Way Back Wednesday For May 28, 2008

Welcome to Way Back Wednesday! This week is the family comedy edition. Let’s take a look at some of our past tv families.

The Dick Van Dyke Show

The Dick Van Dyke Show was a situation comedy which aired on CBS from 1961 to 1966. The show starred Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore, and was created by Carl Reiner. Reiner had in fact starred in the original pilot episode, Head of the Family. The pilot was rejected.

After its rejection, Sheldon Leonard helped Reiner revive the project, convincing him to recast, and to switch to the three-camera/studio, live audience format.

For five seasons, the show was also produced by Reiner, who wrote many episodes and played the part of Alan Brady. Many of the show’s plots were inspired by Reiner’s experiences as a writer for Your Show of Shows.

The Brady Bunch

The Brady Bunch was a television comedy based around a large blended family. The show aired from 1969 to 1974 on the ABC network and was subsequently syndicated around the world.

The Series was conceived by producer Sherwood Schwartz. Though it never was a top rating getter the series ran for five seasons, generated reunion movies and two short lived “Brady” Spin-Offs”.

It starred Robert Reed, Barry Williams, Christopher Knight, Mike Lookinland, Florence Henderson, Maureen McCormick, Eve Plumb, and Susan Olsen as the Brady’s. The live in housekeeper Alice was played by Ann B. Davis.

The Cosby Show

The Cosby Show was a comedy airing from 1984 to 1992 on NBC. The show focused on the Huxtable family, an upper-middle class American family living in a brownstone building in Brooklyn, New York.

TV Guide called the show “TV’s biggest hit in the 1980s”. I was breakthrough in many areas for both race and gender roles.

It starred Bill Cosby as “Cliff” Huxtable, Phylicia Rash?d as Clair Huxtable, Lisa Bonet as Denise Huxtable, Malcolm-Jamal Warner as Theodore Aloysius “Theo” Huxtable, Tempestt Bledsoe as Vanessa Huxtable, and Keshia Knight Pulliam as Rudith Lillian “Rudy” Huxtable.

That 70’s Show

That ’70s Show was a sitcom that aired from 1998 until 2006. It centered on a group of kids in the fictional town of Point Place, Wisconsin, during the late 1970’s.

The main character was teenager Eric Forman (Topher Grace) five of his friends: Donna Pinciotti (Laura Prepon), his girlfriend and next-door neighbor; Steven Hyde (Danny Masterson), a rebellious stoner who was eventually adopted by the Forman family and lives in their basement; Michael Kelso (Ashton Kutcher), a dim-self centered ladies man; Jackie Burkhart (Mila Kunis), a self-involved high school cheerleader overly preoccupied with wealth and status; and Fez (Wilmer Valderrama), an exchange student from a country that is never identified.