"All in the Family" vs. "Modern Family"

            “All in the Family” isn’t far off from a modern show when it comes to incorporating material that is acceptable. In its time, “All in the Family” was viewed as risqué to air on television. Television series of the 21^st century have explored just how far a show can go. From showing the first belly button decades ago, TV has now seen less than men and women in their underwear. Modern family shows, like “All in the Family,” challenge what it means to be an American family. Often the parents are portrayed as quite childish while the kids struggle through adolescence and rebel from their parents.

            The new hit TV series “Modern Family” has drawn much attention with its quirks. The show depicts family situations that have become an accepted part of society. The elderly grandfather has a new young wife with a young child. His character is similar to Archie because he is the head of the family and is set in his beliefs. His son is gay and married to a rotund character who is clearly homosexual. The situation is similar to the episode of “All in the Family” where gays are not widely accepted with the elderly. “Modern Family” proves that society has progressed and is now much more accepting of gay couples to the point of acknowledging them as a bonded couple and allowing them to adopt a child.

            While both shows contained integration and freedom issues in society, “Modern Family” spikes popularity due to the strong hold on reality nowadays. “All in the Family” showed characters from the 70s who were not as planted in the ground for their time. Each character was created to form a comedic satire and make situations more amusing. The situations were shaped to over exaggerate racist circumstances while “Modern Family” The 1970s were a time of integration of races, genders, and liberal ideas. This was the basis for creating a satire that unfortunately didn’t achieve its original goal. The audience ended up laughing and relating to Archie instead of laughing at his ignorance. “Modern Family” does the opposite by showing how society has assimilated to understand such situations.

            “Modern family” deals with issues due to the changes of societies’ view of what is now acceptable. “All in the Family” just dealt with the process of making those views, such as interracial marriage, acceptable. “Modern Family” instead dealt with the cultural clashes when it came to holidays or just daily rituals, issues that all interracial couples must face. The difference is the time in which the shows were created and the differences in comedy through the ages.