March 9, 1976(1976-03-09)– June 25, 1980(1980-06-25)
Familyis an American television drama series that aired on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) television network from 1976 to 1980. It was originally conceived as a limited series; its first season consisted of six episodes.[1] A total of 86 episodes were produced. Creative control of the show was split among executive producers Leonard Goldberg, Aaron Spelling, and Mike Nichols.
Family depicted, for its time, a contemporary traditional family with realistic, believable characters.[2] The show starred Sada Thompson and James Broderick as Kate and Doug Lawrence, a happily married upper-middle-class couple living at 1230 Holland Street in Pasadena, California with their three children: Nancy (portrayed by Elayne Heilveil in the original miniseries, then by Jane Actman for the first 2 episodes of Season 2, and finally Meredith Baxter Birney (who re-filmed Actman’s scenes and played the Nancy character for the remainder of the show's run); Willie (Gary Frank); and Letitia, nicknamed "Buddy" (Kristy McNichol).
The eldest daughter character of Nancy had a young son, Timothy (called Timmy, portrayed by siblings Michael and David Shackelford). Timmy was named after a younger brother who died off-screen years prior in a freak fishing canoe accident that was briefly mentioned in season one.
Family raised the profile of all of its featured actors and, in particular, catapulted Kristy McNichol and Meredith Baxter Birney to stardom.
Kate is the practical, rational voice of the show. She always stands by her opinion and is motivated to do what is right, even if it makes her unpopular ("Jury Duty"). An accomplished full-time homemaker, she resents people telling her that because she had high aspirations in school and had achieved a great deal academically ("Home Movie"), she could have attained much more in life. However, at one point she expresses frustration with the monotony of her life, feeling that all she does is run errands and make phone calls, usually on behalf of other people ("An Eye to the Future"). She eventually returns to college as a music major, then becomes a music teacher at Buddy's high school in season 4.
Doug, the family patriarch, is an independent lawyer who aspires to be a judge but never uses his intellect to make others feel inferior. He is a family man who listens to what Kate tells him and always makes time for his children.
Willie, Doug and Kate's son, is an aspiring writer. He secures his parents' permission to take a year off high school to write a screenplay but, to his father's chagrin, later drops out of school completely. He later pursues work, assisting in a photography studio, an advertising agency, and at a TV show called "The Dame Game" but eventually quits, dubbing the work uninspiring, and aspires to leave Pasadena.
Younger daughter Buddy (Letitia), is somewhat tomboyish, although she sometimes considers adopting a more feminine appearance ("Coming of Age"). She is a loyal friend, compassionate toward others, and well-liked by her classmates. She has a habit of walking into a room where adults are discussing something confidential and demanding to know what is transpiring. She usually seeks her mother's help when faced with a dilemma. Her mother often calls her the nickname “Tizzy Lish.” Willie has a close sibling relationship with Buddy, whom he affectionately calls "Peaches."
Eldest daughter Nancy Lawrence Maitland's move back home with her young son, Timmy, is the story catalyst during the premiere episode. She does so after catching her husband, Jeff Maitland (played by John Rubinstein, who also composed the show's theme song), in bed with another woman. They divorce soon after and Nancy enrolls in law school, where she excels. Nancy lives in the small guest house in the backyard of the Lawrence family home, and she later moves to a nearby apartment in Pasadena.
In the 1978 fourth season, eleven-year-old Andrea “Annie” Cooper (Quinn Cummings) is adopted by the family after the off-screen death of her biological parents, Kate and Doug's college friends, in a car accident. Annie excels in academics with her extensive vocabulary and strives to fit in with her new family and classmates at school.
Storylines were often topical. Family often featured what has come to be known as "very special episodes". In the first episode, Nancy walks in on her husband, Jeff, having sex with one of her friends. During the second season she and Jeff divorce, but he appears occasionally thereafter to complicate the Lawrences' lives. Other storylines include Kate's possible breast cancer and Buddy's dilemmas about whether to have sex; she always chooses to wait. Other episodes deal with homosexuality: in a 1976 episode ("Rites of Friendship"), Willie's childhood friend, Zeke Remsen, is arrested in a gay bar and Willie struggles to accept his friend's sexuality, while a 1977 episode ("We Love You, Miss Jessup") deals with Buddy's friendship with a lesbian teacher. Family also contends with alcoholism (Doug's sister; Buddy's friend) and dementia: A 1979 episode directed by Joanne Woodward guest-stars Henry Fonda as Doug's father, who is beginning to experience cognitive decline. Two years later, Fonda would win an Academy Award for playing a similar character in On Golden Pond.
