Family (TV series)
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The cast of Family. Standing: Broderick and Baxter. Seated: (top) Frank and Thompson; (bottom) McNichol. |
Family was an award-winning
television drama series that aired on
ABC from
1976 to
1980. Creative control of the show was split between executive producers
Leonard Goldberg,
Aaron Spelling, and movie director
Mike Nichols.
It starred
James Broderick and
Sada Thompson as Doug and Kate Lawrence, a happily married middle-class couple living in
Pasadena,
Southern California. Doug was an independent
lawyer, and Kate was a housewife. They had three children: Nancy (
Meredith Baxter), Willie (
Gary Frank), and Letitia, nicknamed "Buddy" (
Kristy McNichol). The show made a superstar out of Kristy McNichol; the height of fame she experienced was not attained again during her acting career.
The show was very topical, and was one of the first shows to have what has been recently termed as "
very special episodes." In the first episode, Nancy, who was pregnant, walked in on her husband Jeff making love to one of her friends. Other topical storylines included Kate having to deal with the possibility that she had breast cancer, as well as Buddy dealing with advances from boys. In the later seasons, there were instances in which Buddy had to decide whether or not to have sex; she always chose to wait, most notably in an episode with guest star
Leif Garrett, who was a teen idol at the time.
Family also dealt with
alcoholism (Doug's sister; Buddy's old friend) as well as
adoption, when the family adopted a girl named Annie Cooper (
Quinn Cummings).
The rights to
Family are currently owned by
Sony Pictures Television. The first two seasons of
Family are to be released on DVD in
September 2006.
*
1230 Holland St.*
DVD release planned
