Good Family SHows

[Much Fishing to Do]

So only cause I respect the advice of so many here....

It's really hard today to find shows I can watch with my 10 and 14 year olds that we can ALL enjoy (not just the kids) that also seem appropriate.  Growing up for me there were show shows like The Waltons and Little House on The PRairie, and then shows like Macgyver etc that We could watch as  family.  Today I feel like I either see stuff I dont feel is appropriate for the kdis (good HBO shows etc) or stuff that is good for the kids, but nothing for both.  Tonight we all laughed continuously at the show "Impractical Jokers" and I wasn't embarrassed to watch it with my kids and I frankly had forgotten how fun that was....any shows others suggest I try?  Thanks much...Covid has made TV much more a part of our lives lately....

[sparkytheop]

I've been watching Everybody Hates Chris this last week, and binged Cobra Kai the week before.  I play stuff like Cutthroat Kitchen and Goosebumps in the background when I'm doing dishes or quilting/knitting.  I grew up watching MASH, The Twilight Zone, The A-Team, Dukes of Hazzard, Night Rider, etc with my dad and siblings.

[scantee]

Bob's Burgers
Great British Baking Show
Star Trek The Next Generation
Kim's Convenience
The Office

[Sid Hoffman]

I'm a big fan of family friendly entertainment, though my youngest is in his 20s at this point. I just don't like drama, hate, and all the nonsense that is so common in modern shows. I found it funny Star Trek was mentioned, as I'd never seen Star Trek: Voyager and decided to start it a couple months ago via Netflix. I'm in the final season now. The old Trek shows may be a touch dated, but they were certainly appropriate for age 10+. Looking back to 10 years ago and probably Mythbusters was one of the big shows my young son got a kick out of. Those are generally pretty clean also, or at least my memory says they're clean enough for age 10+.

There's also a variety of shows and movies in Disney Plus you might all like. I think Suite Life on Deck comes to mind as one of the shows we always DVR's to watch the day of/after new episodes came out. Phineas and Ferb was another fun one for the kids that adults can be entertained by as well, though it's target demo is probably the age 8-12 range or so. The 14 year old may not be into it as much. On yet another different streaming service, Hallmark has their own streaming service with only family friendly shows. I've cancelled my membership but not because it was bad, I'd simply watched everything and run out of new content, as the recycled romance movies get old fast, but the actual series shows tend to have an element of originality to them.

Then there's things like Dirty Jobs, or Mike Rowe's facebook-only show, Returning the Favor. If you have a Chromecast you can actually bring up episodes on Facebook on your phone and then cast it to your Chromecast so it's on the big screen for everyone. One that my son liked as he got older was actually Undercover Boss. Related, shows seem to be fragmented all across lots of different streaming services these days. If you have a specific show you want to watch and aren't sure what streaming service to look for it on, https://www.justwatch.com/ is a handy tool. Also you could potentially cycle through different services one at a time until you finish all the shows you like for that specific streaming service rather than signing up for 5 different services at the same time.

[rocketpj]

I guess it depends on what constitutes 'appropriate' in your eyes.  In our house we're not much bothered by references to sex or jokes about it - it's pretty natural and most people would like to participate in sex at some point.  Might as well get some insight into what our cultures think of the whole thing, with mom and dad around to clear up any misconceptions.   

On the other hand I utterly hate most on screen violence, with some very rare exceptions.  Most cop/action/drama shows that I've seen have the star kill someone or other with no personal impact.  Our culture gets completely panicked about an exposed nipple but for some reason takes great joy in John Wick slaughtering dozens of gangsters. 

/Rant over.

Modern Family is pretty good for all ages.  Brooklyn 99 is fun.  Bob's Burgers is also pretty good - but my 72 year old father gets a little worried about some of the content.  He is the same guy who left the room when 'Blanche' on Golden Girls said something risque, so YMMV.

[Psychstache]

Blackish is hilarious and family friendly

[Morning Glory]

What about Dr Who? I'm not sure what streaming service has it right now but it's definitely family friendly. Also Torchwood if you can find it.

If you have Netflix We Bare Bears is cute (not raunchy like other adult cartoons). My five year old son and 25 year old brother both love it. My husband and 5 year old like Bobs Burgers too but I just can't get into it.


Netflix also has a lot of BBC period dramas e.g. Call the Midwife, Land Girls, etc. Not sure if they would hold interest for a younger teen but worth a try.

+1 for Voyager, it's been a while since I've seen it but it was the only Star Trek show I really got into.

Misfits is probably the only one of the super hero genre that I liked. It's a few years old and has some adult language and humor but nothing explicit, and it's definitely not as violent as American super hero shoes.  I'm not sure where to find it now, it used to be on Hulu.

The IT crowd is a good funny comedy.

[APowers]

For an early-2000s update on the "A-Team" concept, check out "Leverage". Really well written, pretty solid all the way through; a bit more language than the A-Team (occasional "damn", "hell", "son of a bitch"), but a lot less womanizing/sexism on balance.

