13 of TV’s Most Dysfunctional Families

Family drama is at the heart of many television shows. It’s a subject that we all relate to, so it’s sometimes comforting to see that there are families like ours, and some are even more messed up than ours.

Some of TV’s dysfunctional families are so messed up that we probably wouldn’t want to join their family tree, while others are chaotic, love hard, and are often entertaining.

Here is TV Fanatic’s list of the 13 TV most dysfunctional families.

Edith’s screeching out the lyrics as she and Archie sang the theme song to All in the Family became part of American pop culture. (CBS / All in the Family)

The Bunkers (All in the Family)

When All in the Family came out, dysfunctional families on TV didn’t exist.

Sitcoms were almost always portraying “typical” families, which really weren’t. Every family has some degree of conflict or dysfunction.

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Archie Bunker took that to another level because he ignored his wife, Edith.

Meanwhile, he treated his adult daughter Gloria like a child, causing both of them to walk on eggshells around him more often than not.

Then, there was all the verbal sparring he did with Gloria’s husband, whom he always called “Meathead.”

The Bundys (Married…With Children)

(FOX/ Screenshot)

Archie Bunker may have pioneered the dysfunctional TV dad, but Married with Children had four willing participants in the dysfunctional antics, which gave it an entirely different feel.

The parents, Peg and Al, and their teenage kids, Bud and Kelly, mostly agreed that they hated their lives. They were always short on cash, bickering, insulting, and even ignoring each other.

Related: TV Characters Defined by Their Sense of Humor

There was very little actual decent parenting involved.

That whole combination of Peg’s stripper-like outfits, Al practically living on the sofa when he wasn’t at work, and Bud and Kelly constantly making up stupid, unsupervised schemes made the show hilarious.

It also helped put FOX on the map back in the day.

The Sopranos (The Sopranos)

(Courtesy of HBO)

It really can’t get more dysfunctional than a crime boss and his family.

Tony Soprano, the dad, was always trying to balance his actual family life with his crime family life, which was full of violence and created even more of a mess, especially due to his bad temper. 

He even had to see a therapist because his stress levels got so high while he was trying to balance his crime boss duties with family issues.

The Bristows (Alias)

(ABC/ Screenshot)

So much of the early part of Alias focused on repairing the strained relationship between Jack and Sydney and learning to work together.

Once they finally made some progress, Irina Derevko resurfaced and attempted to kill Sydney in their first meeting.

Sydney was reluctant to trust her mother, but both her parents strived to protect her from the other. This opens a new can of family secrets that were solved with angst, threats, and drama.

This family put the fun in dysfunction, and it was disappointing that Irina (Lena Olin) was only a series regular in Season 2. Storylines were so much more dramatic and entertaining when she was around.

Related: Alias Cast: Where Are They Now?

The Luthors (Smallville)

(Courtesy of The CW)

The Luthors brought entertainment to Smallville, but they were sometimes downright evil.

They were all capable of murder, as Lex learned during Season 3 that Lionel had killed his own parents, Elza and Lachlan Luthor. He had Lionel sent to prison so he could take over LuthorCorp.

Lionel and Lex always played cat and mouse for power and information, especially about Clark’s secrets.

Father and son kept information on each other’s heads and sent each other to prison and Belle Reve numerous times.

In a final showdown, Lionel fell out the mansion window and died. In Season 8, Lex tried to train a new protégé and his half-sister, Tess Mercer, to follow his ways until Lana warned Tess about Lex. Tess eventually joined the superheroes, and Lex killed her, too.

The Roys (Succession)

The Roy Family breaks bread together on Succession. (HBO)

Money can make life easier, but it can also complicate relationships. The Roy family of HBO’s Succession is a prime example of this phenomenon.

Maybe if he’d worked in a steel mill, Logan Roy would’ve been the perfect dad. Instead, he founded a media empire and used his power almost exclusively for evil.

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Logan particularly delighted in pitting his kids against each other, a situation that resulted in at least three and a half very damaged psyches.

His decision to move out West might have saved actual “oldest boy” and sourdough enthusiast Conor Roy from being completely destroyed by his father’s machinations.

The Bluths (Arrested Development)

(Sam Urdank/Netflix)

It’s possible that no family represents as many different types of dysfunctions as the Bluths of Arrested Development. Sure, with the possible exceptions of Michael and his son, George Michael, they’re all absurdly out of touch, but each Bluth is delusional differently.

