I agree with some of what you wrote about the acclaimed 1970s ABC dramatic television series Family. But as for the "jiggle factor" of Meredith Baxter-Birney, perhaps it was one factor for her having been hired as a replacement for the original actress (Elayne Heilveil) in the role of "Nancy Lawrence Maitland." But the then-Mrs. Baxter-Birney was also a terrific actress, whose mother, the equally attractive Whitney Blake, had portrayed "Mrs. Dorothy Baxter" in the hit NBC (later CBS) sitcom Hazel, a vehicle for Broadway and film actress Shirley Booth, in her portrayal of a domestic based on the Ted Key comic strip from The Saturday Evening Post a decade previous to Family. Whitney Blake later went on to co-create and co-produce (with her then-husband Allan Mannings) the CBS hit sitcom One Day at a Time, for Norman Lear's Tandem Productions, that series based, in part, on Blake's own raising (as a single working mother) of three children.
And Baxter-Birney had already proven her acting chops by the time of Family, having been co-star (with her then-husband, David Birney) of the CBS sitcom Bridget Loves Bernie. Later on, as many will know, Baxter-Birney was also a co-star of the equally acclaimed and long-running NBC sitcom Family Ties, which made a star out of Michael J. Fox, who also appeared in an episode of Family, as a school friend of Letitia "Buddy" Lawrence (Kristy McNichol) named "Richard Topol," in the series' final season episode "Such a Fine Line." I don't wish to be a spoiler for that episode. But the plot-line involving Fox's character is an amusing one.
Also, even if Baxter-Birney had been hired on account of her physical attributes, she would certainly not have been the first actress in Hollywood to have been hired based on more than her ability to convincingly convey a character and read lines. Some of those who are now considered among our greatest actors and actresses (including Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Joan Crawford, Katharine Hepburn, and Vivien Leigh) were also hired, at least partly, based on their looks.
Anyway, my larger point in response to one of yours is I don't think it fair to diminish or discredit a person (in this case Meredith Baxter-Birney) simply because he/she is physically good-looking, anymore than it is proper to diminish or discredit a person who is not good-looking, involving what some today are calling "looksism." And so-called looksism works both ways. After all, a gal or guy can't help it if she/he is born gorgeous (or works real hard to get that way), anymore than a person may not help it if he/she is born ugly.
Lastly, I think we may both agree (whatever fine-tunings were made after the first, short season) Family was one great TV series that deserves to see all its episodes available on home video, whether for digital download or on DVD. It is now long overdue since the release of the first two seasons by Sony on DVD in 2006, and time to release the final three seasons of what, at the time, was considered one of the best dramatic series' ever to have aired on broadcast TV.
Sada Thompson, James Broderick and Gary Frank were all top-notch stage-trained actors. And Baxter-Birney and McNichol were no slouches either. In fact, at the time, I can recall McNichol's character of "Buddy" received much praise for a more realistic "tomboy" interpretation, a bit different from all the girly girls who had been portrayed by young actresses in television theretofore (with the possible exception of Shelia James' "Zelda Gilroy" in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis).
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