1980's television
Our Family Honor
April 13, 2009
by David Krell
david@davidkrell.com
Before The Sopranos, ABC tackled the challenge of depicting a mob family.
In 1985, the network debuted Our Family Honor. Ultimately short-lived, the show presented the Danzigs, a New York City mob family, and the McKay family, a blue-blooded New York City clan.
Blue-blooded as in New York City police blue. The McKay family is headed by Commissioner Patrick McKay. His nemesis is mob boss Vincent Danzig, played by Eli Wallach.
Our Family Honor may not have lasted a long time, but it enjoys a rich and deep roster of actors with credits perhaps more noticeable.
Before audiences discovered him in Goodfellas, Ray Liotta played Officer Ed Santini.
Tom Mason played one of the McKay children, a year before his role in Jack and Mike, an ABC show about a yuppie couple where he starred opposite Shelley Hack.
Michael Madsen played one of the Danzig children. He found more significant roles in Thelma & Louise, The Natural, Donnie Brasco, Reservoir Dogs, Free Willy, Species, and Kill Bill.
Of course, Eli Wallach is part of Hollywood’s historical A-list of actors. From Here To Eternity, The Misfits, Nuts, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, and The Deep. Wallach revisited a mob godfather role in The Godfather III where he played Don Altobello, a friend of Michael Corleone’s who turned out to be a foe.
Additionally, Michael Woods played another Danzig child who wanted out of the family business. Woods starred in two other short-lived series deserving of better chances than they received.
The film noirish 1950’s setting of Los Angeles didn’t draw viewers to NBC’s Private Eye starring Woods and a young Josh Brolin in the late 1980’s.
In 1990, ABC tried an ensemble drama set in a Washington, D.C. newspaper office with Capital News. Despite a talented cast including William Russ, Lloyd Bridges, and Woods, the show only lasted a few weeks.
Sheree J. Wilson belonged to the Danzig clan in Our Family Honor. She found later fame on the long-lasting series Walker, Texas Ranger as Assistant District Attorney Alex Cahill.
Our Family Honor certainly won’t make the cut for successful ABC shows of the 1980’s, like Spenser: For Hire, Moonlighting, or thirtysomething.
But the show did have a good cast of veteran actors and actresses, and those who hadn’t quite made their mark yet.
Our Family Honor certainly used elements familiar to drama, including a romantic Romeo & Juliet angle between a Danzig man and McKay woman. We’ve seen similar plot lines on Dallas.
And Our Family Honor certainly won’t be easily remembered, even by the most hardcore of television buffs.
But Our Family Honor made an honorable, valiant, and laudatory effort. And the cast it gave us deserves a mention in the annals of television history.
After all, not every show survives cancellation during or after its first year. But that doesn’t mean the show wasn’t a good product.
In retrospect, a television show with this kind of powerful cast probably deserved a second look.
Well, if it ever comes out on DVD, give Our Family Honor a chance, if for no other reason than the cast.
david@davidkrell.com
Before The Sopranos, ABC tackled the challenge of depicting a mob family.
In 1985, the network debuted Our Family Honor. Ultimately short-lived, the show presented the Danzigs, a New York City mob family, and the McKay family, a blue-blooded New York City clan.
Blue-blooded as in New York City police blue. The McKay family is headed by Commissioner Patrick McKay. His nemesis is mob boss Vincent Danzig, played by Eli Wallach.
Our Family Honor may not have lasted a long time, but it enjoys a rich and deep roster of actors with credits perhaps more noticeable.
Before audiences discovered him in Goodfellas, Ray Liotta played Officer Ed Santini.
Tom Mason played one of the McKay children, a year before his role in Jack and Mike, an ABC show about a yuppie couple where he starred opposite Shelley Hack.
Michael Madsen played one of the Danzig children. He found more significant roles in Thelma & Louise, The Natural, Donnie Brasco, Reservoir Dogs, Free Willy, Species, and Kill Bill.
Of course, Eli Wallach is part of Hollywood’s historical A-list of actors. From Here To Eternity, The Misfits, Nuts, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, and The Deep. Wallach revisited a mob godfather role in The Godfather III where he played Don Altobello, a friend of Michael Corleone’s who turned out to be a foe.
Additionally, Michael Woods played another Danzig child who wanted out of the family business. Woods starred in two other short-lived series deserving of better chances than they received.