[Noodle]

My nieces, who are between the ages of your kids, loved The Good Place, Parks and Rec, and Brooklyn 99. They are all warm-hearted, non-violent, and low on salty language due to being network shows, but some of the humor involves sex so YMMV.

Better Off Ted (Hulu) is a delightful, slightly older comedy about a guy working for a totally absurd corporation.

Agent Carter (Disney+) is a great adventure series centered on a strong female character (and has excellent costumes)

BrainDead (CBS All Access) is a comedy/drama series about mind-controlling aliens invading Washington DC. There is some splatter gore but it's really played for laughs...you would probably want to check this one out first but my nieces would be fine with it. iZombie is similar--Rose McIver is amazing as the zombie detective who solves cases by eating victims' brains (and temporarily taking on parts of their personalities), written with a lot of humor but there is some mild gore involved.

Bunheads is a great series starring the amazing Sutton Foster as a Las Vegas showgirl who moves to a small town to teach dance lessons after being very briefly married and then widowed. For that matter, Gilmore Girls, from the same showrunner, could also be a fun teen/adult watch.

Eureka and Warehouse 13 were science fiction shows with a lot of humor--very family friendly--from a few years ago. They tend to come and go from streaming but I think are both available at the moment. Fringe was darker (likely OK for 14, might want to view first for 10) but aired on broadcast TV so it was not too extreme. It was very well-done science fiction. Timeless was a good time-travel show that aired fairly recently that was not too heavy.

The remake of One Day at a Time to feature a Cuban-American family (Netflix, and now moved to another network) is just delightful, and Rita Moreno still has more rhythm in her little finger than several current Broadway stars combined. They do explore issues relating to the teen characters, which means some discussion of sexuality, but it is extremely well-done.

I don't watch a lot of reality TV, but I know many families enjoy series like The Floor is Lava, Great British Baking Show, Master Chef Junior (which is much more pleasant than the adult version), the Amazing Race, Dirty Jobs, etc etc.

[Frankies Girl]

I get all my tv/movies from the library lately. Suggest you do a perusal to see if any of the old classics are available and give them a chance to see if they held up. We're having great fun watching Murder She Wrote and Colombo and Perry Mason and lots of oooooooold stuff...




The Librarians. Hokey good fun. Strong female characters. History, science fiction/fantasy, nerdy. John Larroquette.

Eureka was fun, but same sort of formulaic dramady. Introduce random person/event. CRISIS. Person/event just introduced is MAJOR key to plot. Wrapped in neat bow by end of show. But they did start having a series arc as well and it was still entertaining.

Currently watching Star Trek: Deep Space 9. It's very entertaining and works along the same lines as Eureka (and most shows of this type).

Psych - loved this show soooooo much. It was fun, characters were lovely, good plots/mystery, nice story development. Really don't remember anything terrible that a 10 year old would not need to see? Could review the episode plot on IMDB just in case.

Galavant! - Psych reminded me of this (has an actor in common). It has some mild sexual innuendo stuff (knight needs to rescue his lady love... but she's actually throws him over to marry the king and there's some snarky innuendo but it's rated PG). Mostly singing and funny and adventure.

[Travis]

We have a 10 year old in the house. Our "family" tv shows are Leverage, Doctor Who, the occasional skill-based competition series, and whatever Netflix documentaries look interesting.

[APowers]

+1 for The Librarians. Written/produced by Dean Devlin (who previously did Leverage)-- if you like Leverage, you'll probably like The Librarians. It's like National Treasure, but with magic.

[Sibley]

A lot of the scifi shows might work. Star Trek (pick), Star Wars (there's some animated shows as well as the movies), Stargate SG1 and spinoffs, Doctor Who, etc.

Plus various things from PBS or similar. Downton Abbey, etc.

[TrMama]

We watched a bunch of episodes of Kim's Convenience together as a family. It's a Canadian show, not sure how widely available in the US. Very tame but still funny.

[Master of None]

I highly suggest Avatar: The Last Airbender and Avatar: Legend of Korra. Both are excellent for kids, teens and adults. It is a cartoon, but damn is it amazing. It is currently available in the US on Netflix.

[LennStar]

I highly suggest Avatar: The Last Airbender and Avatar: Legend of Korra. Both are excellent for kids, teens and adults. It is a cartoon, but damn is it amazing. It is currently available in the US on Netflix.

I am quite sure those count as anime ;)

And if you are ready, there are a lot of animes that are incredible. As a bibliophile, my current favorite is "Ascendence of a Bookworm", which should be interesting for kids, too. And you learn a lot about making stuff, especially books ;)

[Master of None]

I highly suggest Avatar: The Last Airbender and Avatar: Legend of Korra. Both are excellent for kids, teens and adults. It is a cartoon, but damn is it amazing. It is currently available in the US on Netflix.

I am quite sure those count as anime ;)

And if you are ready, there are a lot of animes that are incredible. As a bibliophile, my current favorite is "Ascendence of a Bookworm", which should be interesting for kids, too. And you learn a lot about making stuff, especially books ;)

I'll have to check that out. Never really been in to anime, but those 2 series really captured my attention.

