What's up with the Family Affair credits?

Glamorous gaiety.

Uncle Bill had a penthou$e

Go to bed and stop smoking… you need your pills changed.

In most families, affairs are covered up with rubies.

It was Miss Beasley’s idea!

Did anyone else find Uncle Bill hot or was that just me? I loved his apartment, you know he scored a ton of pussy before those brats moved in.

Uncle Bill had a man bear servant, no one thought that was gay back then?

I wanted to be just like him. Oh well, I never go the man bear servant but I did end up in a high-rise condo in a semi-architectural related job. No rug rats.

The producers were too cheap to hire a lyricist to write a catchy theme that explained the premise of the show or to do a fun animation sequence.

He was a nice looking man but not as much of a playboy as they made him out to be.

I think in one of the first episodes, he was in the bathtub and Mr. French was there asking about "his schedule". Wink, Wink. With the ladies of course.

Mr. French was a sloppy bottom. What do you think he was always caring around that damp towel?

Yeah the kaleidoscope opening is a bit odd compared to opening credits for other shows.

I didn’t know Sebastian Cabot committed suicide. Ugh I’m going to bed.

I beg your pardon! Mr. French was a perfect gentleman!

I remember watching the show when I was a kid, looking back how it's horribly depressing. Not to mention how everyone died.

What gayling stuck in suburbia didn't find that opening sequence along with the zesty instrumental to be the height of chic? The fake lens flare to the left of each name just before it was revealed ... the glamorous script letters (and, yes, I noticed that the temporary "John Williams" credit was done in a MISMATCHED font ... how sloppy).

And the double front doors of that apartment with the DOORKNOBS IN THE MIDDLE ... for years I thought all city apartments looked like that.

Adopt me, Uncle Biww. Adopt ME!

Brian Keith committed suicide. Coincidentally, his stepmother was Peg Entwistle who was famous for jumping off the Hollywood sign. Sebastian Cabot died from a stroke.

Buffy ODed at 18!

"Buffy Davis on the CBS sitcom Family Affair, which ran from 1966 to 1971. She died from combined drug intoxication at the age of 18"

R16 you are correct. I looked up Sebastian Cabot and somehow it defaulted to info about Brian Keith. I didn’t think he died that way, so it was a surprise. Thanks for the clarification.

So which cable channels show Family Affair nowadays? I don't recall seeing it anywhere for years!

Youtube.

The rubies represented the precious blood spilled by Buffy, Jody and Cissy's parents so they could create a family with their closeted uncle and his bossy bear bottom houseboy/man.

Why not?

Meanwhile, IIRC in one episode Cissy had a supercute Puerto Rico boyfriend.

I thought this was very sophisticated and "New York."

R15 agree. When I was a kid I thought it was the very height of elegance and sophistication. The spinning glimmering pink jewels with that jaunty harpsichord tune. I would listen to it and pretend to be smoking with a cigarette holder.

They represented the family jewels, you monsters.

OP, I never understood it either. The harpsichord sounded so cheap and chintzy.

I think the sparkling jewels and fancy cursive script were supposed to represent the high life that Uncle Bee-Yol lived in Manhattan, but that's as far as I can go with an interpretation.

It's an odd show--supposedly it was meant for children to watch, but the real audience was absolutely the frauen. Children would never identify with grave, dour, unsmiling Buffy and Jody, but hausfrauen in the late 60s thought them adorable (back in the day adults used to think children were cutest when they were being extremely serious--I think because they found children so annoying when they were happy because they were running around and squealing).

Jody grew up to be someone who just loved to learn and Buffy turned into someone you’d just love to burn. Uncle Bill loves the both of them, you see it’s in the blood. Both kids love Bill, you see blood’s thicker than the mud, it’s a Family Affair.

That entire show was the epitome of artificiality. SO out of touch with the times.

It's no wonder Brian Keith killed himself, as did Buffy (basically), and then there's Cissy who wouldn't speak to "Jody" for decades, all because he didn't thank her 20 years earlier for getting him some gig.

F'd up on all accounts.

And then there's the Brian Keith toupee story...

