Since their inception, movies have not only reflected, but also defined our values, at times offering an idealized picture of American life and at others presenting a bleak view of dysfunctional families and lost opportunities.

TCM's tribute is broken into categories beginning with Picture Perfect, a look at movies that present a rose-tinted portrait of American domesticity. MGM was the studio most dedicated to wholesome family fare, and Vincente Minnelli's Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) filled the bill beautifully with its account of a turn-of-the-century St. Louis household whose serenity is threatened by a proposed move to New York. Before the crisis is resolved, with typical warm sentiment, Judy Garland sings some of her most charming songs. Another MGM valentine to the American family was the Andy Hardy series, typified by The Courtship of Andy Hardy (1942), in which Mickey Rooney as Andy courts a young Donna Reed as the shy daughter of divorcing parents.

The unconventional families of Modern Life are represented in the comedy Yours, Mine and Ours (1968), in which Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda play a widow and widower who marry even though they have 18 children between them. Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) takes a dramatic look at the contemporary problems of divorce and blurred gender roles, as single parent Dustin Hoffman struggles to play both dad and mom to an adorable young son (Justin Henry).

Coming to America reflects upon immigrants who cling to elements of their ethnic culture while embracing the U.S. way of life. Norman Jewison's comedy Moonstruck (1987) looks at an Italian family in Brooklyn, with Cher and Olympia Dukakis in Oscar-winning roles as a daughter and mother finding unexpected romance. Popi (1969) casts Alan Arkin as a Puerto Rican immigrant living in Harlem who sets his two young sons adrift on the ocean in hopes they'll be mistaken for refugees from Cuba and adopted by wealthy parents.

You Think You've Got Problems considers such maladjusted types as Stella Dallas (1937, TCM premiere), the quintessential soap opera heroine brilliantly played by Barbara Stanwyck. Convinced that her own crass personality stands in the way of the happiness of her daughter (Anne Shirley), Stella gallantly steps aside as the daughter moves upward in society. Robert Redford's Oscar-winning direction in Ordinary People (1980) focuses on a "perfect" family-turned-sour after a tragedy in which one son (Timothy Hutton) blames himself for the drowning of another. Mary Tyler Moore and Donald Sutherland shine as the grieving parents who fail to connect with the surviving son's anguish.