Family (TV Series)

Pilot: The Best Years (1976)

James Broderick: Doug Lawrence

Quotes 

• Doug Lawrence : [to Willie, who both witness Kate angrily slamming dishes and silverware on the counter]  Willie, take a piece of pie up to Buddy. See that she's doing her homework.

  [Willie cuts a piece of pie onto a plate and leaves the kitchen, as Doug attempts to massage Kate's shoulders to calm her down] 

  Kate Lawrence : [fights him off]  Don't! And I don't want to talk, either. I'm too angry.

  Doug Lawrence : At anyone in particular?

  Kate Lawrence : Yes, at you! Don't make it sound as if I don't want my own daughter here. Don't make me angrier than I already am. I just said you've judged and condemned Jeff without listening to a word of defense. For you, Nancy's perfect, maybe she's not to Jeff and she's married to him and has a child by him and another one coming. Without a moment's hesitation, you say "Come home, we'll send for your things. He's not worth your little finger".

  Doug Lawrence : If you see...

  Kate Lawrence : I don't have to have been there. I know how it was. She cried and looked helpless. Doug, she is not helpless. For her sake, you must not allow her to manipulate you like this.

  Doug Lawrence : You sound like some crazy jealous female, not like a mother, whose own daughter is being pushed around by that twenty-five-year-old infant!

  Kate Lawrence : She is MARRIED to that twenty-five-year-old infant and anyone who tries to push Nancy around, he had better be wearing protective padding.

  Doug Lawrence : For God's sake, Kate, why do you always have to be so tough on her?

  Kate Lawrence : Because you never are. You think Nancy's just perfection, but, believe me, she does have a few little faults. One of them is she wants everything.

  Doug Lawrence : What does that mean, everything?

  Kate Lawrence : Well, four years ago, she was dying to be Mrs. Jeff Maitland III. She threw over everything, quit school, grabbed him out.

  Doug Lawrence : SHE grabbed HIM out?

  Kate Lawrence : Married him. Then, she wanted a baby. Now, she parks the baby for one week at a time. Then, she wanted to go back to school. Now, she's playing hooky from school. She thinks she can reverse field anytime she feels like it. Well, she can't!

  Doug Lawrence : How can you possibly condone what he did, fooling around with one of her friends? What kind of humiliation do you expect her to take from him and go on with the marriage?

  Kate Lawrence : Exactly the kind I took from you, Doug.

  Doug Lawrence : That was twenty years ago. Don't you ever let it go, ever forget?

  Kate Lawrence : Oh, I forget most of the time when I remember. When sometimes I do remember about you and Margaret. It hurts me just as much as it did, then, and I hate you for it just as much as I did, then.

  Doug Lawrence : That's stupid AND destructive.

  Kate Lawrence : That's right. I don't see that Jeff's behavior is so different from yours and I wonder if Nancy hasn't given him more reason. I married a man, she married a boy. If he's still a boy after, four years of marriage, maybe, it's partly her fault. She hasn't done anything to get out of his playpen. She just crawled in with him, 'till she got bored.

  Doug Lawrence : Kate... what about the baby? She doesn't want the baby.

  Kate Lawrence : If I got rid of a baby, every time I thought I didn't want it, we wouldn't have much of a family.

  Doug Lawrence : Oh, you don't mean that.

  Kate Lawrence : Don't tell me to presume what I mean! I'm forty-six years old, I've borne three children. Some of the time of those pregnancies, I wanted out! It's the body that makes the baby and hangs onto it for nine months. Why can't men understand sometimes women just want out? My god, when I found out I was pregnant with Buddy, I got as far as even tracking down an abortionist.

  [Buddy, hurt and who overheard the whole conversation tip-toes back upstairs and tears start to run out of her eyes] 

  Kate Lawrence : Why can't you understand eventually I wanted all of them. Now, I can't imagine life without them, but sometimes, sometimes just for a minute... I didn't.

  [Doug goes over to hug and comfort Kate, who starts crying] 

• Willie Lawrence : [starts out the door with Doug and Jeff, who are going to search for Buddy]  I'm going with you guys.

  Doug Lawrence : You go to your room and spend the evening figuring out how you can have an IQ of 140 and not use any of it!

• Letitia 'Buddy' Lawrence : Is Timmy gonna live here, too?

  Kate Lawrence : What do you mean, live here, too?

  Letitia 'Buddy' Lawrence : Well, Nancy's gonna be living here, too, is she? She's run away from Jeff, hasn't she?

  Kate Lawrence : Nancy's gonna spend a few nights here. She hasn't run away from anyone.

  Letitia 'Buddy' Lawrence : [sarcastic]  Hmph.

  Doug Lawrence : [irritably]  Letitia, you are making my palm positively itch.

  Letitia 'Buddy' Lawrence : Well, I don't appreciate being treated like I'm stupid.

  Kate Lawrence : It's "as if I were stupid", not "like I'm stupid".

  Letitia 'Buddy' Lawrence : Big deal.

  Doug Lawrence : Behaving rudely is VERY stupid!

  Letitia 'Buddy' Lawrence : Well, EXCUSE me!

  [she storms away from the dinner table] 

  Kate Lawrence : Willie, would you like some more pie?

  Willie Lawrence : Yeah, I'll eat Buddy's.

  [he continues eating the pie as Kate and Doug sit in despair, thinking they failed as parents] 

• Jeff Maitland : [after an annoyed Doug answers the door to see Jeff standing on the porch]  May I come in, sir?

  Doug Lawrence : Nancy doesn't want to see you.

  Jeff Maitland : Yeah, I know that. I'd still like to come in.

  Doug Lawrence : I don't want to see you, either.

  Jeff Maitland : [smiles]  Well, can I hear from Mrs. Lawrence or Willie or Buddy? You see, maybe I can get in on the minority vote.

  Doug Lawrence : Oh, it's my vote you need, boy, and charm won't buy it.

  Jeff Maitland : Will desperation?