# What TV Show Most Represents America? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 10, 2007, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-most-represents-america/407475 "2007-06-10T16:49:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![kingpengvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9dc877/32.png) [@kingpengvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kingpengvin)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2007, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-most-represents-america/407475/41 "2007-06-11T17:20:18Z")
From an outsiders point of view… All In the Family. Sure some of the names and fashions have changed but the same fights and divisions still seem to be there. Now if they could digitally substitue Bush for Nixon and Iraq for Vietnam… ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2007, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-most-represents-america/407475/42 "2007-06-11T17:31:13Z")
[QUOTE=kingpengvin] From an outsiders point of view… All In the Family. Sure some of the names and fashions have changed but the same fights and divisions still seem to be there. Now if they could digitally substitue Bush for Nixon and Iraq for Vietnam… [/QUOTE] You’ll have to excuse us, we seem to be caught in a temporal anomaly at the moment. There were a good two decades in there when we weren’t like that, but at the moment, we’re smack in the middle of 1972 again. Everything from fashion to politics to appliance colors is irritatingly seventies right now. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2007, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-most-represents-america/407475/43 "2007-06-11T18:16:24Z")
[QUOTE=Ferd Burfel] … I’ve never lived in New York City, but I would expect that **Mad About You** was a reasonable presentation of life in the city. … [/QUOTE] No one of their income level has an apartment that big in NYC. Seinfeld was more realistic in that regard. Jerry’s apartment was comparatively teensy for a sitcom. ---
**Author:** ![Ferd\_Burfel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@Ferd\_Burfel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferd_Burfel)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2007, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-most-represents-america/407475/44 "2007-06-12T00:48:31Z")
[QUOTE=scotandrsn] No one of their income level has an apartment that big in NYC. Seinfeld was more realistic in that regard. Jerry’s apartment was comparatively teensy for a sitcom. [/QUOTE] I’ll accept that, although I wasn’t really thinking about the size of their living quarters. I meant more how they lived their lives. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2007, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-most-represents-america/407475/45 "2007-06-12T02:11:23Z")
[QUOTE=Lizard] The OP is a great question, but I think it’s also ultimately an unfair one. No TV show can accurately depict more than one segment of life out of a huge variety in a country as diverse and large as the United States. _King of the Hill_ is a very realistic depiction … if you’re a white person from a medium-sized town in the South or Midwest. [/QUOTE] The thing is, though, that the situations and relationships in the show are pretty much the same sort of mundane shit families go through anywhere else. Change the accents and make Hank love the Michigan Wolverines and you could set it in Grand Rapids. Change the accents and change Hank’s adoration to the Red Sox and it could be set in Natick, MA. Change the accents again, make Hank a Giants fan, and whammo, you’re in Los Gatos, CA. Much the same could be said of “Roseanne,” which was going to be my nominee. That LOOKS like a real family. They worry about paying the electric bill and eat macaroni and cheese. (Kraft Dinner, as I’d call it here in Canada.) The show was about ordinary shit. Hell, have them speak Spanish and it could be The Rosie Gonzalez show, set in east L.A. > [@](#): > > _The Sopranos_ is realistic … if you’re from northeastern New Jersey. Where the Sopranos is different is that it’s about a wealthy crime family where a relative or friend or associate is murdered every couple of weeks. It’s simply not transposable to millions of ordinary families. The Sopranos depicts some of the mundanity of family life, but there’s too much Mob stuff for it to be truly representative of more than 0.1% of the USA, and they’re more dysfunctional than most families, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2007, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-most-represents-america/407475/46 "2007-06-12T02:22:59Z")
I would say **The Simpsons** , simply because it touches on nearly every aspect of American pop culture. Sure, it’s not based in reality, but after watching a season of that show, you will get a taste of nearly every slice of life in America. Plus, did I mention the constant reference to various aspects of pop culture? And they live in a mountain town by the ocean in the midwestern part of the southern part of the country with a lake where it snows and they have a baseball team etc. Everyone can identify with their location! Or maybe **Beverly Hills 90210**. Hey, at least it keeps the perception alive. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2007, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-most-represents-america/407475/47 "2007-06-12T02:55:43Z")
[QUOTE=RickJay] Change the accents and make Hank love the Michigan Wolverines and you could set it in Grand Rapids. [/QUOTE] And have him shake hands with Jerry Ford…maybe in a flashback (instead of George W. Bush). ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2007, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-most-represents-america/407475/48 "2007-06-12T02:58:16Z")
Wow, almost none of these fit into the “series of the last 10 years or so” stipulation of the OP. I have no suggestions, because none of the ones that I can think of are from the last 10 years either. ---
**Author:** ![Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bambi_Hassenpfeffer)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2007, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-most-represents-america/407475/49 "2007-06-12T03:20:19Z")
_Roseanne_ and _Malcolm in the Middle_ get my votes. _Roseanne_ for the fact that with only slight changes to the family, every single person I know well grew up like that. Their food, their situations, their interactions, everything. Anyone who wants to know how the majority of the US lived 15 years ago need only watch a few episodes. _Malcolm_ also has very a realistic family dynamic. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2007, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-most-represents-america/407475/50 "2007-06-12T07:37:24Z")
Nothing on TV captures the essence of the American spirit so well as professional wrestling. ---
**Author:** ![Miscue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8491ac/32.png) [@Miscue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miscue)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2007, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-most-represents-america/407475/51 "2007-06-12T11:55:32Z")
Unfortunately, anything featuring stupid children of millionaires. ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2007, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-most-represents-america/407475/52 "2007-06-12T12:57:25Z")
I’m not sure what show best represents America, but this seems like a good time to tell the story of a woman I worked with one summer several years ago. She had just come over from China, and had only ever seen one American T.V. show. Naturally, she assumed this show was representative of American culture in general. I hope she wasn’t disappointed with our failure to sleep with each other’s spouses, start fistfights, and burst into spontaneous chants of “Jer-ry, Jer-ry!” ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2007, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-most-represents-america/407475/53 "2007-06-12T13:05:09Z")
3rd Rock From The Sun had some real family things going on in it ---
**Author:** ![Ferd\_Burfel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@Ferd\_Burfel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferd_Burfel)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2007, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-most-represents-america/407475/54 "2007-06-12T13:10:08Z")
[QUOTE=OpalCat] Wow, almost none of these fit into the “series of the last 10 years or so” stipulation of the OP. I have no suggestions, because none of the ones that I can think of are from the last 10 years either. [/QUOTE] Roseanne may not be currently (or recently) in production, it is actively in syndication and available on DVD. The plots of the shows weren’t really time-specific and would be just as relevant if the show were in current production. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2007, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-most-represents-america/407475/55 "2007-06-12T13:12:13Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] 3rd Rock From The Sun had some real family things going on in it [/QUOTE] Yes. Studying Earthlings and figuring out their own family unit dynamic. I have to vote for Simpsons, over all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-most-represents-america/407475.md?page=2)