TGIF: Thank Goodness It’s Family: Family Messages In ABC’s 1990s Friday Night Lineup

Abstract

Early television sitcoms in the 1950s focused on families with traditional nuclear structures and conventional values. Almost four decades later, ABC’s Thank Goodness It’s Funny 1990s lineup featured families whose premise and themes were based on reconfiguring family structure. By studying television families in Full House (1987-1995), Family Matters (1989-1998), Step-by-Step (1991-1998), Boy Meets World (1993-2000), and Sister, Sister (1994-1999), we see traditional family values of love, friendship, togetherness, and instilling the importance of hard work and education in children. TGIF’s theme songs reconfigure the American family through song, and emphasize that reconfiguration leads to a better family. This narrative qualitative analysis of the TGIF lineup provided insight into how American sitcoms have evolved in ideologies about the family in-between the traditional early portrayals to today’s postmodern television families.