# Was your family more like the Cosby family or the Connor family?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-family-more-like-the-cosby-family-or-the-connor-family/509146
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 7, 2009, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-family-more-like-the-cosby-family-or-the-connor-family/509146 "2009-09-07T05:38:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2009, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-family-more-like-the-cosby-family-or-the-connor-family/509146/1 "2009-09-07T05:38:53Z")
I’ve heard people over and over talk about how _Roseanne_ showed life like a real-life family, and that no one lived like the Cosby show. My family was decidedly more Cosby than Connor. We lived in big houses in nice neighborhoods. My father was an executive and my mother ran an antique shop, after teaching school for several years. There are five kids in my family, and we genarally got along quite well, although my brother did torment the twins. There was never any shouting in our family, and I rarely heard my parents disagree, let alone argue. We were taught that if you owed courtesy to anyone, it’s the people you live with.
So, what TV family raised you?
StG
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### Author:  [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2009, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-family-more-like-the-cosby-family-or-the-connor-family/509146/2 "2009-09-07T05:55:35Z")
The Flanders household. Lots of love, never wanted for anything, but the preachy quotient was dialed up to 11. ( :shudder: )
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### Author:  [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2009, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-family-more-like-the-cosby-family-or-the-connor-family/509146/3 "2009-09-07T06:01:09Z")
Okay, but how about the sweater question? Just how ugly were yours?
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### Author:  [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2009, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-family-more-like-the-cosby-family-or-the-connor-family/509146/4 "2009-09-07T06:11:15Z")
Well, dad was pretty much Archie Bunker and mom was a pretty good Edith, so I will say I grew up All In The Family. I would have been Gloria and Mike’s liberal, queer son.
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2009, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-family-more-like-the-cosby-family-or-the-connor-family/509146/5 "2009-09-07T06:43:35Z")
Are we talking \*Roseanne \*Connor - or \*Terminator \*Connor?
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### Author:  [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2009, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-family-more-like-the-cosby-family-or-the-connor-family/509146/6 "2009-09-07T06:53:32Z")
Definitely Roseanne.
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### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2009, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-family-more-like-the-cosby-family-or-the-connor-family/509146/7 "2009-09-07T07:16:16Z")
Manson.
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### Author:  [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2009, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-family-more-like-the-cosby-family-or-the-connor-family/509146/8 "2009-09-07T11:40:48Z")
My family was kind of like an atheist Flanders household, if such a thing can be imagined.
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### Author:  [@carlotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlotta)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2009, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-family-more-like-the-cosby-family-or-the-connor-family/509146/9 "2009-09-07T11:53:38Z")
Cosby family. My parents are both college-educated professionals, though not near as high earning as the Cosbys. We lived in a middle-class neighborhood. My parents were really good at the teachable moment and getting a lesson out of difficult situations. (much better at this than I’m turning out to be, sigh).
There was little shouting until I got to be a teenager and then we had plenty of teenage girl dramatics (just like the Cosbys 🙂 ) which my parents dealt with with love and wisdom.
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### Author:  [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2009, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-family-more-like-the-cosby-family-or-the-connor-family/509146/10 "2009-09-07T11:58:18Z")
My family was the financial level of the Conners but the behavioral/social level of the Cosbys.
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2009, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-family-more-like-the-cosby-family-or-the-connor-family/509146/11 "2009-09-07T12:25:27Z")
A mix of _Leave It To Beaver, The Brady Bunch, Bonanza,_ and Truman Capote’s _In Cold Blood_.
Have to add in a little '60s era _Twilight Zone_, too.
Mostly very normal and nice with some absolutely NOT normal thrown in at random.
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### Author:  [@Jettboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jettboy)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2009, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-family-more-like-the-cosby-family-or-the-connor-family/509146/12 "2009-09-07T12:35:19Z")
Definately Roseanne-esque, but with an extra dose of Texas white trashiness. My older brother was holding a wrench since before he could walk, so we even had a car or two up on blocks in the yard throughout most of my childhood.
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### Author:  [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C.Montgomery_Burns)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2009, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-family-more-like-the-cosby-family-or-the-connor-family/509146/13 "2009-09-07T12:55:28Z")
My Grandpa’s (Dad’s Dad) family was very much like the Waltons. A Christian family with lots of kids that lived on a farm that had to mainly rely on each other to get by.
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### Author:  [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2009, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-family-more-like-the-cosby-family-or-the-connor-family/509146/14 "2009-09-07T13:04:14Z")
A mix of George Lopez and the Cosbys. Working class hispanics in The Bronx and Brooklyn. Throw in a little Ugly Betty too, for the conflict between family obligations and independence.
I have to add that there was a lot of Rosanne. We fought and goofed on each other and hurt each other’s feelings and had money problems too.
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### Author:  [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2009, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-family-more-like-the-cosby-family-or-the-connor-family/509146/15 "2009-09-07T13:07:11Z")
My family had a sense of humor, but our writers weren’t as good. So it wasn’t as funny as either.
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### Author:  [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2009, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-family-more-like-the-cosby-family-or-the-connor-family/509146/16 "2009-09-07T13:09:02Z")
I very strongly envied the Conners for handling hardship with humor.
I’ve never seen a family on TV as angry and mean as mine.
Financially, we were closer to the Cosbys.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2009, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-family-more-like-the-cosby-family-or-the-connor-family/509146/17 "2009-09-07T13:10:04Z")
Is anyone here familiar with _Hey Dad!_ ?
Anyway, I’d say my family was mostly like _Growing Pains_. Which is a little alarming, I suppose. A family that mostly got on okay, but we each had or secrets that sometimes came to light and caused some amount of problems.
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### Author:  [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2009, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-family-more-like-the-cosby-family-or-the-connor-family/509146/18 "2009-09-07T15:06:56Z")
I guess we were a Cosby family - I mean, we had our fights and all, but all told we were never _mean_ (well, I was, but teenagers are, right?) No siblings, though.
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### Author:  [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2009, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-family-more-like-the-cosby-family-or-the-connor-family/509146/19 "2009-09-07T16:22:16Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#):
>
> A mix of _Leave It To Beaver, The Brady Bunch, Bonanza,_ and Truman Capote’s _In Cold Blood_.
>
> Have to add in a little '60s era _Twilight Zone_, too.
>
> Mostly very normal and nice with some absolutely NOT normal thrown in at random.
Truman Capote’s? I don’t remember his family being in the book. Do you mean the Clutter family?
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### Author:  [@Invisible\_Chimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Invisible_Chimp)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2009, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-your-family-more-like-the-cosby-family-or-the-connor-family/509146/20 "2009-09-07T16:33:03Z")
My parents divorced when I was five. I stayed with my mom most of the time. It was definitely like _Roseanne_. When I stayed with my dad, it was _Home Improvement_.
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