Sorry, this movie sucks

Simply A Masterpiece

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Just recently caught many of the episodes on Decades TV weekend binge. When the show was on in the late 70's I never watched it because it wasn't a comedy and it was an hour (a whole hour!) and I was a kid.Now that 40 years have passed I was delighted to find it as well preserved and as timeless as it is. The stories are well written, characters are well-rounded and intelligent but fallible and realistic. Although set in the very familiar 70's the content of the stories are adaptable to any generation since. Family is one of those shows that is very easy to binge watch. Watching the children grow up in the same time-frame in which we all grew up at the same time is definitely the draw for me and each episode offers something or someone interesting. Whether it's the styles of the time or the endless guest stars who went on to more notable careers of their own, this show is a gem.

I imagine I'd find it rather simple and uninteresting today, but I have fond memories and I had a big crush on Kristy Mcnichol, who was maybe only a year older than I was. Now I look at her and I see a kid, but at the time, I saw someone, slightly older than me, slightly more together and someone I could relate to.One time at summer camp, I was an aide, and most of the people around were counselors, they were 18 or 19, I was 16 and they were talking about women who they thought were hot and I mentioned my crush on Kristy and I never heard the end of it. They said "she's a kid". But . . . did they not realize, so was I. That's life and growing up I suppose. I remember one or two plots with this one, how people would have different opinions but the father would always work things out in the end. It was kind of like a slightly more mature and better written Brady bunch. Not quite at the level of James at 16, but somewhere between the two.I don't know if I'd recommend anyone watch this show now unless they want to experience a time capsule, but I remember it fondly. I used to look forward to catching it Sunday nights I think it was, might have been Fridays.

I first caught this show in re-runs on Lifetime and WOR 9 from New York in the late 80's, and I taped as many episodes as I could manage. I greatly admire the production values and story lines this frequently mawkish, yet unflinchingly progressive piece of late 70's serial TV "dramedy" had to offer in virtually every episode of it's four-year run. All of the key players were exceptional actors, and made for riveting television that has been largely taken for granted. With so much bunk arriving weekly on DVD, Columbia/TrisStar should really pick up the ball on this project and start compiling a comprehensive DVD collection while Sada Thompson and the rest of the crew are still with us, and can offer insightful reminiscence on a long-overdue and much-needed addition to the growing list of good and bad television shows available on DVD.

Producer Edward Zwick, along with Marshall Herskovitz, went on to produce "thirtysomething" "Relativity" "My So-Called Life" and "Once and Again." Sada Thompson, Gary Frank, and Kristy McNichol all won Emmys for their work on this series. Many veteran and up-and-coming performers made guest appearances on this series: Mildred Natwick, Tommy Lee Jones, Doris Roberts, James Woods, Elizabeth Ashley, Pat Crowley, Sheree North, David Dukes, Blair Brown, Brooke Adams, Linda Lavin, Kim Darby, William Daniels, Leirf Garrett, Annie Potts, Charlotte Rae, Shelley Long, Mare Winningham, Steve Guttenberg, Michael Biehn, Ted Danson, Stephanie Zimbalist, Michael J. Fox, and Henry Fonda (in the 1979 episode "thanksgiving" directed by Joanne Woodward). TRIVIA: James Broderick (Doug Lawrenece) is the father of actor Matthew Broderick; John Rubenstein (Jeff Maitland) wrote the theme from "Family" and is the son of pianist Arthur Rubenstein.