The film noirish 1950’s setting of Los Angeles didn’t draw viewers to NBC’s Private Eye starring Woods and a young Josh Brolin in the late 1980’s.
In 1990, ABC tried an ensemble drama set in a Washington, D.C. newspaper office with Capital News. Despite a talented cast including William Russ, Lloyd Bridges, and Woods, the show only lasted a few weeks.
Sheree J. Wilson belonged to the Danzig clan in Our Family Honor. She found later fame on the long-lasting series Walker, Texas Ranger as Assistant District Attorney Alex Cahill.
Our Family Honor certainly won’t make the cut for successful ABC shows of the 1980’s, like Spenser: For Hire, Moonlighting, or thirtysomething.
But the show did have a good cast of veteran actors and actresses, and those who hadn’t quite made their mark yet.
Our Family Honor certainly used elements familiar to drama, including a romantic Romeo & Juliet angle between a Danzig man and McKay woman. We’ve seen similar plot lines on Dallas.
And Our Family Honor certainly won’t be easily remembered, even by the most hardcore of television buffs.
But Our Family Honor made an honorable, valiant, and laudatory effort. And the cast it gave us deserves a mention in the annals of television history.
After all, not every show survives cancellation during or after its first year. But that doesn’t mean the show wasn’t a good product.
In retrospect, a television show with this kind of powerful cast probably deserved a second look.
Well, if it ever comes out on DVD, give Our Family Honor a chance, if for no other reason than the cast.
thirtysomething
April 09, 2009
by David Krell
david@davidkrell.com
ABC turned decidedly yuppie when it debuted thirtysomething in 1987.
Sure, we saw young, upwardly mobile professionals before we had a media-friendly phrase for them.
Dr. Hartley on The Bob Newhart Show.
Rob Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show.
And Darrin Stephens on Bewitched are just some examples of this class-conscious, status-seeking, and career-climbing group.
In fact, the previous owner of the Tuesday 10:00 pm time slot on the Alphabet Network was a show called Jack and Mike about a yuppie couple, played by Tom Mason and Shelley Hack.
But thirtysomething was unique.
thirtysomething did not merely acknowledge yuppiedom, it embraced it.
thirtysomething did not merely speak to the people it represented, it reflected them.
thirtysomething did not merely show problems with neatly wrapped solutions, it showed the character’s journeys in dealing with these problems.
More often than not, thirtysomething dealt with failure.
A failed business. The Michael and Elliot Company folded soon after it began.
A failed marriage. Elliot and Nancy broke up, though the winds of change had been in the air for quite some time.
A failed quest for romance. Melissa constantly sought a man who could appreciate her unique fashion sense, wry humor, and simple passion.
But thirtysomething also showed triumphs and the prices associated with them.
Michael and Elliott got high-level jobs at DAA, an advertising agency headed by advertising legend Miles Drentell.
They had to deal with Miles’s ego that was roughly the size of Saturn.
Elliott and Nancy reconciled, but not before some painful realizations about marriage, love, and the hard work needed to sustain them.
And Melissa seemed to find the start of something big when she went to Hollywood to photograph a television star for a magazine article.
She lost all preconceptions, insecurities, and worries about herself when she was 3000 miles away from home. She realized she could be liked for simply being herself.
It paid off when the article’s writer said, I don’t know you, but I’d like to.
The thirties are a person’s settling down years. Marriage stabilizes the personality, children expand the responsibility, and career compounds the pressure.
Parents passing away. New babies. Search for religious identity.
In its four-year run, thirtysomething tackled the everyday issues of life and showed us there are no easy answers.
Michael’s constant struggle with his Jewish identity posed a terrific problem in the first season episode, I’ll Be Home For Christmas.
When his non-Jewish wife wants Christmas decorations and a tree, Michael is immediately uneasy. After fighting with his cousin Melissa about a business matter and venting to Elliot, Michael buys a tree, his form of an olive branch and trying to make peace during the holiday season.
The tearjerking payoff comes when Michael opens the door and sees Hope holding their baby and lighting a menorah. When he asks where she got it, Melissa enters the room. The expressions on their faces say it all. Michael and Melissa make up, and Michael and Hope find a middle ground on the holidays.
On a business trip in the episode Sifting the Ashes, Elliot explores his Catholic roots when he went to Baltimore, his hometown. While there, he encounters a priest with whom his mother is friendly. The day after a tense conversation about Catholicism with his mother and the priest, Elliot goes to the school where the priest worked. He admits, I want God in my life. It’s religion that keeps getting in the way.
