Family (1976-1980)

[vetsoapfan]

On my screen, we get the picture of the cast on the stairs, and then the "starring" line, followed by...nothing. The screen is blank under the cast list, with no "seasons" listed.

[Paul Raven]

Way back in Sept 73 variety reports that ABC is developing 'American Family' through Spelling Goldberg with Jay Presson Allen writing the scripts.

It finally went to air March 76.

I believe that is highly unusual for a show to be in development for so long. Guess there must have been someone who really believed in the concept.

[te.]

I don't think it's really that unusual if you think about it this way - they started developing in the 1973-74 season for the 1974-75 season. It eventually got on air in the 1975-76 season, probably because it had some re-toolings in the pilot/concept. But it "only" skipped a television season technically and it's not entirely unheard of.  It's certainly no The Gilded Age that took a decade and change of network to get on air.

[wonderwoman1951]

that someone was fred silverman...

how family finally made it to air

“How one of the best shows I've ever seen on TV kinda not so immediately came to be...

Three strikes and they're on
Family has become a hit despite network fears that its members were "too well-dressed, too realistic and simply too good for TV"
by Rowland Barber 
TV Guide, January 21, 1978 
Those of us who regard Family as one of the most consistently fine hours on television are loath to peer into the program's clockworks to see what makes it go. We might find the illusion shattered. What if the Lawrences of Pasadena, so palpably real on the tube each week, and so decent, turned out to be -- unmasked -- just another troupe of bored and cynical actors, cleverly putting us on at show time? 

Blessedly, this is not so. It's been close to five years since the Lawrences were created. But on ABC, they're only in their second full season. The story of how they got there is too full of snags, happenstances and 11th-hour rescues to be believable as a script for the series. As a result, gratitude and concern are bywords among the Family family, off camera as well as on. 

In its struggle to make the ABC schedule, the show had three strikes against it. The network found the Lawrences, at various critical times, (1) too well-educated and too well-dressed, (2) too true-to-life for Family Viewing Time and (3) simply "too good for television." During the same period the network found three other shows out of the same shop -- Spelling-Goldberg Productions -- irresistible: S.W.A.T., Starsky & Hutch and Charlie's Angels. 

The Lawrence Saga begins in the summer of 1973. The two production partners meet for dinner to kick around new-show ideas. Aaron Spelling: skinny, pipe-smoking, Texan, 50ish, onetime actor, longtime writer. Leonard Goldberg: not yet 40, handsome, muscular, up from Madison Avenue and network executive suites. Goldberg has been following the cinéma-vérité adventures of the Loud family on public television with fascination. "I'd love to see a contemporary traditional family get time on TV," he says. "I just don't buy this premise that the American family is disintegrating." 

Spelling agrees. Good idea. Worth investing in a pilot script. Calls for a script by some writer from outside television, who knows how to construct solid drama without resorting to shoot-'em-ups and car chases. They narrow the field to one such writer: Jay Presson Allen, a woman whose novels and screenplays they both admire. 

Two Weeks Later, Summer of '73. Lunch with Jay Presson Allen at a Beverly Hills restaurant. Miss Allen says yes. Turns out she is an avid television fan who has never written for the medium because nobody has ever asked her to, until now. 

Fall of '73. Allen turns in script, "The Best Years." The Lawrences -- parents Kate and Doug, son Willie, daughters Nancy and Buddy -- are born. Composite of two families Miss Allen knows -- one from Texas, the other from Philadelphia. Story, centering on Nancy's husband's infidelity, is set in suburb of Philadelphia. 

Script submitted to ABC. Verdict: dynamite! So dynamitic the network is stunned into silence, and the expected order to film a pilot episode is not issued. Spelling and Goldberg find out that the programming people have decided to go with another project, "The Chadwick Family," starring Fred MacMurray. The Chadwicks were more "typical" and therefore more "lovable" than the Lawrences because they didn't play tennis, or dress so conservatively, or talk like adults about such recondite things as how little girls change anatomically at puberty. 

Fall of '74. Michael Eisner, old compadre of Len Goldberg's, takes over ABC's prime-time series programming. Goldberg nudges him about "Best Years." Eisner rereads it, still thinks it's dynamite. Will put it in briefcase to take on upcoming trip to New York headquarters. On New York agenda is the Mike Nichols Question. 

Nichols, ex-comedy-improv partner of Elaine May, director of "The Graduate" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?," is under open-end ABC contract for his TV debut as producer, but is without a first project. Nichols says, "I have come across one thing that appeals to me very much. A script by my friend Jay Presson Allen." Eisner recognizes cue to pull script from briefcase. Just happened to have a copy. Cloutwise, it's Nichols all the way. ABC orders pilot of "The Best Years." 

January '75. Co-production deal set up between Spelling-Goldberg and executive producer Mike Nichols. Name of series changed to Family because "The Best Years" is too close to Samuel Goldwyn's "The Best Years of Our Lives." 

February '76. Nichols, told that year-round outdoor shooting is not possible in the Philadelphia area, says: "We'll have to move the family to California." Agreed that the Lawrences must live on a real street in a real city, not behind an Andy Hardy picket fence on a studio lot. Nichols rents a car, goes scouting. He reports back that South Pasadena is Philadelphia Main Line West. House on Milan Avenue "borrowed" for pilot location. 

Nichols re-certifies his genius in casting Family with a finely balanced cadre of actors: Sada Thompson, James Broderick, Gary Frank, Kristy McNichol. 

March '75. Family pilot screened for 15 ABC executives. Goldberg: "They started calling us immediately. Most beautiful pilot they'd ever seen! They came out with tears in their eyes! Aaron and Mike and Jay and I and all the cast were absolutely euphoric." 

