The cast of Family. Standing: Broderick and Baxter. Seated: (top) Frank and Thompson; (bottom) McNichol. Family was an 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 Mike Nichols. A total of 86 episodes were produced. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
The American Broadcasting Company ( oftenly known as ABC) operates television and radio networks in the United States and is also shown on basic cable in Canada. ...
Year 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the 1976 Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar). ...
Leonard J. Goldberg (born January 24, 1934 in New York) is an American film producer and television producer. ...
Aaron F. Spelling (April 22, 1923 – June 23, 2006) was an American film and television producer. ...
Mike Nichols (born Michael Igor Peschkowsky) is an Academy Award winning movie director of films such as The Graduate and Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. He was born on November 6, 1931 in Berlin, to a Jewish Russian family. ...
Premise
The show featured James Broderick and Sada Thompson as Doug and Kate Lawrence, a happily married middle-class couple living in Pasadena, California. Doug was an independent lawyer, and Kate was a housewife. They had three children: Nancy (Elayne Heilveil portrayed Nancy in the original mini-series and Meredith Baxter portrayed Nancy in the television show), Willie (Gary Frank), and Letitia, nicknamed "Buddy" (Kristy McNichol). The show raised the profile of all of its featured actors during its run and, in particular, catapulted McNichol to stardom. James Broderick was an actor who will perhaps be best known as the father of Matthew Broderick, an actor famous in the 1980s-present for his many movie roles and Broadway performances. ...
Sada Thompson (September 27, 1929 in Des Moines, Iowa) is an acclaimed American stage, film and television actress. ...
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. ...
Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area Ranked 3rd - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²) - Width 250 miles (400 km) - Length 770 miles (1,240 km) - % water 4. ...
A lawyer, according to Blacks Law Dictionary, is a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person licensed to practice law. ...
Meredith Baxter (born June 21, 1947 in South Pasadena, California) is an American actress. ...
Gary Frank (born October 9, 1950 in Spokane, Washington) is an American homosexual who won an Emmy Award for his porno performances in the gay video series Family. ...
Kristy McNichol ca. ...
The show attempted to depict the "average" family, warts and all. Storylines were very topical, and the show was one of the first to feature shows that have recently been 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). A very special episode is an episode of a television sitcom or drama which deals with a serious social issue (often controversial), usually meant to inspire viewers to talk to family or friends about the topic discussed in the show. ...
Leif Per Nervik (born November 8, 1961) better known by his stage name of Leif Garrett is an American singer and actor. ...
Alcoholism is the consumption of, or preoccupation with, alcoholic beverages to the extent that this behavior interferes with the drinkers normal personal, family, social, or work life, and may lead to physical or mental harm. ...
For other uses, see Adoption (disambiguation). ...
Quinn Cummings (August 13, 1967) is an Oscar-nominated American actress. ...
The rights to Family are currently owned by Sony Pictures Television. The first two seasons of Family were released on DVD in September 2006. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...
September 2006 is the ninth month of 2006 and has begun on a Friday. ...
Legal dispute "Family" became the subject of one of the longest running legal disputes in television history when writer Jeri Emmet Laird filed a lawsuit against Spelling Television in 1977, claiming Spelling had stolen the idea for the show from a script she had submitted entitled, "The Best Years."
Spelling stated that he came up with the idea in his kitchen with then-partner Leonard Goldberg, and passed it on to Jay Presson Allen to write the pilot script. Allen, who died in May 2006, had just completed the screenplay for the film Funny Lady starring Barbra Streisand and directed by Herbert Ross. theatrical poster Funny Lady was a musical film of 1975, starring Barbra Streisand and Omar Sharif. ...
After over a decade in court, a jury awarded Laird $1.69 million against Spelling, which she then lost on appeal (see Laird v. Blacker, 2 Cal.4th 606 (1992)).
Laird sued Spelling again in 1996 after he published his memoirs, claiming that he defamed her in his book by not crediting her with the original idea for "Family," but again she lost on appeal in 2001 when the court stated, "you can't steal the same idea twice!" The litigation finally concluded some 25 years after the show first aired on television, with Jay Presson Allen retaining her "created by" credit on the series.
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