Whedonesque : Comments on 20954 : Awesome TV Family Bracket

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July 11 2009

Awesome TV Family Bracket - Seeding Poll. awesomeopolis.com is conducting a seeding poll to determine the head-to-head matchups for their upcoming 'Most Awesome TV Family' contest. A whole host of Whedon/Whedon-related show families are potentially in the running.
Update: Sweet sixteen round now in progress.

[ edited by brinderwalt on 2009-07-13 16:55 ]

brinderwalt | Fandom&Fun | 18:55 CET | 33 comments total | tags: tam, summers, pendragon, mars, connor, castle, bartowski

If you look at the results, right now, it's pretty clear that the poll has been published on Whedonesque...LOL!!!

JotheCat | July 11, 19:40 CET

Jeez, so Whedon-skewed! Summers, Tams, Bartowski, Castle, Mars. Yup. The Halliwells, despite the quality of the show, were a pretty great family too.

Liam Mars | July 11, 19:51 CET

Not sure I get this, is the actual family in question the name in brackets after the show name ? So it's the Summers family for Buffy (i.e. Buffy/Dawn/Joyce/kinda Hank) ?

Cos the Summers family wasn't really that great IMO. Buffy was all about chosen families (which Dawn for instance overlapped with) so the Scoobs were the "family" that mattered (as made explicit in e.g. 'Family'). This poll seems to miss that but it's right at the heart of the show for me. Same with 'Bones'.

So I didn't vote for them.

Saje | July 11, 19:56 CET

I believe the Fishers from "Six Feet Under" are the most dynamic and interesting family on television, but their votes are pretty low. Considering the number of people on whedonesque that seem to like 6'U, I thought it would boost their tally closer to the top.

CaptainB | July 11, 19:59 CET

Happy to see Fresh Prince of Bel-Air doing so well and Cosby on the list. Often times when I look at internet "best of" lists for shows I grew up on, a lot of shows are there but the black sitcoms aren't so much.

I'm with Saje-- neither of the Whedon families got my vote. They both had great family relationships, but neither was a show really driven by a family dynamic. The centers of both were the found families, which aren't what the contest is even listing.

Sunfire | July 11, 20:03 CET

What What is a seeding poll?

Anonymous1 | July 11, 20:10 CET

What What is a seeding poll?

The purpose of this round of voting is simply to narrow the list of contenders down to sixteen - nothing more (ie. this vote doesn't determine who wins. That comes later.)

[ edited by brinderwalt on 2009-07-11 20:25 ]

brinderwalt | July 11, 20:21 CET

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Summers) (55.0%, 178 Votes)
Firefly (Tam) (53.0%, 171 Votes)

I find this fascinating.

Mercenary | July 11, 20:58 CET

I don't find that fascinating, Mercenary. Haha! Whedonesque has near 8,000 members and I can easily believe 180 of them found this link and voted. :-) Once again, we sway the polls.

cookiepartier | July 11, 21:00 CET

brinderwalt,

Thank you.

Anonymous1 | July 11, 21:09 CET

Come on people! You'd actually want to be a "Summers" or a "Tam?"

Summers: divorced parents, abandoning father, and a relationship with your mother where you hide the most important changes and events in your life because she can't handle it?

Tam: neglectful, social climbing, narcissistic parents who wash their hands of their daughter's well being because she's at a "good"school?

Obviously these are realistic examples of families, but would you really want to belong to them? At the very least, a good family needs to have parent/s who accept who their child is and support them in their efforts to become themselves. I didn't see that in the Summers or Tam families.

BreathesStory | July 11, 21:18 CET

I'd like to be a Gilmore, personally.

Jayme | July 11, 21:25 CET

No Boswell or Steptoe? Denied!

Simon | July 11, 21:30 CET

Winchesters pwn.

mangydog | July 11, 21:34 CET

No Boswell or Steptoe? Denied!

'Arrollld !

Saje | July 11, 22:04 CET

You dirty old man.

