America’s Favorite TV Families

An HBOMax series about a foster home run by a lesbian couple that features a blend of biological, adopted, and foster kids, this five-season series featured the catchphrase “How do you define family?”

A family of African-American professionals tries to retain their cultural identity as they raise their kids in a predominantly white neighborhood. The long-running ABC series has a 92% Rotten Tomatoes average among critics.

This HBO Original series is about a young man who becomes a parent to a baby after the woman he had a one-night stand with is placed on Death Row. The four-season series holds a 96% Rotten Tomatoes average among critics.

This sit-com on CBS that ran for nine seasons focused on the Heffernans – played by Kevin James and Leah Remini – whose lives are laughably turned upside down when the wife’s father moves in with them.

ABC’s primetime parody of daytime dramas featuring the affluent Tate family ran for four seasons and won four Emmy awards.

This is a 1960s-era sit-com on ABC about a witch (Elizabeth Montgomery) married to a mortal (Diсk York/Diсk Sargent) and her struggles to solve life’s daily problems without using magic. The series won three Emmys during its eight-season run.

The Cunninghams were the family on “Happy Days,” a nostalgic sit-com set in the 1950s. The ABC series catapulted Henry Winkler into stardom as Fonzie, the smooth-talking, girl-chasing friend of Richie Cunningham, played by Ron Howard.

The CBS sit-com was a vehicle for comedian Ray Romano, who plays a sportswriter whose family is constantly getting into his business. The show ran for nine seasons and won 15 Emmys.

Following her success as Ray Romano’s wife on “Everybody Loves Raymond,” Patricia Heaton starred as the mom dealing with the trials and tribulation of a middle-class family in Middle America. The ABC series ran for nine seasons and received an audience score of 88% on Rotten Tomatoes.

“Married… with Children” pushed the boundaries of good taste in its portrayal of a miserable lower-middle-class family in a Chicago suburb living out the low end of the American Dream. The 11-season series helped boost the career of Christina Applegate, while Ed O’Neill, who played the woman-ogling father, would go on to more success with another family sit-com, “Modern Family.”

“The Flintstones,” based loosely on the sit-com “The Honeymooners,” was about the misadventures of family head Fred Flintstone and his household during the Stone Age. The six-season series was the first prime-time animated network series.

An impoverished extended family living in the Blue Ridge Mountains struggles through the Depression. The series was told through the experiences of Richard Thomas, who played an aspiring writer, and featured memorable characters played by Ellen Corby and Will Geer. The CBS series ran for nine seasons and won 13 Emmys.

An offbeat comedy about two brothers with the same name, who answer to “Big Pete” and “Little Pete,” respectively, “The Adventures of Pete & Pete” ran for three seasons on Nickelodeon.

The drama/mystery series on the WB network ran for eight seasons, and was rebooted in 2018. This original starred Alyssa Milano, Holly Marie Combs, and Shannen Doherty (and later Rose McGowan) as sisters who use witchcraft to combat evil. Kaley Cuoco appeared in 22 episodes before starring in the sit-com “Big Bang Theory.”

“3rd Rock from the Sun” was a six-season comedy series on NBC that starred John Lithgow and “Saturday Night Live” alum Jane Curtin. It was about aliens who come to Earth – the third rock (or planet) from the sun – disguised as a family trying to understand life on our planet.

There were two sit-coms in the 1960s with a macabre theme. “The Munsters,” like “The Addams Family,” centered around an extended family of ghouls – in this case with a pet dragon – who are clueless as to why they don’t fit in with the neighborhood. The show ran for two seasons on CBS.

“Life in Pieces” was a comedy whose stories were told from the perspective of each family member. The CBS series ran for four seasons and featured star power with Dianne Wiest (two Oscars) and James Brolin (one Emmy win).

“The Diсk Van Dyke Show” was an urbane 1960s-era sit-com about the misadventures of a television writer and his family. The eponymous star’s physical comedy played off the rapid-fire wisecracks of funnyman Morey Amsterdam. “The Diсk Van Dyke Show,” helmed by Carl Reiner, ran for five seasons, won 15 Emmys, and launched the career of Mary Tyler Moore.

“Lost in Space” starred June Lockhart as the matriarch of a space-traveling family whose ship is thrown off course by a stowaway. Irwin Allen, who created other adventure series in the 1960s such as “Time Tunnel” and “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,” helmed this three-season show for CBS.

An animated version of the ghoulish television sit-com, this show featured the voice of John Astin as Gomez, a role he also played in the original live-action series. Other noteworthy performers voicing for the ABC show were Rip Taylor and Carol Channing.

A family from Taiwan adjusts to life in America in the 1990s in “Fresh Off the Boat,” based on a memoir by chef Eddie Huang. Constance Wu, who later found fame in the film “Rich Crazy Asians,” was a cast member for the show that ran for six years on ABC.

Michael Landon, who starred in the Western series “Bonanza,” played the father of a frontier family based on Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “Little House” books. In nine seasons, the NBC series won four Emmys.

Chock full of television stars such as Lauren Graham, Bonnie Bedelia, and Ray Romano, the NBC comedy-drama series that ran six seasons focused on the ups and downs of various generations of one family.

A coming-of-age comedy-drama that ran for seven seasons on ABC centered on an adolescent boy played by Ben Savage and the life lessons he learned.

One of the most beloved sit-coms of the 1960s featured single-parent Andy Taylor (Andy Griffith) as the easygoing sheriff of a small North Carolina town raising his son Opie (Ron Howard). The six-time Emmy winner ran for eight seasons.

