Does anybody know what network if any airs Family Affair?
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Family Affair
- Thread starter pritch2448
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Decades TV did an all-weekend marathon of Uncle Bill in the recent past, but that was a one-shot. You could choose of of the more obscure cable nets and check them out on zap2it.com for a week, or email them with your Q.
Maybe it was just me, but it always seemed like Brian Keith's acting was just a little too indifferent and indolent on the show - like maybe he had to belt back a few cocktails to suppress his gag-reflex.
A truly mawkish show - especially now, in hindsight, but even in its time.
No, it wasn't just you. I thought Brian Keith kind of phoned it in. Of course he had had some movie roles before this and perhaps was doing F.A. just for the paycheck, but I don't know that for certain. The show itself was quite sugar-coated, kind of somewhere between Leave It To Beaver and The Brady Bunch, which it was chronologically. I was only 8 years old or so when it was on, so my opinion probably comes from watching reruns in the 70's. I still remember the theme song, it was actually quite good.
For a "wholesome" show, "Family Affair" had a LOT of creepy undertones. Anissa Jones OD-ing in her late teens, Sebastian Cabot basically eating himself to death to maintain that portly Mr. French look, Brian Keith committing suicide, and Johnnie Whittaker growing up to look like...Brian Keith. As far as his movie roles, my favorite was "Young Guns", where he practically stole the whole movie in a couple minutes, while sitting in an outhouse, no less.
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Didn't Brian Keith also have the "Fred MacMurray" work schedule, whereas he did all of his filming at once, and everyone had to work around it?
Yes, and they also had to work around the 2 younger kids. Due to their age, they were limited on number of hours they could be on the set. So their scenes were filmed first, then Mr. French and Sissy had to stay late doing their scenes.
The child labor laws were why The Patty Duke Show was shot in New York instead of L.A. during the first two seasons. In the show's final year (after she had turned 18), they suddenly decided to move production to the West Coast.
It's somewhat ironic that The Brady Bunch was mentioned in conjunction with Brian Keith's supposed attitude about Family Affair. Robert Reed was very definitely sullen about working on that show--though he liked Florence Henderson, Ann B. Davis and the kids. The most cited reason is usually that he went from a prestigious show like The Defenders to a show that oozed cheese like TBB.
It's somewhat ironic that The Brady Bunch was mentioned in conjunction with Brian Keith's supposed attitude about Family Affair. Robert Reed was very definitely sullen about working on that show--though he liked Florence Henderson, Ann B. Davis and the kids. The most cited reason is usually that he went from a prestigious show like The Defenders to a show that oozed cheese like TBB.
I remember reading years ago that Johnny Whitaker got a lot of film and TV roles in his childhood because he could cry - tears included - on command.
I just had a TV trivia memory - one of those "6 Degrees of Separation" (or Kevin Bacon 
) kind of thing. The Family Affair theme music was very catchy. I guess because I always paid attention to credits, I remembered that the credit for the theme music was "De Vol." Some years later, the "band leader" and band on the fake talk show Fernwood Tonight...later America Tonight with Martin Mull and the great Fred Willard - was none other than "Happy Kyne and His Mirthmakers." Mr. "Kyne" was played in hysterical dead-pan fashion by Frank DeVol.
) kind of thing. The Family Affair theme music was very catchy. I guess because I always paid attention to credits, I remembered that the credit for the theme music was "De Vol." Some years later, the "band leader" and band on the fake talk show Fernwood Tonight...later America Tonight with Martin Mull and the great Fred Willard - was none other than "Happy Kyne and His Mirthmakers." Mr. "Kyne" was played in hysterical dead-pan fashion by Frank DeVol.After all, Reed had to do some very strenuous work on The Brady Bunch, like hauling a very heavy paycheck to the bank.
That would describe Brian Keith's acting in anything I've ever seen him in.
Take a look at the 1961 version of The Parent Trap.
See "The Young Philadelphians."
It was after F.A. Originally called "Little People", it was renamed "The Brain Keith Show", probably due to low initial ratings. Unfortunately, the renaming didn't help. The show was cancelled after just two seasons.
I thought he fit much better in the action series Hardcastle & McCormick.
Shelley Fabares played his daughter. They might have gotten better ratings if they called it "The Shelley Fabares Show." An untold number of male baby boomers had crushes on her - even after B.J. Hunnicut married her.
Her name was actually spelled Cissy, but in the updated version on The WB in 2002, they did spell her name Sissy. And while the acting by Uncle Bill and the younger kids wasn't any better (I'm just going by what people say here, because I was the same age as those kids for the original series and didn't know any better), Tim Curry was Mr. French and Caitlin Wachs was Sissy and they were quite good together.
Sebastian Cabot made a fine Santa in a version of "Miracle on 34th Street" that I saw a few years ago, though he still wasn't on the level of the original. And a grown-up Johnnie Whitaker said in an interview that it was quite a treat to have HIM read bedtime stories.
decades channel
A channel called Decades, which I think is an over-the-air digital subchannel, will have a Family Affair marathon in December.
It will air between 2 p.m. and midnight on Tuesday, Dec. 20, plus a Christmas episode at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 24.
Times are US Eastern.
A channel called Decades, which I think is an over-the-air digital subchannel, will have a Family Affair marathon in December.
It will air between 2 p.m. and midnight on Tuesday, Dec. 20, plus a Christmas episode at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 24.
Times are US Eastern.
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