Even as a kid, I always thought this show, and its premise, was a little creepy. I remember the reruns usually preceeded Partridge Family and Brady Bunch. The kids in Family Affair never seemed like real kids....or at least kids I knew.
The show just didn't feel genuine.
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True. It was filmed with a single camera set up and no live studio audience which gave it movie feel.
It was also the earliest of "dramedy" drama-comedy. At times the show wasn't funny but disturbing like the episode of Buffy's terminally ill friend, or when Buffy and Jody get lost in Spain and you see them screaming from the back of the bus as it takes off without Mr. French. It's horrifying! Who really needs to see this stuff??? I rather watch Brady kids trying to earn money for a silver platter for their parents' anniversary.
Also the twins were a bit creepy in the early episodes like they could be straight out of a movie about murderous twins who plot to kill hearing evil voices from Mrs. Beesley.
Jody's beaming acting was a little too much too. Why was he always yelling out his lines? I could just imagine a scene with him and Richie Petrie from "The Dick Van Dyke Show". It would be two little kids yelling at one another trying to talk over the sound of a jackhammer...
Richie Petrie: JODY! WOULD YOU LIKE TO COME OVER TO MY PLACE AND PLAY?!!!
Jody Davis: SURRRRRE! CAN I BRING MY SISTER BUFFY?!!!
Richie Petrie: YEAH...I'LL HAVE MY MOM MAKE US SANDWICHES!!!
Jody Davis: SOUNDS NEATO!
Richie Petrie: WHAT DID YOU SAY?!!!
Jody Davis: I SAID IT SOUNDS NEATO!!!
Richie Petrie: NO...JUST PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY!!! SORRY, CAN'T HEAR YOU ABOVE THE SOUND OF THE JACKHAMMER!!!
"It was also the earliest of "dramedy" drama-comedy. "
Still earlier examples:
The earlier DOn Fedderson hit, "My Three Sons"
Leave it to Beaver
Two of the countless Screen Gems-Columbia Pictures TV shows of the early black and white ewra:
'Father Knows Best" and "The Donna Reed Show"
Disney's Annette Funicello series from the first, authenic, Mickey Mouse Club.
THe Goldbergs (the radio/TV show, not the current one).
Amanda Bynes is hot and Lindsay Lohan is not.
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What's creepy to me is the idea that anyone could find this sweet and charming show to be creepy.
shareyour the only one who has excellant taste, there's NOTHING creepy about I would take the Davis family over these trashy low life families that discuss filth and show no repect for each other
shareI agree. There was nothing creepy about this show. It was different than all other sitcoms because it was mixed with comedy and drama. They showed not only the good parts of life, but also the sad parts of life. The episode with Buffy's terminally ill friend was a great episode. Sad yes, but still very well done.
shareThat's why I'm putting off the ep where Mrs Beasley gets lost, Oh the speech Cissy gave to her uncle would have the hardest stone in tears and the one where Cissy and Sharon have the twins crying their little harts out because they that Bill's friend's widow was going to be a evil step mother that one had me crying the other day !
shareYou find FA a "creepy show?" Perhaps there's a bit of projection going on.
Sorry, but I have to agree...there was something about the overall ambience of that show that was a bit 'creepy'--even when I was a kid watching it, it gave off that vibe. Something about it reminded me of waxworks--perfectly realistic, lifelike, but you knew what you were seeing wasn't real, and it wasn't real in a vaguely unsettling sort of way.
Part of it might have been Brian Keith's ultra-laconic performance. For some reason, he always gave me the feeling he was going off for a quick snort or two in between takes. And I wouldn't have blamed him if he had been.
And I'm sorry, but both of those kids came off as 'Stepford Children'. Even when they were supposed to have misbehaved, there was just something too mechanically cutesy about them for you to ever accept that any of their behaviors were motivated by the sort of impulsive things that motivate real children.
Completely agree; it's so plastic and artificial, and you described it so well. It makes My Three Sons, from the same producers, seem downright realistic by comparison.
shareBrian Keith was an alcoholic so he probably was taking a quick snort between takes.
Siri
Don't Make Me Have to Release the Flying Monkeys!
I think I remember reading something about that in his later years...didn't know it extended as far back as his FA days. It doesn't surprise me if so, though; he had, on that series, that slightly out-of-it, whimsically bemused air a lot of heavy drinkers seem to acquire.
shareNever thought it was creepy but maybe scary during the Spain episode. I was only 8 during it's last season so what I remember most must be the reruns that we watched as were The Beverly Hillbillies and The Brady Bunch, as was Gilligans Island, Bewitched etc. they were all reruns during the years (1970s) when we watched them.
shareFor what it's worth, here's what I think: this show's "Creep Factor" may be the result of the fact that the show was NEVER intended for "family-/children-viewing."
The Bradys and the Partridges came on at 7 or 8 pm on Friday night, Prime Time for families and kids.
"Family Affair" on the other hand was always scheduled at 9 - possibly even 9:30 pm on Monday or Tuesday night, almost certainly aimed at an all-adult audience.
