Personally, I feel that the working-class fathers who starred in TV comedies from Archie to Frank, Fred to Al, were characters which I could easily associate myself with due to my background of originating in an area where nearly every rural, old-stock American father or male relative, could see himself in these men which occupied a place on their beloved television screen. This prompted me to tune in to the weekly episodes as a child or watch endless re-runs of their comedic, trademark behavior that filled my young mind with wonder and hilarity because their premise and goals in life hit so close to home.
Yes, there were very typical roles they acted out-some in haphazard fashion-such as having an incessant passion for sports, demanding a stay at home, traditional-type of wife, making crude remarks about race, ethnicity or religious groups (that would be disallowed from the airwaves by today's fanatical, politically-correct, liberal-minded media) and had a friendship more than a father relationship with their son at times-but I still found them to be stand-up, commendable, fatherly, and courageous men and envied their clever wit and telling it like it is attitude especially in today's aforementioned ultra-monitoring standard of TV's content, climate.
So, on that end, I can agree with how these fathers were depicted and the aspects in which they represented the average American blue-collar father during this time period. But, on another level, pertaining to their bumbling, fumbling, unintelligent, and incapable of giving supportive and beneficial advice to their family members, I stronglydisagree. These fathers of this generation which were represented by the television characters deserved to be seen in a different light and not one inferior to the middle-class milksops who made their living in other methods which involved a post-high school education where they were institutionalized by a system and bore no reliance on their physical attributes.
I felt offended at times that these same fathers I grew to appreciate and even admire as a kid, when viewed critically as an adult, were misinterpreted by the same directors and producers who also ironically managed to make them so relateable to the common American man and others close to them which made me think they would be more responsible for the devoted supporters of these programs.
