Family Affair – Season Three
Picture:
C Sound: C+ Extras: C Episodes: B-
There was
a brief time in the mid-to-late 1960s when TV was more popular than films for a
reason and that was because color had arrived in the home. Sure, both TV and film was better then
anyhow, but when color hit, some shows knew how to show it off. One of them was Family Affair, the hit TV series about single executive (Brian
Keith) who takes care of the children of his brother and sister-in-law when
they die in a horrible plane crash.
“Uncle
Bill” becomes the new guardian of Buffy (Anissa Jones), Jody (Johnnie Whitaker)
and Cissy (Kathy Garver) and hires the experiences British butler Mr. French
(the great Sebastian Cabot; take that Mr. Belvedere!) to form a new family
unit. The hit series lasted five seasons
and part of a cycle of very colorful comedy/dramas that were very well written
and in this case, had more than their own doses of melodrama.
Well, the
cast has very believable chemistry and is often very charming, while the
screenplays have exceptional intelligence and simple moral stories for a
situation comedy that is more drama and very considerably lite entertainment by
today’s standards, yet it is not as lite as it would seem. The show has enough emotional intelligence to
annihilate just about all sitcoms beginning in the 1980s and would be
inconceivable to see this become a feature film. You could never recast this and it is nice
the show had savvy producers.
The one
sad thing that now haunts the series is the 1976 drug overdose death of Jones, which
was particularly shocking at the time and shadows the series forever, then
Keith self-destructed more recently that makes watching tragic all over
again. However, the show is a minor
classic and fortunately, no one has decided to build stupid “curse” rumors
around the series. It was a hot
syndicated property in the 1970s, then faded away. It is nice to have the show coming out on
DVD, with this middle season (all 28 shows) amusing in its light approach to
the juxtaposition of traditional, new traditional and counterculture families.
This is
the 1968-69 season, so the country was in the thick of changes, yet here is
this tranquil show and one of the last of its kind before All In The Family broke so much ground. It is nice to see a family show that is not
heavy-handed, child-hating, dysfunctional and even propagandic. It is nice to see real family values than
means something that is not made of phoniness and catchphrases. Even with its limits, it is more authentic
than anything we have been getting for decades, so don’t miss the shows or the
interesting guest stars like Butch Patrick, June Lockhart, Eve Plumb, Paul
Sorenson, Barbara Babcock, Maria Grimm, Jay Novello, Eddie Hodges, Veronica
Cartwright, Jamie Farr, Rick Gates, Joe Flynn, Del Moore and Dick Patterson.
The one
big flaw with this set are the film-to-video transfers. The 1.33 X 1 color prints are dull and look
like old analog transfers that plug up the terrific color and detail. Like That
Girl or later seasons of The Lucy
Show, this is one of the most color-rich series ever filmed for TV and
though these prints are passable, they have looked better before. All the shows deserve HD upgrades. What would Mrs. Beasley say?
The Dolby
Digital 2.0 Mono is sufficient and had good dialogue for its age, though the
sound has some background hiss and is a generation down. Of course, all shows feature the classic
theme song by Frank DeVol, also known for The
Brady Bunch and so much memorable TV and film music. The only extra this time around is a reunion
special with Garver and four of the other principal participants reflecting on
the show’s success.
- Nicholas Sheffo
