Shark Bytes

I love this house, interior and outside. I know the house is a real one in Pasadena, but does anyone know if the interior rooms were a set, or a real house? I'd love to see if there are photos posted anywhere on the internet.

Maybe a So.Californian can answer this. Being from NJ and only out to L.A three times, I have a question about the authenticity of this show being based in Pasadena. I love the show (see my earlier post) but it always seemed that wardrobe had Kate in coats. She wore this brown coat that seemed too heavy for the weather in So. California. Sometimes the show looked like it took place in Ohio or Boston maybe. Isn't Pasadena a year round hot place? If you look at the Lawrence's front yard..there's all these leafless white Birch trees..the episode where Kate's mom Hattie comes to visit before she dies..they're all wearing coats at the airport..and the street shots of Pasadena have everyone dressed like it's Fall in Cleveland. Anyone from So.Cal who can shed some light on this?

John

"Family" is one of the best shows ever to be on television. You visit the Lawrences and get pulled into their world. Maybe a character's situation isn't one you can relate to, and maybe the characters frustrate and annoy you sometimes, but they can also make you laugh and surprise you, and that is what makes for great television and what real families are about. Played by really superb actors, the characters were fleshed out enough from the start. These weren't people presented as one-dimensional archetypes; rather, they are presented as humans with complex and conflicted emotions but who as fictional characters were nevertheless grounded in reality. It is breathtaking, really, watching this show and seeing the interactions between Kate and Buddy. One would never doubt for a moment that they are mother and daughter.

And as if that weren't enough, the emotionally timeless aspect of "Family" is combined with a real sense of America, and specifically Southern California, during the turbulent '70s. As a native, for me it really captures the spirit of SoCal during that decade.

P.S. About the house (which is probably one of the best sets ever in TV - like a wonderful middle-class cocoon), I recall in one episode Doug's mentioning that it was his childhood home. From that perspective, and coupled with Doug's being a lawyer, it would not be so unusual that the Lawrences would have some extra disposable income.

I loved,loved,LOVED this show.Wanted to marry Willie and have his children.Hated it when he grew a beard,though.Loved his cuteness,gentleness,and most of all sensitivity.Broke my heart when the show finally jumped,no more Willie to steal my heart...whatever happened to Gary Frank,he kinda disappeared after this.I am going to get the DVDs,cant wait to see my beloved Willie again!!Fortunately,found my real life Willie,been married 30 years!Still in love,too!I rreally think this show made me realize what I truly wanted to find in a man...THANK YOU<WILLIE!!I STILL LOVE YOU!!! Alease>

WOW, could they put it away on this show! Doug and Kate had a little liquor trolley in their living room (The Booze Express) and they wheeled that thing out with great frequency and alacrity. We're not talking the occasional beer or glass of wine...we're talking sidecars, boilermakers, manhattans, vodka martinis...the works! I'm convinced it's the main reason they were able to stay together so long throughout the various tragedies that befell them...

I think it jumped when they sold the big house in Pasadena and retired to the 3 bedroom tract house in Arizona. I missed Nancy's guesthouse.

I would have to agree that Quinn Cummings seemed to really bring the show down,Ihad the biggest,baddest crush on Willie,still adore those soft,sensitive guys.I even married a guy alot like Willie,wild blond hair and all.Thank you Willie for showing me what to look for in a man.Willie was rather promiscuous though...This was my favorite 70s show.I hated to see this show end,but,alas,it had run out of steam towards the end...Alease

family guy jumped the shark the day that south park reviled and reminded us how bad the quality of the jokes were and how they never had anything to do with the plot and that the writers were actualy just Manatees. south park really did explain the jokes and after that episode i cant watch family guy any more

I loved this show when I was young. I bought the DVD and am wondering if any new
ones are coming out? I remember one episode where Buddy is growing up and wants still be a kid. She ends up at a skating rink and then gets together with TJ (Willie Ammes before he went on Eight is Enough) Anyway it was a great show!!

