Family Affair

Family Affair

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Format: Sitcom Starring: Brian Keith, Sebastian Cabot, Kathy Garver, Johnny Whitaker, Anissa Jones



Country of origin: United States

No. of seasons: 5

No. of episodes: 138 Production

Running time: 25 minutes Broadcast

Original channel: CBS Original run: September 12, 1966 – September 9, 1971
















Family Affair is a situation comedy television series that aired on CBS from September 12, 1966 to September 9, 1971 The series explored the trials of well-to-do civil engineer and bachelor Bill Davis (Brian Keith), as he attempted to raise his brother's orphaned children in his luxury New York City apartment. Davis's stuffy English butler Mr. Giles French (Sebastian Cabot), also had adjustments to make as he was usually saddled with the responsibility of caring for 15-year-old Cissy (Kathy Garver) and the 6-year-old twins, Jody (Johnny Whitaker) and Buffy (Anissa Jones).

The show ran for 138 episodes. Family Affair was created and produced by Don Fedderson, best known for My Three Sons.

Brian Keith was nominated three times for an Emmy for his role as "Uncle Bill." The theme music was composed by Frank De Vol.

Buffy's doll "Mrs Beasley", which she constantly carried with her, became a popular toy in real life in the United States.









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Family Affair

Production

Like Don Fedderson's other program, My Three Sons, Family Affair utilized a sixty-day production schedule for Brian Keith. All of his scenes for the season would be shot in two thirty-day blocks, while his co-stars would fill in after the actor's work was completed. This enabled Fedderson to harness actors like Keith and Fred MacMurray into television commitments, while still enabling each to make motion pictures. As a result, each season had a single director for each of the thirty-odd scripts.

The original series was extremely popular, but was canceled after the fifth season, as CBS began leaning towards more adult-oriented sitcom fare. The series was almost picked up by ABC, but the network instead decided to promote the similarly-themed The Brady Bunch.

Brief revival

A short-lived revival of the series aired on The WB Television Network from September 12, 2002 to March 13, 2003. This version was produced by Sid and Marty Krofft for Warner Bros. Television and lasted for 16 episodes (14 of the 16 were aired).














The cast



Original series (1966–1971)



Bill Davis — Brian Keith

Giles French — Sebastian Cabot

Catherine "Cissy" Patterson-Davis — Kathy Garver

Jonathan "Jody" Patterson-Davis — Johnny Whitaker

Ava Elizabeth "Buffy" Patterson-Davis — Anissa Jones

Miss Faversham (Mr. French's friend) — Heather Angel

Nigel "Niles" French (Mr. French's brother) — John Williams

Emily Turner (Bill's maid) — Nancy Walker

Ted Gaynor (Bill's partner) — Philip Ober & John Hubbard

Miss Lee (Bill's secretary) — Betty Lynn

Sharon James (Cissy's Girlfriend) — Sherry Alberoni

Gregg Bartlett (Cissy's Boyfriend) — Gregg Fedderson

Scotty (the doorman) — Karl Lucas














Cast continued

Revival (2002–2003)

Bill Davis — Gary Cole

Mr. Giles French — Tim Curry

Sigourney 'Sissy' Davis — Caitlin Wachs

Jody Davis — Jimmy "Jax" Pinchak

Buffy Davis — Sasha Pieterse

Jody Davis (pilot) — Luke Benward














DVD releases

MPI Home Video has released all 5 seasons of Family Affair on DVD in Region 1. CBS Paramount Television owns the domestic television distribution rights to the series, while the home video rights are owned by MPI Home Video (under license from the Don Fedderson estate). The DVD sets have the logo for Universal Television Distribution at the end of the closing credits (as Universal holds the international television rights).

DVD Name Ep # Release Date Additional Information

Season One 30 June 27, 2006 Family Affair: Behind the Scenes with Kathy Garver

Season Two 30 November 21, 2006 "An Affair to Remember" (interview with Kathy Garver)

"Memories" (5-minute piece with Garver showing Family Affair memorabilia) Season Three 28 March 27, 2007 The Family Affair Reunion Special Season Four 26 October 30, 2007 A Conversation with Johnny Whitaker

"The Child Stars" Season Five 24 February 26, 2008 A visit by Kathy Garver to the CBS Studio City lot where the series was filmed














America's "Uncle Bill" Ends His Own Life Family Affair's Brian Keith Brian Keith, who became known to millions of Americans in the late '60s as Uncle Bill, was born on November 14, 1921, in Bayonne, New Jersey. The son of Robert Keith and Helena Shipman, Keith eventually went on to work with such film industry greats as John Huston, Peter Bogdanovich, Bette Davis, Marlon Brando and Sebastian Cabot. Although he started acting at the tender age of 3, it wasn't until he was well into his forties that Keith found his primary claim to fame as everybody's favorite sitcom uncle to child actors Anissa Jones and Johnny Whitaker on television's Family Affair.