April '75. ABC announces its 1975-76 season line-up. Family is not on it. The reason is leaked: "The show is too nice to be set up against all those high-powered contenders. It would just get eaten up. But we still love it and it will be seen." Goldberg: "How? Are we supposed to take a projector and go door-to-door and show it to the people?" 

Summer of 1975. Fred Silverman named savior-designate of foundering ABC network. He screens inventory of pilots. Instantly hooked on Family. "Just may be the most beautiful pilot I've ever seen. You have my word that this series will go on the air in midseason. Get a staff. Order scripts..." 

September '75. Spelling-Goldberg hires Nigel and Carol Evan McKeand as line producer and story editor. McKeands old hands at scripting and editing (most recently on The Waltons), although new to marriage. Bank of scripts ready for January air time. 

Nov. 26, 1975. ABC announces its midseason schedule. Family is not on it. 

Thanksgiving Weekend, 1975. All principals stunned. Leonard Goldberg at La Costa sports spa for holiday. Aaron Spelling at home with family in Beverly Hills. McKeands in Hollywood Hills, with visions of sugarplums (back to The Waltons?) deadening their heads. Sada Thompson reading stage-play scripts, searching for a role. James Broderick packing to fly to his dream-house in Ireland. 

Spelling and Goldberg get on the phone, Beverly Hills to La Costa. They will not give up. They roust Fred Silverman out of his Thanksgiving rites back East. What the hell happened? Silverman contrite but unconciliatory. It is his job, he says, to turn the network around. He has no choice but to go for "big numbers" with "firepower shows" like Laverne & Shirley, Bionic Woman, Donny & Marie. Later they will afford a luxury like Family. 

Spelling and Goldberg still do not give up. They get a fourth party on the line, Silverman's boss Fred Pierce, in New York. The marathon conference call goes on, pleading and placating, demanding and denying, through the weekend. Turkeys go uncarved, pumpkin pies unpunctured. Leonard Goldberg, huddled over the phone in his La Costa kitchenette, finally hangs up. It is 1 A.M. Sunday morning, 4 A.M. back East. Fred Silverman has just said, "I think I can work something out." 

Monday, Dec. 1, 1975. Carol and Nigel McKeand have backed their station wagon up to the Family office-bungalow on the 20th Century-Fox lot, doing what dismissed writers traditionally do: loading up on supplies -- paper, paper clips, staples, pencils, manila envelopes. 

There is a call from Goldberg. "Take the covers off your typewriters," he says. "We're in business." Silverman had struck a compromise. In March, after the winter-season wars had quieted down, ABC would air six consecutive episodes of Family. 

Spelling-Goldberg's contractual holds on the cast had expired, but all the actors leaped at the chance to bring the Lawrences to network life. 

March 9, 1976. Family went on the air with the merest dribbling of pre-show publicity. It recorded an astonishing 40 share in the ratings. 
”

[Paul Raven]

Fantastic! Thanks so much for posting.

Wonder how many other great shows got lost in the shuffle.

[wonderwoman1951]

some thoughts about ‘family’ and the show’s relationship to soaps.

beyond seriality

[Paul Raven]

Just discovered that Sada Thompson signed on to play the wife of Vincent Gardenia  as the neighbors on All in the Family for the 1973/74 season.

She quit after one day of shooting, sighting homesickness for NY and her family.

Betty  Garrett took over the role.

[danfling]

I had known that Sada Thompson had been hired and began filming before she was replaced by Betty Garrett.   I had now known that Ms. Thompson had chosen to leave.

Meredith Baxter was a replacement in the show for the first actress who played Nancy.  Also, not much recognition is given to John Rubinstein, who played Nancy's husband.   He was wonderful in the episodes on which he appeared.

I read the TVGuide article above.   One thing that the article failed to address is how actor/director Mark Rydell (The Edge of Night, As the World Turns) became involved with this program.  

Among daytime serial writers who wrote for this show are Liz Coe, Thom Racina, Anne Howard Bailey, Geri Day and Bethel Leslie.    Also George Lefforts (the first executive producer of Ryan's Hope) wrote at least one script.

Edited September 9, 2022 by danfling

[wonderwoman1951]

decades just reappeared on my ota channels. checked the schedule and found a 2-day family binge for saturday-sunday, 14-15 january. 

can’t wait!

[wonderwoman1951]

just finished watching the first 2 episodes of truman versus the swans.

about 31 minutes into the 2nd episode truman is watching an episode of ‘family,’ and observes: 

‘the writing on this show is so good. i mean, tennessee would be jealous. the secret is they love each other no matter how badly they behave.’

who’d a thunk… reminded me how much i miss this show — and the now-defunct decades, which has been replaced by catchy comedy.

Edited February 2, 2024 by wonderwoman1951

[SoapDope]

The thing that hurt Family was ABC had little faith in it and moved it around the schedule and often pre-empted it in favor of specials. I also read it was never shown in summer reruns. It was also very seldom seen in syndication. A lot of people have never even heard of it. 

The last season of the show was shown late in the season and they finally gave it the axe in early 1980. ABC must have wanted to get rid of it pretty quickly. You would think with the popularity of Kristy McNichol they would try to capitalize on that. 

[slick jones]

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Kristy McNichol (Buddy) and Gary Frank (Willie) at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, CA.. For a fan event..

 

[SoapDope]

It's great to see both of them together again. I wonder if they are on good terms with Meredith Baxter or speak to her ?

[Forever8]

Alan Locher is doing a mini–Family Reunion on March 13th with Gary Frank and John Rubinstein. 

 

[vetsoapfan]

I'll even endure Alan Locher to see this!!!