Type: Familial loveExample: The Tanners
With more hugs per minute than any show before it, Full House began it's eight year reign as America's most saccharine family situation comedy on September 22, 1987. The story of a recent widower raising his three daughters with the help of his rebellious brother-in-law and a under-employed stand-up comedian in San Francisco struck a chord with a nation hungry for hackneyed sit-com story plotlines peppered with valuable life lessons and catch phrases ("Have mercy," "How rude," "You got it, dude," being a few of my favorites). For Danny Tanner every disagreement could be solved with a group hug and there was something inherently comforting about that. During the Persian Gulf War I remember asking my father one Friday evening during ABC's TGIF line-up, "Daddy, why don't Mr. Bush and Mr. Hussein just hug and make up? That's what Danny has DJ and Stephanie do every week and everything works out fine for them." My dad proceeded to to talk to me about oil prices, coalition forces, and war atrocities and sent me to bed with no Urkel.
Love it or hate it (have you no soul?), Full House, while not particularly groundbreaking, provided a generation of avid TV watchers with easy to chew moral lessons in a cheesy, but occasionally funny, family-friendly program. It was a half hour of television parents could feel comfortable letting their children watch alone. There were never any very special episodes about DJ buying condoms or Stephanie developing a crystal meth addiction or Joey spending a lot of alone time with his special friend Eric. Viewers were reminded that honesty was the best policy, cleanliness was next to godliness, and that it's inconsiderate to touch another person's hair.
Other Examples: The Winslows, The Griswolds, The Manson Family