The initial showrunners of Family were Nigel McKeand and Carol Evan McKeand, who previously had been writers for The Waltons. After the fourth season, the McKeands departed[3] and were replaced by Edward Zwick, who would go on to produce the acclaimed series thirtysomething, My So-Called Life and Once and Again.
The pilot episode was filmed inside a private residence located at 1230 Milan Avenue in South Pasadena, California. A set, that was almost identical to the house, was built at 20th Century Studios in Century City (Los Angeles), California to film all other episodes. The exterior shots of the Lawrence family home were filmed at the same private residence for the duration of the series.
Meredith Baxter's real-life mother, Whitney Blake, guest starred, as did David Birney, who was Baxter's husband at the time.
Critical reception
Family was widely acclaimed, with many television critics calling it a rare quality offering[9][10] in ABC's primetime schedule, which at the time contained light-hearted shows such as Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley and The Love Boat.
The principal cast of Family was featured on the January 21-27, 1978, and March 15-21, 1980, covers of TV Guide magazine.
In the fourth season, some critics took issue with the show's direction. In February 1979, Noel Holston of the Orlando Sentinel called Family "ABC's most prestigious program" but claimed "the producers' crisis-of-the-week approach is starting to strain the series' credibility."[11] Some critics complained that Family, like many TV shows of the period, had become too reliant on sex-related plots.[12] In spring 1979, ABC shifted the show to a Friday night death slot of 8 p.m. Eastern Time, and its previously solid ratings dropped to near the bottom of the chart. As a result, Family was renewed for a final season of 13 episodes that began at mid-season and aired intermittently.
Despite its occasionally adult themes, the series was consistently praised by the National Parent-Teacher Association. In February 1979, the PTA said Family contained "good parenting lessons" and "slightly controversial" but "excellent" content,[13] recommending it for viewing by teens and older.
Seven years after the series' cancellation, it was widely reported that a Family Reunion TV movie was planned for the 1987–88 season.[14] At least one report indicated that if its ratings were strong enough, the series would be revived for the then-current ABC schedule.[15] The plot was to involve the Lawrence children gathering for Kate's remarriage. (James Broderick had died of cancer in 1982.) But the writers' strike that year halted production, and the project was abandoned.
In the original spring 1976 miniseries run of Family, the theme music is a dramatic-sounding, yet low-key piano solo with minor orchestral contingents, composed by cast member John Rubinstein (son of classical musician Arthur Rubinstein). When Family was picked up as a regular series for the fall 1976 schedule, the theme music was changed to a more cheery, upbeat instrumental dominated by trumpets and horns, also written by Rubinstein. This version lasted the rest of the run.
The opening title credits of Family prominently feature the Lawrence family home and lushly landscaped front yard. From 1976-78, the credits show Kate in front of the home saying goodbye to Doug in his car as he presumably leaves for work at his law firm. Kate then walks back inside the home and past the piano covered with framed photos of the entire family. The camera then focuses on the framed photos of each cast member. The early opening and closing credits feature a distinctive san serif typeface.
For the 1978-79 fourth season and the remainder of the series, a slightly revamped version of the opening credits once again focuses on the Lawrence home and features vignette scenes of each cast member (in lieu of the previously shown framed photos). At the end of the credits, the family is shown standing in front of the home to pose for a group photo. Notably, the opening and closing credits in the later years of the series switch from a san serif to a serif typeface.
Legal dispute
Family became the subject of a 24-year legal dispute[23] due to a lawsuit filed by writer Jeri Emmet in 1977. The claim was against Spelling Television and alleged that Spelling had stolen the idea for the show from a script that Emmet had submitted, titled "The Best Years". Spelling responded to the lawsuit with a statement explaining that he had conceived the idea in his kitchen with Leonard Goldberg, his professional partner. Next they pitched the idea to scriptwriterJay Presson Allen to create the pilot. She had just completed writing the screenplay for the film Funny Lady, starring Barbra Streisand and directed by Herbert Ross.
