All in the Modern Family
When looking up "All in the Family" on Wikipedia I was very surprised to see how huge of a hit it was. From the three television episodes shown at the screening, I felt that the episode of "All in the Family" was the weakest of the three, and just kept re-using the same joke over and over. I wonder how fans of "All in the Family" would react to seeing an episode of ABC's "Modern Family"; if they would enjoy it or feel that their own "All in the Family" is a better work of television. I personally think the opposite, because "Modern Family" is probably my favorite comedy on TV that is still producing new episodes, and I feel that there is almost no comparison of it to "All in the Family" because of how much better it seems to be. This is of course all due to the show being relevant to my time period, as opposed to "All in the Family" being a portrayal of a family in the 1970's.
The two shows share some similarities, the most obvious being that they are both a look into American families in their respective time periods. There is a character on "Modern Family", played by Ed O'Neill (character pictured on the right), who is supposed to be the Archie Bunker-type character on the show. He plays a grandfather on the show and considering his age it is almost as if the character had grown up watching "All in the Family". He resembles Archie Bunker because he feels that men should be strong and hearty and that "back in his day" times were much simpler. His son on the show is homosexual, and he still has a hard time accepting it; just as how Archie Bunker dealt with homosexuality on "All in the Family". There is actually an episode of "Modern Family" when Ed O'Neill's character is uncomfortable to tell his friends that his son is homosexual, yet there is speculation from everyone else that one of Ed O'Neill's best friends is a homosexual himself. He is in disbelief just as Archie was when he was told that one of his best friends might be a little fruity, and dealt with it in the same way.
A main difference between the two shows is how they deal with the issues brought up. On "All in the Family", it dealt with homosexuality by Archie Bunker making a slew of bad jokes to the audience about how his son's friend is "fruity", and on "Modern Family" two of the main characters are openly gay and even have an adopted child on the show (pictured on right). Because in the past decade our society has become more used to seeing homosexual couples in public, it isn't very drastic to see a gay couple as characters on TV. A watcher of "All in the Family" might think "Oh, my goodness how can they show that on TV? I don't want to see that, turn it off!". But when hearing Archie Bunker's comments on "All in the Family", a fan of "Modern Family" might think "Wow, I can't believe he keeps saying 'fags' and bashing gay people right in front of them, I had no idea they allowed this on TV back then. Nowadays only something like South Park could get away with that". Although the two shows dealt with some of the same topics, they dealt with them in drastically different ways. "All in the Family" is a much more crude approach to getting the message out there, where "Modern Family" is open to the ideas and makes it seem much more normal and accepting to the viewer.
The two shows share some similarities, the most obvious being that they are both a look into American families in their respective time periods. There is a character on "Modern Family", played by Ed O'Neill (character pictured on the right), who is supposed to be the Archie Bunker-type character on the show. He plays a grandfather on the show and considering his age it is almost as if the character had grown up watching "All in the Family". He resembles Archie Bunker because he feels that men should be strong and hearty and that "back in his day" times were much simpler. His son on the show is homosexual, and he still has a hard time accepting it; just as how Archie Bunker dealt with homosexuality on "All in the Family". There is actually an episode of "Modern Family" when Ed O'Neill's character is uncomfortable to tell his friends that his son is homosexual, yet there is speculation from everyone else that one of Ed O'Neill's best friends is a homosexual himself. He is in disbelief just as Archie was when he was told that one of his best friends might be a little fruity, and dealt with it in the same way.
A main difference between the two shows is how they deal with the issues brought up. On "All in the Family", it dealt with homosexuality by Archie Bunker making a slew of bad jokes to the audience about how his son's friend is "fruity", and on "Modern Family" two of the main characters are openly gay and even have an adopted child on the show (pictured on right). Because in the past decade our society has become more used to seeing homosexual couples in public, it isn't very drastic to see a gay couple as characters on TV. A watcher of "All in the Family" might think "Oh, my goodness how can they show that on TV? I don't want to see that, turn it off!". But when hearing Archie Bunker's comments on "All in the Family", a fan of "Modern Family" might think "Wow, I can't believe he keeps saying 'fags' and bashing gay people right in front of them, I had no idea they allowed this on TV back then. Nowadays only something like South Park could get away with that". Although the two shows dealt with some of the same topics, they dealt with them in drastically different ways. "All in the Family" is a much more crude approach to getting the message out there, where "Modern Family" is open to the ideas and makes it seem much more normal and accepting to the viewer. 
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