Do you remember watching Family? I was just a couple of years younger than the actress who played "Buddy" on the show. Most nights the TV was claimed by someone else so I would only get to see the show sometimes. I liked it. I still see photos from the show and remember what life was like in the 70's as a kid.

A Simple Show about the Lawrence Family

The show was about the Lawrence family: two parents and three children. Buddy, the youngest daughter, always seemed to be on the verge of growing up. I don't remember ever asking awkward questions that way but I did look a lot like that. Same hair style and clothes. Then there was the older brother (the only brother). He always seemed troubled to me but I liked him. Nancy, the older sister didn't have much time for her brother and sister or her parents. She had her own first child and was a single Mother in those days when divorce and being a single Mother were still unusual.

Why Isn't a Stay at Home Mother Enough?

I like the look of the actress who played the Mother in the family. She didn't look like my own Mother (my Mother was younger by at least ten years) but she looked like a TV Mom. She dressed the way I thought a TV Mom should too. You could get away with calling her frumpy, but that's on the mean side. She was a stay at home Mom and she looked after her children, her husband and made her house a home for everyone. At some point the producers must have thought they had to make being a Mom at home seem unattractive and undesirable. I remember her playing the Mom as someone who was taken for granted and ignored and later she want back to school. I don't think it's right in our culture the way women are thought less of if they are Mothers who stay home to work on raising a family and keeping a house. Why isn't that enough?

Anyway, the Father on the show was a lawyer or some kind of professional. He always looked on the verge of a heart attack to me. I don't know why. He was a fairly standard TV Dad, off to work each day and then home in time for Fatherly advice.

Buddy's Mysterious, Quiet Brother

The show was more about Buddy's brother for me. He was mysterious and quiet and yet a good brother. I still like guys like that. Funny, but I had all but forgotten the show. Thinking about it again it is that brother (who's name I could not remember without looking it up online) I can remember watching to see what he was up to and what was the trouble he seemed to never quite talk about.

You can't yet get all the seasons of the Family TV show on DVD. I guess they are waiting to see if there is enough demand for more than the first two. So, if you want more order them and hope for the best. I could not find Family recorded on YouTube. I guess it was a simple show, not something flashing a lot of skin and violence as most of them do these days.

Which family focused TV show did you best like from the 1970's?

• Family
• The Brady Bunch
• Eight is Enough
• The Courtship of Eddie's Father
• Family Affair
• One Day at a Time
• The Partridge Family

I don't think anyone else could have brought the character of Molly Gunn into life the way Brittany Murphy did in Uptown Girls.

Molly Gunn was an uptown Sleeping Beauty fairytale princess who lived a charmed life. Though she was an orphan of a famous rock star Father, Molly had all the money, clothes, comforts, friends and luxuries any young woman could imagine ever wanting. But, her world crashed down while she was sleeping (not literally). Molly discovered the money was all gone. The bills had not been paid in months and her credit cards were all maxed out. Suddenly she went from princess to pauper.

The Uptown Princess has to get a Job

Molly works as a nanny for a little girl (Ray) who is her opposite in temperament. Ray's Father is dying and her Mother is always too busy, so Ray is also alone. It seems things will never work out but, they find common ground (both are afraid of growing up and facing the hard things in life) and become friends. Right about then the bottom drops out, again. Ray's Father died just after Molly encouraged Ray to sit with him for the first time in years. Ray rejects Molly and then runs away. Molly is also feeling heart broken because she had to sell all her Father's guitars (the last thing she had held onto from her Father and her old life).

You Won't Forget Molly Smiles

It all ends well, good fairy tales do. Sleeping Beauty Molly wakes up and becomes an uptown princess with a practical edge and some spine to stand up to life with. The final scenes of the movie are Ray dancing ballet to "Molly Smiles" the song Molly's Father wrote for her (sung by Molly's love interest in the movie who is an up and coming musician).

This is one of my favourite movies. I love Brittany Murphy and she really does create the movie, bringing it from a good story to that wonderful fairytale quality with her zest for life and real emotion. In spite of being a rich princess, Molly Gunn is very lovable.

Beware, "Molly Smiles", the song, will stick in your head for a very long time and likely won't ever really be forgotten either.

Brittany Murphy is Missed

Brittany Murphy (1977 - 2009) had poise, a sparkle and a joy for life which I don't see often in people on film. A shame because where else would such things be best used than the media where everyone can see, and feel good seeing, them.

I LOVED The Courtship of Eddie's Father.

