History Characters / FIsForFamilyMurphyFamily

* CharacterDevelopment: Starts out the show at his worse, but as seasons go on he shows his more empathetic and sympathetic side openly, and tries to be there for his kids in his own way. [[spoiler: His total growth in the five seasons is shown in the ending, which is an almost complete recreation of the opening scene of season 1, but Frank handles the situation totally differently. He puts the call on hold, joking and eating with his family... showing that he has mellowed and is more willing to show he loves them.]]

* MenCantKeepHouse: As seen in episode 4. It's the whole reason why he doesn't want his wife to have a part time job.

* ParentsAsPeople: He's verbally and sometimes physically abusive and prone to flying off the handle at any moment, but he tries to provide for his children and loves his family more than anything.[[spoiler: His kids eventually become more sympathetic to him when they learn how bad their grandpa was. Part of Frank's growth in season 5 after Big Bill dies is learning that Bill and his mom were "two messed-up people that fucked and made me. And nothing more."]].

* PushoverParents: His attempts at disciplining his children for bad behavior are almost always ineffectual. This reaches a head in season 5 when he passes Bill off to the cops for their junior cop program to straighten Bill out, only for Bill to show a bunch of neighborhood kids some porn in Chet's old home. When Frank goes to the cops to complain about it, the cops point out the whole reason Bill is in the program is because Frank is not good at disciplining Bill.

** In season 5, after seeing Vic and his friends struggle with parenthood and recognizing that there are a lot of new parents in Rustvale who didn't have good parental role models, she starts a successful business teaching parenting classes. That may be why she's not upset about money when [[spoiler:Frank tells her that he took a huge pay cut after his publicity stunt at the airport backfired.]]

* {{Housewife}}: Up until episode 4 when she's given an opportunity to take a part time job working with Plast-a-Ware.

* LameComeback: Sue's first attempt to throw her bosses' harassment back at them after Vivian advises doing so to survive the workplace shows she's clearly not comfortable with sexual insults. Her bosses seem surprisingly understanding of this fact and accept her first awkward attempt at a comeback in good humor. She does get better, to the point where she shocks them in season 4.

* NotSoAboveItAll: Gets noticeably upset in episode 5 when her new boss forces her to make another run out of town for a regular customer. She's also quite violent and insensitive to others at times, committing the same acts that she would normally call Frank out for.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Since Sue rarely yells at the kids, the occasions where she does are treated much more seriously by them than when Frank does it. Frank questions why the kids are more scared of her shouting than him in season 5, not realizing this trope is in effect every time Sue yells at the kids.

* DreadfulMusician: Has the ambition, but none of the talent. Averted as of season 4, where his song "Mr. Happy Guy" is considered good in-universe.

* TeenPregnancy: Averted twice in the show. The first time he had the possibility of impregnating someone was when he hooked up with Cutie Pie, with the kid she has later being Vic's. Then in the season 5 finale, when he was about to have sex with Alice while using one of Smokey's damaged condoms, Alice's dad scares him and makes him miss.

* HeroicBSOD: In Season 1, when he was under the bed while his parents had sex, which led to him seeing Frank's balls and later exposed to the disgusting stadium bathroom. Then again in Season 2 when he catches Kevin masturbating. Again in season 3 when he walks in on Julie in the ladies' room trying to check on Maureen after she's been in the bathroom for a long time, though it gets cut short when she freaks out. In the last episode of Season 3, he starts to have this when he sees a homeless person defecating in a phone booth, but then yells "NO!" and kicks the phone booth over in anger. He doesn't have one in Season 4, signifying that the phone booth episode was where the shock of seeing people at their worst has finally worn off. The next time this would happen is in season 5 when he sees police racism firsthand in a cop car, but his reaction isn't remotely the same as before. When dropped off at home, he ignores everyone celebrating Christmas, steals a beer, drinking it alone and groaning about his life.

* MiddleChildSyndrome: After spending most of her life basking in her status as the youngest child, she finds herself relegated to this after Megan is born, much to her dismay. The season 5 TitleSequence reflects this change, as Maureen is now off to the side looking angry and resentful while Frank holds Megan in his arms, where Maureen would have been cuddled up to Frank in earlier seasons. This abrupt change drives much of Maureen's final story arc.

* OddFriendship: Develops one with ''Bridget'' of all people during season 4.

* HeelRealization: [[spoiler:It's only after getting a split lip after daring Frank into punching him after another round of insults and being told off by Bill and Maureen at the hospital in the season 4 finale that Big Bill begins to realize just how badly he screwed up as a father.]]

* CatchPhrase: Stan has quite a few! Judging from his wife's reaction in season 5, he has a habit of making buzzer noises when he feels someone is wrong. He also tells a golf story repeatedly to impress people, which his wife is also sick of. Any time he threatens violence, his go to phrase is "Give you the business!". Stan also regularly tries to buy his grandchildrens' affection by offering them "happy paper (money) from the Pop-Pop tree!"

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Marilyn gives Stan a small one in season 5 when Stan brushes off Sue's threat to not have her parents in her life if Stan won't try to spend Thanksgiving with Louis. She points out how his attitude is and how she doesn't want to spend her golden years with just him and wants to be involved in her kids and grandkids' lives. Combined with Sue's crying, Stan relents to be cordial, but not actually change. But it IS something.

Sue's brother, who made his first physical appearance in season 5. He currently lives in Florida, after being outed as gay and disowned by his parents.

* CatchPhrase:

* CatchPhrase: "Dildo" is his go-to insult.

* StandardFiftiesFather: Big Bill is a rather telling [[DeconstructedTrope deconstruction]] of it, down to the pipe he smokes.

* HeroesWantRedheads: He [[SubvertedTrope initially]] had Claire as a girlfriend but stops seeing her during Season 2.

* HeroesWantRedheads: He becomes attracted to redhead Bridget Fitzsimmons at the end of Season 2. Subverted after he sees her true colors.

* TeensAreShort: He's about the same height as his grandfather, who has shrunk a good deal in his old age.

* OneSteveLimit: Subverted, as he shares both his first and last name with his paternal grandfather, who is known as "Big Bill" to distinguish the two.

* InSeriesNickName: Though the series at first implies that he's called Big Bill to distinguish himself from his grandson Bill, he was affectionately called Big Bill by his friends while Frank was still a child, in part because he was a large, physically imposing man.