{"id":28414,"date":"2022-01-14T00:49:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-14T00:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=28414"},"modified":"2022-01-15T00:55:27","modified_gmt":"2022-01-15T00:55:27","slug":"what-made-bob-sagets-danny-tanner-so-different-from-other-sitcom-dads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/what-made-bob-sagets-danny-tanner-so-different-from-other-sitcom-dads\/","title":{"rendered":"What made Bob Saget\u2019s Danny Tanner so different from other sitcom dads"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jessica Troilo<\/a>, West Virginia University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bob Saget, who died on Jan. 9, 2022<\/a>, is probably best remembered for his role as Danny Tanner on the popular sitcom \u201cFull House<\/a>,\u201d which aired from 1987 to 1995.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think fans of the show have such fond memories of this character because Danny exemplified what it meant to \u201cbe there\u201d as a parent. A single dad whose wife had passed away, he was eager to lend an ear to daughters D.J., Stephanie and Michelle, offering them support and reassurance through the twists and turns of childhood and adolescence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why heap so much praise on a sitcom dad? It\u2019s easy to disregard TV as mere mindless entertainment. But entertainment media can both reflect and reshape culture \u2013 including how fathers interact with their children. They can influence how viewers think about fathers<\/a>, regardless of the accuracy of those portrayals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As someone who studies stereotypes of fathers<\/a>, I view Danny as an avatar of the changing expectations of fatherhood that began in the late 1970s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danny Tanner and \u2018being there\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Danny Tanner was a 30-something widower when Full House premiered. That wasn\u2019t a common situation for his demographic \u2013 less than 1% in his bracket shared it<\/a> \u2013 and it allowed viewers to watch Danny parent his three daughters with the help of his brother-in-law and his best friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonetheless, in nearly every episode, viewers saw Danny \u201cbeing there\u201d for his family. \u201cBeing there\u201d is a concept that describes being physically and emotionally involved with your children<\/a>. This term took on particular significance for fathers in the late 20th century<\/a>. \u201cBeing there\u201d allowed dads to be seen as more than just financial providers and recognized that fathers interact with their children in varied and important ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the earlier part of the century, fathers were assumed to be breadwinners and not much else, a stereotype reflected in the era\u2019s popular media. For example, sitcom fathers on \u201cFather Knows Best<\/a>,\u201d which aired from 1954 to 1960, and \u201cThe Donna Reed Show<\/a>,\u201d which ended its run in 1966, bore little responsibility for actual child care beyond a pat on the head and some occasional discipline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beginning in the 1970s, psychologist Michael Lamb encouraged a change in how we thought about fathers and broadened the definition of what he called \u201cfather involvement<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lamb proposed three dimensions of father involvement: engagement, availability and responsibility. The last of these, responsibility \u2013 which involved financial support and parental guidance \u2013 could be spotted in some form in the preceding sitcoms. But engagement and availability, which tend to involve day-to-day emotional support, were almost entirely foreign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danny Tanner\u2019s approach to fatherhood, by contrast, demonstrated perhaps the fullest realization of these changing expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One episode, \u201cBack to School Blues,\u201d featured oldest daughter D.J. starting junior high. Spoiler alert: It doesn\u2019t go well<\/a>. She\u2019s teased by older girls, wears the same outfit as one of the teachers, and spends lunch alone. (I was a year younger than D.J., and this episode made me nervous about my own entry into junior high.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Danny doesn\u2019t approve of D.J.\u2018s attempts to look older to fit in and make friends, she storms off to her room saying she wants to be left alone. Danny says he can\u2019t do that, and then listens as she explains everything that went wrong at school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this short scene, he reinforced family rules and provided emotional support, while showing that he would \u201cbe there\u201d for D.J. whenever she needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A different kind of dad<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Though Danny represented a departure from the typical sitcom father, he didn\u2019t exactly spearhead a new trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Immature and irresponsible fathers \u2013 the kind seen in popular shows like \u201cThe Simpsons<\/a>,\u201d \u201cHome Improvement<\/a>\u201d and \u201cMarried \u2026 With Children<\/a>\u201d \u2013 were more commonplace. To this day, the stereotype of the bumbling dad persists on TV<\/a>. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wKf7i3DZi-c?wmode=transparent&start=0 Danny comforts D.J. after she admits she isn\u2019t happy with her body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my research<\/a>, I found that single sitcom dads with full child care responsibilities were shown interacting with their children more often than married sitcom dads. Compared to their married counterparts on the tube, they were more likely to offer kindness, care, love, support and guidance. Along with Danny, these characters included Mr. Drummond on \u201cDiff\u2019rent Strokes<\/a>,\u201d Tony Micelli in \u201cWho\u2019s the Boss?<\/a>\u201d and Maxwell Sheffield on \u201cThe Nanny<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, married sitcom father-child interactions were more likely to involve criticism and sarcastic humor. In fact, married sitcom fathers often made jokes at their children\u2019s expense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why does this discrepancy exist?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My research has found<\/a> that in real life, married fathers are thought to be loving and kind but with room for improvement as parents. They\u2019re seen as the right-hand man to mothers, who have taken the lead in parenting. Because of this, people expect more bumbling and less skill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Single dads, however, tend to be viewed as selfless and dedicated, because the assumption is that they\u2019ve put their children above all else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danny Tanner isn\u2019t the novelty today that he was in the early 1990s. But if his character is instructive in any way, it\u2019s that dads shouldn\u2019t have to lose their wives to be the best parent they can be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.<\/em> Sign up for our weekly newsletter<\/a>.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jessica Troilo<\/a>, Associate Professor of Child Development and Family Studies, West Virginia University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jessica Troilo, West Virginia University Bob Saget, who died on Jan. 9, 2022, is probably best remembered for his role as Danny Tanner on the popular sitcom \u201cFull House,\u201d which aired from 1987 to 1995. I think fans of the show have such fond memories of this character because Danny exemplified what it meant to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":28415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293,8025],"tags":[11156,485,3006,3005,8050,1034,2565,6511,536,6955],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28414"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28414"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28416,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28414\/revisions\/28416"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}