Frank Gallagher: The worst father on television

With our recent topic of masculinity and how some television series showcase their ideal man, I've been thinking more and more about a show that I've recently started to watch called Shameless. One character in particular caught my eye.

Frank Gallagher. If' you haven't seen the show and are into complex series that have a dark sense of humor I suggest this one. The show delivers what the title states. Every character in this show is very shameless. Especially Frank. Frank is the father of seven children and hasn't raised a single one of them. While he lives with them partially in the first season Frank takes advantage of anybody that will listen to him, and that includes his family. This leaves the oldest daughter, Fione, to be in charge of running the frantic house. Surprisingly The Gallagher's are always there for Frank when he needs help the most. In one particular episode called "Frank Gallagher: Loving Husband, Devoted Father" shows an interesting aspect of Franks masculinity along with the relationship with his family. Frank is being hunted by bookies for a $6000 debt he owes. Throughout the episode he tries to swindle money every way he can. From trying to still a cup full of coins from a blind man all the way to robbing an old lady as she's leaving the ATM. The way of which he was unsuccessful with each robbery speaks to his masculine nature. We talked in class about dominant and subordinate masculinity, but Frank is in a different realm. He's dominant in the sense that he can manufacture a plan to get what he needs and he's subordinate in the sense that even if he fixes one problem in his life, ten more will occur. At the end of the day Frank is an addict. He'll do whatever it takes to live his ideal drunken lifestyle, and if anything threatens that he'll do whatever it takes to prevent it from affecting it. Joshua Alston writes " I’m interested in the idea of Frank always managing to find a new low. Even though Frank is a parental non-entity, the kids still have some degree of love for him, so he still wields the power to disappoint them, and I was interested in seeing how this latest transgression would redefine those relationships". The family comes together and saves Frank in the end by pretending he's dead, but sure enough he's back to his old habits by the end of the episode.We also find that Franks been using his youngest kids identities to max out credit cards in his name. Making him the worst father on television.

Network television: Stuck on re peat peat peat peat peat.

In the article “Ralph, Fred, Archie, Homer, and the King of Queens”, Richard Butsch gives an explanation to the reason why network and cable television reproduce the same character dynamics in different shows, and the difficulties of unique shows with niche audiences to last more than a few seasons. Unfortunately most major television networks aren’t looking to create truly unique and good television series that represents a particular scope of American culture somewhat accurately. Having said that, there are a lot more shows on television that do their best to showcase reality within a script then there used to be, but we rarely find them on network television. At the end of the day the goal is to have as many people watching your channel as possible, so the advertisers will be happy.
 

The big networks do this by taking few risks and repeating what they know has worked in the past. The best example of this is CBS’s hit series CSI. This show became so popular that it started to cause jurors to require more physical evidence in actual court cases.





 After the booming success of CSI two years later CBS put a new hat on it and called it CSI: Miami.









Two years after the continued success of CSI and CSI: Miami CBS decided to completely change everything and create a truly unique show called CSI: New York.

CBS isn’t the only network to repeat shows, but it is one of the worst offenders that still manage to pull it off. They decided to add NCIS to their arsenal of crime drama’s in 2003. It’s slightly different from CSI, but follows the same format. (A body is found, characters investigate, comical relief subplots to make the character’s more “lovable”, they bring in the wrong guy, They bring in the right guy but they don’t know it’s the right guy, characters continue to investigate, the right guy is caught.) Of course CBS now follows NCIS with another great original, NCIS: LA.
As long as ratings remain the most important factor to television networks, we are unlikely to see much change in the type of programing they produce. While there are some good successful shows (The Office, Big Bang Theory, and How I Met Your Mother) very few unique and original series will make it to network television, and even fewer will last. (Freaks and Geeks, Arrested Development, Community, etc.)