Simon | July 11, 22:16 CET

I loved the Buffy/Joyce family (despite its hardships,) but I can't imagine anyone wanting to be a Tam. Love Veronica/Keith Mars, and the Fishers are definitely far and away the most awesome family to ever grace television. I also voted Pete & Pete for nostalgia's sake.

marvelknight616 | July 11, 22:16 CET

Okay, alas, no Angel representatives. But, in a strangely orphaned way, weren't Angelus/Drusilla/William the Bloody kind of a (albeit significantly twisted) family?

Peanut Noir | July 11, 22:42 CET

Nothing beats the Bluths. That family is awesome.

Walkdogger | July 11, 23:02 CET

No Walter and Peter Bishop... too bad. Would've definitely voted for them. (Wouldn't want to be in their relationship, but love to watch it.) Also, where are Mr. and Mrs. Coach and family???

Kirochka | July 11, 23:47 CET

Among my votes were the Warners - they had some of the best lines! Love the Animaniacs!

[ edited by Shep on 2009-07-12 00:13 ]

Shep | July 12, 00:12 CET

I'm just distracted by the Darling/Spellman families on the list, remembering about my teen crush on Melissa Joan Hart and unaware up til now that Michelle Trachtenberg was in Clarissa Explains It All!

jamesthegill | July 12, 00:28 CET

I want to be part of the Keith/Veronica Mars family.

escapist_dream | July 12, 01:54 CET

Where is the Taylor family from Friday Night Lights? That's a paddlin'!

escapist_dream | July 12, 01:56 CET

Well I'm really happy about the results, but don't they mean 'made families' in most of those cases (otherwise they wouldn't have nominated Dexter twice)? Because I would have loved to be a member of the BtVS Scoobie gang, but I would love to have been a crew member of Firefly even more!

But family family I really will always love Keith & Veronica Mars the most.

embers | July 12, 02:09 CET

Embers, Dexter's Laboratory is a cartoon. Serial killer Dexter is only nominated once.

Walkdogger | July 12, 09:36 CET

Anybody else now imagining what "Dexter" crossed with "Dexter's Laboratory" would be like ? Sure it'd create an entire generation of screwed up kids but at least they'd be really into science.

('Dexter' was one I voted for - not too many on the list can count a serial killer and the ghost of his dead cop foster father in the family, not forgetting Deb either. Also the Marseseses, great father/daughter relationship there, sort of like the Waltons crossed with Nick and Nora Charles)

Saje | July 12, 10:38 CET

Order so far:

1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Summers) (54.0%, 643 Votes)
2. Firefly (Tam) (46.0%, 546 Votes)
3. Supernatural (Winchester) (44.0%, 531 Votes)
4. Veronica Mars (Mars) (29.0%, 345 Votes)
5. Castle (Castle) (23.0%, 271 Votes)
6. Arrested Development (Bluth) (22.0%, 263 Votes)
7. Gilmore Girls (Gilmore) (21.0%, 248 Votes)
8. Chuck (Bartowski) (20.0%, 237 Votes)
9. The Simpsons (Simpson) (17.0%, 205 Votes)
10. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Connor) (17.0%, 199 Votes)
11. Battlestar Galactica (Adama) (16.0%, 194 Votes)

I voted for 1, 2, 3, 4 and 8. Found it funny that Heroes (Petrelli) wasn't in the top 10, but then again, I didn't vote for them so that might be a clue.

Mirage | July 12, 17:49 CET

Don't forget - every one of the top sixteen in this round of voting makes the cut.

brinderwalt | July 12, 18:13 CET

Yeah I wouldn't want to be a Summers or a Tam, that's for sure. I would probably want to be a Mars.

That father-daughter relationship is the most loving, the most beautiful that I've seen on television. Sure, Veronica has an alcoholic, adulteress, felon for a mother, but Keith makes up for all of that and more.

5X5B | July 12, 19:59 CET

Shows the tenaciously of us Joss fans.

We won't let go for'ever!

Madhatter | July 13, 02:36 CET

Guys, the Marses better win the final poll. We CAN'T let them lose.

Liam Mars | July 13, 14:59 CET

Argh! Chuck Bartowski's cannot lose to the Simpsons!

Mirage | July 14, 17:27 CET