It’s The Simpsons heading our best loved TV families
Throughout the last year, with its fair share of dramas, there is often one reassuring factor among all the chaos ... family.
Television has been a huge saviour during the period of the pandemic and successive lockdowns but who is our favourite TV family?
A new study has revealed the TV families the world loves the most in 2021.
The top ten most loved TV families are revealed to be The Simpsons, The Sopranos, The Goldbergs, The Roses, The Greys, The Conners, The Munsters, The Flintstones, The Waltons and The Parkers.
The research also shows that, with 10,205,300 searches between 2020 and 2021, the Simpsons, one of the longest running TV shows ever, are still the world’s most loved TV family in 2021. This is after three decades plus, since their debut in 1989.
The Simpsons were the favourite fictional family in 78 of 100 countries analysed by their average monthly search volume.
The oldest show in the top 10 is the Flintstones, which premiered in 1960 and was even developed into two movies. Fred, Wilma, Pebbles and Dino are the world’s eighth most popular TV family with 1,586,020 annual searches.
Of the most loved TV families in the world, the five most popular non-animated TV families include the Sopranos, the Goldbergs, the Roses, the Greys and the Conners.
The Sopranos, the American crime family who appeared in six seasons, started back in 1999.
The series follows Tony Soprano, a New Jersey-based Italian-American gangster, who tries to balance his family life with his role as boss of the Soprano family.
Then there’s The Goldbergs, an American period sitcom that follows the life of this family through events from the childhood of showrunner Adam F Goldberg.
In 2020 the show was renewed for an eighth season, to continue to show the events when he was growing up in the 1980s.
Andrew Coplestone Founder of Play Like Mum, who conducted the research, said of the findings: “Parents can use TV shows to influence imaginative role play.
“For example, playing doctors and nurses, or being superheroes or going to the office like mum or dad.
“Using toys already at
your disposal, you can create a variety of job roles from police officers, to builders, to flight attendants.
“Engaging in public-facing roles is good for children’s development as it encourages discipline and empathy.
“It helps children to understand and express their feelings through the re-enactment
of certain experiences. The possibilities with imaginative play are therefore endless.
“Television shows have the added benefit of portraying social and environmental issues.
“TV time can actually provide a useful opportunity to help your child understand and prepare for what
to expect from life in the real world.”
He continued: “We all know and love The Simpsons and there is so much to take away from them.
“From Bart’s ability to find humour in life to Lisa’s curiosity and ambition, The Simpsons are so relatable because the show addresses the reality of everyday life
from mental health troubles, to the value of persistence and even seeing the beauty in people for their differences.
“Above all, these programmes show us that the family bond is stronger than individual differences.”
For more information visit https://www.playlikemum.com/worlds-favouritefictional-families website.