19 TV families that will make you thankful for yours

George Constanza (Jason Alexander) may be one of the most obnoxious and pathetic characters in sitcom history. But it's a miracle he wasn't much worse, considering his parents. Frank (Jerry Stiller) and Estelle (Estelle Harris) are shrieking complainers who despise each other. Every family conversation was punctuated by his bark and her screech, and just when you thought all the Festivus and Bro psychological damage was in the past, George walked in on them having sex in the back of a van. Serenity now! —Jeff Labrecque

The Bundys may have the stereotypical heteronormative TV family structure of a father, mother, and two children (boy and girl), but they were far from what you would call aspirational. From Al's (Ed O'Neill) bitter feelings about selling women's shoes to Peggy's (Katey Sagal) lack of perspective, poor Kelly (Christina Applegate) and Bud (David Faustino) didn't stand a chance. More like woe, Bundy. —Maddie Boardman

A true American family, Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, Maggie, and their trusty dog, Santa's Little Helper, are the picture of function in their dysfunction. Marge exhibits endless patience with her excruciating husband, allowing Homer to be his best crass donut-eating self. Bart's lack of common ground with his sister Lisa, and Maggie's daily baby struggles only add to the chaos. —M.B.

Lucious (Terrence Howard), Cookie (Taraji P. Henson), Jamal (Jussie Smollett), Andre (Trai Byers), and Hakeem Lyon (Bryshere Y. Gray) regularly faced off with one another through competing record labels. The family's troubles didn't stop there, however, as trips to jail, secret murders, and haunting pasts were a standard part of their fold. —M.B.

The Mikaelsons are arguably the oldest dysfunctional TV family, considering they've been around for more than 1,000 years. And you can bet that, over time, they've perfected the art of dysfunction. Lies, threats, betrayals, coffins, vampirism...this family has it all. And they'll continue their dysfunction "always and forever." Literally. —Samantha Highfill 

If you really want to talk about dysfunction, let's talk about a mother-son relationship that's bordering on incest and that we all know is going to end with one very dead mother and one, shall we say, "psycho" son. And don't forget about Norma's (Vera Farmiga) twisted relationship with her own brother, otherwise known as Dylan's (Max Thieriot) uncle/father. —S.H.

This father has committed adultery and light treason, and hid out in the attic.

This mother enjoys cocktails more than her children and cheated on her husband with his twin brother.

This daughter is a lazy, misguided activist who is in a relationship with a sexually-confused psychiatrist–turned–low-rent thespian. 

This son is a freeloading, failed illusionist whose mode of transport is a Segway.

Another son is an infantilized, panic-attack-prone, Army dropout who spent 11 months in his mother's womb.

And another son is a self-satisfied martyr whose tragic dating life includes a prosecutor faking blindness and a developmentally challenged Brit.

This granddaughter has led a double life as a movie executive.

This grandson is very pure of heart but that heart lusts for his cousin.

The defense rests. Come on! —Dan Snierson

For a while, you probably thought the Starks were the heroes of Game of Thrones. They walk around with their trusty direwolf sidekicks, standing up for honor and good deeds. But who needs that when you've got the twisted, violent, and scheming Lannisters? The fact that they'd just as rather destroy each other as their enemies makes the whole thing even more entertaining. —Christian Holub 

And you thought your family was problematic. Big sister Fiona (Emmy Rossum) has always tried to take care of her siblings ever since she was still a child herself, but she's never been helped by the fact that Gallagher patriarch Frank (William H. Macy) will do anything for a high (and treats the house as an occasional rest stop more than a home). Add in their mother, who declines to treat her bipolar disorder and who is better off gone than when she blows into town like a hurricane — and the fact that, at the end of the day, Fiona is her own worst enemy and Lip (Jeremy Allen White), Debbie (Emma Kenney), Ian (Cameron Monaghan), Carl (Ethan Cutkosky), and Liam (Christian Isaiah) never really stood a chance at an easy life. Still, the Gallagher siblings love each other to death, which might be more than you can say about your sister who keeps bragging about how together her life is. We get it, Karen. —Amanda Michelle Steiner

The perfect example of the Griffins' dysfunction? Stewie, the talking toddler who's constantly coming up with ways to kill his mother and take over the world. No way that child comes out of a functional family. —S.H.

