Looking Back at Family: The Iconic American Television Drama that Defined an Era
49 years ago today, March 9, 1976, Family premiered. It 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.
Many well-known (or soon-to-be well-known) actors and actresses appeared on the series, including Howard Hesseman, Ted Danson, Michael J. Fox, Tommy Lee Jones, James Woods, Michael Keaton, Kim Cattrall, Shelley Long, Henry Fonda, Mare Winningham, Helen Hunt, Dana Plato, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Annie Potts, Blair Brown, Dominique Dunne, 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.
Family was widely acclaimed, with many critics calling it a rare quality offering 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.” Some critics complained that Family, like many TV shows of the period, had become too reliant on sex-related plots. 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, 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. At least one report indicated that if its ratings were strong enough, the series would be revived for the then-current ABC schedule. 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.