I had to look it up on Wikipedia to see when the TV show was on the air. Turns out it began on TV in 1969 and finished in 1972. I would have been just a kid about the age of Eddie when the show ran on television. From Wikipedia I found out the story was based on a book written by Mark Toby and had even been created as a movie before it was re-created as a TV show which starred Bill Bixby (who was later in The Incredible Hulk, among other things).

The story of Eddie's Father was about Tom Corbett and his son, Eddie. Tom was a single Dad, his wife had died and left himself and Eddie alone. I don't remember much mention about other family, like Grandparents or siblings. Usually the show was about Eddie, his Dad and the women Tom would meet and Eddie would try to decide which were right for his Dad.

The original book by Mark Toby and the movie which was created based on the book (before the TV show).

I found a nice, little tidbit of information which I came across while looking at the information about Brandon Cruz (the actor who was Eddie on the show). Bill Bixby died in 1993 but the actors had been close during and after the TV show. The death of Bill Bixby's only child, Christopher, may have given him a closer feeling to another child who was so much a part of his life as well. In 1995, Brandon Cruz gave his son (Lincoln Bixby Cruz) the middle name of Bixby in honour of Bill Bixby.

Bill Bixby (Tom Corbett was his name on the show) was my TV Dad. The Dad I wished was my own Dad when things were not going so well with my own Dad. Of course, not many real men can compare well with a perfect, scripted TV Dad.

I read this book about two or even three years ago. I remember it well. I've been trying to find more books by Ekaterina Sedia since reading "The Secret History of Moscow" but so far I have been out of luck. When I find a book it isn't available for delivery to my location. I would especially like to read "The Alchemy of Stone" which is about history and gargoyles. I have a long standing interest in gargoyles and grotesques and the old buildings they are part of.

Ekaterina Sedia writes fiction about Russian history, legend and lore.

She writes urban fantasy mingled with a fairy tale for modern readers. Her writing is unclear in that good way that pulls you into the story and makes you think about what you are reading, think about how it all fits together and where it is all going. I love a book that assumes I have a brain!

The Secret History of Moscow is...

• a little creepy but not actually scary
• about crows and ravens stealing people away
• about a secret, underground sort of world
• are you really not yet tempted to read the book?

Reading "The Secret History of Moscow" made me wish I had paid more attention to what I do know about Russian history. I don't know a lot but I did think I had absorbed or researched enough to find my way around. I was not as clever as I thought. As I read I found out about individual people and events and I wrote notes to find out more. But, the book is not a dry historical tome. There is life in the history she writes. There is romance, mystery and seduction in her story.

This is not the standard story you read from standard romance or fantasy or science fiction writers coming from the US. You will find a difference in the writing style and the way the story is told too. But, we need some shaking up and the chance to explore another culture through it's works of fiction. You can read about another country, another culture but you can't see between the cracks, read the minds, hearts and souls of the people until you wander past the non-fiction section and read about more than the facts and statics written for tourists.

I'm not going to rehash the story. You can read the preview and reviews on Amazon. But don't read too much there. Read the book for yourself and form your own fresh opinions and ideas.

Savour the adventure and mystery of a culture you may never see from this depth and perspective again.

Postcard "Forgotten Moscow"

I was a fan of Dark Shadows before Tim Burton and Johnny Depp made an updated version of the old cult horror classic TV show.

I watched Dark Shadows in the 1970's when I was still young and impressionable. No wonder it stuck with me. I didn't get all the storyline, but I knew it was something dark and mysterious and probably too spooky for me. Dark Shadows was the only horror I watched and did not later have nightmares from. (I never did become a fan of horror).

I'm watching Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins in the 2012 movie remake of Dark Shadows. It's mainly a comedy. It misses the soap opera quality of the original series. But, I doubt it was aiming in that direction. Tim Burton and Johnny Depp do bring the dark elements in and manage to keep it from sinking into absolute horror. In that way, the Dark Shadows movie is a success. I am liking it.

But...

I still like the old TV series best. There are other versions but I have not seen them. The previews seem more slanted towards horror and looking bloody. That wasn't part of the charm of Dark Shadows. The element of the soap opera was the unique draw of the TV series. There was such a great combination of horror, fear, mystery, darkness and the unknown but, it was tempered by the soap opera atmosphere. It worked wonderfully.

Jonathan Frid (1924 - 2012) was a Canadian actor who starred as Barnabas Collins in the original TV series. Ironic that he had a cameo appearance in the Dark Shadows movie but died about one month before it was released to theatres. When I think about Dark Shadows it is always the face of Jonathan Frid I see in my mind.

Dark Shadows Wiki

Dark Shadows has been Revived (more than once)!