Keith served in the U.S. Marine corps during World War II but resumed his acting career upon his return to the States after the war's end. Following a Broadway hit in 1946 and again in '48, Keith went on to be in such films as Arrowhead and Five Against the House.

As television began to become a bigger player on the entertainment scene, Keith began appearing in many shows during the '50s. His first starring television role came in 1955 in the short-lived The Crusader. He went on to be cast in many more films including the highly successful, The Young Philadelphians.
















Many more TV and film appearances, including The Parent Trap, The Wind and the Lion, and The Brian Keith Show lead up to his most successful foray into the acting world, the long running and award winning television series, Family Affair. Keith played opposite Sebastian Cabot as a Manhattan bachelor and guardian to Buffy, Jody, and Sissy, played by Anissa Jones, Johnny Whitaker, and Kathy Garver respectively. The highly successful series ran on CBS from 1966-1971 and was a ratings blockbuster at the time, placing in the top five of all shows in its three-year run. Keith was nominated for no less than 3 Emmys for his role as Uncle Bill.

After the cancellation of the series following the '71 season, Keith continued his television and film career with numerous bit roles until 1983 when he garnered the lead role in another television series, Hardcastle and McCormick, which ran from 1983-86. Keith played retired judge Milton Hardcastle who, accompanied by his last defendant, follows up on cases that where dismissed due to technicalities.

Keith continued acting throughout the '80s and '90s, making bit appearances on such shows as Touched By an Angel and Walker, Texas Ranger. By 1997, Keith's life had begun to unravel. He was diagnosed with lung cancer and emphysema, despite having quit his smoking habit more than ten years earlier. Brutal chemotherapy treatments began to take an emotional toll on Keith. In April of 1997 his daughter, Daisy, committed suicide in her Hollywood Hills home and reports had Keith suffering financial problems for the last few years.














On June 24, 1997 at 10:13 a.m. family members alerted police to Keith's Malibu home at 23449 Malibu Colony Rd. The 75-year old actor had placed a gun to his head and pulled the trigger, ending his downward spiral of failing health, financial troubles and depression caused by the loss of his daughter. Brian Keith is survived by his wife since 1970, Victoria Young, who played Nurse Puni on The Brian Keith Show. Like his daughter, Keith left no suicide note.

Interestingly, Johnny Whitaker spoke with Keith only five days before Keith's death. "He was not feeling well because he had been going through the chemotherapy for his cancer," Whitaker said. "And he'd been having other problems."

Following is Brian Keith's formal obituary as it appeared in 1997:

On Tuesday, Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies found Keith's body inside his home at 10:13 a.m., after being alerted to the scene by family members.

"Brian Keith was a generous actor, a kind man and a true friend," said Daniel Hugh Kelly, who costarred with Keith for three seasons on the popular action series Hardcastle & McCormick in the mid-1980s.









Click here to see a great Family Affair video clip







Born in November 1921 in Bayonne, New Jersey, Keith's career spanned more than 40 years. In film, he costarred with the likes of Marlon Brando and Liz Taylor ( Reflections in a Golden Eye ) and Burt Reynolds ( Sharky's Machine). He was also dad to Hayley Mills (or, at least, one of her twin selves) in the 1961 classic, The Parent Trap.

On TV, from 1966-71, he was Bill Davis, the rock of the orphaned Family Affair clan--which included child actor stand-outs Johnnie Whitaker and Anissa Jones. (Jones died of a drug overdose in 1976 at the age of 18.) Whitaker, now 37, said Tuesday that he spoke with his onetime TV dad on the telephone about five days before his death. "He was not feeling good because he had been going through the chemotherapy for his cancer," Whitaker said."And he'd been having other problems."

Keith's TV work also included the 1972-74 sitcom, The Brian Keith Show , and Hardcastle & McCormick , where Keith played cranky, crabby Judge Milton "Hardcase" Hardcastle.

Keith is survived by his wife since 1970, Victoria Young, who played Nurse Puni on The Brian Keith Show.














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