Relations between: The Cosby Show & Modern Family

In class we previewed two very different comedic sitcoms back-to-back. Both similar in concept; although very different by the type of family, morals, comedy/jokes, daily events... Which all revolves around the time frame; The Cosby's will be late 1980's, when Modern Family is more modern, Late 2000's.

First we watched the late 1980's sitcom, The Cosby Show. The show portrayed the day in the life of an African-American family and the daily problems they overcame and struggled through, with a comedy touch of course! The characters consisted of the parents, the funny little girl, the typical teen girl and then the rebellious teen boy. The episode we watched in class(Season 2/Episode 1), featured the parents eager to get the children ready for their first day of school.

The other sitcom we previewed was the ironic Modern Family. This present-day sitcom showed the "modern" side of families, with a complicated mixture(a family tree can be seen below). Father Jay Pritchett, has two kids Claire Dunphy and Mitchell Pritchett. Jay is married to his second wife, Gloria Pritchett-Delgado, who had a son Manny Delgado(with her first husband). Claire married her husband Phil, together they had three kids: Haley, the oldest of them who is starting to get into the age where she's having her fist boyfriend and such. Alex, the middle child, she is more of the intelligent nerd. And Luke the youngest child, who is always getting into trouble and making messes! Then there is Mitchell who is in a relationship with Cameron Tucker, together they adopted a baby from Vietnam, Lily Pritchett-Tucker. The example episode we watched in class was the pilot episode to the first season, where we are introduced to all the characters and we have simple problems arise and Mitchell and Cameron adopt their baby Lily and invite the slightly homophobic family over to show them.

Both shows deliver great comedy, morals and when going into detail; the show's truly are two very different examples. These two sitcoms show the drastic change in our time change, but still keep the concept. When trying to choose between the two, many today would choose Modern Family. This is because the show aims at modern situations which are more relatable today, rather then a families problems in the time frame of the 1980's.

"Modern Family" - Family Tree