From Family Matters to black-ish: The Regression of the Identity-Driven Sitcom
On Thursday nights in the 1990s, millions of American living rooms looked the same. In one house it was Family Matters. In another it was The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. In another it was a rerun of The Cosby Show. You were not tuning in for a lesson on identity. You were tuning in because you knew what it was like to have a sibling who annoyed you, a parent who caught you lying, or a family member who could turn a normal evening into chaos. ...