The War at Home

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American sitcom that lasted two seasons on Fox, from 2005 to 2007. The premise is that Michael Rapaport plays father and husband David Gold and has to deal with the chaos that is his family.

One of the big gimmicks of the show was the constant Fourth Wall breaking and having a character go into a white void to confess something to the audience.

The family members were:

• David: Father and husband, lazy, loud and obnoxious.
• Vicky: Mother and wife, pretty much the Straight Woman.
• Hillary: The oldest child and typical 17-year-old daughter who dates.
• Larry: The middle child at 16, a rather geeky effeminate boy, who Dave thinks is gay, but is actually heterosexual.
• Mike: The youngest child at 14; he is the snarker among the children.

Of note was the recurring character Kenny, Larry's best friend, who had a crush on Larry and came out in the second season.

Tropes used in The War at Home include:

• All the Good Men Are Gay: Hilary eventually discovers this about Kenny.
• Bratty Teenage Daughter: Hilary
• Coming Out Story: Kenny
• Effective Immediately

Dave: We are instituting a zero-tolerence policy, effective immediately! If anybody misses their curfew, or doesn't do their homework, or talks back, or just looks at us wrong, they're gettin' a spanking!

• Deadpan Snarker: The whole family, though Dave does it the most.
• Entendre Failure
• "Friend or Idol?" Decision: Larry has to decide between Kenny or the poem he took from Kenny that he said he made himself.
• Gay Aesop: About Kenny
• Hey, It's That Guy!: Kenny is played by Rami Malek, who played the Pharaoh in the Night at the Museum movies and also was in The Pacific.
• Middle Child Syndrome: Larry
• Mistaken for Gay: Larry, by his own parents. At first it's just Dave who thinks Larry is gay while Vicky maintains that he's not. Then they see him kiss someone who they think is a boy but is actually a very tomboyish girl. Hilarity Ensues.
• The Talk: Kenny has a date, and since he is currently living with the Golds, he gets the Talk from David. It leads to this Breaking the Fourth Wall moment:

(both David and Kenny at the same time):"This is the most uncomfortable conversation in my entire life."

• Too Good to Last
• Transparent Closet: Again, Kenny
• You Can't Go Home Again: Once again, Kenny. Subverted. His mother eventually knocks some sense into his father.

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Did you know there was a character named Kenny in this?