Hope’s friend Ellyn had an affair with a married man.
Michael’s long-time friend Gary died in an accident.
And Nancy battled cancer, thankfully with success.
thirtysomething never preached about the consequences of actions.
It never drew a bright line to separate good from bad.
And it never talked down to us.
It simply showed us as we are. Imperfect people in a truly demanding world.
thirtysomething aired from 1987 to 1991.
Sure the styles of clothes may have changed.
The pop culture and historical references may be off-target for today’s audiences.
And the CD player has been replaced by the Ipod.
But the issues are timeless for thirtysomethings of any decade.
And that’s what classic television is all about.
david@davidkrell.com
ABC turned decidedly yuppie when it debuted thirtysomething in 1987.
Sure, we saw young, upwardly mobile professionals before we had a media-friendly phrase for them.
Dr. Hartley on The Bob Newhart Show.
Rob Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show.
And Darrin Stephens on Bewitched are just some examples of this class-conscious, status-seeking, and career-climbing group.
In fact, the previous owner of the Tuesday 10:00 pm time slot on the Alphabet Network was a show called Jack and Mike about a yuppie couple, played by Tom Mason and Shelley Hack.
But thirtysomething was unique.
thirtysomething did not merely acknowledge yuppiedom, it embraced it.
thirtysomething did not merely speak to the people it represented, it reflected them.
thirtysomething did not merely show problems with neatly wrapped solutions, it showed the character’s journeys in dealing with these problems.
More often than not, thirtysomething dealt with failure.
A failed business. The Michael and Elliot Company folded soon after it began.
A failed marriage. Elliot and Nancy broke up, though the winds of change had been in the air for quite some time.
A failed quest for romance. Melissa constantly sought a man who could appreciate her unique fashion sense, wry humor, and simple passion.
But thirtysomething also showed triumphs and the prices associated with them.
Michael and Elliott got high-level jobs at DAA, an advertising agency headed by advertising legend Miles Drentell.
They had to deal with Miles’s ego that was roughly the size of Saturn.
Elliott and Nancy reconciled, but not before some painful realizations about marriage, love, and the hard work needed to sustain them.
And Melissa seemed to find the start of something big when she went to Hollywood to photograph a television star for a magazine article.
She lost all preconceptions, insecurities, and worries about herself when she was 3000 miles away from home. She realized she could be liked for simply being herself.
It paid off when the article’s writer said, I don’t know you, but I’d like to.
The thirties are a person’s settling down years. Marriage stabilizes the personality, children expand the responsibility, and career compounds the pressure.
Parents passing away. New babies. Search for religious identity.
In its four-year run, thirtysomething tackled the everyday issues of life and showed us there are no easy answers.
Michael’s constant struggle with his Jewish identity posed a terrific problem in the first season episode, I’ll Be Home For Christmas.
When his non-Jewish wife wants Christmas decorations and a tree, Michael is immediately uneasy. After fighting with his cousin Melissa about a business matter and venting to Elliot, Michael buys a tree, his form of an olive branch and trying to make peace during the holiday season.
The tearjerking payoff comes when Michael opens the door and sees Hope holding their baby and lighting a menorah. When he asks where she got it, Melissa enters the room. The expressions on their faces say it all. Michael and Melissa make up, and Michael and Hope find a middle ground on the holidays.
On a business trip in the episode Sifting the Ashes, Elliot explores his Catholic roots when he went to Baltimore, his hometown. While there, he encounters a priest with whom his mother is friendly. The day after a tense conversation about Catholicism with his mother and the priest, Elliot goes to the school where the priest worked. He admits, I want God in my life. It’s religion that keeps getting in the way.
Hope’s friend Ellyn had an affair with a married man.
Michael’s long-time friend Gary died in an accident.
And Nancy battled cancer, thankfully with success.
thirtysomething never preached about the consequences of actions.
It never drew a bright line to separate good from bad.
And it never talked down to us.
It simply showed us as we are. Imperfect people in a truly demanding world.
thirtysomething aired from 1987 to 1991.
Sure the styles of clothes may have changed.
The pop culture and historical references may be off-target for today’s audiences.
And the CD player has been replaced by the Ipod.
But the issues are timeless for thirtysomethings of any decade.
And that’s what classic television is all about.