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The War at Home aired from September 2005 until August 2007 on FOX.

The middle-class suburban sprawl of New York's Long Island was the setting for this loud "yell-com" that was a far cry from the wholesome family sitcoms of the 1950s and 1960s. Jewish Dave ( Michael Rapaport) was a boorish, self-centered, insensitive insurance salesman married to Catholic Vicky ( Anita Barone), an outspoken part-time interior decorator. Although they loved their kids, they resented the limitations parenthood put on their lifestyle and were worried that the kids would do all the wild things they had done when they were teenagers. Sexy Hillary ( Kaylee DeFer), the eldest was more interested in her social life than her studies and constantly tested the limits of her parents' tolerance. Larry ( Kyle Sullivan), her nerdy, innocent brother ( oblivious to the fact that his best friend Kenny ( Rami Malik) was gay), wasn't interested in being the macho guy his dad wanted and resented being picked on all the time. Mike ( Dean Collins), the youngest, was a smart-ass manipulator, often taking advantage of his older siblings, and even, on occasion, their parents. Seen on a recurring basis were Joe ( Tom McGowan), who worked with Dave, and Hillary's best friend Brenda ( Zoe Di Stefano). In January 2007 Kenny moved in with the Golds after Dave convinced him to tell his parents he was gay and they threw him out of their house ( six weeks later they took him back). Hillary was accepted to Bennington College and got back together with her black boyfriend from the first season, Taye ( Dreux Frederic) who took her to the senior prom.

On every episode their were occasions when someone in the family , most often Dave, but sometimes the kids, friends, neighbors or parents , would talk directly to the viewing audience, complaining or making personal observations.

A Review from Variety

War at Home
(Series -- Fox, Sun. Sept. 11, 8:30 p.m.)
By PHIL GALLO

Taped in Los Angeles by Acme Prods. in association with Warner Bros. Television. Executive producers, Rob Lotterstein, Michael Hanel, Mindy Schultheis; producers, Suzan Bymel, Randy Cordray; director, Andy Cadiff; writer, Lotterstein.

Dave - Michael Rapaport
Vickey - Anita Barone
Mike - Dean Collins
Hillary - Kaylee Defer
Larry - Kyle Sullivan

Michael Rapaport opens the pilot of "War at Home" with a witty diatribe on the lack of rules in modern-day child rearing. He's a troubled man trying to make sense of the anarchy in his home, seemingly incapable of coming to terms with reality and the way he envisioned life. Fantasy sequences and actors talking directly to the camera give "War at Home" a badge of distinction, albeit a gimmicky one, and no jokes are as clever as a "West Side Story" number in an early montage. Otherwise, "War at Home" is an uninspired collection of cliches, sex jokes and uninvolving characters.

It's a bad sign when the creators haven't even gone to the trouble of giving the central family a last name. Dave (Rapaport), wife Vickey (Anita Barone) and the three kids could quickly join the scrap heap of sitcoms that fail to take advantage of the viewers "The Simpsons" supplies.

"War" focuses on two working parents living in the suburbs with their quirky teenage kids. Larry (Kyle Sullivan) might be gay, Hillary (Kaylee Defer) is probably a slut and Mike (Dean Collins) is definitely spoiled. Dave's goal -- and he admits he set the bar low -- is to get them into college without a drug habit or a kid of their own. It doesn't seem like that much of a stretch.

Rob Lotterstein's script lacks any gut-busting jokes or scenarios. Some of the humor is even derived from the early days of TV, whether it's eliciting a reaction from dad or cross-dressing.

It appears the show intends to pivot off the hypocrisy angle, but it doesn't do so forcefully. Mom, for example, was slutty when she was a 16-year-old, so who is she to be lecturing her daughter. Dad's open-mindedness suddenly shuts when race and homosexuality, as it relates to his kids, enters the picture. It plays as just another subplot rather than a driving force for the series.

Barone has an engaging quality that puts some life into the theatrics. The kids are sketched loosely and with no depth.

A Review from The New York Times

TV Weekend | 'The War at Home'
Neither the Parents Nor the Kids Are All Right

By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
Published: September 9, 2005

Fox is good at finding the bad in people. "The Simpsons," "Malcolm in the Middle" and "Arrested Development" celebrate narcissists and neurotics without any need to reform them. Even "Married ... With Children," a far more old-fashioned and predictable Fox sitcom, had enough bile and bitterness to overcome the fatigue of the genre.

