Family (1976 TV series)

Family
Family Title Card
Created by	Jay Presson Allen
Starring	Sada Thompson James Broderick Gary Frank Kristy McNichol Meredith Baxter Birney Quinn Cummings
Opening theme	John Rubinstein
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	5
No. of episodes	86 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Leonard Goldberg Mike Nichols Aaron Spelling
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	50 minutes
Production companies	Icarus Productions Spelling-Goldberg Productions
Distributor	Lexington Broadcast Services Company Sony Pictures Television
Release
Original network	ABC
Audio format	Monaural
Original release	March 9, 1976 (1976-03-09) – June 25, 1980 (1980-06-25)

Family is an American television drama series that aired on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) television network from 1976 to 1980. Creative control of the show was split among executive producers Leonard Goldberg, Aaron Spelling, and Mike Nichols. A total of 86 episodes were produced.

Overview[]

Family depicted, for its time, a contemporary traditional family with realistic, believable characters.^[1] The show starred Sada Thompson and James Broderick as Kate and Doug Lawrence, a happily married 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 Meredith Baxter Birney for the remainder of the show's run), Willie (Gary Frank), and Letitia, nicknamed "Buddy" (Kristy McNichol). An early episode establishes that the couple had another son, Timothy, who had died five years prior in an accident. The show raised the profile of all of its featured actors and, in particular, catapulted McNichol 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 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 Buddy.
• 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 later drops out of school completely, to his father's chagrin. 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 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. Willie has a close 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. Soon after, they divorce, and Nancy enrolls in law school, where she excels.

In the fourth season, eleven-year-old Annie Cooper (Quinn Cummings) is adopted by the family after the death of her parents, Kate and Doug's college friends, in a car accident.

Willie with Doug and Kate.

Storylines were very topical. The show is one of the first to feature what has recently been termed "very special episodes". In the first episode, Nancy walks in on her husband 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 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.

Notable guest stars[]

Many well-known (or soon-to-be well-known) actors and actresses appeared on the series, including Howard Hessman, Ted Danson, Michael J. Fox, Tommy Lee Jones, James Woods, Michael Keaton, Kim Cattrall, Shelley Long, Henry Fonda, Mare Winningham, Helen Hunt, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Annie Potts and Steve Guttenberg.

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 critics calling it a rare quality offering^[2][3] in ABC's primetime schedule, which at the time contained Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley and The Love Boat. Family was nominated three times for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, in 1977, 1978, and 1980. Sada Thompson, Gary Frank, and Kristy McNichol won Emmy awards (McNichol twice); James Broderick and Meredith Baxter Birney were nominated.

In the fourth season, critics quibbled 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."^[4] Some critics complained that Family, like many TV shows of the period, had become too reliant on sex-related plots.^[5] In spring 1979, ABC shifted the show to a Friday night death slot of 8pm, 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 midseason 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,^[6] 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.^[7] At least one report indicated that if its ratings were strong enough, the series would be revived for the then-current ABC schedule.^[8] 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.

Episodes and production details[]

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^[9] and were replaced by Edward Zwick, who would go on to produce the acclaimed series thirtysomething, My So-Called Life and Once and Again.

Broadcast history and Nielsen ratings[]

Theme music[]

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.

Legal dispute[]

Family became the subject of a 24-year legal dispute^[15] 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 scriptwriter Jay 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 for 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.^[16]

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.^[15]

Home media[]

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.^[17]

As of July 2021, All five seasons of Family — uncut, in their original broadcast running times — are available for streaming on Tubi.

See also[]

• 1976 in American television

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Family.

• Family at IMDb
• DVD release planned