Bill Cosby is a father figure worshipped for his neutrality, even today. His sweaters may be the laughing stock of whichever New York suburb he lives in, but perhaps that's beats being congratulated for plaid. Dan and Bill are easily compared as fathers of television families with thirteen and a half minutes crises'. However, their spheres of idiocy revolve completely differently. Focusing on their apparent socio-economic contrasts, let's analyze what makes these two characters worth projecting into our homes.

If Dan were presented with an quandary that perhaps didn't involve flatulence, we can first assume it would have to wait until late in the evening when he reportedly returns home from work. In the style of the household, he might slap us on the back, unearth a chuckle with a partially relevant anecdote. Cliff's profession has allowed his wife to avoid the likes of Roseanne's horrible stay-at-home-mom-job. It's possible that in a more financially liberal setting, Roseanne's southern drawl and cynicism would fade.

Watching either family, it's obvious that the hedonism of the 1980's goes above and beyond what television calls for. With it's canned laughter and ungodly amounts of hairspray the feeling of absurdity is compounded. Every television show is silly, because before the next commercial break, we must get to know the characters well enough to be entranced. We must fall in love, seeing pieces of ourselves on the screen. So, when Roseanne does something absurd, like fall out of her bathing suit at the pool, all the girls in the television audience remember when their bikini came off. When Cliff sends his daughter back and forth all the little boys and girls remember how silly and shy they were in junior high. These elements of identity are independent of socio-economic status, but these statuses do define just how deeply each sect of the audience identifies with each show. Twenty years later, it's easy to laugh at.