called Complete Savages. This new show is based on a single father raising five “unruly” sons and getting away from the “wife always telling a husband what a moron he is” scenario (Hart, 2004).