ADDENDUM: Though 'Family' ended it's run in the Spring of 1980, 'Hill Street Blues' appeared on the schedule that fall, ushering in the next period of television drama evolution that would be in full bloom by the time of the fall 1982 schedule, thus my 1976-82 hypothesis. The next evolution would be the resurgence of the family drama at the end of the decade with shows like 'Thirtysomething', Life Goes On', The Wonder Years', and 'I'll Fly Away' among the more notable titles..

'Family' was a high quality television program that will go down in history as an offbeat drama, extremely well-cast and well-written, and one of the most durable programs of the medium ever to be produced..and it has the Emmys to prove it. It is a sensitively and tastefully produced hour of socially relevant mid-seventies American television, with the requisite amounts of schmaltz and mawkishness to keep it clearly ensconsed in that era. However, it's almost complete lack of pretense and predictability set it apart from most of the television around the 1975-76 season and ending in 1982, when the television drama evolved once again, and shows like 'Hill Street Blues', Cagney & Lacey, and 'St. Elsewhere' began to appear. Just my opinion.

This show had some of the best acting talent on TV at the time. Sada Thompson and James Broderick were both very well-seasoned, respected Broadway actors, and Kristy McNichol was probably the best young actress America ever produced. Even the much-maligned Quinn Cummings was one of the youngest actresses ever nominated for the Academy Award (for "The Goodbye Girl").

So what did Aaron Spelling do? Stuff the show with "special guest stars" like Willie Aames and Leif Garrett. Oy vey!

There was a great episode where Buddy had a freind - I think he was a family friend actually - an older teenage boy she has a crush on - and he turns out to be gay. The father and the older son are discussing it and they talk about the guys they had hero-worship crushes on during their teen years. To have a teenage guy admit this was groundbreaking - but to have an adult heterosexual male character admit to having a crush on a peer when he was a teen!!!1 I don't think that's happened on television before or since. It wasn't just groundbreaking - it was revolutionary. I was a teenager figuring out my sexuality at the time - and to hear an ADULT make talk about having romantic feelings for another male. WOW! I've never forgoten that moment.

This show never jumped! Quinn Cummings was no "Cousin Oliver",because she was talented,cute,and unpretentious.My favorite episode,however,was a pre-Annie one;"The Sleeping Gypsy",where Buddy's artsy and extremely individualistic friend Mara (portrayed by,of all people,Dinah Manoff-soon to be playing Kristy McNichol's OLDER sister in "Empty Nest"!!!)decorates the school gym for a dance with her beautiful "sleeping gypsy"artwork rather than follow what she thought was a lame theme(the one aproved by the dance committee.)Being something of a nonconformist,I could really relate to Mara and wished she was on more than that one episode.

To those wondering about the disconnect between the Lawrences living in swanky digs in Pasadena, Doug's job as an attorney, and the fact that they drove non-luxury cars:

The producers were trying to strike a balance between the Lawrences being perceived as well-off and being perceived as RICH. They wanted to do a show about a solidly upper-middle-class family (unusual in the mid-'70s, when nearly all the sitcoms were focused on folks who were working-class, verging on poor...think Good Times, Sanford and Son, All in the Family, Welcome Back Kotter, Chico and the Man, One Day at a Time, Alice...the list goes on and on). After all, the show was based on PBS's cultural phenomenon (and arguably the first "reality show"), An American Family, which was about an affluent Southern California family.

However, they (and the network) always worried that if the Lawrences were seen as being wealthy, it would alienate less-affluent viewers. Little changes were made throughout the first year to tone down the "richness" of the Lawrences: Nancy divorced her mega-rich husband, Jeff, and moved into her parents' guest cottage; the part-time live-out maid that Kate had to fix lunch for disappeared; etc. Hence the nice house on at least an acre of land and the mid-market cars. They wanted audiences to see the Lawrences as both well-off and accessible.

Incidentally, in a 1976 episode, Doug and Kate consider selling their house and moving to NY. A realtor tells Kate that they should list the place at around $90,000. An unbelieving Kate insists, "NOBODY would ever pay THAT!" That place, with that much land, in Pasadena, would today easily go for $1.2 million.