"The War at Home" is a lot like "Married," and not enough like "The Simpsons" and "Arrested Development," but it still has some bite. In an era when middle-class children are coddled, medicated and watched over like plutonium, there is still some satisfaction in seeing parents belittle and neglect their offspring. Roseanne Barr was great at it, and nobody has really filled her shoes since.

Michael Rapaport plays Dave, the ill-tempered, intolerant father of three children who give their parents no reason to be proud. He thinks his 16-year-old daughter, Hillary (Kaylee DeFer), is a sex-obsessed underachiever; he suspects his middle son, Larry (Kyle Sullivan), is gay; and he has no time at all for the youngest boy, Mike (Dean Collins), who is weird without being interesting.

He is married to Vicky (Anita Barone), a more cheerful, easygoing parent, who shares some of her husband's indifference but in a more jaunty, mocking way. Ms. Barone is the show's ace in the hole: a funny, bawdy actress who is charmingly offhand as a mother. In the pilot, Dave finds Vicky smoking indolently in the garage in her work clothes, unwilling to let her children know she is home. When he complains about her smoking, she counters that she doesn't object to his pornography collection. "The truth is, the porn doesn't really bother me," she confides with a sly smile to the camera in a monologue. "Frankly, it leaves me one less thing to do around here."

Dave also leaves the scene occasionally to deliver a hate-based monologue. Bemoaning how the two-career family has eroded male sovereignty in the home, he says: "Nobody's in charge. It's a mess. You know who I blame?" He picks up a picture of Mary Tyler Moore. "She was television's first career gal. She gave women hopes, dreams and aspirations." He pauses, then adds, "The bitch."

Dave gives vent to all the modern biases sitcoms use for easy laughs. He won't let Hillary date a college boy and is then appalled when she brings home a rapper classmate. Hillary is not quite as wild as she appears. In her monologue, she explains that she is a "technical virgin." Or as she puts it: "Could I be sacrificed to a volcano? Yes. Would I be the first choice to save the village? Probably not." Dave constantly needles Larry about his indeterminate sexuality, and the boy does spend a lot of time in his room trying on women's clothes. (He has his reasons.)

Dave is supposed to be an endearing bigot, but the show does not really aspire to Archie Bunker-style social satire. What makes Dave entertaining - and more amusing than the rather trite racist and homophobic jokes - is how quickly he accepts his children's choices as inevitable. Despite all his nostalgia for his father's era of not sparing the rod or the Scotches before dinner, contemporary mores have sunk into even him. A gay son is just another thing to get used to, like a creaky step on the staircase or a demanding boss at work. Not all the jokes are funny, but the characters are winningly unlovable.

Sitcoms are hard work, these days. Except for "My Name Is Earl" on NBC, there are few new approaches or genuinely funny conceits. Fox tried something new with "Arrested Development" two years ago and won critical acclaim but very few viewers. The network, commendably, has kept it on the air, hoping it will catch on with a broader audience. "The War at Home" is not innovative exactly, but it has a spark that most new sitcoms on other networks lack.

The War at Home

Fox, Sunday nights at 8:30, Eastern and Pacific times; 7:30, Central time.

Rob Lotterstein, Michael Hanel and Mindy Schultheis, executive producers; written by Mr. Lotterstein; directed by Andy Cadiff; produced by Warner Brothers Television, Acme Productions.

WITH: Michael Rapaport (Dave), Anita Barone (Vicky), Dean Collins (Mike), Kaylee DeFer (Hillary) and Kyle Sullivan (Larry).

A Review from Entertainment Weekly

The War at Home (2005)

D By Gillian Flynn

In the opening of The War at Home's pilot, Michael Rapaport — as suburban family man Dave — calls Mary Tyler Moore a bitch and decries the women's rights movement. I was mmediately...intrigued. With so many bland sitcom hubbies around, a fellow who loves his wife but suffers from light misogyny isn't necessarily unwelcome. At least it's a point of view.

