Shark Bytes

I think it jumped when they moved out of the fancy apartment and moved into an RV and journeyed through the USA singing in dive bars for cash. Mr.French had the moves though.

Was it just me, or was Cissy the most matronly teenager ever? Was it the hairdo? The polyester empire-waist dresses? Whatever it was, she looked closer to 46 than 16.

Anyhoo, Family Affair was a show much-beloved by grandmas everywhere for its cutesy-poo vision of well-scrubbed, pink-cheeked cherubs whose eyes sparkled adorably as they mispronounced Brian Keith's name: "Unca Bee-yoll!" Always funny - not "ha-ha" funny, the other kind of funny - it still holds a special place in the hearts of 50-year-old "little girls" everywhere, who to this day won't sell their tattered Mrs. Beasley doll on eBay...not for "a million, jillion dollars!"

What show could ask for a finer legacy than that?

Man- Brian Keith makes me drool -- still. The powerful pecs, the bulging biceps, the alpha-growl. That man is the sexiest ever, ever.

"Family Affair". Jesus, there is no way somebody did not know what they were doing when they gave this show that title...

The second Mr. French was NOT the same character. He was a relative of the original Mr. French. Either his brother, cousin or something like that. Therefore, he should not even be listed here.

I seriously have to wonder if out there, somewhere, there's a porno film takeoff on this show. If there's not, there should be.

The show JTS with the episode that had Jody peeping into Cissy's room while she used a plastic vibe on herself. I actually liked that scene, but it was totally out of the norm for that kind of show.

God, now that I think about it, you're right. There was no laugh track. This show was possibly the most seriously tweaked program ever to air on tv. If Tim Curry had shown up in his Frank N. Furter drag to play French in the updated version, they still couldn't've gotten any weirder than the original.

Nope, no laugh track accompanied this program... ever. Just a deadpan silence filling the prolonged space between lines of dialogue. The same kind of bewildered hush that fell upon TV viewers across America during each episode's broadcast.

A number of other posters have voiced the same question: what was this show supposed to be? The familial verneer of its surface action could not displace the twilight zone-like mystery of the characters' interaction and the wierdness of the show's plot. Creeepers!

Interesting that this show is listed in the Genre category as a drama. Didn't it have a laugh track? Or am I just recalling one in an effort to cushion my consciousness against the incredible weirdness of this show? Everything about it just seemed wrong somehow.

So, were Cissy and Unca Bill, er, ahhm...well,you know...snogging?
I mean if they were in real life, it definitely leaked over into the show. When I was a young kid watching, I always got the feeling there was something a little other than 'uncle/niece' between them. Not old enough at that time to realize what it was, but later viewings seemed to reveal a definite taint of incest in the air...Just a creepy show, all the way around anyhow.

Yes, Brian Keith was hot. A real alpha male. They don't make 'em like that anymore. Not much anyway.

Both versions of this show stank! The only decent thing that happened on this show was the girl who played Eve Bowers; she eventually died of a terminal illness; that was the girl who played Jan on the Brady Bunch, much alive and well at the age of 50 now. Thank God Flip Wilson came on during the last season and was on at the same time; I watched him on TV. He was 10 times better!

'Family Affair" always had a weird ambience about it, beacause you could tell that it wasn't really intended to be a sitcom. It's like it did some strange genre switch that didn't really take.

If you ever accidentally ingest poison, skip the ipecac and pop this '60s gem into your DVD player. You'll be blissfully heaving in a trice.