Looking for Marriage
Maybe it is all the wedding talk since Ryan and Chloe are getting closer to their wedding day, but I was doing some thinking about why we don’t see a lot of shows or movies that focus on good healthy marriages anymore?
As I started compiling the data I realized that there are many healthy marriages on display throughout the years.
Right after World War II ended, television became a lot more prominent in society. Variety shows like the Colgate Comedy Hour or The Texaco Star Theater. Westerns like Hopalong Cassidy and Lone Ranger were also enjoyed weekly. Situational Comedies, especially romantic ones, rose in popularity around 1947. The first sitcom is Mary Kay and Johnny, They are also the first couple that was shown in bed together, and also the first woman to be pregnant on television.
In the 1950s we saw a lot more romantic comedies emerge. After World War II soldiers were coming home and getting married. The shows of that time were reflecting what was important to the culture they were witnessing. There are shows like Leave it to Beaver’s June and Ward Cleaver, The Burns and Allen Show’s George and Gracie Burns, and even Ricky and Lucy from I Love Lucy. These were fun shows to go back and look into because at least two of these couples were also married in real life. Their fictional story settings for their real love is something I personally love going back to.
The 60s gave us classic shows like Bewitched, Addams Family, and Munsters. I will admit that these are not the best examples because they revolve around couples that have that one weird quirk that makes them different. This was also around the time our country was in an uproar with civil unrest and talk of communism becoming hot topics. This is also around the time that spy and sci-fi TV shows were also becoming popular. People were ready for something different, and aliens, monsters, and witches fit the bill. Watching Samantha and Darrin struggle to compromise in their marriage in Bewitched is healthy and interesting to watch. Both the Munsters and The Addams Family are just loving couples that are just trying to live their best life in a judgemental world.
The 70s brought us older marriages and a bit more realistic in the sense that the fights were about stupid everyday things but were was still in love. These examples came from The Jeffersons and All in the Family. The cultural times were reflective of the integration and the unrest that the country was feeling. Around this time they were also sending soldiers off to Vietnam, and the parents were dealing with their children entering the socially acceptable psychedelic period of our history. The Jeffersons made it normal to see “Blacks” on screen in all households. All in the Family showed the old fashion ideals clashing with the new generation. One of the escapist shows that didn’t really deal with the craziness of the times and that would be the private detective couple in Hart to Hart.
The 80s began the trend of more child-centric family shows, Growing Pains, Family Matters, and The Cosby Show. These were the shows that centered on the problems of the family, specifically the children, and the marriages are tested by how they handle those problems.
The 1990s gave us couples that grew together, but we didn’t really see them as married couples until later. Examples of this would be Chandler and Monica from Friends or Cory and Topanga from Boy Meets World. But we also had two of the more popular marriage sitcoms that came out in the 90s Mad About You and Dharma & Greg. Both of these shows introduce the couple at the beginning of their marriage and we get to watch them struggle and grow together. These were representative of the young professionals of the 90s that were looking to have a work/love life balance. Even our animations got on the marriage trend in The Simpsons, it is funny to think that Marge and Homer are still going strong even now.
Now we’ve entered the 21st century and the show started focusing on the dating or courting tropes. How I Met Your Mother was one of the bigger shows during this time. One of my favorites is Rules of Engagement, which spotlights the three stages of relationships: Marriage, Engagement, and Bachelorhood. But we were also given rewatch classics like Jim and Pam in The Office or Parks and Recreation’s Ben and Leslie. One of the top-rated married couples during the 2000s would be Coach and Mrs. Taylor from Friday Night Lights. Toward the end of the decade, we got the current classic Modern Family, and that gave us at least 3 marriages that we could root for.
In the 2010s we got sitcoms that once again focused on the social concerns or focused on minority groups. These came with shows like Black-ish and Fresh Off the Boat. These were created to remind the world that we are all the same and to give those minorities a voice in our melting-pot culture. Once again the animation world gave us another couple that shows us that love isn’t always easy but staying together is worth the fighting, Bob and Linda from Bob’s Burgers.
I was all set to write a scathing letter to someone in Hollywood complaining that marriage is not represented well in our culture today, but in all honesty, I must not have been watching the right shows. Let me know who your favorite married couple is, and why?
Until Next Time,
Peace Out Lovers.
