From as far back as the medium's birth, when the mainstream of the Western world was mum, dad and two kids in the average suburban home, the small screen has pointed out it can take all sorts to fill a happy house.

We've had struggling widowers (The Courtship of Eddie's Father, The Andy Griffith Show, Skippy) and widows (Julia), an uncle raising his brother's orphans (A Family Affair), the undead offering advice to children (The Ghost and Mrs Muir, My Mother the Car), aliens (ALF), vampires and monsters (The Munsters), no parents at all (Family of Five), and more.

And there's no sign the industry is finished exploding the nuclear family.

Ten is screening the latest entry in the field from a man who has made a career of showing that outwardly dysfunctional families can actually function quite well, comic producer Greg Garcia. From Family Matters, Family Guy, Yes, Dear and Raising Hope, he's now giving us what he's  calling a "divorce comedy", The Millers.

The premise is the parents of two grown children divorce, each moving in with a separate child to disrupt the lives they'd built. Thankfully, to comic effect.

Families are, says Garcia, great fun to play with simply because characters cansay things they couldn't utter anywhereelse.

"You'll say things to your mum and dad, and they to you, and your sister, that you might not say to your friends, because your friends will just erase you from the phone book," he says.

Whatever the reason, it's comforting for viewers in any of the  combinations that make up a family, to see their lives on screen. And it often heralds the way for social change.

Modern Family, for example, featured a same-sex wedding. If that's acceptable  in prime time, how long before  laws are changed to reflect the same in real life?

If nothing else, it would inspire a raft of new sitcoms.