History WesternAnimation / FIsForFamily

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Sue's TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to Frank in episode five:

* EstablishingSeriesMoment: Doubling as both this AND EstablishingCharacterMoment for the whole family in the first 5 minutes of episode one. Frank drives home through a typical, idyllic '70s neighborhood of cars, pastel homes and beautiful front lawns, sits down at the table with an attentive and caring family, and begins to tell a story about work- only to fly into a rage from a single phone-call during dinner, establishing his anger problems and setting the profane tone for the rest of the series. Kevin reacts [[DumbassTeenageSon with disgust while obviously being high,]] Sue attempts to calm him down but fails and tries to deal with the fallout, Bill shirks away in fear, and Maureen ignores him. The last words before the title sequence are "GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!", said by Frank to a ''child.''

The show takes place during [[TheSeventies 1973-1974]] -- when TV dinners seemed like space-age technology, boxing was the greatest thing on television, and kids would ride their bikes behind mosquito trucks and play in the sweet-smelling pesticide clouds. While this may seem idyllic, the neighborhood that the Murphy family live in is anything but, filled with prejudices and problems that father and protagonist Frank must deal with day after day. As much as the series is an examination of the 70's, much of it is also a ''harsh'' criticism of the time, pointing out the social flaws found in the culture of the time period.

** The show is set from 1973 to 1975, yet several vehicles from the late-'70s and the 1980s show up. Most egregious is the band van from season 3, which is a 1985 GMC Vandura and a schoolbus in season 5 is [[EpicFail a 1989 model]].

** Considering how rude, abusive, disgusting and bitchy she was, few viewers will feel bad when it's shown that [[spoiler: Julie, the crazy cat lady, dies alone on Christmas in the season 5 finale, and is eaten by her cats]].

** Dr. Goldman seems to be a pretty chill father, forgiving Kevin throughout season 5 for such acts as heavy petting with his daughter Alice, casual faux pas regarding Judaism, Kevin accidentally setting fire to the temple grounds, and even Kevin punching his son in the jaw hard enough for his son to need to be on a puree diet. He remains that way until his last scene in the series, when he catches Kevin and Alice in a moment of InterruptedIntimacy, then he proves to be just as violent-tempered as any other father. This sharp turnaround in his attitude may be because of opposition to the idea of his Jewish daughter marrying and/or procreating with a Gentile (non-Jew).

** For Season One, Frank [[spoiler:loses his job on Christmas Eve,]] but manages to [[spoiler:get one over on his deplorable employers]] and help Bill [[spoiler:defeat his bully and said bully's father.]]

** The ValuesDissonance[[invoked]] between the 70s and the current times is a recurring theme, both in regards to family values and social justice.

* ChekhovsSkill: Maureen's ring toss training pays off in the season 3 finale where she [[spoiler: saves Bill from a rough current with a precisely thrown life preserver.]]

* ContinuityNod: In season 5, episode 3, Frank finds an ashtray his father stole from a hotel in Florida and gave to his mother as a gift. When he telephones his mother and asks her about it, she complains that he stole it from her when she left and that she is having to use a coffee can as an ashtray. The following episode, during the Thanksgiving montage, a close-up shows her using the ashtray at her California apartment, indicating that Frank mailed it to her at some point.
* CrapsackWorld: The show essentially takes real social problems present in the US in the 70s and cranks them up to eleven. Adults are chainsmokers or alcoholics, the media is comically racist or otherwise bigoted to some degree, litter, pollution, and dumped appliances blight the town, and machinery and appliances are guaranteed to never work properly.

* DaddysGirl: Maureen to Frank. She is the one person he will never yell at, often apologizing for a flippant comment explicitly saying he thought she was Bill or Kevin. [[spoiler:Subverted in season 5 as Frank focuses more on baby Megan, relegating Maureen to middle child status along with Bill. This inspires a small amount of SiblingRivalry from Maureen.]]

** When Sue gets a job in season 2, Frank is shown to be intensely resentful of it, since he thinks that, as the man, he needs to be the breadwinner, or at least be more successful than his wife. While this idea was relatively common back then, this is less present nowadays, and Sue is understandably pissed at him when these feelings surface.

--> '''Frank:''' Well fuck you, fuck Dunbarton, and fuck ''you!''

* EstablishingSeriesMoment: Doubling as both this AND EstablishingCharacterMoment for the whole family in the first 5 minutes of episode one. Frank drives home through a typical, idyllic 70's neighborhood of cars, pastel homes and beautiful front lawns, sits down at the table with an attentive and caring family, and begins to tell a story about work- only to fly into a rage from a single phone-call during dinner, establishing his anger problems and setting the profane tone for the rest of the series. Kevin reacts [[DumbassTeenageSon with disgust while obviously being high,]] Sue attempts to calm him down but fails and tries to deal with the fallout, Bill shirks away in fear, and Maureen ignores him. The last words before the title sequence are "GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!", said by Frank to a ''child.''
* EvolvingCredits: The animated TitleSequence changes with each season, with the obstacles Frank flies through changing to depict the adversities he faces each season. In season 5, when Frank is dropped into his couch from the sky, baby Megan drops into his lap. Notice how in the page image, Maureen is affectionately cuddled up to Frank's arm? In the season 5 TitleSequence, she's been physically displaced by Megan as the "baby" of the family and looks [[SiblingRivalry resentful]] of the [[MiddleChildSyndrome situation]]. Bill, who has been a longtime middle child since Maureen was born, warned her this would happen during their mother's pregnancy with Megan.