Unfortunately, then came the homophobia (Dave fears one of his sons is gay), the racism (Dave freaks when his daughter brings home an African-American boyfriend), and the super-hetero yukkiness (Dave praises Lindsay Lohan's ''nice balloons''). The objectionable thing about The War at Home isn't that its lead character has wildly unattractive traits — shows from All in the Family to Rescue Me have proved this can make for good, riling story lines. It's War's pointless meanness that's foul. Whether it's a slight against gay men or a snide remark about a girl in a wheelchair, the jokes have a scattershot, drive-by quality. These one-liners are wrapped in a bullying so-what? swagger — as if it's brave to be politically incorrect, when for a decade it's actually been in vogue. ''Political correctness,'' snaps Dave, in one of his monologue rants, ''what retard, excuse me, what mentally challenged moron thought up that idea?'' Hey, War at Home writers — 1994 called. It wants its joke back.

The entire series, in fact, feels 10 years stale — given Fox's proclivities for profane comedy, it very well could be — yet deluded about its currency. Watching War is like being cruised by an old guy with a ponytail who thinks you'll be dazzled by his IROC — and that overpowering laff track is the boatload of Drakkar Noir emanating from him. Worse than its datedness, War doesn't have the strength of its nasty convictions. The show wants to shock, but it refuses any culpability. In an ongoing — and going and going — story line, Dave once again believes his son Larry (Kyle Sullivan) is gay. Despite his grumbling and insults, he ultimately supports the kid (see, Dave's really an okay guy). In a more daring, interesting show, Larry would actually be gay, forcing Dave to confront his prejudices. But that's not War at Home. This is the kind of series in which Dave and his wife, Vicky (Anita Barone), invite the parents of their daughter's African-American boyfriend to a barbecue, only to have Dave bash affirmative action and defiantly serve ribs, damn the implications! Dave is immediately let off the hook when it's revealed that the boyfriend's dad, Omar (Richard Whiten), has his own race issues — he'd prefer his son not date a white girl. In an even more self-serving twist, Dave is victimized when Omar must explain to him that, sorry, his golf club doesn't allow Jewish members. That's right, Dave is oppressed, people, so everything... is...okay. It's one limp comedy that pretends to be frank and daring about race, gender, and sexual orientation — and instead is glib, tired, and slippery. Now, there's something to rant about.

A Review from The Seattle Post

'The War at Home' -- FOX's latest sitcom -- surrenders to mediocrity

By MELANIE McFARLAND
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER TELEVISION CRITIC

Those mourning the death of sitcoms last year may have already heard the proclamation that at last, we have clear, undeniable signs that the ailing half-hour genre is showing signs of a rebound.

It's important to mention that up front, because if you catch "The War At Home," premiering at 8:30 p.m. Sunday on KCPQ/13, you may wonder if the nation's television critics haven't all suddenly succumbed to our long collective battle with dementia, or seeking comfort, turned to crack.

No, no, no. I assure you, there are several gut-busting gems of hilarity on the fall television schedule, which we will run down for you next week.

"The War At Home" is not among them.

Understand, Fox has a habit of always trying to return to the show that put it on the map almost 20 years ago -- "Married... With Children," to be specific. Actually, "War" might have been mated beautifully with the Bundys in 1987. But that was then, and this is awful.

By the way, note the title, then the premiere date. Sept. 11.

Awkward.

"War" is another lame attempt at Fox to make family comedy edgy! And, irreverent! This time, we get Dave (Michael Rapaport) and Vicky (Anita Barone) freaking out about their teenage kids. Rebellious 16-year-old daughter Hillary (Kaylee DeFer) is, gasp, dating a black kid. Dave fears 15-year-old Larry (Kyle Sullivan) might be, oh dear, gay. That makes their videogame addicted 13-year-old (Dean Collins) the least of their problems.

Dave fumes about his trials in confessional asides taking place outside the action, which are supposed to be unfiltered and revelatory, spiced with the sort of made-for-TV prejudice that can be dismissed as un-P.C.

Funny?

The writers seem to have forgotten about that.

What's more tragic is that "The War at Home" joins "King of the Hill," "The Simpsons," "Family Guy" and "American Dad" on Fox's Sunday block. That means Rapaport's character is surrounded by four cartoon dads who come off as more appealing, entertaining and, if you're talking about Hank Hill, relatable -- and multidimensional -- than Dave does. "War's" a losing battle; Fox should just stick with its 'toons.

For a Website dedicated to Michael Rapaport go to http://www.angelfire.com/film/michaelrapaport/

For a Website dedicated to Kyle Sullivan go to http://www.kyle-sullivan.com/

For more on The War at Home go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_at_Home_(TV_series)