American television family dramas have long functioned for broadcast networks as a metaphoric framework to affirm the values of the American Dream. Since the 1990s, American cable television providers have challenged this long-held practice. Originally scripted programming, complete with large budgets, auteur freedom and not reliant on advertising revenue, delivered to audiences (re)worked family dramas that exposed the myth of the American Dream. It is suggested that in this shift, audiences were exposed to narratives of American decay predicated on a failing social, economic and political system. Evidence for this shift is examined in an analysis of six family dramas produced between 1997 and 2013. The aim of this analysis is to interrogate shifts as indicative of a new television landscape.