The mid and late 70s were a morbid time. Gone was the great music of the 60s and early 70s, replaced with disco, bad R and B, and Barry Manilow. Cars were boring and downsized. We went from the brightness and color of the 60s to the "earth tones" and blandness of this period.
Entertainment was just as bleak. "Dramedy" shows popped up everywhere. I don't know if this one counts as a dramedy, because all that is typically in the episodes is obnoxious high drama and depressed people--no comedy whatsoever.
First, let's take the parents. These two are played by James Broderick and Sada Thompson. Broderick was only 49 when he started this show, and looks 70. He has a constant hunch and looks like life is never through beating him down. You keep thinking he is going to fall over. I don't know if the viewer was ever able to actually see his eyes.
Thompson is an actress who I had never seen in anything before or since. She has a perennial look on her face--a mixture of disdain, worry, and disappointment. Her beady eyes are like olives floating in a face of milk. It somehow meshes well with her husband's consistent look of frustration and despair. Who would want these parents? And why would we want to be involved with their grotesque little "Family" every week?
They live in sunny Pasadena, but you wouldn't know that, as everything is dull and brown in color and the atmosphere is consistently unpleasant. I don't know if I ever saw anyone having fun in this show.
What never works is we are supposed to believe these parents have a daughter as old as Meredith Baxter Birney, AND as young as little "Buddy". They look like grandparents. In one episode, the mother gets pregnant. At 55.
All the kids are losers. Birney is a divorcee with a kid, always trying to palm the kid off on others. She has relationship issues, of course. She looks like she should be Buddy's mom. That reveal would have made, at least, an interesting episode.
Then there is the son, Willie, played by Gary Frank. As you have never heard of this actor, then it is logical that he is part of this cast. Willie likes to shoot film, but the viewer is never sure why. Is he a writer? Cinematographer? Film director? He does seem to do a lot of talking, sulking, and being a complete nebbish rather than actually working. And he is as boring as the family home interior decor.
And lastly, that 70s/early 80s staple Kristy McNichol. McNichol had a brother in the business as well, who looked just like her, which was weird. Buddy is a preteen/teen who is, like the rest of the family, consistently upset about something. Anything. She can also be a smart mouth. Her character is like that because no one ever punished her for being an insufferable fool.
The younger cast does the "cute fast talking" bit that is always part of shows like this. No one talks that way, but they do and we are supposed to think it's fun. The truly insufferable Quinn Cummings floats in and out of the series, just as you thought it couldn't get any worse.
Lots of sex oriented episodes....such as, Buddy trying to decide about whether she should get laid and lose her virginity. Who cares? McNichol would go on to make other odd films where a young girl's virginity is a major plot point, such as "Little Darlings", with Tatum O'Neal, who in real life had long ago lost her virginity and was abused by nutty parents. Even worse than the parents in this show. If I remember correctly, Quinn Cummings tries to get laid by Willie. Not kidding.
Viewers may enjoy the unintentionally hilarious episode when the Sada character discovers she is pregnant. The thought of her and Broderick having sex put me off of food for at least a few days.
Entertainment was just as bleak. "Dramedy" shows popped up everywhere. I don't know if this one counts as a dramedy, because all that is typically in the episodes is obnoxious high drama and depressed people--no comedy whatsoever.
First, let's take the parents. These two are played by James Broderick and Sada Thompson. Broderick was only 49 when he started this show, and looks 70. He has a constant hunch and looks like life is never through beating him down. You keep thinking he is going to fall over. I don't know if the viewer was ever able to actually see his eyes.
Thompson is an actress who I had never seen in anything before or since. She has a perennial look on her face--a mixture of disdain, worry, and disappointment. Her beady eyes are like olives floating in a face of milk. It somehow meshes well with her husband's consistent look of frustration and despair. Who would want these parents? And why would we want to be involved with their grotesque little "Family" every week?
They live in sunny Pasadena, but you wouldn't know that, as everything is dull and brown in color and the atmosphere is consistently unpleasant. I don't know if I ever saw anyone having fun in this show.
What never works is we are supposed to believe these parents have a daughter as old as Meredith Baxter Birney, AND as young as little "Buddy". They look like grandparents. In one episode, the mother gets pregnant. At 55.
All the kids are losers. Birney is a divorcee with a kid, always trying to palm the kid off on others. She has relationship issues, of course. She looks like she should be Buddy's mom. That reveal would have made, at least, an interesting episode.
Then there is the son, Willie, played by Gary Frank. As you have never heard of this actor, then it is logical that he is part of this cast. Willie likes to shoot film, but the viewer is never sure why. Is he a writer? Cinematographer? Film director? He does seem to do a lot of talking, sulking, and being a complete nebbish rather than actually working. And he is as boring as the family home interior decor.
And lastly, that 70s/early 80s staple Kristy McNichol. McNichol had a brother in the business as well, who looked just like her, which was weird. Buddy is a preteen/teen who is, like the rest of the family, consistently upset about something. Anything. She can also be a smart mouth. Her character is like that because no one ever punished her for being an insufferable fool.
The younger cast does the "cute fast talking" bit that is always part of shows like this. No one talks that way, but they do and we are supposed to think it's fun. The truly insufferable Quinn Cummings floats in and out of the series, just as you thought it couldn't get any worse.
Lots of sex oriented episodes....such as, Buddy trying to decide about whether she should get laid and lose her virginity. Who cares? McNichol would go on to make other odd films where a young girl's virginity is a major plot point, such as "Little Darlings", with Tatum O'Neal, who in real life had long ago lost her virginity and was abused by nutty parents. Even worse than the parents in this show. If I remember correctly, Quinn Cummings tries to get laid by Willie. Not kidding.
Viewers may enjoy the unintentionally hilarious episode when the Sada character discovers she is pregnant. The thought of her and Broderick having sex put me off of food for at least a few days.