I distinctly remember the Monday night time slot because bedtime was 9 and so I never got to watch the show except when I deliberately stayed up to greet my mother when she got home late from a PTA meeting. (My dad let me stay up since my mother was the one who enforced bedtimes.) I remember "The Lucy Show" coming on around 8pm - so I always got to see that. But on those rare nights when I stayed up past 9pm, I remember some other show coming on at 9 pm - and THEN "Family Affair" coming on at 9:30 pm, at which point I felt that it was getting "really late."
"Don't call me 'honey', mac."
"Don't call me 'mac'... HONEY!"
I'd forgotten the later time slot when the show originally aired. I agree that adds somewhat to the aura of 'creepiness'.
The thing is, the show never seemed to be fish, fowl, or good red meat--it didn't fit in anywhere. Too treacly and child-focused to be an 'adult' oriented show, too weirdly 'adult' in content in some slightly disturbing ways to really have been intended as a show for children. Hard to know just what the creators of this one were thinking, to be honest.
I have not seen Family Affair in decades but it is very creepy show. The reason is because of the way everyone was portrayed is the exact opposite of the reality of what happened to the cast ( Kathy Garver excluded). I would imagine that watching Buffy today would be like watching a Brittney Murphy movie. A reminder of what a waste of a life taken away far too early.
shareActually I just saw some episodes for the first time in about 30 years ... It's a lot better (more entertaining) than I remembered. Yes, it's a little corny but BK (even though he seems kind of depressed not drunk) really seemed to like the kids.
Brian Keith followed the same model as Fred MacMurray in My Three Sons. That is, he had it in his contract that he only had to be on set for a few weeks each year, during which he would film all the scenes he was in, then the rest of the cast would film their scenes throughout the rest of the year. In the editing process, it was supposed to look like all the scenes were filmed together for each episode. That might be the reason for Brian Keith's disconnectedness in some episodes... he really wasn't that involved because he wasn't there most of the time. It sounds weird, but that's the way the show was made.
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Wherever you go, there you are.
Very true. I sometimes wonder if Brian Keith was recruited for the new show-- perhaps one among several big-name actors-- which itself would cause 20 or 30 million viewers to tune in to the show. Then when he was selected, he may have consulted Fred MacMurray to know just how his contract was drawn up so all the scenes in which he would appear are shot first. When MacMurray was "drafted" to star in a weekly comedy show, he consulted Robert Young, who affirmed his fears that filming a series demands long hours for 8 or 9 months a year (at that time the standard was up to 39 episodes a year!).
Keith and MacMurray apparently got really good deals for themselves, but that must have made it harder on the rest of the cast. I know that in My Three Sons they continually took Polaroid pictures to 'resume' the action in a scene; for a shot could begin with "Steve" [MacMurray] but end with other characters, which meant that someone just walking into a room could have been split up in filming several months apart, so they had to be sure how hair was combed, which shirt was worn, et al. FA must have done the same. Sometimes everything just couldn't be matched well; such as, if a bout with a cold or virus resulted in an actor's voice change. I think that is especially evident in Johnny Whittaker sometimes when he was talking to "Uncle Bill;" in the same conversation he may rasp, strain, or speak normally.
As for the show being "creepy," I never thought so. Even though the Douglas family in MTS was well off, in FA Uncle Bill was wealthier than Steve Douglas, and that situation might seem to create a too-perfect kind of world to a lot of people. Having Mr. French have the most responsibility for teaching the children as they grow would have added to the rigidity which orphaned children would most likely have resisted a lot more than the kids too good to be true on FA. Maybe that's what leads some to say it was "creepy." But I'm glad the character of Mr. French is 'explained' in an early episode, "The Thursday Man." Understanding Mr. French is a big part of viewing this show as it was intended-- a 'problem comedy'-- premised on a HUGE problem; orphaned kids that other relatives don't want who are dumped on a wealthy Manhattan bachelor.
It's kind of interesting, when you watch the kids as they're in the tooth-losing stage, that you can tell scenes and sometimes portions of scenes were filmed several months apart... This can be seen with Buffy and Jody in FA and Dodie in M3S... In some scenes, they're missing teeth, then in the next shot, there's a big ol' tooth there! It's not nice to fool Mother Nature
share"Kathy Garver exceluded"
What about Johnnie Whittaker,too? He's still alive (saw them both in a 2002 L.A. Pomona Fair public appearance..)
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I was always scared of Mr. French when I watched FA as a kid. Maybe it was the beard but I was always scared for Buffy and Jody, that maybe he would spank them. Or worse!
The show got REALLY creepy in its last season when Buffy, who was almost a teenager, still wore those pigtails.
Not allowing the kids to age naturally in their characters, as the child actors who portrayed them grew up, was an incredibly stupid decision on someone's part. If you're casting young kids, who grow quickly into older kids, you have to make allowances for that in their depiction on the show. If you don't, you get the 'Family Affair Effect', which does look creepy and absurd. If Whittaker and Jones had gotten much older, the series would have been ahead of its time, looking more and more like some sort of X-files story arc about children who don't grow up .
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