Family (TV series)
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Family is the name of an award-winning television drama series that aired on ABC from 1976 to 1980.
It starred James Broderick and Sada Thompson as Doug and Kate Lawrence, a happily-married middle-class couple living in Southern California. Doug was an independent lawyer, and Kate was a housewife. They had three children: Nancy (most notably played by Meredith Baxter), Willie (played by Gary Frank), and Letitia, nicknamed "Buddy" (played by Kristy McNichol).
The show was very topical, and was one of the first shows to have what has been recently termed as "very special episodes". In the first episode, Nancy, who was pregnant, walked in on her husband Jeff making love to one of her friends. Other topical storylines included Kate having to deal with the fact that she had breast cancer, as well as Buddy dealing with advances from boys. In the later seasons, there were instances in which Buddy had to decide whether or not to have sex; she always chose to wait, most notably in an episode with guest star Leif Garrett, who was a teen idol at the time.
The show made a superstar out of Kristy McNichol; the fame she experienced was not attained again during her acting career.