The War at Home

When Dave and Vicky were growing up, their parents had it easy. Back then, there were no “time-outs,” no one had any “boundaries,” and “parenting” wasn’t even a word. Parents had no idea what their kids were really up to and ignorance truly was bliss. Now Dave and Vicky have teenagers of their own, and anything their kids might even think about doing, Dave and Vicky have already done… at least twice.

The War at Home (2005-2007) is an American network family sitcom created by Rob Lotterstein for FOX. Michael Rapaport plays Dave Gold and Anita Barone plays Vicky Gold, a middle class couple in suburban Long Island, New York, who remember every rule they broke as teenagers and now face their own children. Kaylee DeFer as Hillary, Kyle Sullivan as Larry, and Dean Collins as Mike play the Gold kids, whose attempts at mischief keep running into their parents' hard-won experience. Each episode is a self-contained comedy of errors built around a household skirmish: a curfew dispute, a sneaked party, a bad decision that the parents recall from their own youth and use to outmaneuver the kids. The engine is the parents' eagerness to stay one step ahead of their children while their own pasts keep catching up with them. Its tone is sardonic and bickering, with a brisk pace and a loud, cheerful sense of domestic chaos. Fans of Married... with Children, Everybody Loves Raymond and Malcolm in the Middle will find resonance in its blunt, suburban family humor and its affectionate portrait of parents who refuse to be outwitted. Across two seasons and 44 episodes the series stayed a light, episodic sitcom that never quite found a larger arc before it was canceled.

Audiences rated the sitcom positively but modestly, with its parenting comedy seen as familiar family-sitcom fare.

• Married... with Childrenshared family sitcom tone, suburban parenting comedy, cringe family dynamics
• Everybody Loves Raymondshared parent-teen generational comedy, dysfunctional household sitcom
• Malcolm in the Middleshared irreverent family sitcom, parents clashing with kids in a middle class home

Created by

Rob Lotterstein

Release Date

2005-09-11

Episode runtime

22 min

Rating

7.5 / 10 (60)

What is The War at Home about?

A Long Island couple who got away with every teenage stunt in the 1980s find their own kids trying the same tricks.

What is The War at Home like to watch?

Ember's analysis rates the pacing of The War at Home as brisk, its intensity as mild and its storytelling as simple.

Is The War at Home violent?

No — Ember's analysis finds no violence in The War at Home.

What did critics think of The War at Home?

Audiences rated the sitcom positively but modestly, with its parenting comedy seen as familiar family-sitcom fare.

Which shows are like The War at Home?

Shows with a similar feel include Married... with Children, Everybody Loves Raymond, and Malcolm in the Middle.

How long is The War at Home?

The War at Home: 2 seasons, 44 episodes.

Is The War at Home still running?

No, The War at Home was canceled.