Family - The Complete First and Second Seasons [DVD]

I just finished watching the Pilot episode of "Family" via this nice-looking 6-Disc DVD set containing Seasons 1 and 2 of the series. I've seen many of these episodes previously, but I don't recall ever having seen the Pilot program, which co-stars Elayne Heilveil in the part of "Nancy" (she was later replaced by Meredith Baxter-Birney). You may recall Heilveil co-starring opposite David Janssen in a pretty good 1973 TV-Movie called "Birds Of Prey" (which is also available on DVD).The Pilot episode for "Family" is simply wonderful, perfectly introducing us to the Lawrence "family". I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this Pilot. Everybody in the cast, from Sada Thompson right on down the line, is just perfect. I'd recommend this Pilot (and this DVD set) to anyone who enjoys family-type dramas. The Pilot episode was filmed in late 1975, and was originally telecast on March 9th, 1976.There are a few very funny moments in the Pilot show too, especially when an angry Doug (James Broderick) screams at Willie (Gary Frank) after the family learns that 13-year-old Buddy (Kristy McNichol) has taken the car out for a spin -- "Willie, you stay here and try to figure out how you can possibly have an I.Q. of 140 and not use ANY of it!!" ~LOL~ (You see, Willie has secretly been giving Buddy driving lessons. And the fact that Willie has recently dropped out of school doesn't exactly help to make dad any happier with young William either.)The "Family" Pilot features the burgeoning acting talent of an extremely young-looking (and future Emmy-winning) Miss McNichol, who gives a spot-on performance in the series' premiere as "Buddy", a girl who has her own set of problems to deal with -- e.g., she's being called "Shrimp-o" at school; she's upset at being the shortest (and flattest) girl in her class; she gets quite an earful while eavesdropping on her parents' argument; and she ends up in a police car before this Pilot reaches its conclusion (that "driving without a license" thing, remember).It was quite a debut show for Kristy indeed. And she pulls it off like a veteran. A remarkable actress. (But she had already co-starred in one TV series prior to "Family" -- a short-lived drama called "Apple's Way", which lasted for 28 episodes in 1974 and '75.)This DVD collection of six single-sided discs gathers together the short 6-episode first season of "Family" and the entire 22-program second season, for a total of 28 hour-long shows (the episodes run for about 49 to 50 minutes on the DVDs).The video and audio look and sound mighty good here too. Colors aren't super-saturated, but I'll bet the PQ here is every bit as good as when these shows first aired on ABC-TV in 1976 and 1977."Family" appeared on network television for five seasons (86 total episodes), from 1976 to June of 1980. Aaron Spelling and Mike Nichols were two of the creative forces who brought this intelligently-written and well-acted drama into American homes for those five TV seasons.Upon digging a little into the background of this series, I was surprised to learn that some of the original music for "Family" was credited to Pete Rugolo and John Rubinstein. (Rubinstein, who composed the low-key musical themes for the Pilot broadcast, played Nancy's husband "Jeff Maitland" in various episodes throughout the series; while Rugolo's signature trademark, as far as I'm concerned, will forever be his one-of-a-kind music that he created for the 1960s TV series "The Fugitive".)I also have learned that at least one episode of "Family" was directed by actress Joanne Woodward. I hadn't realized that tidbit of information either, prior to preparing this review. So, the "Family" talent runs deep, both in front of the camera and behind it."Family" gets its very first home-video release of any kind with the September 5, 2006, arrival of this DVD set from SPHE (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment). There aren't any bonus features within this set, but the quality of the episodes themselves makes this collection more than worthwhile.Video is presented in its proper TV ratio (1.33:1 Full-Frame). The audio is in Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono. There are no subtitles, but English Closed-Captioning can be accessed if you've got a caption-capable television.Packaging for this 6-DVD set comes in the form of three slim cases which slide into an outer cardboard carton (each of the plastic cases holds two DVDs).I look forward to additional "Family" seasons reaching the DVD market in the future (knock wood). I'm sure that other fans of the show are hoping that the remaining seasons are released on DVD too. Because once you've taken a look at this series' dandy premiere episode, you're bound to want to see more of a "Family" named Lawrence.

FAMILY, was one of the best (if not the best) dramatic series on Television during its triumphant run in the 1970's. The show dealt with many serious issues that the Lawrence family from Pasadena, California dealt with magnificently well. Although the series initially was supposed to have a short lifespan as a midseason replacement for another show,it quickly found an audience and became incredibly popular that the producers made it a permanent weekly attraction. The show enjoyed an unparalled success mainly to the superb performances from its gifted cast. When Family first premiered on March 9, 1976, I was 10 years old and I quickly became infatuated (like most boys my age) with the innocence, charm and sweetness of Kristy McNichol. I became a huge fan of this gifted and talented actress that I would watch the show every week just because she was in it. I decorated my bedrooms walls with every poster and magazine article that I could find about her from the popular teen magazines of the day like Teen Beat, 16 and Tigerbeat. Kristy, (Buddy Lawrence on the show) stole my heart and during my formative teen years she was an idol of mine. I'm very happy that they finally put this amazing and groundbreaking series out on DVD, it was about time and I know that there are many people out there who grew up in the 70's like I did that feel the same way. Now that the first and second seasons have been finally released (in this beautiful box set which contains the first 28 episodes from seasons I & II, I hope that they will release the remaining episodes of seasons III and IV on DVD as well. I don't remember how many seasons that show was on but it had a remarkable run from 1976-1980. The picture and sound quality of the show is outstanding and I'm glad that I'm able to go back and relive a period in my life when everything was more simple and less complicated. To who ever thought of the genius idea to release this legendary dramatic series on video I thank you and all of us who loved this beautiful show thank you. Now I can watch Family anytime that I want and I can show my kids what a great show this was and I can smile and think back to when I had a huge crush on Kristy McNichol, one of the hottest and most talented teen idols of her day.