Episode of Family where.....

God, my 13-yr-old self used to think Gary Frank was so cute. Now, looking back at his flat-assed wimpy body and that awful Brady Bunch hair...WTF was I thinking?!

I never watched Family but LOVED Eight is Enough. Family didn't have a lot of laughs.

I fucking LOVED Family and wanted Kate to be my mother. Doug was so passive. She topped him for sure. Seriously, it was groundbreaking in a lot of ways. So much better than the crap on today.

It gave me this weird hypnotic trance like vibe. The lighting. The pauses. The scripts. The lingering camera. Was weird but interesting. The mom was so damned sanctimonious though. Check out a few minutes of the clip to see willys gay friend. He's hot. In that 70s jock way

God, the episode OP linked to just seems so damn sane and mature compared to today's screeching Twitter society. Take me back to the Seventies, please!

R5. It's kind of crazy watching old shit like that huh? Trippy. I stumbled across it on my sick day off today. Couldn't stop.

I thought it rocked for Kristy's natural charisma and talent only. Didn't she win two Emmys for it? I know at least one.

I believe she won 2 Emmys

And Gary won one.

...and the night did not end there!

Kristy had a huge cock

Sane and mature? Kate says she would rather Willie be a murderer than gay.

Now look here Tizzie Lish...

Wonderful show, was obsessed with it, Sadie was fucking amazing

SadA also won an Emmy

Now listen here, Lezzie Tush!

Sass and those house dresses. And damn, could she cradle the fuck out of a mug! Sanctimonious bitch.

^Sada.

Sada, Barbara, and Mrs. Garrett

Kate always seemed like she was barely keeping her bipolar issues under wraps. She could be very cold and very judgmental, and she could also lash out at her kids and her husband for no reason. I found her a really difficult person to warm up to. I thought Doug was the nurturer in the family.

Kate has a few home truths for Nancy.....

R20. So true. And when she and Meredith Baxter Birney were in the same scene, it could be an epic battle of the passive aggressive monster clits.

R21. You win. First laugh I've had all week. Kate (w drink in hand): " if I gave up every time I was pregnant, none of you kids would be here". Fuuuuuuuuuck. That's some hard core suburban bitter alc-y smack talk!!! You just know she cunted out at bridge night after a few old-fashioneds

Just once I'd like to have seen Kate crouched on the crapper, cigarette hanging outta her fingers, takin a huge growler and stinking up the whole bathroom.

Loved that show. Wish I had more comments to offer but it just occupies my consciousness as a warm, good memory.

Is Gary still alive?

That would have been much more Betty the Loon, r24.

^nust looked up Gary frank. Alive. But in total obscurity. No info.

I'm about a year younger than Kristy McNichol, and I remember watching that show, having mixed feelings about Kate (Sada Thompson), because she was so sanctimonious and matronly. I also remember that episode. It was around the same time I started to experience what Zeke felt at 13. Stuff like I could never tell anyone, it'll go away, it's just a phase, if I pray hard enough. So, yeah, even though I did not come out until after college, shows like that helped.

To R12, yeah, it looks like Kate would rather have Zeke be an ax murderer than a "homosexual." But it perfectly represents the attitude of the time. And bear in mind, the Lawrences were accepting of Zeke! Most would have reacted the way Zeke's father does.

Brian Byers (Zeke) was hot. Hell, I remember having crushes on guys who looked like him. On TV, there was the guy on the Dr. Pepper commercial. A few years later there was "Peter" the hot guy in the Folgers coffee Christmas ad, and a little goofier but Eric Heiden in his skin-tight racing suit.

I remember Sada Thompson in "Our Town," when it was broadcast on PBS. I remember around 1980, PBS also broadcast BBC productions of Shakespeare's plays. Yes, I agree with OP, "Family" could be a snoozefest, but dramas with serious topics are no longer produced. Now it's all stab in the back melodramatic "reality shows.".

Another gay memory of that era was of Marc Singer in "The Taming of the Shrew." Lordy, I could have stared at his butt until the cows came home.