"Some people go miniature golfing with their parents," Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) said once. "We go to India to look for nukes." They went fighting all the way. As agents for the CIA, Sydney and emotionally-distant father Jack (Victor Garber) were forced to trust each other with their lives before they could hold a civil conversation — but neither one could trust the mother Sydney thought was dead. Ex-KGB operative Irina Derevko (Lena Olin) was a master manipulator whose past affairs brought baddie Sloane (Ron Rifkin) into the family as the father of Sydney's half-sister Nadia (Mia Maestro). As for Irina's sisters, Katya (Isabella Rossellini) made a habit out of seducing Jack, while Elena (Sônia Braga) tried to kickstart the apocalypse. Confiscate all knives at this family gathering. —Kelly Connolly

Let's just say there's a reason Ryan Atwood (Ben McKenzie) found a new family in the Cohens. Where he was from, his brother was in jail — and had gotten him arrested — and his mother had an alcohol problem in addition to an abusive boyfriend. (And then there was that whole Trey-and-Ryan-nearly-killing-each-other thing in season 2.) So, despite the fact that, at their core, they were good people who loved Ryan, the Atwoods simply weren't good for him. Turns out, Ryan was better suited to a life of insecurity and paralyzing self-doubt. —S.H.

There's nothing like a bigoted father and an almost painfully quiet mother to create a warm household? Just ask Gloria (Sally Struthers), the sole daughter of Archie (Carroll O'Connor) and Edith Bunker (Jean Stapleton). How Gloria grew up without losing her mind, we'll never know. —S.H.

Poor them: Tony (James Gandolfini), Carmela (Edie Falco), Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler), A.J. (Robert Iler), Uncle Junior (Dominic Chianese), and Livia (Nancy Marchand) made up the Sopranos, a Mob family that battled rival families, their own inner demons and failings, and whose patriarch maybe (or maybe not) wound up murdered at a New Jersey dinner. Don't stop believin'. —M.B.

They might have looked picture-perfect in that Kodak Carousel, but, in real life, the Drapers were anything but ideal. Betty's (January Jones) parenting skills were often questionable (remember when she let Sally and Bobby play with dry cleaning bags?), while Don's (Jon Hamm) affairs, drinking, and other misadventures won't put him in line for Father of the Year. Plus, if we're getting technical here, they were never really "the Drapers" — they're the Whitmans! —Jessica Derschowitz

Any TV show with a theme song that boasts "You're not the boss of me now" as its refrain is bound to have a dysfunctional family in the mix. Enter the Wilkersons, with perpetually stressed mom Lois (Jane Kaczmarek), bumbling dad Hal (or Walter White undercover, if you subscribe to that fan theory), and their brood of boys — with middle kid Malcolm (Frankie Muniz) often as the voice of reason amidst the family chaos. —J.D.

Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) has a tough life, and her constantly growing family hasn't made it any easier. There's her mom, who made Meredith feel like she was never good enough. There's her dad, who didn't try to reconnect with Meredith throughout a decades-long estrangement (oh, and also started a new family that he paid plenty of attention to in the meantime). Then there are the surprise half-sisters who keep popping up: first, the late Lexie (Chyler Leigh), then Maggie (Kelly McCreary), the child of Ellis (Kate Burton) and Richard (James Pickens Jr.) — you know, Meredith's longtime boss. Families are ideally stable. Meredith's is far from it. —Ariana Bacle

From the outside, the Popes were your average (if well-to-do and a bit tragic) family: Dad Eli (Joe Morton) worked at the Smithsonian; daughter Olivia (Kerry Washington) had her own law firm and was a powerful D.C. political fixer; and mom Maya (Khandi Alexander) tragically died in a plane crash when Liv was a teen. But the truth is a little messier: Dad ran B613, a secret government intelligence agency with a murder/torture problem; Mom was not only alive, but also an international terrorist who once chewed through her own wrists to get out of prison; and Liv? She helped rig an election, and her married boyfriend was none other than the president of the United States. But hey ­— the Popes may be trouble, but they have great taste in vintage wine! —Isabella Biedenharn

Everything was going pretty well with the Whites until Walter (Bryan Cranston) got cancer and subsequently became a drug-dealing, power-obsessed monster: He hid his meth-making habits from his family as long as he could, but once his wife eventually found out, she had no choice but to go along with him and help set up a money-laundering scheme to cover up his criminal activity. The pair's warped relationship peaked in one of the series' final episodes when Walter made sure Skyler (Anna Gunn) wouldn't be implicated during a terrifying phone call meant to trick the police, a move that exhibited both his villainous tendencies and his concern for his wife in one fell swoop. —A.B.