The Trickster archetype is usually the Fumbling father portrayed in family sitcoms. Its the episodes of developement from clumsy to heroic that stick in our mind the most (Ie: wife goes out and husband needs to change diaper for the first time). But I would reference a sitcom like the “Cosby Show” (Or even Roseanne) as still the Trickster but farther in the developement of family, than “Family Guy”(or “Simpsons”). Comical situations are usually caused by someones misfortunes, the questions becomes whose? The Tricksters or the ones being tricked? Both?

The Hero archetype is usually self sacrificing and many times Masoginistic because of a certain amount of masculine -energies correlating more to mammal’s behaviors in defence of territory and distribution of basic needs (food, shelter, etc. in Tribal situations like Lions and herd animals). Who do we rely on when the whirlwind hits the manure pile? If placed in a violent situation, which can happen anywhere at any time in this world, we only hope we can defend ourselves and our families. AMC’s “Breaking Bad” might be an intriguing example. Hero archetype can without question step up in such situations, er, other than How does he do it?

The Wiseman or King. Usually consider highest on the devlopemnt of archetypes, they are the — been there, done that, delegates to solve problems and yet usually pops up when there’s a situation no one else can solve kind of character. Usually shown as the President or chair person of Corporation or the Head of the Policeforce. Biggest problem with this Archetype is that they are doomed to death or collapse so that society starts over — might not translate to television so much. I’d almost say “Glee” has this archetype as the Protag… But I’m wavering. Perhaps “CSI” or even “House”. Perhaps you could also equate them to the Sitcom such as the “Cosby Show” the children being the rebirth and eventual over throwers of the Wiseman head of houshold.

There are many other Male archetypes (and equal amount of Female archetype including a feminine Hero archetype usually inspired by Solitary mammal’s Behaviors such as in cases of tigers and bears: Though isn’t it curious How Meerkat Manor became such a Hit, breaking common knowledge of how the world works with Flower as the Lead!?). As writers how do we capture the essenses of Human/animal nature to both captivate our audience and speak instinctual Truths but with personal twists for uniqueness?

I struggle everyday with this idea and try to keep my eyes and ears open to find the exception and creating the exceptional archetype. Whether I manage this or not…

Thanks for provoking my thoughts- Ha!

You raise some great points regarding genres and sitcoms.

I still strongly feel that sitcoms, particularly the “family” orientated ones generally present fathers in a poor light. “The middle” is about to start in my country and I could tell from the promos that the father is yet another oafish clown who will be stumbling around with hardly any idea of what’s going on. Suffice to say that I won’t be watching it.

I think that one of the paradoxes of genre story telling (both printed and visual) is that violence has to drive the drama (otherwise it would be a story with characters standing around and just talking), yet the violence can reinforce certain tropes, cliches and stereotypes. And maybe some of the pleasure for the consumer is the comfort and familiarity of the tropes, cliches and stereotypes.

Analysing “popular” culture makes for a good mental exercise, IMHO the key is to not over analyse and suck all of the pleasure out of it.

Cheers

Off the top of my head, i can think of MGLN, an anime, which has the main character (the daughter)’s dad being a retired ninja/bodyguard because he wanted to be a dad, and being successful at it to some degree (though he did go to an hospital to a long time before choosing to retire).

Back to fantasy, while it’s no ‘Dad’, i think Robin Hobb has a few different male characters like the fool.

I wonder, though, if a lot of this male-strength-manifests-as-violence stuff does have to do with genre. Because it seems to me that there are a lot of sitcoms and romances and such that are focused on daily life and rarely if ever delve into physical violence. Perhaps even a few dramas as well, though maybe mostly in movies–TV dramas do seem to feature a lot of dramatic action and violence.

Some examples off the top of my head:

I think most sitcoms are rarely violent. Friends; Cheers; Newhart; Big Bang Theory; Seinfeld; Taxi; the men are often bumbling or incompetent, but usually more or less well-meaning, and they rarely kill anyone.

Similarly with romantic-comedy movies, and other romances and/or comedies. Four Weddings and a Funeral. Love Actually. Two Weeks Notice. Okay, those are all Hugh Grant movies, another guy in the bumbling-but-adorable mold. When Harry Met Sally. Moonstruck. The Object of My Affection. Pretty Woman. Sabrina. I haven’t thought through all of these in detail; I may be missing some male-violence bits. But the men in most such movies are not defined by their violence.

I think that’s also true of certain kinds of movie dramas. I’m thinking especially of family dramas: Kramer vs Kramer, Ordinary People, Terms of Endearment, Beaches, that sort of thing. Though on looking through various lists of popular and/or award-winning movie dramas, I see that there’s a lot more such movies focused on action and male violence than I would have thought.

Still, even among TV and movie dramas that do occasionally feature male violence and action scenes, there are some that also show smart contemplative men with feelings. West Wing, for example. Gilmore Girls (which I guess is as much comedy as drama) has maybe three instances of men hitting each other in seven superb seasons, and though the focus is on the Lorelai and Rory throughout the series, there are some really good male characters.

Oh, yeah, and there are teen-focused shows like The Wonder Years; I haven’t seen much of such shows, and I imagine they focus mostly on the teens rather than the adults, but I suspect there are a few non-violent adult men in such shows.

Anyway, I’m sure lots of my examples could be picked at, but my overall point is that when you move away from media that’s focused on action and violence (war stories, most science fiction and fantasy TV and movies, thrillers, spy stuff, police stuff, some medical shows), there are various other models of masculinity out there, some of them pretty positive.

And NGD, you actually prove the point that I just made to Ben. We have to go back to Dumas to find a healthy treatment of fatherhood?! Yikes! Thanks for the cite though. I haven’t read THE COUNT… in years. A good excuse to go back to it.

I think it’s possible to incorporate humility, kindness, generosity, and other characters that make fathers heroic in their on right, but the task is going to be a difficult one.

The first is the cliche of the gruff anti-hero type with a tough upbringing who feels open/comfortable enough to show his emotional side when he’s in love with a “good” woman.

The second is that generally fathers in sitcoms are “jerks”, a couple of examples that pop straight into my mind are “My Wife and Kids” and “According to Jim.” The only exception to this that I can think of is “The Cosby Show.”

Lastly “Numb3rs” has an interesting father/sons character dynamics. One son is a man of action and the other son is a son of intellect, yet they are both loved by their father and the “family” conversations are pretty naturalistic.

Finally I think that there will always be tension between the commercially popular and intelligent approaches to subversion of common tropes and cliches.

Cheers