In October 1981, the suit was dismissed for lack of prosecution. Jeri Emmet filed an appeal the same month. Approximately a year later, she withdrew her appeal as part of a settlement with Spelling and Goldberg for $1,000. Emmet later filed a legal malpractice action against her own lawyers in which it was argued that she would have won her original lawsuit but for the malpractice. The case went to trial and a jury awarded her $1.7 million in damages. The verdict was then successfully appealed based on the resumption of the suit having occurred beyond a one-year limitation period allowed in the law: the trial result and judgment were overturned.[24]
Emmet sued Spelling a second time, in 1996, after Spelling published his memoirs. She claimed that Spelling had defamed her in his book, as she had not been credited with conceiving the original idea for Family. She lost on appeal in 2001, with the court saying she had not met the standard for showing damages due to the alleged defamation and that she had not explained how the defamation legally constituted a second theft of the same intellectual property. The litigation finally concluded with Allen retaining her "Created by" credit for the series.[23]
Home media and syndication
On September 5, 2006, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the first two seasons of Family on DVD in Region 1. On January, 2016, two box sets containing a total of 28 episodes were released in Germany by ALIVE VERTRIEBS- UND MARKETING. These box sets contain select episodes from seasons 1 to 3.[25]
Beginning in July 2021, all five seasons of Family — uncut, were available for viewing on Tubi in their original broadcast running times, except for the season 4 episode 'Magic,' which appears in its syndicated edited form at 44 minutes in length (as opposed to the usual 49 minutes). The show was briefly unavailable from the Tubi library. However, as of July 2022, Family is on Tubi again. [26]
The show currently airs on MeTV+, a companion network to MeTV that is available in select TV markets.
Beginning in 2020, the Decades network broadcast limited sets of Family episodes as part of their Decades Weekend Binge, where a different TV series is highlighted each weekend. Family was featured one weekend in 2020 and again the weekend of January 14-15, 2023.
Melrose Place is an American prime time television soap opera that aired on Fox from July 8, 1992, to May 24, 1999, for seven seasons. The show follows the lives of a group of young adults living in an apartment complex on Melrose Place, in West Hollywood, California. The show was created by Darren Star for Fox and executive produced by Aaron Spelling for his company, Spelling Television. It was the second series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise. Season one and season two were broadcast on Wednesday at 9 pm, after Beverly Hills, 90210. In 1994, for its third-season and for the rest of its run, the show moved to Monday at 8 p.m.
Charlie's Angels is an American crime drama television series that aired on ABC from September 22, 1976, to June 24, 1981, producing five seasons and 115 episodes. The series was created by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts and was produced by Aaron Spelling. It follows the crime-fighting adventures of three women working at a private detective agency in Los Angeles, California, and originally starred Kate Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and Jaclyn Smith in the leading roles and John Forsythe providing the voice of their boss, the unseen Charlie Townsend, who directed the crime-fighting operations of the "Angels" over a speakerphone. There were a few casting changes: after the departure of Fawcett, Cheryl Ladd joined; after Jackson departed, Shelley Hack joined, who was subsequently replaced by Tanya Roberts.
Aaron Spelling was an American film and television producer and occasional actor. His productions included the TV series Family (1976–1980), Charlie's Angels (1976–1981), The Love Boat (1977–1986), Hart to Hart (1979–1984), Dynasty (1981–1989), Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990–2000), Melrose Place (1992–1999), 7th Heaven (1996–2007), and Charmed (1998–2006). He also served as producer of The Mod Squad (1968–1973), The Rookies (1972–1976), and Sunset Beach (1997–1999).
Lucy Kate Jackson is an American actress and television producer, known for her television roles as Sabrina Duncan in the series Charlie's Angels (1976–1979) and Amanda King in the series Scarecrow and Mrs. King (1983–1987). Her film roles include Making Love (1982) and Loverboy (1989). She is a three-time Emmy Award nominee and four-time Golden Globe Award nominee.
The Carol Burnett Show is an American variety/sketch comedy television show that originally ran on CBS from September 11, 1967, to March 29, 1978, for 279 episodes, and again with nine episodes in fall 1991. It starred Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, and Lyle Waggoner. In 1975, frequent guest star Tim Conway became a regular after Waggoner left the series. In 1977, Dick Van Dyke replaced Korman but it was agreed that he was not a match and he left after 10 episodes.
Nancy Walker was an American actress and comedian of stage, screen, and television. She was also a film and television director. During her five-decade-long career, she may be best remembered for her long-running roles as Mildred on McMillan & Wife and Ida Morgenstern, who first appeared on several episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and later became a prominent recurring character on the spinoff series Rhoda.
