As recently as 1960, seventy percent of the households in the United States consisted of a breadwinning father, a homemaker mother, and two or more kids. The 1960s family was portrayed in The Flintstones and The Jetsons, two very famous TV shows at the time. In The Flintstones the Fred Flintstone is the hardworking breadwinning husband and eventual father while his wife Wilma did all the cooking, cleaning, and shopping.
The Jetsons starred a nuclear family with multiple children and a maid. George Jetson is the breadwinner in this family just like his prehistoric counterpart Fred Flintstone. Jane Jetson, the dutiful wife still does all the shopping, doesn’t know how to drive and stays at home but many her housewife duties are taken over by the family maid, Rosie, and the futuristic gadgetry of their home.
The Jetsons have two kids; Judy Jetson, the “normal teenage girl” from the future, and Elroy Jetson their highly intelligent elementary school age son. Despite the fact that The Flintstones and The Jetsons universe’s are set in different times, they are very similar because they were both created in the early 1960s and adopt family stereotypes from that time.
The 1960s and 1970s were huge turning points for the role of each family member in the home. With more and more women entering the job market than before, delayed marriage and childbearing become apparent. Children attitudes are also different. As the next generation, the children of the 1970s family began to form different opinions from their parents due to changing society norms.
Wait Til Your Father Gets Home stars The Boyle family, father/husband Harry and mother/wife Irma. The couple’s oldest son, Chet, is a ‘hippie’ college dropout who is against his father’s conservative views. The couple also has a daughter, Alice, who is also very liberal and is a feminist. Finally their younger son, Jamie, is the only one of the kids that shows any signs of sharing Harry’s values.
The 1980s family had similarities to the 1960s and 1970s, but also had it’s own look that was depicted in all sorts of media. The Simpsons is famous for how it parodies family sitcoms and blends it with whatever current pop culture. The show kept the traditional nuclear family dynamic of a breadwinning father and stay-at-home mother with kids but gave each character in depth personalities as the series grew.
Homer Simpson may be playing his role as a husband and father but he is also not very smart. His wife, Marge Simpson, is the stay at home wife who is a lot more clever and tolerant than her brash husband. The Simpsons are a dysfunctional family which is prominent in the relationship between Homer and his rambunctious son, Bart Simpson. Lisa Simpson, Homer and Marge’s eldest daughter, does not act her age. Similar to Alice Boyle of the 1970s, she’s a young feminist who is usually more mature than her older brother, Bart. The family’s baby Maggie Simpson maybe a toddler like Pebbles Flintstone, but she is given a more complex personality than her 1960s counterpart and even shows intelligence beyond her age.
The Rugrats show several different family types all bottled up into one show and averts many of the traits that make a typical family. The Pickles, the central family of the show, has the entire father, mother, and children package, but they still have significant differences from other animated families. Though traditional at first glance, it turns out the mother, Didi, is the main breadwinner, while Stu is the dream chasing stay at home dad. Another example, Rugrats is noted for their inclusion of Judaism as Tommy’s mother Didi is Jewish. The inclusion of religion other than Christianity in an animated television show is extremely rare.
Tommy’s best friend, Chuckie Finster, is the only child of a single father. The significance of this is commonly shown throughout the show especially when an episode celebrated mother’s day. The Finsters later become a blended family when Chuckie’s Father, Chaz, marries Kira Finster and adopts her daughter Kimi. The Rugrats explores a very wide range of family types that is very rare in animated tv shows and films.
In the 1990s, the nuclear family still existed but by then its definition broadened considerably. Children are raised in environments and more varied than before. One popular animated nuclear family was Dexter’s family in Dexter’s Laboratory. This is a notable example of how families are portrayed in media because it uses the nuclear family dynamic but changes the perspective.
Of course the old fashion family roles are depicted somewhat in this series. Dexter’s mother is almost always wearing her apron and kitchen gloves. Dexter’s father is always clad in a white collar shirt and tie although his profession is never disclosed. His sister, Dee Dee, is the typical girly girl obsessed with ponies and ballet. Unlike it’s predecessors, Dexter’s Laboratory actually lampshades the stereotypical matriarchal role in the family.