Family Affair was very popular in its initial run. And when CBS placed the show on its morning lineup, it was gigantic. Indeed, the frau did seem to eat it up.

For record not everyone believes Brian Keith committed suicide.

For me the show was all about Mr. French. So proper, understood kids were basically crotch fruit. He wanted nothing to do with them. Ha, Ha, it's like he was channeling the DL before it was conceived.

Ironically, working as an Architect in NYC is almost impossible. Architecture is one of the lowest paying legitimate professions out there. People think they make a lot of money like a lawyer or doctor but that's so far from reality it's laughable. I know graphic designers who make more than the average architect. It's a high level of responsibility but shitty pay, low job growth, high competition for jobs.

Uncle Bill must have been smuggling in cocaine from is frequent travels to Brazil to be able to afforded a spacious 4 bedroom apartment and a full time butler in Manhattan. Just saying.

Things must have changed, poor you!

My husband is a successful architect with offices at 40 Wall Street. We have a lovely home on Park avenue and place in the county (Great Neck, Long Island), each fully staffed with servants.

I'm not one to repeat gossip so I'll just say this once but I heard Unco B.O. design the Surfside Champlain Towers

r19 It's on DECADES every morning right after "Petticoat Junction." Two episodes. Part of their "60s block.

The opening was an homage to the fact CBS was going all color that year. CBS wanted everything to be colorful to compete with NBC's Peacock which was already in color.

[quote]And then there's the Brian Keith toupee story...

Johnny Whitaker, who played Jody had only nice things to say about Brian Keith, EXCEPT, he said, "There was one rule regarding him, NEVER touch his hair."

[quote]Ironically, working as an Architect in NYC is almost impossible

He was a civil engineer and they make quite good money. I know two that live in Manhattan today and make the $$$$$$$$$

Psychedelia...it was the 60s.

That theme song was the best thing on TV ever. It was very Auntie Mame.

r38

In part but it was really about CBS promoting color. Besides the sister show "My Three Sons," had a similar stupid instrumental.

R35, but it was an opening more in line with 'The Lucy Show', not some bore-fest starring Brian Keith.

R6, thanks for making my morning with your comment!

Yes, Uncle Bill was an engineer, NOT an architect.

[quote]Yeah the kaleidoscope opening is a bit odd compared to opening credits for other shows.

Tell me about it.

Ridiculous show about kids, but made for adults who wished their own kids were as innocuous and charming. It had a 9:30 EST/PST time slot when little kids the same age as Buffy and Jody would have been in bed.

There was a short-lived remake in 2002 with Gary Cole and Tim Curry.

It's been mentioned before, but Family Affair was DARK for a sitcom in its day. The biggest example is when Eve Plumb guest-starred as Buffy's classmate Eve, who had a terminal illness. The Davis family had an early Christmas for her, and late in the episode Unca Biww said to French or Cissy "I'm sure the kids don't know why."

Cut to Buffy in her bed, sobbing.

The opening is very British...I wouldn't have expected that on a U.S. television show (comedy or non). Not even in the 1960s.

I loved that opening, and the show. Even the pre-Bradys very Astroturf-grassed park the kids always went to meet and play with their friends at. As a late-Boomer gayling, I adored and dreamed of one day living in huge apartment resembling theirs and daydreamed of living over beautiful Park Ave. twinkling brightly alive at night as shown in that stock footage that opened many of the show's scenes. Mary and Gay, yes, but very late 1960s cool and fun for me. :) And as mentioned upthread, the show was big in reruns on CBS on weekday mornings when it went into syndication. I miss the Decades Channel my cable provider no longer carries, including because last I had it almost 2 years ago, I believe that channel was airing reruns of the show. Fun TV-watching childhood memories. And Brian Keith -- "Punish me, and then hug and kiss me forgivingly, Daddy!"

[quote]He was a civil engineer and they make quite good money. I know two that live in Manhattan today and make the $$$$$$$$$

Well they make more than Architects but not that much more. The average pay scale today is about 80,000 in a big city. That is NOT RICH by any standard. And no way could you afford a 3 bedroom apartment right in the center of Manhattan along with a personal man servant. Uncle Bill was supposed to be rich.