They curse like sailors on Curb your Enthusiasm, though. Some people don’t want their kids watching an old creepy guy say “fuck” ten times a minute. 
How about Smallville? It’s great for the kid audience and fun as hell. The first three seasons are currently available. Another vote for Futurama as well.
All of those sound fine for them. Gilmore Girls is probably the best of the bunch. Dawson’s Creek, in retrospect, tends to be quite cringe-inducing, even to former fans.
The Office, Freaks and Geeks, Arrested Development and Curb your Enthusiasm are all personal favourites. They’ve got some swearing, sex and drug references, but nothing you can’t explain to your kids, and nothing worse than what you’d find in a typical Hollywood movie.
Firefly. It can’t be recommended enough.
And after you watch Firefly (another vote here), you can come over here to discuss it.
I’m surprised no one has suggested Family Guy yet.
A ton of laughs.
Alias ROCKS! I highly suggest it.
The first two seasons of Newsradio is coming out on the 24th. Too far away?
Yet another vote for Firefly.
You can’t go wrong with the Futurama box sets. They get more viewing in our house than anything else, because A) it’s easy to commit a half-hour rather than 2 hours for a movie, and B) the repeat viewing value is very high. You can always enjoy an episode over and over again. My daughter watches one almost every day.
The first and second seasons of Quantum Leap are out. I love this show so much. When it was first on, my sister made me record it for her every night while she was doing chores. I hated it then (I was 6!), but then I caught it in re-runs on the Sci-Fi Channel as a teenager and I was hooked. My friend and I have been knitting together to the first season since she got it a month ago. Lo, how the Scott Bakula has fallen.
Futurama is good too. It’s too bad Family Guy was brought back instead of it.
If it wasn’t for the small ones, I’d go for Carnvivale. For more kid friendly stuff, how about Wonderfalls? Or even The X-files (as long as you don’t make it pass series 5)?
Have you ever seen Dead Like Me? It is a very clever show with an interesting cast of characters. I own the first season and I watch it all the time. Wouldn’t be too terrible for the kiddies to see but not hear.
I guess I’m going to have to get a subscription to Netflix. All these recommendations sound great. I just LOVED Northern Exposure when it was on. Looking forward to watching all these shows, esp. CYE and AD, though I’ll save those for treadmilling. (Whenever I watch these tv series on DVD, I force myself to get on the treadmill. I can’t watch that much t.v. without feeling guilty. I was in really good shape when I started watching Buffy.
For the kids, someone at work recommended The Cosby Show to me or S1 of Survivor. Both sound pretty good, in addition to something like Gilmore Girls or Smallville. But I think renting them makes more sense than buying.
Given all the recommendations, I’ll probably have to just suck it up and buy Firefly. For some reason it never interested me even though I love Whedon’s work.
Don’t get 24 or Six Feet Under for your trip. Those two are definitely not age appropriate, and I don’t think they’d find them interesting anyway. Dawson’s Creek is okay in the early seasons (as the characters age it becomes more explicit issue-y), but Felicity would probably bore them. Party of Five seems to have stalled after releasing the first season on DVD over a year ago so count it out for now if you’re looking to buy the whole series of something. If you can stand them, Gilmore Girls, Smallville or Everwood would probably be the best bet. Many adults enjoy Everwood too (I do), but you probably wouldn’t hate the other two either.
As added adult fun: every time I watch Smallville I enjoy figuring out which X-Files episode or Sci-Fi movie they ripped off: this week it was Life in a Day which they “borrowed” whole cloth from from the superfast pregnancy in the opening scene on. :rolleyes:
Invader Zim or Space Ghost:Coast to Coast might also be things you’d enjoy watching with the kiddos too. My brother started watching SG:CtC as a preteen with the blessing of our parents, and still enjoys it today.
Hell yes. That was my staple morning viewing when I was that age. Goliath, Desdemona… ahhh, those were the days.
Perhaps Futurama?
Another vote for *Firefly, *even though it sounds like we’ve already persuaded you to buy it. And definitely participate in the thread NE Texan linked to- we’re discussing the pilot episode, “Serenity,” this coming week, and would love the input of a newcomer to the series.
If you’re into science fiction at all, I also highly recommend Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, by far the best of the Trek series in terms of character development and addressing of serious issues in a mature way. Plus it features a massive galactic war that lasts two full seasons (even excluding the three seasons’ worth of setup leading into the war)!