I have this memory of a Family Affair episode where Buffy's friend dies. I thin from what I've been able to find that the episode was in season 3. Anyway, what I think I remember is the last scene, which shows Buffy lying on the bed, sobbing. Does anybody else remember that?
What I remember was the horrible knowledge that Uncle Bill wasn't going toi make everything better.
I remember that episode and it was call "Christmas Came a Little Early" and it aird on Nov 11 1968. the little girl was played Eve Plumb who would play Jan in the "Brady Bunch" and was a classmate of Buffy and Jodys. She communated witha intercome but Buffy and Jody met her when they dropped off a school book for her.
I do agree that the ending was sad ! with all do respect I'm not sure the Uncle Bill (or anyone) could have made something like that all right for Buffy who had gone through so mluch in her own short life
Thats awful
what did her friend die of????
Ben, Ben
Youre boring me!!!!
'the ice storm'
It was always leukemia back then. It was about the only "pretty" illness left after TB was vanquished.
shareAs I remember, they don't actually show the friend dying, but the adults are out talking in the hall and Uncle Bill hears Buffy crying, so then everyone knows that she knew. They didn't say what she had. In real life Brian Keith had a son with cystic fibrosis that died in the early 60's before "Family Affair" was made.
shareI've been getting reacquainted with this show and even though I knew it was different from a lot of other shows, I can really appreciate just how amazing it is. This episode really threw me for a loop! Usually, sitcoms from that time period always had happy endings. Family Affair didn't always wrap everything up in nice Living Color smiles.
There were a lot of episodes that didn't end up with problems being solved or things turning out fully A-OK. The show gets a bad rap from some people for being somewhat melancholic, but I think it was an amazingly bold step that the producers took. Yes, it was fluffy at times, but when it wasn't, that made it all the more jolting- just like real life.
I watched this episode and was shocked when I started actually getting all misty-eyed at the end. There are a few other Family Affair episodes that seem to get me completely unglued. This one is almost too hard to watch, but again, the producers did a fantastic job showing some of life's realities- good and bad.
Imagine that- honesty in a sitcom without resorting to profanity or a sophomoric preoccupation with characters' sex lives.
I totally agree, some of these episodes on the Season 3 set are truly heartbreaking...and sensitive enough not to overdo it. Sometimes it's just a simple gesture, like Uncle Bill's quiet affection for the kids, a warm smile or a hug. I never feel like Buffy is a character made up by the writers on the show: she seems a smart, sometimes precocious, thoughtful little girl with a big, gracious heart, always looking after her twin brother and there for anyone else who needed her.
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Does anyone know the name of this episode or what season it is connected with?
Cissy said throughout this episode: "The main thing is we stick together." I believe this episode opened with a scene in which a bridge fell in Africa. This one episode was my favorite, but none of the descriptions of the episodes tell me anything because I do not remember the theme of the episode.
I think the name of the episode was called "Christmas came early this Year" or something like that.
It was during the 3rd season.
Thank you, loveoldmovies22.
shareI was mistaken. I was pretty sure that it was the 3rd season and it was but the name of the episode was ""A Lesson for Grown-Ups".
shareHonestly, I remember this episode, watching it asa very young girl, and going to my sister upset, telling her that Buffy's friend died -- and she looked at me and laughed, telling me I must be mistaken because they don't do that on TV Funny how I remember that after all these years!
shareI felt this episode was very good. Family Affair definately "went there" with this episode.
"A real man would rather bow down to a strong woman than dominate a weak one"
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I just saw the episode on youtube it's under the title "An Early Christmas". The ending was very poignant. I never saw FA in its original run because I was not born until '68. But I did see it in syndication on Saturday mornings when I was young. And this was the only episode that I remembered.
shareThis episode was like one of the infamous "very special episodes" of various ABC sitcoms of the late 70's and early 80's in which they was a lot of melodrama in which a regular character or friend of a regular character suffered a tragic or near-tragic fate in an episode designed to show off the actors alleged dramatic abilities. But they just didn't do that sort of thing on sitcoms of the 60's and early 70's which made the episode such a shocker and downer for kids of that era who were quite unaccustomed to that sort of tragedy stepping into a kid-friendly show.
shareThe episode was on ME TV tonight - very sad ending.
shareYes, it is Season 3. I just watched it last week, as I ownthe DVD's for all 5 episodes of this great show. Buffy is amazing in that scene. Uncle Bill is comforting her, and it almost seems as if she is really crying. She was a very talented young actress. I wish she was still here and could how many people still love Family Affair. :)
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