With this year being an election year, the topic of family values is near and dear to us all. With Hollywood getting a left jab from the liberals, and a right cross from the conservatives, about the lack of values in television today: it only intensifies the debate of what is normal, functional, and abnormal, dysfunctional, in television today. The hit television series Roseanne is a perfect portrait of an American family in todayÆs society. Although the family is portrayed as somewhat dysfunctional, when compared to other televisions shows being aired today, the true balance and meaning of the family come from the functional aspects of their lives.
The Connor family consists of father Dan, mother Roseanne, and three children û Becky, Darlene, and D.J.. The show is set in the suburbs of Chicago, Ill., in a middle class neighborhood. The main character, Roseanne, carries her family through the trials and tribulations of everyday life in middle class suburbia. The show attempts to interject humor with serious topics, not only to help project realism to the viewing audience, but to keep the audience's interest in something that they deal with on a daily basis.
There are many difference messages that the show attempts to present to the audience. There are social, economical, and even political messages, but family unity has to be the most significant of these messages. Each member of the family is mired in their own problems, but the final action to the problem is ultimately solved by the family as a whole. Although it is blurred by the moderate levels of sarcasm in the show, the Connor family is enriched in strong family values.
Unlike situation comedies like Married With Children and The Simpsons, Roseanne uses a satirical comedy format that helps the viewers better understand the story line. The reason for this is that the show is aired during the prime time hours, so viewers tired from a hard days work can absorb and concentrate on the aspects of the story line that are being presented to them on the television set. The ensuing comedy causes the viewer to laugh and relax, to look for the issues, to become emotionally involved in what they are now watching intensely, and probably by now laugh at themselves. If you were to sit through a night of prime time comedies, you would find that the majority of them use this style of delivery to their viewers. The attack on human folly allows the viewer to reflect upon their own life, and once again, laugh at themselves. The therapy of laughter can never be under emphasized.
In contrast, the comedy series of Married With Children and The Simpsons use the comedy to deliver a different type of message. These two shows possess no aspects of value, nor do they try to deliver a message or meaning to the viewer other than comedy. The message being delivered through these shows is for the sole purpose of entertainment. In these two shows, the messages are not value oriented: the message is actually anti-value. To achieve this the characters in these shows become independent and rely less on the family and more upon themselves.
The Bundy family, Married With Children, and the Simpson family, The Simpsons, are what any "normal" sociologist would call a dysfunctional family. These families, unlike the Connors, pose no family structure. Within the family we would find constant bickering, selfishness, and most importantly, constant personal attacks. These attacks on the character of their loved ones are sometimes so brutal, that if the common person in a real life family were to do this, we would find this person living on the street and not in the house. This type of behavior is not consistent with the "normal" behavior that society set forth in their so called social norms. If people did not really like this type of comedy they would reject it and send the series to the closet. We know this is not the case because the series has been running for years.
The dysfunctional aspects of the two television series are viewed by some as a reinforcement of their own beliefs; either about their own family or what a dysfunctional family is about. It is true that some do watch the shows for the comedy, but there are people that view these shows because they vindicate their own actions of values. These are the people, comedy viewers, that have learned to separate fantasy from reality. It is the people, the vindicatees, that have yet to learn that the idea of dysfunctional families are true, and that they are an element of these two shows. These messages are the basic differences between the shows of Married With Children, The Simpsons, and Roseanne.
What makes the Connor family functional are the real life issues that the show takes on. The show allows the viewer to get involved in their lives by displaying true realistic situations that we all can relate to. These two factors alone allow each episode to be unique from the one preceding it. The Roseanne show takes on issues like teen sex, drug use, and education. These three issues are easily understood by most households in America because they are real issues that parents deal with on a daily basis. The similarity to real life is that these issues are solved on the show in different ways: through sarcasm and sometimes serious tones.
Some families feel that in order to solve a problem from within is to be serious and to the point at all times. The message that Roseanne delivers is that it is all right to mix in some sarcasm, to add a little comedy to life so that the tension that may exist can be relieved, thus allowing communications to be taken to a higher level. Roseanne is usually successful in using this type of communication skill with her children. A good example of this would be when Roseanne visited Darlene at college completely unsuspected.
Darlene had just recently moved to Chicago to attend college, leaving behind her significant other, David, to live with her parents. As Darlene and Roseanne conversed about responsibility and choices in doing the things that are right, David walked into the room. The irony is that David had told the ConnorÆs that he was leaving their family to go live with his mom in Detroit. Roseanne, standing there in utter shock, Darlene states, "It isnÆt what it looks like mom." Roseanne responds in a sarcastic tone, "Oh, IÆm sure itÆs not, and DavidÆs bags really arenÆt in the closet, and he is really sleeping on the floor.": implying that Darlene should not be shacking up with David and she definitely shouldnÆt be having sex with him. The sarcastic tones that Roseanne used help deflate the tension in the room between not only her and Darlene, but David as well. This allowed the problem to be dealt with in a less tense atmosphere, thus resulting in a higher level of communication. This, to me, is the true sign of functionality in a family, to communicate on a level that is understood and informative. The episode ended with a sense of self respect and trust not only between Darlene and Roseanne, but the viewers felt a sense of trust as well.
The final aspect that makes the Connor family a functional one is that at the end of each episode, the audience is left with some sense of value learned from that particular episode. Although entrenched under the sarcasm, the Connor family not only use their strong family values to solve their problems, but they pass these same values along to the viewing audience. Dysfunctional family series have no value base, nor do they convey a message of positive value that the viewership can comprehend as positive. The Connor family should not be judged on their superficial actions, but on the basis of the underlying meaning of the actions. The underlying meaning of these actions is that of a moderately functional, average family in America today.