 Take Buster and Gob, for example:  One thinks the world is out to get him, and the other thinks the world is his playground. Somehow, they’re both right. We learned many important lessons from the Bluths.

There’s always money in the banana stand; loose seals can be surprisingly vicious, and, of course, there’s no limit to how bad parenting and childhood trauma can mess someone up for life.

The Lannisters (Game of Thrones)

(Helen Sloan/HBO)

 A Lannister always pays his debts. Unless he owes his kids a debt for how horribly he messed them up.

Like the Roys and the Bluths, the Lannisters are never short of cash but deeply lacking in the humanity department.

To be fair, Tyrion is a good dude despite being overly fond of wine and prostitutes, and Jaime experiences flashes of humanity.

Related: Game of Thrones Fans Are Still Divided Over These Controversial Storylines (Why Did They Do That to Daenerys?)

But they both turned out okay despite Tywin’s dictatorial parenting, not because of it.

While her love for her kids might be her saving grace, Cersei is so broken by the family dynamic, so eager to please her father by amassing power, that she ultimately proves incapable of protecting her offspring.

The Targaryens (House of the Dragon)

(Theo Whitman/HBO)

You’d expect to find a lot of fiery tempers in a family that keeps dragons as pets. But even by Westerosi standards, the Targaryens are a very angry bunch.

And because they control the medieval equivalent of nuclear weapons, they’re capable of doing a whole lot of damage — both to themselves and to the world around them.

Viewers who were confused by Daenerys Targaryen’s sudden heel turn in the final season of Game of Thrones might feel that House of the Dragon has provided some crucial context.

The war of succession depicted on HotD took place nearly 200 years before the Khaleesi was born, but generational dysfunction can be as resilient as a giant flying lizard.

The Duttons (Yellowstone)

(Paramount Network)

Why are the wealthiest families always the most screwed up? When we think of emotionally unstable rich people, we usually imagine them sweating through their Armani suits, like Kendall Roy.

But the Duttons of Yellowstone prove that neuroses can also exist in wide open spaces.

The Duttons’ story has yet to wrap up.

Related: With Horizon Poised to Flop, Should Kevin Costner Have Stuck With Yellowstone?

Still, we know that the climactic battles will not involve family patriarch John Dutton, as Kevin Costner has left the ranch for good, partly due to tension between himself and showrunner Taylor Sheridan.

We guess all that family drama boiled over into real life!

The Tejadas (Power Book II: Ghost)

(STARZ/Myles Aronowitz)

 One of the most powerful drug-dealing families in New York also happens to be the most dysfunctional in a series filled with less-than-stellar familial dynamics.

With her husband Lorenzo in jail, Monet held down the fort, but her family began to fall apart while the business prospered.

While some of the kids have resisted falling in line and not pursuing their dreams, others have done what Monet asked, which has caused a lot of resentment and pain.

Monet orchestrating Lorenzo’s eventual death has created a chasm in the family that may not ever be fixed.

The Lyons (Empire)

(Chuck Hodes/FOX)

With great power clearly comes family discord and drama, and the Lyons understand this well.

The matriarch and patriarch of this family have one of the most convoluted dynamics ever, both straddling two different worlds, a street life full of secrecy and violence and a drug dealing past with the wheeling and dealing fast life of managing the most dynamic entertainment agency.

Lucious’s conniving demeanor often stokes family issues. He pits his very different sons against one another while dangling the family empire above them to determine which is worthy of upholding the family legacy and taking over.

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Meanwhile, Cookie, the Brains behind everything who never got her just desserts, often volleys between trying to keep her sons together and weaponizing them against Lucious.

The Lyons drama is pure Shakespearean levels of dysfunction; rightly so, it’s inspired by King Lear, after all.

The Gallaghers (Shameless)

(Paul Sarkis/SHOWTIME)

When you think of dysfunctional families, you think of the Gallaghers from Shameless. The series focused primarily on the chaotic and alcoholic patriarch Frank Gallagher and his many offspring.

The eldest, Fiona, suffered the most from her dad’s alcoholism and neglect and her mom’s outright abandonment and raising her younger siblings from the time she was a child. She finally was granted legal guardianship of them, but Frank still had custody, too.

Most of the children suffered the effects of not getting enough parental attention. Ian struggled with bipolar depression, Debbie became a teen mom, and Carl had issues with drugs before going to military school.

These were only a few of the dysfunctional TV families. Did we cover your favorite? Who else would you have included?

Let us know in the comments below.

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