User Reviews

This show by the legendary producing team of Spelling-Goldberg originally started as a six-part miniseries in the spring of 1976, but this pilot is still a great start to the show as we are introduced to the middle-class Lawrence family of Pasadena, California consisting of housewife Kate, lawyer husband Doug, and children Nancy (oldest), Willie (middle child) and Buddy (youngest). Elayne Heilveil played Nancy in four of the episodes (though credited in all six). When it became a regular series, the following fall, she declined to pursue the role further and was replaced by Jane Actman. During filming of the first couple episodes, the producers thought she wasn't a good fit for the role and was let go (her scenes were re-shot with new replacement Meredith Baxter).

The episode starts when Nancy comes home to her apartment to see, much to her horror, that her husband Jeff (John Rubinstein) is sleeping with one of her girlfriends and decides to move back to her parents' house, with her having no intention of returning back and Doug and Kate learn that Nancy's pregnant again, but considers an abortion. Buddy's smart-aleck behavior at dinner, later that night, only heightens tension in the household. Doug and Kate, soon after, get into an argument about Nancy's unborn child, as well as her fractured marriage. Buddy overhears the conversation when an angry Kate admits she wanted out of pregnancy before Buddy was born. Hurt, she takes off in the family car around the same time Jeff shows up at the house to talk some sense into Nancy. Of course, things do work out for everybody in the end.

I just finished watching the PILOT episode of FAMILY for the first time since it was aired all those years ago. All those years ago, as an Adolescent boy right around Kristy McNichol's age, I fell in love with her, and watching the episode again brought all those good memories flooding back.

Kristy (or Kristie, as she is credited in the opening credits!) just looked so darn cute, and her acting was brilliant. In one scene, she overhears her Mother and Father fighting and her mother mentions that while pregnant with Buddy, she wasn't sure she wanted to go thru with the pregnancy. The hurt look on Kristy's face at that moment was so real and convincing. I think it was at that point that I bonded with Kristy, because what little kid, at one time or another, hasn't thought that his/her parents really didn't want them? And to hear you parents actually admit something like that (even though deep down you know they really DO love you) is a traumatic experience, and Kristy portrayed that experience wonderfully. Not many child stars could have pulled it off as sincerely.

A little bit later in the plot, just after she is caught by the caretaker, and he is threatening to call the cops on her for breaking the windows of the greenhouse, she has the cutest little pout on her face as she sits there wondering what her next move should be. Seeing it after all these years just re-affirms my admiration for Kristy and her talent. No wonder she won the EMMY AWARD three years in a row.

For me, watching FAMILY is all about KRISTY!! I can't wait to finish watching the first and second season, and hope for the release of the rest of the seasons!!

I agree with the other reviewer. For me, watching Family was all about Kristy McNichol. We share the same age. I loved this show so much that when I started college in the early '80s, I used to cut class just to watch the reruns on cable TV. (VCRs were a luxury those days). I remember the first episode I watched from this show was the one where Buddy (Kristy) was all upset because her older sister (played by Meredith Baxter-Birney) was going to name her baby boy Timmy after a brother they lost in an accident years earlier. I also recall the episode when her mother Kate had a premonition of a car accident involving her and a little boy, and the car was red. She had to leave her car in the shop and they borrowed hera car, and the car was red! I also remember the special bond between Buddy and her older brother Willie. This was a great show. Is it available in DVD?