Carolyn Sue Jones was an American actress of television and film. Jones began her film career in the early 1950s, and by the end of the decade had achieved recognition with a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Bachelor Party (1957) and a Golden Globe Award as one of the most promising new actresses of 1959. Her film career continued for another 20 years. In 1964, she began playing the role of matriarch Morticia Addams in the original 1964 black and white television series The Addams Family.
Meredith Ann Baxter is an American actress and producer. She is known for her roles on the CBS sitcom Bridget Loves Bernie (1972–73), ABC drama series Family (1976–80) and the NBC sitcom Family Ties (1982–89). A five-time Emmy Award nominee, one of her nominations was for playing the title role in the 1992 TV film A Woman Scorned: The Betty Broderick Story.
Jacquelyn Ellen "Jaclyn" Smith is an American actress and businesswoman. She is best known for her role as Kelly Garrett in the television series Charlie's Angels (1976–1981), and was the only original female lead to remain with the series for its complete run. She reprised the role with cameo appearances in the films Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003) and Charlie's Angels (2019). Her other films include Nightkill (1980) and Déjà Vu (1985). Beginning in the 1980s, she began developing and marketing her own brands of clothing and perfume.
Weeds is an American dark comedy-drama television series created by Jenji Kohan, which aired on Showtime from August 8, 2005, to September 16, 2012. The series tells of Nancy Botwin, a widowed mother of two boys who begins selling marijuana to support her family. Other main characters include Nancy's lax brother-in-law ; foolish accountant ; narcissistic neighbor living with her husband and their daughter ; as well as Nancy's wholesalers and. Over the course of the series, the Botwin family becomes increasingly entangled in illegal activity.
The Rookies is an American police procedural series that aired on ABC from 1972 until 1976. It follows the exploits of three rookie police officers working in an unidentified city for the fictitious Southern California Police Department (SCPD).
Edward Dean Winter was an American actor. He is best known for his recurring role, Colonel Samuel Flagg, in the television series M*A*S*H from 1973 to 1979.
Mary Kay Place is an American actress, singer, director, and screenwriter. She is known for portraying Loretta Haggers on the television series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, a role that won her the 1977 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress - Comedy Series. Her numerous film appearances include Private Benjamin (1980), The Big Chill (1983), Captain Ron (1992) and Francis Ford Coppola's 1997 drama The Rainmaker. Place also recorded three studio albums for Columbia Records, one in the Haggers persona, which included the Top Ten country music hit "Baby Boy." For her performance in Diane (2018), Place won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress and the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress.
Audrey Dalton is an Irish-born former film and television actress who mostly worked in the United States during the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Jackie Joseph is an American actress and writer. She is best known for her role as Jackie Parker on The Doris Day Show (1971–1973) and Audrey in The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), as well as a supporting role in Gremlins (1984).
Season Hubley is an American retired actress and singer. Best known for Nikki in Hardcore (1979), Priscilla Presley in Elvis (1979), and Angelique in All My Children (1992–1994).
The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries is an American television mystery series based on the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew juvenile novels. The series, which ran from January 30, 1977, to January 14, 1979, was produced by Glen A. Larson from Universal Television for ABC. Parker Stevenson and Shaun Cassidy starred as amateur detective brothers Frank and Joe Hardy, respectively, while Pamela Sue Martin starred as amateur sleuth Nancy Drew.
Mary Janice Rule was an American actress and psychotherapist, earning her PhD while still acting, then acting occasionally while working in her new profession.
The Nancy Walker Show is an American sitcom television series that aired on ABC from September 30, 1976, to December 23, 1976. The series, produced by Norman Lear, was a starring vehicle for Nancy Walker after she gained a new-found television following as both the McMillans' housekeeper Mildred on McMillan & Wife and as Rhoda Morgenstern's mother Ida Morgenstern on Rhoda. The series was a ratings flop and was cancelled after only 12 aired episodes.
Stepfanie Kramer is an American actress best known for having played Detective Sgt. Dee Dee McCall on the 1980s NBC police series Hunter. She was nominated for an Emmy in Special Class Programming and won Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actress from First Americans in the Arts Awards in 1995, 2002, and 2003. Kramer has written and directed for television, and is also a singer-songwriter.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
