Tuesday, August 6, 2013

TV Guide Picks The Greatest TV Families of All Time


I think of all the lists TV Guide has done lately, this is one that I don't have as many quibbles with.  To be fair, picking a favorite TV family is much like picking your favorite character out of a book.  There are so many to pick from, that it's hard to narrow it down, and it's hard to not leave anyone off.  This was a list they did back in June, and even after all this time, I can't get mad about the families they left off.  Now I can get annoyed by some they chose to include, The Walshes for one, but other than a few of those types of issues, I'm generally okay with the list.  I do want to give TV Guide a shout out for one aspect of the list, not one reality show family made the list.  Thank the lord they don't think the Kardashians are one of the best TV families.  As usual , I will post the families that should have made the list, but didn't.  

General note for all the lists TV Guide has been doing, the first ten are in order, the rest are in alphabetical order.

1.  The Bradys from The Brady Bunch

2.  The Huxtables from The Cosby Show
3.  The Sopranos from The Sopranos
4.  The Bunkers from All in the Family
5.  The Barones from Everybody Loves Raymond
6.  The Conners from Roseanne
7.  The Ewings from Dallas
8.  The Cleavers from Leave it to Beaver
9.  The Addamses from The Addams Family

10.  The Waltons from The Waltons
11.  The Andersons from Father Knows Best
12.  The Arnolds from The Wonder Years
13.  The Bankses from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
14.  The Bellamys from Upstairs, Downstairs
15.  The Bluths from Arrested Development
16.  The Bradfords from Eight is Enough
17.  The Bundys from Married... With Children
18.  The Camdens from 7th Heaven
19.  The Carringtons from Dynasty
20.  The Clampetts from The Beverly Hillbillies
21.  The Cohens from The O.C.
22.  The Corbetts from The Courtship of Eddie's Father
23.  The Crawleys from Downton Abbey
24.  The Cunninghams from Happy Days 

25.  The Davises from Family Affair
26.  The Douglases from My Three Sons
27.  The Evanses from Good Times
28.  The Fishers from Six Feet Under
29.  The Flintstones from The Flintstones
30.  The Formans from That '70s Show
31.  The Gavins from Rescue Me
32.  The Gilmores from Gilmore Girls

33.  The Hecks from The Middle
34.  The Heffernans from The King of Queens
35.  The Ingallses from Little House on the Prairie

36.  The Jeffersons from The Jeffersons
37.  The Keatons from Family Ties
38.  The Lanes from The Patty Duke Show
39.  The Lawrences from Family
40.  The Lopezes from George Lopez
41.  Malcolm's family from Malcolm in the Middle
42.  The Munsters from The Munsters
43.  The Nelsons from The Adventures of Ozzies and Harriet
44.  The Partridges from The Partridge Family
45.  The Petries from The Dick Van Dyke Show
46.  The Pritchetts and the Dumphys from Modern Family
47.  The Ricardos I Love Lucy

48.  The Romanos from One Day at a Time
49.  The Sallingers from Party of Five
50.  The Sanfords from Sandford and Son
51.  The Simpsons from The Simpsons
52.  The Stones from The Donna Reed Show
53.  The Tanners from Full House
54.  The Taylors from The Andy Griffith Show
55.  The Taylors from Friday Night Lights
56.  The Taylors from Home Improvement
57.  The Tates and the Campbells from Soap
58.  The Walshes from Beverly Hills, 90210
59.  The Winslows from Family Matters
60.  The Whites from Breaking Bad

So that's their list, and now that I've actually typed it up, I'm really thinking a lot of these choices are pretty lame.  Most of them I'm sure have their supporters but for a select few, I could care less about them.  Even some of the pictures I used are of families that are just sort of blah for me.  There were a few cases where I would have shown a picture, The Huxtables, but it was right after the one I shared of The Bradys.  It seems like a lot of these families are very similar to each other.  I would liked to have seen a livelier bunch of families, maybe even a wider definition of what makes a family.  I would think that the group of Friends or even Seinfeld would qualify, though I'm not a huge fan of either show.

That being said, I'm not sure the families I would have liked to have been included, would make this list any more diverse, but here they are anyway.

I would have liked to see The Stephenses from Bewitched make the list.  Between a mortal husband, a witch for a wife, two magical kids, and a truly wicked mother-in-law, they are the perfect family.  Other sitcoms families that should have made the list are the Seavers from Growing Pains, the Strattons from Silver Spoons, the Tanners from Alf, and the Papadopolises from Webster.

I would also like to nominate two Western families to the list; the Cartwrights from Bonanza and the Barkleys from The Big Valley.  One other family from a drama, that in my opinion should have been in the top ten, The Summerses from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

My last comment, where are the families form the daytime soap operas.  How about the Buchanans, Kramers, or the Vegas from One Life to Live.  We could also have had the Martins, Kanes, and Chandlers from All My Children.  And don't froget the Quartermaines, Spencers, or the Corinthos clan from General Hospital.

So those are my thoughts, what do you guys make of the list?

6 comments:

Prashant C. Trikannad said...

Ryan, you took me back a long way with the list of TV families. I have seen many of these, others I'm only familiar with. I'm glad EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND is in the top ten as I enjoyed the sitcom a lot. Not the greatest of TV families but the Hennessys of 8 SIMPLE RULES seem to be fairly popular. It's currently being telecast on Indian television.

bermudaonion said...

I don't watch enough TV to know if this is a good list or not.

Teddyree said...

Some of my favourites up there from when I was a kid ... The Brady Bunch, Flintstones, The Ingallses, The Adams family.

but I agree Ryan, the Stephensons from Bewitched should have made the list & what about the Drummond family from Different Strokes. Glad the Crawley's are on the list but I would have liked to see the Walker family from Brothers and Sisters up there too.

Lisa said...

It looks like they tried very hard to get roughly equal numbers of families from each of the past five decades. I think they've also worked to ensure some ethnic blend is present, particularly where one family represents the first significant family on tv for a particular ethnicity. Had they worked for less balance, they might have come up with a stronger list.

Unknown said...

Best TV family, beyond any debate: the Morgans from Dexter.

Michelle Stockard Miller said...

These lists really bother me because they rarely get it right. I mean, did you see the top 100 lists from Entertainment Weekly in books, TV, Film, music, etc.? What a joke! I wanted to throw the magazine across the room, especially in the TV and music categories. I tend to agree with you, Ryan...meh.