More Life Lessons Provided By T.G.I.F.

by Twinswin83

Let’s face it; sitcom television is a dead genre. It’s been apparent for nearly a decade now that American television is ruled by reality TV and serialized dramas. Not since the heydays of Seinfeld and Friends has a sitcom dominated the Nielsen ratings. It has been even longer since a network has pieced together an entire evenings worth of quality sitcoms to fill their two-hour primetime block. I remember the glory days when you would consistently hear during the end credits of your favorite program that “this show was filmed before a live studio audience.”

With shows like The New Adventures of Old Christine and Two and a Half Men “leading the pack” for sitcoms today, is it any wonder that absolute crap like Dancing with the Stars is one of the 5 most watched shows on television? I find myself longing for the days of the early 1990’s when children everywhere could flip on their TV on a Friday night and be entertained by four quality family sitcoms without even having to change the channel. The sitcoms that made up T.G.I.F. were kind of like the “The Dude,” they were just right for their particular time and place. Hokey family fun and corny life lessons were the norm in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Now people are more interested in watching dark and moody actors solve bizarre murders in 60 minutes or less with forensic methods that, if used in real life, would take years. Hey, I’ll take a cheesy sitcom about a blended family from Wisconsin over that any day.


Step By Step was a favorite of mine and survived for years as T.G.I.F’s blatant attempt to recreate The Brady Bunch. The Lamberts and the Fosters were two families, consisting of three siblings each, forced together by their parent’s second marriages. Throw in a wacky, van dwelling, radical and bodacious cousin and you’ve got a mixed family to be reckoned with. I learned a lot about life by watching this show, and thanks to ABC Family I am able to relive those teachings a couple times every weekday. Here are a few of the lessons Frank, Carol, JT, Al, Dana, Cody and the whole gang helped fill me in on:

*Every family has its nerd, and you can easily spot them by their oversized glasses, sweater vest, whiney voice and complete inability to fit in.

*Cousins are family, but not important enough to let live in the house.

*The ThighMaster works.

*Step brothers and sisters aren’t real siblings and therefore should not be treated as such. Insults, practical jokes and isolation are a must.

*The more you use the word “dude” the more dim you will appear, and the more likely it is that you will one day live in a van.

*If you are going to run a salon out of your own home you must hire a male stylist that speaks with a French accent and whose sexual orientation is debatable.

*There is no problem, dispute or issue a family might face that can’t be resolved by spending a day at the amusement park together.

Family Matters

Ah yes, Family Matters. Who could possibly forget this gong show? For as much as I enjoyed this show growing up I don’t think I have ever witnessed a program “jump the shark” quite like this one. It’s not every day that the main character of a sitcom invents a robot in his own likeness. No matter how absurd, Steve Urkel became engrained in American pop culture throughout the shows run and it wouldn’t have been T.G.I.F. without him. The outlandish nerd next door and the always compelling Winslow family taught me plenty about the way the world really worked. They tutored me on important life lessons such as:

*The higher you hike up your pants, the higher your voice gets.

*If you make a mistake, break something or just flat out mess up, all you have to do is look around like an idiot and drop the line, “Did I do that?” It’s like a get out of jail free card.

*If your first, middle and last names all rhyme chances are it’s not all working upstairs for you and you’re only around so that others can have a laugh at your expense.

*If you’re having trouble landing the girl of your dreams the simplest solution is to build a machine that will transform you into a cooler, sexier and overall more appealing version of yourself. But be sure you engineer the machine so as to allow yourself to change back and forth as much as needed.

*Robots that resemble real people are not a thing of the future, they are here now and they are hilarious.

*If you consistently pester, annoy, harass and downright stalk a girl for eight or nine years she will eventually break down and fall in love with you, no matter how dominant a role suspenders play in your wardrobe.

*I’m not the only one who sometimes snorts when I laugh.

That’s all I got for now folks. Well, at least until all of my strongly worded letters and emails to 20^th Century Fox are answered and they finally release The Wonder Years on DVD.