All in the Family vs. Modern Family

Although family based TV comedies have changed a lot over the past forty years, the issues they deal with can be surprisingly similar. Comparing the "Judging Books by Covers" episode of the 1970s comedy All in the Family to "The Kiss" episode of 2010 Emmy winning comedy Modern Family proves this point. The All in the Family episode's plot centers around Archie Bunker's homophobic tendencies and his discovering that his friend is gay. The Modern Family episode focuses on Mitch and Cam--a gay couple. Cam is upset with Mitch because he will never kiss him in public. Ultimately, this plot was actually a way to address the public's disapproval that Cam and Mitch had actually never kissed on the show, and the episode ended with the two finally sharing a kiss. These two episodes are similar in that not only are they addressing the same issue, but they both have similar characters. Archie Bunker plays a stereotypical homophobe, as does Mitch's father Jay. They are different in the way they portray the story. The difference in time periods also clearly makes a difference in the attitudes towards homosexuality. On All in the Family, Archie uses prejudiced language with words like "fag"--a word which would not be spoken on television today. Also, Modern Family shows two men kissing--something that was not likely to be on television in the 70s. As for issues that differ between the two, the most obvious would be the effect that technology has played on television. Many things that took place in the Modern Family episode involved technology: a mom reading her daughter's text messages, no one can figure out how to fix the printer, etc. Given that none of this technology existed in the 70s, things like these do not take place in All in the Family.