Television series

F is for Family

Name: F is for Family
Genre: Comedy
Released: 2015
Cast: Bill Burr, Laura Dern, Justin Long, Haley Reinhart, Debi Derryberry

An animated sitcom that trades sunny nostalgia for the real texture of 1970s suburbia: ashtrays, layaway plans, and a father whose rage is really just terror about money. Bill Burr's Frank Murphy anchors a show that's filthy, sad, and frequently hilarious, mixing broad slapstick with genuine class anxiety. It's for anyone who wants their family cartoon with teeth.

TVMaze rating

7.7

If you liked this

King of the Hill1997

The other great animated portrait of a stubborn, decent working man baffled by the changing world around him. Hank Hill and Frank Murphy are cousins under the skin — same exasperation, gentler delivery.

But It's warmer and slower than F is for Family. If you want Frank's fury, Hank's quiet dignity might feel like a different show entirely.

Bob's Burgers2011

Loren Bouchard co-created both shows, and you can feel the same love for a struggling, weird, loyal family unit underneath the jokes. Sweeter and sillier, but from the same creative household.

But Almost no menace here at all — no violence, no real financial dread. If you liked the show's teeth, this one's gums.

Malcolm in the Middle2000

Live-action chaos with a similarly overwhelmed, temper-prone dad and a house full of kids who treat him like weather. Frantic, funny, and surprisingly tender underneath the yelling.

But Sitcom pacing and a laugh-track sensibility (even without the track) that's tamer than F is for Family's willingness to go dark.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Revolutionary Road2008

Same suburban trap, same era-adjacent domestic despair — F is for Family plays it for laughs, this plays the identical situation completely straight.

Strip away every joke from F is for Family's premise and you get this: a marriage suffocating under the same postwar promise of a house, a job, and a life that was supposed to mean more than this.

But There is no comic relief. It's a genuinely bleak, unhurried film about disappointment, and it earns its misery slowly.

Everybody Hates Chris2005

A period-piece family comedy narrated with hindsight, mining a working-class household for both laughs and real hardship. Same instinct to be funny about things that actually hurt.

But Gentler in tone and squarely a kids'-eye-view show — less interested in adult despair than in growing up.

The Wonder Years1988

Nostalgia with a melancholy undertow, narrated by an adult looking back at a childhood that wasn't as simple as it looked. A quieter cousin to Frank Murphy's era.

But Sentimental where F is for Family is cynical — if you want the sweetness without the swearing, this delivers; if you don't, it'll feel soft.

Roseanne1988

The blueprint for blue-collar family comedy that doesn't flinch from money trouble, exhaustion, and marital friction, played by people who feel genuinely worn down by life.

But Multi-camera, live-audience sitcom rhythms that are stylistically a world away from F is for Family's animated cinema.

That '70s Show1998no page yet

Same decade, same wood paneling, same dads shouting about the thermostat — but played almost entirely for warmth and nostalgia rather than dread.

But Defanged and sitcom-safe by comparison; there's no real jeopardy here, just hangout comedy in bell-bottoms.

Big Mouth2017

Another filthy, big-hearted Netflix cartoon willing to go further than you expect into humiliation, shame, and family dysfunction, dressed up as broad puberty comedy.

But Its chaos is teenage and hormonal rather than adult and economic — a different flavor of desperation entirely.

Married... with Children1987

The godfather of the miserable, broke, resentful sitcom dad, played entirely for cruelty and laughs with none of the tenderness F is for Family sneaks in underneath.

But Meaner and flatter — there's real venom here but almost no pathos, which can feel thin over a long binge.

American Splendor2003

Same DNA — a comic-derived, animation-adjacent portrait of a furious, underpaid everyman narrating his own disappointing life with dark humor intact.

A film that mixes live action, animation, and comic-book panels to tell the true story of a cranky, broke, working-class man narrating his own grim, funny life — the format itself doing double duty.

But Small, indie, and quiet where F is for Family is loud and cartoonish; it's melancholy comedy, not slapstick.