There will always be ones who feel like Family

The other night I was listening to a podcast on YouTube, "The Jim Masters Show".  He was interviewing Gary Frank, who played son Willie Lawrence on "Family".

Family aired on ABC, Tuesday nights at 10pm from 1976-1981.  Critics praised the show and it won it's share of Emmys.  But the show tackled a lot of heavy subjects at the time (breast cancer, divorce, homosexuality) that the network never liked.

Anyway, Gary is 75 now, born in October 1950.  Listening to the interview (a long one, 2 hours) I found it both comforting and sad.  Gary's a withered figure now, bordering on frail.  He claims he was an alcoholic and chain smoker until he turned his life around at age 67.

Gary went on to do guest starring roles on other shows until retiring from acting in the 1990s.  But he spent his childhood in a poor, abusive home and to this day identifies more with his twentysomething character Willie on Family, then his self in real life.

He makes no apologies for it, and is both grateful to be part of that wonderful show, and heartbroken still that it was canceled by ABC in 1981.  He talks of every cast member like they were his real family.  He deeply loved his tv parents Doug & Kate Lawrence (played by James Broderick and Sada Thompson) and says they treated him like a son.

FYI, James was the real life father of actor Matthew Broderick and died of thyroid cancer just one year after the show ended, in 1982.  Sada died of natural causes in 2011.

Here's how the Lawrence family's home looked in 1977, and how it looks today.  A real house in Pasadena, it was rented for the show's 6 episode miniseries.  But when the network decided to make Family a series, they built a duplicate of the home's interior to make it easier for filming.

I suppose I'm sharing this for a couple reasons.  For one, Gary Frank has released his autobiography (using the picture of himself that sat on the Lawrence family's piano for 5 seasons, for the book cover).

I'm sorry to say I won't be reading his book.  He admits it's a pretty tough read, and holds nothing back.  I think I've heard enough.

The other reason I'm sharing this here is because frankly, I'm surprised I didn't do so years ago.  Family just happens to be in my Top 5 All-Time Favorite tv shows.  Did you watch this show?  Bonus points if you loved it too.  

Even though I had 5 brothers & sisters, I grew up watching this show alone.  Like I said earlier, it aired on Tuesday nights in the 1970s at 10pm.  My older brother was watching his own tv in his own bedroom.  My younger sibs were all in bed by that hour.  Back then, our retail mom worked 2 nights a week, usually Tuesdays & Thursdays, and didn't arrive home until after 10pm.   So I pretty much watched (and dearly loved) this hour-long drama on my own.

I have to say, as much as I loved my own mom, I dearly loved Sada Thompson as Family's mom and still do.  I wish more than anything she could've reprised her role.  She wanted to, but ABC was never interested in any reunions or tv-movies.

I own the first 2 seasons on DVD, but they never released the entire series.  FYI, that dvd set at the top is now an expensive item.  But the very good news is, the entire series is available to watch on Tubi.

Last night I watched Season 1 Episode 2, "Mondays Are Forever".  (Kate has a lump in her breast and suspects it's cancer.)  The show was not only ahead of it's time, it was a wonderful time capsule of the era--on Saturday nights, the Lawrences enjoy sundaes while watching The Mary Tyler Moore Show.  And youngest daughter Buddy's best friend is moving to Detroit, but Buddy can't phone her.  Why?  Because it's long distance and the charges are 16 cents per minute.  

I miss Family, I miss Mary Tyler Moore too--but I sure don't miss those old phone bills.

C'mon, this is what $52.76 is supposed to look like?

This shouldn't have surprised me, but it did.  I was at the market, adding these up in my head as I went along.  I estimated the total was going to be around $38.00.

Wrong.  When the cashier rang me up, she said my total was $52.76.   How is this even possible?   

At least a couple of these items I rarely buy.  The large-size raspberry jam was $6.50, the aluminum foil was nearly $7.00.  Those 2 items will last me 3 months, easy.  

I still don't see how the items in this photo came to over $50 though.  (The title says $52.76 but one of the items isn't in the picture, a box of Rice-A-Roni.  I set it by the stove for my dinner.)  

Anyway, I'm only responsible for the care and feeding of one.  I honestly don't know how families out there are even doing it.  At least the Rice-a-Roni was only $1.59, but frankly I think that was overpriced too.  

I don't want to sound like one of those old men yelling about bread once costing 10 cents, but I remember when this box of rice was 29 cents.

A few random images from a random Wednesday afternoon

Truth be told, I'm not really up for doing any writing right now.  But I wanted to put something new on here, just to say hello.  I hope everyone is doing well.

1. This morning's breakfast (and yes, I'm quite fond of black pepper).  I enjoy guacamole with everything.  

2. This is my sister Shawn & her husband Jim at a friend's wedding 2 weeks ago.  Speaking of weddings, these two recently celebrated their 26th anniversary on May 20.  They're the parents of my 21 year old niece Sophia, who recently returned from a trip to Italy.

3.  I signed up for a Netflix account this morning.  (I love Sally Field as much as I do my family.)  Do you know I was one of Netflix' first members in the 1990s? They had an obscure website advertising "We have over 500 dvds!"  Half of them were foreign and that's why I joined.

Anyway, I quit a long time ago but I'm anxious to check out what they have now.

4.  I'm so out of touch with things, I just noticed I never updated my wall calendar (on the right) from April and May is almost over.  Meanwhile, my dining room wall is pleading with me to hang some artwork on there.  I think I found something I like, more on that soon.

(My friend Patty saw the photo above and said I needed a third chair.  Here it is Patty, around the corner!)

5.  And finally, here's my early dinner.  I got the recipe for that macaroni & beef from a 1940s Readers Digest in my dentists office umpteen years ago.  It's made with cream of celery soup, ketchup and Worchester sauce and beats Hamburger Helper every time.  That's it for now, thanks for stopping by.