[RFAAOATB]

Pro wrestling is the answer.  WWE Raw and Smackdown on Monday and Friday, and either NXT or AEW on Wednesday.  Plus when COVID is over y’all can go to the shows together.  WWE network has all the old shows and PPV streaming at $9.99 a month.

I’ve been watching wrestling for 28 years and occasionally let my 4 year old watch with me.

[robartsd]

I highly suggest Avatar: The Last Airbender and Avatar: Legend of Korra. Both are excellent for kids, teens and adults. It is a cartoon, but damn is it amazing. It is currently available in the US on Netflix.

I am quite sure those count as anime ;)

And if you are ready, there are a lot of animes that are incredible. As a bibliophile, my current favorite is "Ascendence of a Bookworm", which should be interesting for kids, too. And you learn a lot about making stuff, especially books ;)

I can second the suggestion for "The Last Airbender" (I haven't yet checked out "The Legend of Korra"). Anime I'm currently watching: "Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood" and "Violet Evergarden".


Star Trek: the original series feels very dated, but everything from the Next Generation onward feels modern enough to me (as long as I'm not paying attention to the 4:3 aspect ratio). I watched the original series reruns growing up and followed along as The Next Generation and Voyager aired (didn't seem to have enough time to follow two Trek series when Deep Space Nine started and felt too far behind to jump in when The Next Generation ended and Voyager was there to fill the hole). CBS All Access has new Trek shows in production - Discovery season 3 is scheduled to be released next month and Picard's second season hopefully will arrive in 2021. I don't currently have a CBS All Access account, so I haven't yet watched Lower Decks (currently releasing season 1).

[Hula Hoop]

I enjoy watching cooking and baking shows with my 8 and 12 year olds. Our favorite is "Nailed It" on Netflix.

[katsiki]

You may be interested in pureflix.com.  It is Christian, so ignore this suggestion if that bothers you.  It is a monthly subscription but inexpensive and plays on Roku and other streaming devices.

[Frankies Girl]

Final Space and Star Trek: Lower Decks both have been fun and I imagine very entertaining if you're into sci/fi comedy. I loved both of them. Nothing more than mild profanity in Final Space if that (the lead likes saying "Oh my crap!" more than anything else vulgar). Some sort of scary aspects on Final Space so if the kids are very sensitive, may not like the scary stuff like earth is being sucked into a rift in space thing and the bad guy is pretty mean (there's some violence with star wars type torture-y stuff and one guy gets his arm ripped off and other injuries/deaths depicted, but it's cartoon form). I'm not really selling how funny but also great Final Space is... it's honestly really, really good.

And I'm very much enjoying Lower Decks too. I'm not a scifi snob so I think it is just wonderful to show that star fleet has some screw-ups and less than perfect people and also the behind the bridge crew is a LARGE amount of grunts doing the grunt work. With comedy.

[LennStar]

I highly suggest Avatar: The Last Airbender and Avatar: Legend of Korra. Both are excellent for kids, teens and adults. It is a cartoon, but damn is it amazing. It is currently available in the US on Netflix.

I am quite sure those count as anime ;)

And if you are ready, there are a lot of animes that are incredible. As a bibliophile, my current favorite is "Ascendence of a Bookworm", which should be interesting for kids, too. And you learn a lot about making stuff, especially books ;)

I'll have to check that out. Never really been in to anime, but those 2 series really captured my attention.

My comment about Bookworm was to the OP though. If you are interested in good anime, I can surely name a few, just point of what genre(s) you like.
Avatar is one of the better ones, though I have never seen it because I tend to not watch those endless fighting ones. If you like that: Fairy Tail.

If you want one that is all around a AAA one, go for Violet Evergarden. (One of the best cases of the 3-episode rule btw)

[OtherJen]

We watched a bunch of episodes of Kim's Convenience together as a family. It's a Canadian show, not sure how widely available in the US. Very tame but still funny.

It’s on Netflix in the US! It’s a fun, sweet sitcom. One of our favorites.

I second the recommendations of Bob’s Burgers and Great British Baking Show (one of the only “reality” shows I can stand because the bakers are always so creative and kind to each other).

I’m a big fan of Downton Abbey, and that one seems perfectly reasonable for kids in the middle school age range.

We also tend to enjoy food-tourism shows. The “Street Food” and “Taco Chronicles” series (Netflix) are really interesting and enjoyable, although subtitles are probably necessary.

[FIRE Artist]

I heard that they are going to do a remake of The Wonder Years with a black family, that should be good family watching when it is released. I used to watch TWY with my mom when I was a kid.

[waltworks]

Step 1: Throw TV in dumpster.
Step 2: Go outside and play.

There you go.

-W

[FIRE Artist]

I see people mentioning Kim’s Convenience.  Another, slightly older Canadian comedy that just predated Netflix streaming so American folks may have missed it, was Corner Gas, about the characters who live in a small town in Saskatchewan and hang around the local gas station and neighbouring diner.