Comedic Tropes in 1980s Sitcoms, and in CPH's TARTUFFE: Social Criticism

Cast of "Family Ties"

Tartuffe Ties

Television families in the 1960s had one guiding principle: Dad knows best, Mom has cookies, and every problem can be solved in twenty-two minutes with a heart-to-heart on the couch, all promoting the idea of the “nuclear family” as an American ideal.

With the social upheaval in the late 1960s and early 1970s, television began to depict diverse families across the economic spectrum, especially through the comedies of Norman Lear. Sitcoms like One Day at a Time and All in the Family featured the economic struggles of everyday people, while television shows like Good Times, Sanford and Son, and The Jeffersons, provided social commentary on racial discrimination throughout American society.

The families featured in the 1980s reflected the “Morning in America” mentality of the Reagan White House with a focus on middle-class or upper-class families (the Keatons in Family Ties, the Huxtables in The Cosby Show, and the Seavers in Growing Pains). However, social issues like drug use, racial discrimination, homophobia, and sexism frequently made their way into these upper-class storylines, including First Lady Nancy Reagan’s famous appearance on Diff’rent Strokes to teach Willis and Arnold to “Just say no.”

Classical comedies may feature characters from across the spectrum of society, but they usually focus on the upper class (as seen in Tartuffe, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, or She Stoops to Conquer). Unlike Shakespeare, Molière provided obvious social criticisms in his plays, including religious hypocrisy in Tartuffe or French misogyny in The School for Wives.

Molière’s comedies mimic Neoclassical tragedies in that they center the upper class, providing an opportunity for the playwright to mock the arrogance of wealthy citizens. The family featured in Tartuffe, led by an idiot patriarch, is reminiscent of shows like The Simpsons, ALF, and Full House—proof that across centuries, continents, and hairstyles, family comedy still comes down to the same truth: somebody has to be the voice of reason, and it’s almost never Dad.

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