The 1970’s featured many great sitcoms including: The Bad News Bears, Happy Days, The Jeffersons, Laverne and Shirley, M*A*S*H, Sanford and Son, and one of my favorite shows of all time, Three’s Company. In this week’s blog post I will be comparing two family-based TV situation comedies. In the blue corner we have “All in the Family”, and in the red corner we have “The Brady Bunch”. The gloves are on and the mouth guards are in. LET’S GET READY TO RUMBLE!!
Although “All in the Family” and “The Brady Bunch” possess both differences and similarities, I personally believe that their differences present a much broader topic. “All in the Family” featured a family from Astoria, New York. This family included husband Archie Bunker, who was a working-class WWII veteran, wife Edith Bunker (dingbat), daughter Gloria Bunker (little girl), and son-in-law Michael Stivic (meathead). “The Brady Bunch” was also an American situation comedy that revolved around a family of eight (nine if you count Alice the housekeeper). This family included Mike Brady, who was a widowed architect and his three sons Greg, Peter, and Bobby, and also had a live-in house keeper named Alice. Mike married Carol who had three daughters, Marcia, Jan, and Cindy. In “The Brady Bunch” throughout the whole series the six Brady children are between the ages 6-18, where as in “All in the Family” series, Archie’s daughter Gloria and his son-in-law Mike are in college and then graduate college. In “All in the Family” although Archie and Edith love each other dearly, they often disagree with each other and get into quarrels; Archie continually calls his wife Edith a dingbat. Archie and his son-in-law Mike also have many differences and beliefs and often get into disagreements. Archie calls Mike a meathead. This differs from the relationship of Mike, Carol and their kids in “The Brady Bunch”. Mike and Carol Brady of course do have their differences like any married couple and family, but for the most part they agree and make sure that they have a very tight-knit, united family. Unlike the Bunker family in “All in the Family”, the Brady family in “The Brady Bunch” was clearly wealthier. Mike Brady was an architect; where as Archie Bunker was a dock foreman for a company. The Brady’s house, clothing, family trips, and etc. were all indicators of the Brady family being wealthier.
There are also some similarities in the two 1970’s sitcoms. Both “All in the Family” and “The Brady Bunch” are focused on the lives of a Caucasian family. This is important, because although racism was not as much of a big problem in the 70’s as it was in decades before, the shows still exhibited that the white race was dominant. Despite all of the disagreements and arguments, both the Bunker family and the Brady family showed that they could and would get past them and unite together with the ones that they loved. The creators of both “All in the Family” and “The Brady Bunch” wanted to show viewers what their view of the real American family was like and how they dealt with certain issues. Both of these families also had children. Although the Brady family has six children and the Bunker family only has one, two if you include the son-in-law Mike. No matter the amount of them on these two shows, the children play an important role in the families and shows. Both “All in the Family” and “The Brady Bunch” had loyal viewers who agreed with the views and opinions of the shows and their characters, and really related with the shows in general.
“All in the Family” was an American situation comedy that depicted the issues of racism, homosexuality, women’s liberation, politics, and etc., which were topics that used to be believed as unsuitable for a television sitcom. This sitcom revolved around the main character, Archie Bunker’s views and beliefs on the controversial topics, and how he was “dismissive of anyone not in agreement with his view of the world” (Wikipedia). In “The Brady Bunch” the issues covered by this sitcom were not near as harsh as the ones in “All in the Family”. “The Brady Bunch” focused on issues dealing with the kids and their childhood, such as sibling rivalry, family unity, responsibility, dating, self-image, puberty, and etc. “On occasion, remarks relevant to the ‘real world’ were covertly thrown in, but never truly impacted the innocent, carefree charm of the series” (IMDB, Rathjen). “The Brady Bunch” presented issues about the children and what they were going through in their stages of growing up, such as dating, self-image, puberty, sibling rivalry and etc. “The Brady Bunch” was much more suitable for children and the whole family to watch together as a source of entertainment and something that the family could really relate to. This was quite different from the prejudiced, discriminative, argumentative, harsh remarks and opinions on the ‘real world’ in “All of the Family”. “All in the Family” is more for the mature audience rather than for the whole family, unlike “The Brady Bunch”. “The Brady Bunch” was a sitcom that was appropriate for and viewed by families, adults and children included. “All in the Family” covers more controversial topics including race, sexuality, politics and etc. that are not suitable for all ages, and some viewers may find offensive. This sitcom also presented issues that the viewers could relate to and agree upon.
Works Cited: IMDB, Wikipedia.
Well I hope you all enjoyed my blog post for the week. I wasn’t ever much of a fan for “The Brady Bunch”, but when I was younger I did watch “All in the Family” with my grandparents sometimes; I thought that it was a very funny, successful show. I still wish we could have watched an episode of “Three’s Company” in class, though. I love that show! It’s one of my all time favorites! If you’ve never seen it, I heavily suggest that you do ASAP, if you’re looking for a million good laughs. Here is a link to a “Three’s Company” fansite that I have included in my blog post. I hope you all had a great weekend and enjoy this link!
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