In my mind, CBS' The Fitzpatricks was placed on the wrong night in 1977. The network thought that the hour-long family drama would be good enough counter-programming against ABC's 1-2 punch of Happy Days & Laverne & Shirley. Nope. Low ratings & frequent pre-emptions due in part to those low ratings led to the series' demise in January '78.
What CBS was hoping for was a contemporary drama that was along the lines of The Waltons, but set in present times. While they did have a couple of young stars primed for the teen magazines of the day in Clark Brandon and Jimmy McNichol (whose sister, Kristy, was starring on ABC's Family), they also had Helen Hunt (ex-Swiss Family Robinson) in the supporting cast, a long ways away from "Twister" & Mad About You.
Here's the intro:
No rating. Didn't see the show. I think my folks were watching whatever was on NBC at the time, because they definitely weren't into Happy Days.
3 comments:
Fun Fact:
Mariclaire Costello, who played the Irish-Catholic Mom here, had just gotten married in real life to Allan Arbus (best known as MASH's semi-regular shrink Dr. Friedman).
That pregnancy you're seeing in the clip is the real thing.
(You can't make this stuff up …)
Interesting factoid. Thanks, Mike.
It seems like alot of those shows in the 70's didn't last long?? The MacKenzie's was another one that was cancelled after 3 months.
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