Such scenes ( bodies) would bring more people back to Shakespeare.

Weird how Zeke and Willy part at the airport. No handshake, let alone a hug. Ditto in the scene with Willy’s father outside the courthouse. ‘You’ve always been like a second son to me’, then Zeke just turns and leaves. I know it was a different era, but that still struck me as oddly cold. I don’t remember that being good manners back in the seventies. Or am I just forgetting how it really was?

R30. I thought the same on both "goodbyes". Zeke's flight was back to SF. Thus he was probably at Stanford or Berkeley. If only they knew then that Zeke was at the epicenter (time and place) for the AIDS epidemic while he was probably just exploring his sexuality. Fuck you Willy. And Doug.

There was another "gay-themed" Family episode. Buddy's favorite teacher turned out to be a lesbian. A parent finds out she had an affair with a college student (the student was over 18) and seeks to have her ousted from her job. I can't remember how it ended.

Wow. Kate really is a wasp mother. It's more evident now that my own wasp mother is lond dead.

I was so envious of Italian and Jewish and Greek friends, whose mothers wore too much makeup and jewelry, and PIERCED EARS. And they were always all over their kids, touching them, saying nice things about them, and later doing it with me. There wasn't much demonstrative love in a Wasp household. You knew you were loved because you were well taken care of. You got a big grand gesture once in a while but it was years until the next. You never knew where you were in a conflict unless you were willing to dig deeper and make someone cry, if you could. And Wasp Mom means never even considering you'll say you're sorry.

This show explored Wasp conflict that rarely happened in real life.

I hated Kate. She was so smug.

Sada was no Lindsey Wagner.

Sada was in the ensemble of Juno.

Gary Frank looks like a product of incest.

R20 Kate was an amateur.

Lesbian...such an ugly word....

Kate never enjoyed sex. In fact, Kate and Doug stopped having sex soon after Leticia was born. She was so distant and cold that Doug slept in the guest bedroom nearly every night, he'd usually wait until everyone in the house had gone to bed to try to keep the illusion that he was in a loving marriage. However, the children had known for some time. She could be warm and caring when the occasion called for it but those episodes were so brief one usually thought they had imagined it. If you thought it through, you'd conclude that she could be Medea. It wasn't hard to imagine her spiking her meals with slow acting, hard to detect poisons, and .

Kate dreamed for the day when she would be alone. She would pass the time imagining her being the sole occupant of that enormous house, not having to speak to anyone, not having to smile, and not having to pretend to love.

I love you R40. So true. So true. But can I add a possible thought? Perhaps in that scenario, Meredith Baxter Birney still is allowed to live in the guest house. To share their icy hatred. All else are long gone though. Including meredith's crappy baby

[quote]Sada, Barbara, and Mrs. Garrett

Girls

Girls!

GIRLS!!!

Willie is an idiot....he could have had that hot hunk Zeke!

No, R41, in this scenario none of her family is around. Kate's coldness and distance drove them all away. She hated Leticia most of all. Kate never wanted to carry any of those children to term but one didn't speak openly of that procedure and besides it would have been nearly impossible for Kate to sneak away and have a simple abortion without someone in the family figuring it out. Each of Kate's pregnancies became obvious almost as soon as she conceived and Doug was a smart man and would have known about the abortion if she had gotten one. It's never spoken of but she rarely changed a diaper, forcing Doug or the older children to do it. That meant that Nancy and Willie's diapers weren't changed until Doug got home from work and Nancy frequently suffered UTIs and both infants were plagued with diaper rash until they were potty trained. Kate forced Nancy to change Leticia's diapers almost as soon as she brought the infant home from the hospital.

When Leticia was conceived Nancy and Willie were old enough to understand what her infancy would be like and they banded together to try to give the child a semblance of a nurturing mother type figure. Kate may have been aware of this but she was so emotionally distant from Leticia that it didn't bother her at all, in fact she was relieved and eventually acted as if Leticia didn't exist.

