Television can often provide information on a society. In the case of American society, the way families are portrayed on television demonstrates how views on family have changed over the years.
The stereotypical family used to be a nuclear family (a mother, a father, and children), with men often being the providers of the family and women being stay-at-home mothers. Nowadays, modern shows often include other arrangements. Working mothers have become more common, as well as single-parent households. Divorced couples have also become more accepted, as well as those in homosexual relationships. These changes reflect the changing nature of the American household.