Created by Norman Lear, “All in the Family” raised television viewers’ conscience on the issues of the day, while still staying true to its sit-com roots. Carroll O’Connor created one of television’s iconic roles as the bigoted but good-hearted Archie Bunker. The CBS show was the first series to top the Nielsen ratings for five straight years, from 1971 to 1976. It won 22 Emmys in its nine-season run.

This HBO series is about a dysfunctional family whose media dynasty faces numerous crises, exacerbated by the actions of its imperious patriarch and his highly competitive offspring. Nine Emmys have been awarded to the show in its three seasons.

This reboot of the 1970s sit-com that starred Bonnie Franklin and Valerie Bertinelli has a Hispanic flavor. The Netflix show follows the lives of three generations of Cuba-Americans. It won two Emmys over four seasons.

“The Wonder Years,” whose title is a nod to 1960s food staple Wonder Bread, focuses on adolescent Kevin Arnold (starring Fred Savage) as he experiences the turbulence of the 1960s and 70s. The four-time Emmy winner ran for six seasons on ABC.

CBS’ long-running series about several generations of an Irish Catholic family in law enforcement gains star power from Tom Selleck, Len Cariou, Bridget Moynahan, and Donnie Wahlberg.

The superhero genre gets a contemporary upgrade as Superman and reporter Lois Lane are depicted as a couple dealing with the pressures of being working parents. This is one of the newer series on the list as it enters its second season on the CW network.

A comedy about as dark as you can get, about a family that runs a funeral home in Los Angeles, “Six Feet Under” starred Peter Krause, Michael C. Hall, and Frances Conroy. It won nine Emmys over its five-season run on HBO.

A Canadian import that appeared on Netflix, “Kim’s Convenience” was a five-season comedy about a Korean family that runs a convenience store in Toronto and the misadventures they get themselves into.

George Segal, star of this long-running ABC series as a quirky but loving grandfather, passed away in 2021. The show will continue, however. The program aired Segal’s last episode in April, which was followed by a montage of some of his best scenes.

The macabre characters of cartoonist Charles Addams created for the New Yorker jumped onto the television screen in this 1960s TV sitcom. The show starred John Astin and Carolyn Jones and ran for two seasons.

High school football in Texas dominates the lives of the Taylor family in the NBC series, “Friday Night Lights.” The three-time Emmy winner, which starred Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler, received kudos from critics during its five-season,

Though it ran for just one season, “Freaks and Geeks,” about nerds and burnouts who don’t fit in at an American high school in the 1980s, won critical acclaim. It also helped launch the careers of Linda Cardellini and James Franco.

A kind of prequel to the “Big Bang Theory,” this sit-com shows young Sheldon Cooper dealing with the pitfalls of being a genius and his social awkwardness. The five-season series airs on CBS.

The comedy series that helped make Will Smith a star (he also rapped the memorable theme), this sit-com features Smith played a young man from a rough neighborhood in Philadelphia sent by his mom to live with wealthy relatives in California to avoid trouble. The NBC series ran for six seasons.

“The Originals” was a series about a family of vampires returning to New Orleans for the first time since they were forced to leave in 1919. They came back out for revenge. The five-season series aired on the CW network.

“The Gilmore Girls,” created by Amy Sherman-Palladino (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), focuses on the relationship between a single mom in her 30s (Lauren Graham) and her teenage daughter (Alexis Bledel). The seven-season series ran on the WB and CW networks.

“Arrested Development” was a five-season sit-com on Fox and Netflix that starred Jeffrey Tambor and Jason Bateman and featured Liza Minnelli. It’s about an even-keeled son (Bateman) trying to keep his wealthy but dysfunctional family together after his father (Tambor) is arrested. The show won six Emmys.

Seth MacFarlane created and voices characters in the long-running animated series on Fox lampooning the American family. The show has won nine Emmys, including five for MacFarlane.

Kevin Costner is the patriarch of the Dutton family, a ranch-owning dynasty in Montana fending off land-grab attempts from lumber companies. The Western-drama series on Paramount has run for four seasons.

“The Simpsons,” created by Matt Groening, is the longest-running animated series of all time. The Simpsons are: Homer, the dopey nuclear plant worker; his beleaguered wife, Marge; trouble-magnet Bart; smart middle child Lisa; and infant Maggie. Over its 33 years on Fox, it has racked up 35 Emmy wins.

“Modern Family” stars Ed O’Neill as the patriarch of an extended family that includes his much-younger Colombian wife and her son; his son and the son’s gay partner and their daughter; and his daughter and her family. Over its 11-season run, the show has garnered 22 Emmys. It totaled more than 394,000 IMDb user reviews, the second-most of any show on the list.

One of the most critically acclaimed series ever, “The Sopranos” is about a New Jersey crime boss trying to maintain a normal family life in the suburbs. It is one of two shows on the list to hold a 9.2 Internet Movie Database user rating. The series ran for six seasons on HBO and piled up 21 Emmy awards. The show also spawned a full-length movie prequel titled “The Many Saints of Newark” that was released last October.

This critics and audience favorite on Rotten Tomatoes stars Second City cast members Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara. The wealthy Rose family is in dire straits after they lose all their money and assets except for one – a small town they bought as a lark years earlier. Airing originally on CBC, the series has won nine Emmys.

Sit-com meets Marvel Comics Universe in this series that features sit-com veterans Kat Dennings (“2 Broke Girls”) and Debra Jo Rupp (“That 70s Show”). The new series has won three Emmys.

America’s Favorite TV family is the House of Lannister from the medieval fantasy series “Game of Thrones” on HBO. The series amassed more than 1.9 million user reviews on IMDb, by far the most of any shows on this list. It won 59 Emmys over eight seasons, and is one of only two shows with a 9.2 IMDb user rating.