R44. We need to meet. Story to perfection. Rashes. No diaper change. Love you. Come by and get drunk w me. We can rewrite a few Full House episodes.

Kate Lawrence was the ultimate 70s WASP mother, even more so than Beth Jarrett.

She was judgmental and critical, but she was also believably warm. Beth Jarrett was like a monstrous cartoon.

Do not dare to refer to me by my deadname "Leticia," r44. That person never existed.

I am now and forever Buddy Lawrence, a strong and proud man--a former gender studies and folklore & mythology major from Mills College, and a founder of the Diablo Range Equality Sunshine Commune.

I had an Italian mother and was scared of Kate. Loathed her!

[italic] Christ. She's pregnant.[/italic]

Doug hung up the phone and rubbed his face with shaking hands. [italic] What am I supposed to do now?[/italic] Sure, Kate was pretty in the way that plain girls can be when they take the time to curl their hair and apply a little extra lipstick, but it only served to emphasize how unremarkable she really was. Those tricks helped a little when the lights were down but seeing her in the glare of the morning sun made him realize he was drunker than he'd realized when he took her back to her apartment last night. He hadn't intended to stay or even sleep with her but she gave him some bourbon and they soon found themselves in an sweaty, clumsy, thankfully over too soon encounter.

So they got married. Kate's mother met Doug about a month before the wedding. She didn't care for him very much and felt bad about it until she realized while watching her daughter at the wedding that the expression on her daughter's face matched how she felt in her own heart. After the ceremony she was surprised that she felt relief. After she thought for a while she came to understand that she was relieved that her plain, unremarkable daughter now had a man to take care of her and was no longer her concern.

She delivered Timothy seven months after the ceremony. Kate's mother didn't come to the birth even though she could have during the 48 hours Kate was in labor. They had to deliver Timothy by C-Section because the cord was wrapped around his neck. There was a problem afterward because it took a frighteningly long time to get him to take his first breath. They don't know how long he was deprived of oxygen in the womb and until he took that breath and their fears were confirmed because Timothy had brain damage.

[quote] I was so envious of Italian and Jewish and Greek friends, whose mothers wore too much makeup and jewelry, and PIERCED EARS.

My own WASP mother would have died rather than pierced her ears.

She just about had a heart attack when my sister (at age 17) pierced her ears. She still thinks only extremely tacky people get piercings.

She only would wear extremely painful clip-ons to fancy events.

Gary was cute but I was always so damn glad I didn't have a humorless mother like Sada Thompson. ugh.

That episode really is interesting though. It was 1977 or so and set in California -- and cops were busting people in gay bars! Per the show anyway. Look how far things have come.

(P.S. I REFUSED to have a coming out speech like this one, possibly due to this episode. So never did the "Have to tell you something" thing with friends. Just brought it up casually and moved on).

I cannot see the Kate Lawrence others see here. I think she was a great mum, strong, had strong opinions on things and was not afraid to speak of them (unlike weaker women). She also had a graciousness and a humility about her. She could be a tough disciplinarian when required, but was warm and shared confidences with her children. She reminded me a lot of my best friend's mum growing up, and I somehow idolised her. Kate was a great lady and a wonderful mother IMHO.

Never head of this show before. It certainly seems to be of its time, but I'm kind of amazed at how openly and compassionately it dealt with the subject back in 1978. Any other 'very special episodes' of old tv shows that featured gay characters? I'm familiar with SOAP and Golden Girls and Dynasty and Dallas episodes. What else?

I find it was actually quite ahead of its time R53, but interesting you mention SOAP. Gary Frank from Family always reminded me of Billy Crystal, who played Jodie. They spoke as if they were brothers, and shared many of the same mannerisms.

R32 I just watched this episode on YouTube after reading your post. It sadly ended with Buddy's teacher resigning of her own accord, as she explained it was better than trying to fight. The Lawrences are completely supportive of the lesbian teacher, and even have a frank discussion over dinner. Great episode, and I wonder if it was difficult for Kristy McNichol to play the episode considering her own struggle to accept herself.

