Monday, April 07, 2003

families now & then

if you're one of those people who love old sitcoms (bewitched, i dream of jeannie, family ties, cheers, etc), like me, you'd remember a certain tv show from the 70s revolving around a family consisting of a widow, a widower, and their 6 kids; 3 girls and 3 boys living in a charming suburbian home with their housekeeper alice. yes, i'm talking about the brady bunch.

the bradys were the perfect family. the kids had loving parents, the girls braided each others' hair (remember marsha?) and wore cute nighties, while the boys played baseball and helped marsha get a date for her school dance. aww...how sweet!

well, that was the 70s.

now, the families we see on television include the simpsons, the titus family (from the sitcom titus) and that horribly obscene family, the osbournes. what a long way the "conventional" family had come! like what christopher titus said in the pilot episode of titus (this is not an actual quote from the script), "60% of american families are dysfunctional. what do you know? mine's the majority!"

it's just funny how the family concept has evolved over the last 30 years. in the 70s, the bradys were the perfect role model family. now...sigh. let's just say that if we were to take the simpsons as a role model family, the world would be utter chaos.

still, no matter how "abnormal" and "unconventional" families are now today, people still remember the brady bunch and the keatons from family ties. why? i guess it's because we still like to have that picture of the ideal family in our heads eventhough we know it's impossible to achieve such love and harmony and cuteness that it makes you want to puke. we like to fantasise that maybe if everyone were like the bradys, we'd have no wars, and there'd be pro-peace rallies instead of anti-war demonstrations.

oh well. sing along with me now: "here's a story of a lovely lady..."

lishun at 9:52 AM

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