* FatBastard: Frank's manager, Bob, who is morbidly obese and a PointyHairedBoss. He is so heavy he has to be shuffled from chair to scooter to car, while also [[NoIndoorVoice constantly yelling]] like he is about to pass out. He finally has a heart attack at the end of season 3, [[spoiler: and has dropped a massive amount of weight after recovering at the start of season 4 due to spending over a month in the hospital]]

** BLABLA, the left-wing radical group responsible for the hijacking at the Mohican runway in season 2, is based on the Symbionese Liberation Army. The leader, Tecumseh X. Dubois, is based on Donald [=DeFreeze=], the founder of the SLA, while the young blonde woman is based on Patty Hearst, the wealthy heiress of the Hearst media empire. However, the real life SLA operated in Southern California rather than the Northeast in which the show is set. The hijacking is based on the real-life hijacking of a Mohawk airliner at Westchester County Airport in 1972.

** When Sue and Frank are debating about the fact that they don't see their parents anymore, Sue says that she still loves her parents. Later in season 3, it's revealed that Frank's father was horribly abusive and Frank tries to keep him as far as possible.

* FormerlyFat: Handled with an element of SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome. Bob Pogo has a heart attack at the end of season three, and returns in season four after recuperating at the hospital for several months. He ended up losing A LOT of weight, but losing that much weight so fast results in extreme amounts of excess skin flab.

* FreudianExcuse: Frank came out of high school a relatively optimistic graduate. Then he got drafted into the Korean War, got Sue pregnant, married her too young, and started to grow old. As revealed in season 3, his awful childhood didn't help, and season 4 explores the toxic relationship with his own father than lead to his own issues.

* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion: Frank and Sue had to put their own life's ambitions on hold when Sue got pregnant with Kevin and they decided to raise him together. Somewhere along the line, they had two more children [[spoiler:and have a fourth in season 3]].

* HorribleCampingTrip: The cabin the family rents for summer vacation in season 3, which turns out to not only have been incredibly poorly maintained (it's filthy and when they first walk in, there's two geese mating on the table), the lake outside has been turned into a toxic waste dump ''and'' it starts raining basically the second they leave the car. Oh, and the cabin itself was the site of a mass murder in 1925, according to a plaque on the wall.

** Vic, who was seen by Frank as leading a charmed life in Season One, starts to show signs of this after his 30th birthday. He is rehired by his rebranded radio station to host its "oldies" music. However, following an unsuccessful attempt to manage Kevin's band which makes him feel even more out-of-touch, Vic starts to find meaning in his life again [[spoiler: after learning Karen ("Cutie Pie") is about to give birth to his baby.]]

* LaserGuidedKarma: Jim Jeffords, the television personality, is finally put on indefinite leave for his racist and sexist behavior near the end of season 4. He insists on calling it a "vacation".

** In-universe, it's very common since the 70's was the era when cheap, syndicated animation was really starting to become common, as shown with the ''Sleepy Ramirez'' cartoons, and the ''Harlem Globetrotters'' parody.

* TheMafia: As it was in real life, organized crime is heavily entrenched in society in the early 70's, and Rustvale is no exception. Both the city government and the local trade unions are either directly led by, or working with the mob, headed by Lou "Snub-Nose" Gugliardi. While the Murphy family doesn't deal much with them, other than Frank negotiating with the union, it becomes part of Rosie's character arc after he's elected alderman, and is increasingly forced to come into conflict with the corrupt mayor and his mob supporters. [[spoiler:This finally comes to a head in season 5, where Rosie and Bob Pogo team up to expose the mayor's corruption, and Gugliardi outright tries to murder them.]]

* NegatedMomentOfAwesome: In the season three finale, "Bill Murphy's Night Off", Bill goes missing. Three attempts fail at rescuing him.

* OffTheWagon: Despite his decision to quit cocaine after the events of season 2, Vic struggles with keeping off drugs throughout season 3 and eventually relapses in the finale. While ''flying a helicopter''. In season 4, he goes on a massive bender [[spoiler: after getting rehired by the radio station during his birthday party, and doesn't come down for a week and a half.]] [[spoiler:Becoming the single father of Little Vic finally gives Vic the strength to kick his drug habit for good, to the point where he is shown briefly contemplating finding a quieter and safer neighborhood to raise his son in now that he's more aware that some of his neighbors have rather disturbing issues.]]
* OneJokeFakeShow: Two [[ShowWithinAShow fictional sitcoms]] on the show, which serve to parody the corniness of 70s television.

** Vic's girlfriend is only ever referred to as "Cutie Pie", and it's implied that Vic doesn't use her real name because he doesn't actually ''know'' it. In season 4, it's revealed to be Karen [[spoiler: when Vic finds her in the hospital, about to give birth to his child. He still didn't know it, he just read it on her chart.]]

