Family Affair? (1 Viewer)

[Mark To]

I haven't seen this mentioned by anyone. While it doesn't really seem to get too much play today, this show had a good five season run on CBS. I really would love to get at least a couple of seasons of good quality episodes of this show.

 

[Randy Korstick]

I mentioned it before. I would like the entire series. I always enjoyed this one more than The Brady Bunch.

 

[Doug^Ch]

"Uncle Bill! Uncle Bill" Man I loved that show.

 

[Bert Greene]

I'd go for season-sets. The show is one of my first tv "memories," and I do like revisiting it, ever so often. It never seemed to circulate as much as some other 60s sitcoms, and thus, I never grew weary of any over-exposure. I did tape a couple of dozen (cut) episodes, when it aired on FX, about a decade ago.

Speaking of memories, what seemed to remain with me was an episode (a multi-parter, actually) in which the twins got separated and lost in Spain. I must have been no more than three years old when I saw that, and it spooked me terribly at the time. The whole notion of being lost in a foreign land, I suppose, was pretty scary to my young mind. Guess that's the reason I remember it.

I've always liked Brian Keith. I'd love to see his earlier series, "The Crusader," released on dvd. But, that is about as hopeless a prospect as one can imagine.

 

[Mark To]

Here Here. While both shows were sappy and cloying to the nth degree, at least Family Affair did not suffer from the insipidness found in all Sherwood Schwartz shows. I loved Family Affair but never really got why anyone cared for the Brady Bunch, it was such a bad show. I know, Maureen McCormick was a beautiful teenager but so were a lot of other TV actresses. She was no Tuesday Weld and I don't see any clamoring for Dobie Gillis.

 

[Doug^Ch]

My favorite episode or the one that I remember the clearest was when Mr. French cooks Buffy and Jody a gourmet meal in a snowed-in mountain cabin with almost no ingredients to work with. Mr. French was very resourceful.

 

[RossRoc]

I would enjoy having seasons of this show in my dvd collection. The show originally aired well before I was born but I watched it when it aired on fX and it was one of my favs to watch.

 

[Joseph Miller]

I seem to always agree with Mark To -- and here I totally agree, again!

In fact -- I would say "The Brady Bunch" was the very worst of all the successful shows (those that had long first runs, long lives in syndication and DVD releases.)

Yes, the very worst.

Other shows had unrealistic characters -- but "The Brady Bunch" was ridiculous. Does anyone believe for one minute that that dull group are remotely human, in any way?

Other "comedies" were unfunny -- but this clunker was PAINFULLY unfunny. I never laughed ONCE at anything anyone said or did.

Its success mystifies me. "Bad" isn't strong enough -- "awful" isn't strong enough -- we don't get close to describing it until we use words like "terrible" and my favorite "egregious." The word "egregious" must have been invented with "The Brady Bunch" in mind:

egregious, adj. Extremely and conspicuously bad.

 

[BarryR]

I remember how startled I was as a kid when "Uncle Bill" socked some guy in the jaw! To see this on such a gentle show really made it memorable.

 

[MatthewA]

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...hreadid=222930

Maybe this thread will give you some hope.

 

[Ron Lee Green]

Let's not forget Mrs. Beasley. She's going for big bucks on ebay, so clearly there is a market for Family Affair on dvd.

BTW, Remember when she fell off the penthouse balcony?

 

[Mark Lx]

On the Brady Bunch thing, I think kids watched shows with kids in them, and The Brady Bunch was full of them. I know I watched it (along with Family Affair, Partridge Family, Beaver, My Three Sons, etc.). Is the Brady Bunch a bad show? Yes, but I watched it a lot and will probably buy it.

As far as Schwartz shows go, I think Gilligan is considerably better. On one level it's an adventure show, and kids tuned in to see if they get rescued. That and Denver/Hale's physical comedy, which the Brady's don't have.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

I remember FAMILY AFFAIR as being an extrememly dull show while growing up, but I had a lot of fun with THE BRADY BUNCH and don't consider that to be a bad show, except that today anything "wholesome" in feel kinda gets the slap.

 

[Mark To]

A show can be "wholesome" and still be funny, intelligent and well-written, none of which you can say about the Brady Bunch. Father Knows Best, Leave it to Beaver, Donna Reed Show, Ozzie and Harriet, My Three Sons (the Bub years) and Make Room for Daddy are all good examples of wholesome shows that did not suffer from the insipidness of Brady Bunch. Also, just because a show is wholesome doesn't mean it's any good either. IMO, the only reason BB managed to gain any measure of popularity is that it was really a poor throwback to the earlier, much better sitcoms. BB was really the only show of it's kind on the air at that time as it was really a 50s show airing in the 70s. That, plus it was in color while all of the other family sitcoms had been produced in black and white.

 

[Joseph Miller]

You're ascribing a totally backwards reason for my dislike of THE BRADY BUNCH.

I don't dislike it because it's wholesome. I dislike it because it gives wholesome shows a bad name!

I love the "wholesome" shows. If FATHER KNOWS BEST were to come out on DVD, I'd pay top dollar for it.

And there's the difference -- FKB was well-written and superbly acted. You believed in the characters and cared about what happened to them. I dislike THE BRADY BUNCH because it was badly written and the characters were totally unreal.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

I'm not a BRADY BUNCH fanatic by any means (I'm probably not even going to buy the DVD set), so I'm only going to spend a small amount of time on talking about it. But I like both "well-written/acted TV shows and movies", as well as some "not-very-well-written/acted TV shows and movies". I don't see why it has to be exclusively one or the other.

I always hear this argument that the Brady characters were "unreal", but I guess I was just growing up differently from most others when it aired, then. That's the way I knew a lot of families striving to be. I related much of it to my own situations and upbringing at that time.

As for those who object to the show being "corny" or what have you, BB was no more so than LEAVE IT TO BEAVER or FATHER KNOWS BEST (acting/writing aside). "Kitten" on FKB was not much different from Marcia from BB. All kinds of now-corny things occurred on the shows back then too, like Bud getting in trouble for smoking a cigarette on FKB.

 

[Mark To]

Why is that "corny"? If I had a kid you better believe his ass would be in trouble if I caught him with a cigarette.

 

[Joseph Miller]

Once again, I totally agree with Mark To!

I wondered at that comment calling a story "corny" if it was about a kid getting into trouble about smoking.

If anything, kids should get in MORE trouble now than fifty years ago -- back then, the dangers of smoking weren't quite as well understood and the idea was, "You shouldn't smoke until you're 18." The idea now is, "You shouldn't smoke EVER!"

Maybe on FATHER KNOWS BEST, they did tell Bud he could smoke when he "grew up." If so, then that is corny by today's "standards."

By the way, I usually like old corny movies and TV shows! In fact, I'm a pretty corny guy myself.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Err... not so fast there, Mark. I've never smoked a cigarette in my life and I agree with chewing a kid out for it. What I was referring to is when all those "other people out there" charge a lot of these old "family values" shows as being corny (not me - I think we need more of them today), I'm saying that FATHER KNOWS BEST was just like THE BRADY BUNCH in that "family values" regard.

Sorry, Joseph - you got me all wrong too and we're on the same page. And I eagerly await THE WALTONS VOL. 2.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

He was the McGuyver of gentleman's gentlemen!