Between 1996 and 2000, the share of children living with a never-married parent in the United States was 10.6 percent. The Powerpuff Girls is a great example of showing single-parentage in animated films.
The focus was not necessarily on the girls relationship with their “father” (literal creator), The Professor, but the subtleties regarding the fact that he’s a single parent is proof that American ideals of a family are different from decades before.
This critically acclaimed animated film introduces many new ideas to animation, diversity, and the definition of family. Lilo & Stitch takes place in present day Hawaii. As a Disney film alone, it broke the mold that many of its kind stuck to. For example, unlike many Disney films, romance was not the core subject. The film revolves around a young girl named Lilo who, along with her older sister Nani, are orphaned after their parents are in a car accident and in order to potentially alleviate some of the pain, the duo adopt a pet. Hilarity and misfortune ensues when the pet turns out to be a fugitive space alien.
In this family, parents aren’t involved at all. In fact Nani acts as Lilo’s guardian and goes out of her way to make sure her little sister isn’t taken away by the social worker. The central theme of the film is “ohana” (family in Hawaiian). Even though their situation is referred to as a “broken family” more than once throughout the story, they are still very much considered a family by today’s standards.
By the 2000s, blended or step families are extremely common in America. Blended families are the results of divorce, death, or any other things that “tear” a family apart. This type of family was notably featured in the Rugrats and 2007’s Phineas and Ferb. Phineas and Ferb, which takes place in a present day location in America, features an international blended family.
By the 2000s, blended or step families are extremely common in America. Blended families are the results of divorce, death, or any other things that “tear” a family apart. This type of family was notably featured in the Rugrats and 2007’s Phineas and Ferb. Phineas and Ferb, which takes place in a present day location in America, features an international blended family.
Linda Flynn, mother of Candace and Phineas Flynn, married British citizen Lawrence Fletcher, father of Ferb Fletcher. While this is sort of family is rare in animation, in Phineas and Ferb it has little or nothing to do with the plot. Whereas if this show was set in the 1960s, the plot would either surround the idea that the family is blended or not feature this type of family at all.
By the 2010s, the traditional family was broken down significantly. Bob’s Burgers takes place in present day America. shares similarities to the Simpsons in terms of humor, intended audience, and interaction with family and kids. The main difference is how the parents interact with their kids. Bob Belcher is the titular father and owner of the restaurant Bob’s Burgers. He his wife Linda, and their three kids Tina, Gene, and Louise are the only employers in the restaurant so the constant close proximity results in a lot of interesting interaction.
Unlike Homer, Bob gets along very well with all of his children and has plenty of individual screen time with each of them. Bob’s wife also serves as one of the show’s many comedic characters. She has a sense of humor that contrasts Marge Simpson’s and is hardly the voice of reason that Marge is.
Interracial families are very common during this decade but very rare in animated shows. The best example of an animated interracial family (or in this case, interspecies) on mainstream American TV would be the Amazing World of Gumball. This cartoon features an interracial family The Wattersons, that also adopted another “child”. The Wattersons, the family in question, include a blue cat named Gumball, his little sister Anais, a pink rabbit, and their adopted brother, a fish, named Darwin. The mother Nicole and father Richard are a blue cat and a pink rabbit respectively.
This family also flips the traditional family dynamic on its head by having the mother, Nicole Watterson as the only responsible member of the family as well as the one wearing the pants in her relationship with her husband, Richard. Richard on the other hand is lazy and doesn’t have a job despite always being clad in a collared shirt and tie (Similar to Dexter’s father in Dexter’s Laboratory).
What the traditional family is today is completely different than 50 years ago and this transformation is apparent in animated TV shows across recent animation history. With more and more different animated films and tv shows being produced and the modern definition of family changing, this subject is bound to evolve even further.
