The streak sort-of continues as she engages in mild irony mixed with pedestrian social commentary. She laughs with the Pattersons instead of at them so I like it.
Panel 1: We start out with John perusing the TV listings; Mike is playing with a toy flying saucer and Elly has just come into the room.
Panel 2: John, holding a coffee cup, and Mike are sitting on the couch as Elly turn on the TV. This sets the strip in 1980 when you had to actually manually change the channels instead of losing the remote in the couch.
Panel 3: Lizzie, holding her toy bunny, makes the scene during the action sequence from a police procedural.
Panel 4: She climbs onto Elly's lap during the opening sequence of a science program about the future of agriculture.
Panel 5: John points out that it's Mike and Lizzie's bedtime.
Panel 6: He then tells Elly that he really enjoyed his evening with the family.
Panel 7: You see, he was worried that they'd forgotten how to communicate.
Summary: Lynn is being mildly ironic since, as we know, the Pattersons didn't actually talk to one another. However, since nobody was being mean to one another and they all had a good time, they communicated without speaking. The message is that they like being in each others' presence.