  family is an american television drama series that aired on abc from 1976 to 1980. creative control of the show was split among executive producers leonard goldberg, aaron spelling and mike nichols. a total of 86 episodes were produced. ==premise== thumb|220px|left|willie with doug and kate. the show featured sada thompson and james broderick as kate and doug lawrence, a happily married middle-class couple living at 1230 holland street in pasadena, california. doug was an independent lawyer and kate was a housewife (she would eventually go back to school). they had three children: nancy (portrayed by elayne heilveil in the original mini-series and later by meredith baxter birney), willie (gary frank), and letitia, nicknamed "buddy" (kristy mcnichol). (there was another son, timothy, who had died five years prior to the series' beginning.) the show raised the profile of all of its featured actors during its run and, in particular, catapulted mcnichol to stardom. the show attempted to depict the "average" family with realistic characters. for example, kate was depicted as the practical, rational and realistic voice of the show. kate always stood by her opinion and was motivated to do what was right, even if it made her unpopular, as occurred in the "jury duty" episode. at one point, she expressed frustration with the monotony of her life, feeling that all she did was run errands and make phone calls, usually on behalf of other people ("an eye to the future"). she did, however, express resentment when people told her that she could have attained much more, because she had high aspirations in school and achieved a great deal academically ("home m
1970s_American_television_series 1976_American_television_series_debuts 1980_American_television_series_endings 1980s_American_television_series American_Broadcasting_Company_network_shows American_drama_television_series English-language_television_programming Television_series_by_Sony_Pictures_Television Television_series_by_Spelling_Television Television_shows_set_in_California