For the Week of June 19, 2006 

In 1944, The Life of Riley premiered on ABC radio.  The program's main characters were an ignorant, loudmouthed blue-collar father with a heart of gold; his long-suffering if occasionally sharp-tongued wife; his two smart-alecky children who made wisecracks about subjects seemingly beyond their years; and the father's next-door neighbor best friend, who was even more of an idiot than the father.

Sound familiar?

Chester A. Riley has had long legs. From the television adaptation of The Life of Riley in the 1950s and The Flintstones in the 1960s on through All in the Family in the 1970s, the character of the loutish father with the dysfunctional family now dominates American media, with Fred Flintstone and Carroll O'Connor's Archie Bunker becoming the standard portrayal of the television father.  However, a chief reason that such characters were originally both memorable and popular is that, at the times in which they were first broadcast, they were unusual and atypical of American culture's understanding of fatherhood.

While the role of fathers has never been as emphasized in American culture as that of mothers, at least part of the reason was the traditional American understanding of masculinity. The traditional male was expected to do his job, support and defend his family and be a role model (particularly to male children) because it was his responsibility. He was expected to "do his duty," to mete out discipline where it was necessary and to provide moral guidance and leadership in the family without thought of reward or praise. And the overwhelming majority did so. How many fathers got up day after day for decades and went to jobs they did not enjoy, in order to provide for their families needs? How many fathers sacrificed their own interests in order to make time for their children's happiness? And even today, when the traditional understanding of male and female gender roles and parenting styles have changed, how many men continue to devote themselves to their families?

Once, such fathers were celebrated by American popular culture. From wise figures such as Judge Hardy in the Andy Hardy film series and radio programs such as Henry Aldrich to television programs such as Leave It to Beaver, The Dick Van Dyke Show and the quintessentially-titled Father Knows Best, the father was portrayed with respect as the head of his household, wise and compassionate, an uncomplaining "good provider" and a firm but loving disciplinarian and moral guide to his children. A few such portrayals of fatherhood are still to be found on television, on such family-centered programs as Everybody Hates Chris and 7^th Heaven.

Some fathers came to assume nearly heroic proportions when the setting pitted them against nature and showed the strength a father required to help his family survive on programs such as Little House on the Prairie. Indeed, some television fathers were so omnicompetent that they were capable of raising families even without a wife. The Andy Griffith Show provided an excellent illustration of a father coping with the loss of his wife, and yet raising a son to manhood. Its successor Mayberry RFD and other programs such as My Three Sons built upon the theme; but whether they were shown as stoic icons or treated more humorously, television almost universally portrayed fathers as honest, decent, hard-working and deserving of respect.

Sadly, this is no longer the case. 

" ‘Father Knows Best' has morphed into ‘Let's Manage the Moron.' Some of the dads populating TV these days give the impression that fathers not only don't know best, they don't know much at all." – science journalist Marianne Szegedy-Maszak (Los Angeles Times, October 17, 2005)

Today, television's fathers almost universally conform to the new stereotype of fathers as loutish, ignorant and incompetent.  The fathers portrayed on situation comedies such as According to Jim, Rodney, Hope & Faith, George Lopez, The Simpsons and All of Us are well-intentioned but bumbling and ignorant, and are constantly put in their place by wives and disobedient children, both of whom are skilled with using put-downs. And as is its wont the Fox network has gone further, openly portraying fathers on such snidely-named programs as American Dad, The Family Guy and The War at Home as foul-mouthed, crude, domineering and interested in their wives only as sex objects.

"With the exception of Cosby, every black father I see on TV, they're not really masculine.  They're like these theater-type guys — not gay, not straight, just theater." –Chris Rock, co-creator and star of Everybody Hates Chris (National Review online, September 22, 2005)

And cable television is going even further in portraying fathers as idiots and in encouraging children to ignore them and treat them with disdain. A commercial aired during the 2006 MTV Movie Awards portrays a teenager confronting his father, who has returned from a date. The boy berates his father for being sexually active, and demands to know whether his father is using condoms. When the father replies in the affirmative, the teen playfully rubs his father's head and says, "I'm proud of you, buddy," thus casting the father in the role of an ignorant and subservient child who requires his all-wise (and infinitely more sexually experienced) son to teach him proper behavior. An announcer further undermines paternal wisdom and encourages disobedience by saying, "When it comes to protection, you be the authority," deliberately using a significant double meaning. The word "authority" may mean "expertise," but can also mean "one who sets rules." Clearly the commercial, not content with humiliating the father figure, is actively encouraging teens to be their own "authority," and ignore their parents' guidance.

"The message that is conveyed … is that men just can't do it. And I see that as an insidious message that would be hard for a child to ignore as a theme." -- Michael Lamb, professor of psychology in the social sciences at Cambridge University (Los Angeles Times, October 17, 2005)

But television's current portrayal is dangerous not merely because it characterizes real-life fathers negatively or encourages viewers to treat them with disrespect. Because of its powerful role in shaping attitudes and perceptions in viewers, especially children, researchers are increasingly becoming concerned about the effect which such portrayals may be having on today's boys – who will become the next generation of fathers. Will young boys be shaped by watching stereotypes of men as blundering fathers, violent criminals, amoral businessmen and lust-crazed sexists emerge into adulthood believing they're hard-wired for selfishness, violence, promiscuity and domestic ineptitude?

Some social scientists believe that such diminished expectations cannot help but have an effect on children subjected to the media's relentless barrage of such imagery. In 2002 a group of researchers at the Centers of Men and Young Men at McLean Hospital, Massachusetts asked a focus group of boys ages 7 to 12 to react to images of fathers selected from television. Over and over again the boys used the words "silly" and "funny," but they never described the fathers as "caring, helpful or supportive." (Los Angeles Times, October 17, 2005)

"TV images offer boys role models that they cannot relate to and don't want to become." --  psychologist William Pollack director of the Centers of Men and Young Men at McLean Hospital, Massachusetts (Los Angeles Times, October 17, 2005)

Defenders of today's media portrayal of fathers rail against that of the past, condemning programs such as The Andy Griffith Show and Father Knows Best for being "unrealistic."  This is a classic "straw-man" argument. ALL television dramas and comedies are fictional, and are therefore "unrealistic" to some degree. However, such "critics" (displaying little genuine critical faculty) laud programs such as American Dad for its "sophistication," thereby presumably claiming them to be more "realistic."  The notion that Homer Simpson is a more realistic and desirable role model than Andy Taylor or Jim Anderson is more than misguided, it is actually harmful to our children, and ultimately to the good of our nation. 

"Too many TV shows today tag fathers with the ‘3D' image - dumb, dangerous and disaffected. Such images must be reversed to demonstrate to viewers that fathers are there for their children." -- Roland Warren, president of the National Fatherhood Initiative (Parents Television Council 2005 study on the portrayal of Fathers on Television)

While today's popular culture wallows in its degraded portrayal of fathers, Culture Watch and the PTC extends its heartfelt thanks to all the fathers who have labored uncomplainingly to provide for their spouses and children, to become examples of virtuous behavior and a striving for excellence, and who – though all too often unrewarded – have made such a difference in the lives of their daughters and sons.

Culture Watch - Entertainment Industry News

The Parents Television Council - www.parentstv.org