R53, I fantasized that the entire White Shadow basketball team was gay--also Michael Pare and William Katt in The Greatest American Hero. Does that count?

R56 above. Every episode had a shower scene in it, it seemed. Cue that other shower thread I guess.

I hated the episode where Kate had her psychic experience.

But I loved the ones with Nancy's snooty ex-mother-in-law. She thinks Kate is quaint, and compliments her decorating by saying she LOVES her wallpaper, it's just like the wallcovering in her favorite restaurant. I can't remember who played her but she was an entertaining guest star on many 70s shows.

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I used to love that show. I drove past the Lawrence house not long ago, still lovely.

R58- The same actress played a NASTY nurse on an episode of All In the Family from about 1976 when Gloria is pregnant and the Bunkers are searching for her in the hospital. A VERY funny episode.

My favorite was the very special episode where Kate walks in on Leticia masturbating.

"No, no, no, Buddy. You're doing it all wrong. Circular motions at the vee. Here let me show you..."

[quote] I used to love that show. I drove past the Lawrence house not long ago, still lovely.

Is the house in Pasadena, where the show was set?

I was envious when, at the start of the 'gay' episode', Buddy asked to borrow her mother's Bullock's charge card to buy, if I recall correctly, socks. No way would my parsimonious, Depression-raised mother have bought socks at a fancy store like Bullock's Pasadena. Socks and underwear came from Penney's.

Mom and Sada Thompson were born a week apart in 1927, yet it was so obvious that the Lawrences had no problem embracing the good life, whereas my parents never felt comfortable spending money.

I vaguely remember trying to watch it back then but the mom was very cold and detached and it was too slow paced.

Kristi always looked like a boy too. Young little me was confused.

Sada was fired from ALL IN THE FAMILY because Carroll O'Conner and she didn't get along at all. Then we got stuck with the insufferable Betty Garrett as the Bunker's neighbor.....

And sad sack Sada went on the stink up the airwaves on FAMILY.

Father James Broderick (died in 1982) is the father of Matthew Broderick.....Sada cunted around until 2011 before she kicked off.

The other show that confused me was Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman....I was too young to get satire and that show creeped me out. I've often thought I should rewatch it now that I'm considered elder and have a fine sense of satire.

R63- The Lawrence's were not ostentatious at all. They drove those CRAPPY Ford Mavericks.

That bugged me. They should have driven some nice Oldsmobiles- which are not flashy cars but they're more in keeping with the Lawrence's upper middle classness.

They were very typical nice upper middle class Pasadenans.

I loved Buddy. I hope she was able to find a good man.

Kristy looked like a baby dyke even on Family but Meredith Baxter looked STRAIGHT and she was very pretty. I NEVER would have guess back then that she was a LESBO.

I always forget that original Nancy. I was only 8 when it premiered and don’t really remember watching it until the Buddy/Leif Garrett season. I did watch it years later in syndication; were the original Nancy episodes scrapped for syndication? I don’t remember ever seeing them.

How would Kate have reacted knowing BOTH her daughters used other women's inner thighs as napkins?

Now look here Tizzie Lish/R72!

Why can't they reboot this show?

I always wondered how the real-life neighbors around the Pasadena house felt about them filming there for five years. It's probably why the producers chose a house with high trees, hedges and fences.

OK, I had to look up what the house looks like today. Pretty much the same and worth almost $5 million!

Kate looks like Shirley Temple Black with that hair do.

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Fuck R78 for bumping a post with inoperable links.

I EAT OLD PEOPLES’ EXCREMENT!!!

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There was an episode where Willie had a fling with Nancy’s friend, Elizabeth Ashley.

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Zeke was hot as fuck.

We're so addled now because most shows cut to a new face every few seconds. We don't know how to calmly watch/listen/pay attention.

R19 Thank you for sharing that. I would never have seen it on my own and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Fine actresses performing a wonderful play. I will look for the whole performance and share here if I find it.

One day I will go to that house in Pasadena and take a photo in front of it.

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