The Family Man (TV Series)

The Family Man (TV Series)

Infobox Television
show_name = The Family Man


caption =
format = Comedy,
runtime = 30 minutes per episode
creator =
starring = Gregory Harrison
John Buchanan
Scott Weinger
Matthew Brooks
Ashleigh Blair Sterling
Al Molinaro
Gail Edwards
Josh Byrne
Edward Winter (1990)
Peter Parros
Adam Biesk (1990)
Nancy Everhard (1991)
country = USA
network = CBS
first_aired = September 11, 1990
last_aired = July 17, 1991
num_seasons = 1
num_episodes = 22
list_episodes =
imdb_id =
tv_com_id =|

"The Family Man" was an American sitcom from prolific TV producers Thomas L. Miller and Robert L. Boyett, which ran on CBS from September 11, 1990 to July 17, 1991. Martha Williamson, who later created the hit feel-good dramas "Touched By an Angel" and "Promised Land" for the same network, served as supervising producer, with M/B familiar Ross Brown as co-executive producer (the following year he would assume the same role on "Step By Step"). In addition to being produced at Lorimar Television, and a Miller/Boyett production, the show was also under the Catalina Television marque.

The series lasted for 22 episodes, and originally aired on Saturday nights at 8PM alongside an established Miller-Boyett series that had just moved to CBS from NBC, "The Hogan Family".

Premise

"The Family Man" was the first television starring vehicle for Gregory Harrison since leaving his most popular role of Dr. "Gonzo" Gates on "Trapper John, M.D." in 1986, just before that series ended. Here, Harrison was California fire chief Jack Taylor, a recent widower holding his family together as both a mother and a father, along with the inept help of his father-in-law, Joe Alberghetti (Al Molinaro, also in a return to series TV after many years off, and in his third sitcom for Miller-Boyett). Joe's stay with the family after his daughter's death was only supposed to be temporary, but by the end of the pilot, after Jack and his kids showed how much they needed him in their lives, he decided to permanently move out from New York. Jack's four attractive children were 16-year-old Jeff (John Buchanan), headstrong and athletic; 14-year-old Steve (Scott Weinger), who, despite being the resident troublemaker, was still trying to find a positive self-image; 11-year-old Brian (Matthew Brooks), who had the hardest time dealing with the death of his mother; and the wise-beyond-her-years 6-year-old, Allison (Ashleigh Blair Sterling), who really could do no wrong.

Stories focused around Jack's unique relationships with each of his children, the problems and adjustments of a suddenly motherless household, and the misadventures and scrapes of the growing brood. Jack's high-demand job as Fire Chief also had prominence; his charges and best buddies at the firehouse included "Bus" Harbrook (Edward Winter), Eddie Cooper (Peter Parros), and the younger Ted Reinhard (Adam Biesk), who could always be counted on to shake things up. They also joined him for poker night in almost every episode. Adding some adult female perspective was the Taylors' next-door neighbor, Hilary Kozak (Gail Edwards), a divorcee who it seemed was originally going to be a love interest for Jack, but it never quite happened. She had a young son, Patrick (Josh Byrne), who was Allison's best friend.

Upon the show's return in June 1991 after a seven-month hiatus, Jack's co-workers and buddies Bus and Ted were dropped from the show, leaving only Eddie regularly in evidence at poker nights as well as at the firehouse. The rest of the cast remained intact, but coming into the picture was pretty local news reporter Jill Nichols (Nancy Everhard), who first met the stolid Fire Chief on assignment during an interview. Sparks flew instantly and they began dating.

Broadcast History

The series ran 10 episodes for the first half of the season, but after the December 1, 1990 telecast both "The Family Man" and its older sister show "The Hogan Family" were put on hiatus by CBS. This was due to less-than-stellar ratings for both, and while it was decided in the intervening period that "The Hogan Family" had no future on its new home at CBS, the network was willing to give "The Family Man" another shot at "makin' it" (sly Miller-Boyett humor, with the pun not actually intended). The show resurfaced on the CBS schedule in June 1991 with 12 more episodes ahead for that summer. It was by now airing on both Mondays and Wednesdays at 8:30/7:30, in an accelerated effort to attract more viewers, with two new episodes airing per week. The ratings didn't improve with all the changes, and in mid-July, after the last completed episode aired, "The Family Man" was history.

Notes

*Tom Miller and Bob Boyett based the family structure of this series after "My Three Sons", but added an original twist by including a daughter as a fourth child. Otherwise, the widowed father with three sons, and the other male guardian figure in the house (in this case, the maternal grandfather, as opposed to the two uncle roles on "My Three Sons") was adapted straight from the earlier TV classic.
*"The Family Man" was not the only new CBS program Gregory Harrison starred in during the 1990-1991 season. The immediate week after this series was put on hiatus (12/1/90), Harrison showed up as the host of "True Detectives", a public service/reality series which took over the Saturday 8-9PM block vacated by "The Family Man" and "The Hogan Family", during their hiatus period. "True Detectives" ran the the rest of the season, but CBS did not renew it for the 1991-92; thus, Harrison had the distinction of having two network series of his end at the same time, in July 1991.
*This series was the only sitcom from Miller-Boyett Productions to have an instrumental opening theme song, up to that time. Most other M/B series have been known for having amazingly catchy, lyric-heavy opening theme songs; although this theme was without words, the melody and orchestration maintained the producers' signature "inspirational" feel and sound.
*Several cast members from "The Family Man" went on to stay working in the Miller-Boyett universe after the show was cancelled. Scott Weinger, who would eventually reach greater fame with a series of youth-oriented movie roles in the 1990s (starting with his voicing of the male romantic lead in Disney's "Aladdin"), immediately went from playing Steve Taylor on "The Family Man" to being Steve Peters, the major crush and eventual boyfriend of D.J. Tanner on ABC's M/B hit "Full House". After his initial fall 1991 guest appearance, Weinger's character was renamed Steve Hale when he became a regular cast member. Gail Edwards followed Weinger over to "Full House", playing Vicki Larson, the new love interest of Danny Tanner. Both Weinger and Edwards would co-star on "Full House" until 1994 (with the former showing up in a guest shot on that show's 1995 series finale). Josh Byrne, who played young Patrick Kozak, also ended up in a new role quickly, as Brendan Lambert on "Step By Step" in the fall of 1991. Byrne's character on that long-running show was dropped at the end of season six, making him another victim of Chuck Cunningham Syndrome. Ashleigh Blair Sterling didn't return to the M/B landscape until two seasons after "The Family Man"'s cancellation. In March 1993 she resurfaced on M/B's new ABC comedy "Getting By", playing the youngest daughter of Cindy Williams. That series lasted two seasons total (with the second airing on NBC).
*Besides the fact that "The Family Man" was paired with "The Hogan Family" on CBS' 1990 fall schedule, the two series had more than Saturday night in common. In this series' opening credits, the Taylor family is seen engaging in recreational activities almost similar to those played by the Hogans in their opening sequence; the striking similarity being the shot of a remote control airplane flown by Jack and the kids from atop beach rocks (in seasons 3-4 of "The Hogan Family", Michael Hogan fixes a remote control airplane with the help of Mark and Willie in the opening). Also, both shows featured scenes of the families having a barbecue both in the middle and end of their opening sequences; while the Hogans always had theirs at a park, the Taylors had one in their backyard. Finally, both shows used the same credit font (Cooper Black).

References

Brooks, Tim and Marsh, Earle, "The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows"


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