** Finally reaches it's climax in season 3 where all three kids suffer this to an extent due to Frank and Sue dealing poorly with Sue's pregnancy. It ends with [[spoiler: Kevin robbing a liquor store, Bill running away and Maureen attacking a kids show host]].

** In the season 4 episode, "R is for Rosie," Frank cuts the regular theme song off (which is playing on a radio) as it is beginning. The opening credits for the episode then show Rosie flying through the air like Frank, to the tune of "Shining Star" by Earth, Wind and Fire.

* ShowWithinAShow: The family watches a lot of TV. Most of the time, their TV is tuned to ABS, based on ABC. Many of the shows appear to be based on shows that aired on ABC during the 70s, although some of these shows first aired after 1974, the most recent year portrayed in the show.

* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''WesternAnimation/WaitTillYourFatherGetsHome'', another animated DomCom about a family of five, and which was made in the early 70's, when ''F Is For Family'' is set.

* StayInTheKitchen: A running theme in season 2.
** In season 1 Sue was looking to gain a side job selling plastiware containers, but after Frank loses his job she takes on an official position at the corporate offices. She struggles with the sexist comments made while working as a secretary for her chauvinist pig bosses, learning from Vivian that the only way to keep her head above the water is through VolleyingInsults, regardless of whether or not she proves her worth to them. While dealing with a difficult customer, she even weights the pros and cons of simply being a doting housewife when the news comes in that Frank might get his job back.

** Which ends being converted to a strip club, Captain [=ChuckleThrust=]'s, by season 2.

** In the season 3 finale, while looking for Bill, Frank engages in DriverFacesPassenger to ask Kevin and Maureen if they really think he's a bad father. He runs a red light and is hit by a truck, then crashes into a streetlight.
** The difficult relationship between Frank and [[spoiler: his father, Big Bill, throughout season 4]], despite some minor bonding moments, quickly falls apart again towards the end, since neither man has really changed, and 40 years of resentment and bad feelings won't just go away overnight.
** Bob Pogo's heart attack in the season 3 finale, after almost 20 years of horrendous diet and virtually no exercise or any movement at all really. [[spoiler: His massive weight loss between seasons as well, by the time he returns in season 4 after an extended hospital stay, his entire body is covered with loose skin, and he's extremely weak.]]
** In season 4, Rosie manages to overcome several obstacles and win the election for his neighborhood alderman. Unfortunately, Rosie's aspirations for bringing real change and good to his neighborhood hit a brick wall because systemic racism and cronyism are still deeply entrenched in the city government and no one is interested in his ideas. He even {{lampshades}} the trope at one point.

* ThousandYardStare: Given how everyone goes through some serious shit in this show, these are handed out like candy. Bill gets one after watching his parents have sex in season 1,and Frank is shown with one after seeing a video of childbirth at Sue's Lamaze class (since he's never been present for the other children's births) .

* TemptingFate: In the final scene of season 2, [[spoiler:Frank and Sue agree that the children are finally old enough to take care of themselves so that they can get their lives back on track, Frank can go to flight school and Sue can go back to college. All is well, and the two decide to have celebratory sex... [[HereWeGoAgain with the condoms that Smokey poked holes in]]]].
* ThreatBackfire: Frank often tries to be aggressive in negotiating with other people when he feels he has been wronged, but it almost always blows up in his face. He genuinely believes he has leverage with these threats, but he generally finds out after the fact that he can't back them up. Examples include his failure to negotiate a refund for his broken TV, because he failed to spend a few extra dollars on a warranty, and when he tried to threaten to quit Mohican after the Alaquippa merger only to find out that he could not afford to do so thanks to losing his seniority when [[CallBack Bob Pogo fired him at the end of Season One.]] Sue also tries to point out to him that yelling at the kids often incites them to do the very things he's yelling at them to ''not'' do, such as berating Kevin about neglecting his schoolwork in favor of playing music or just slacking off with his friends.

** In season 4, Ben tells Vic that he "ate some [[TastesLikeChicken green chicken]]" he found in Vic's garbage and had hallucinations as a result.
* TraumaticHaircut: Bill gets one in the season 4 episode "Nothing is Impossible" when one of his classmates put gum in his hair. This stays like that throughout the episode.

** In the season 3 finale:

** And in the season 4 finale.

* ShoutOut: At one point in "Land Ho!" Bob Pogo scarfs down clams using forks akin to [[Franchise/XMen Wolverine]] who ironically, wouldn’t debut in-universe in the comics for at least a couple months.

* RedemptionEqualsDeath: Played with [[spoiler: for Big Bill]]. [[spoiler: Big Bill dies of a stroke immediately after he apologizes to Frank and they both promise that they will have a heart-to-heart talk. He then leaves Frank with a cryptic clue, "Box 16," which Frank pursues because he wants to find closure with his father. "Box 16" turns out to be nothing more than a radio jingle for Big Bill's favorite beer, but Frank nevertheless is able to finally come to terms with his father's relationship and begin healing.]]