I apologize for the delay in this week’s Family Affair Friday. I’ve spent the past few days working at my daughter’s Girl Scout day camp, and I haven’t had enough time or energy left over for other pursuits. On the bright side, when I post this week’s installment tomorrow, I will have a fun bonus to share with you!
Category Archives: Family Affair
Family Affair Friday(ish): Season 2, Episode 11, “Freddie,” 11/27/1967
Attention Family Affair fans: Be sure you check out two great entries in the recent Me-TV Blogathon. Michael from Michael’s TV Tray wrote a hilarious take on our beloved show and even wrote some theme-song lyrics. And at Silver Scenes, you’ll find a lovely overview of the series, complete with some well-chosen favorite episodes.
“Freddie,” 11/27/1967
Written by: John McGreevey. Directed by: William D. Russell.
Note that first-season director William D. Russell gets credit for this episode. That’s our first clue that we’ve entered a weird Davis family time warp. And since this is a rather low-key–one might even say boring–episode, looking for time warp clues will constitute much of our fun this week.
When we first look in on the Davis family, Buffy and Jody are attempting to make themselves look scary and revolting. (I know some Buffy and Jody haters who would say they do a great job at this, week in and week out.)
Time warp clue number two: Jody’s hair is closely cropped here. In most season two episodes, it’s a bit more grown out.
The twins explain to Uncle Bill that they are trying to scare off a classmate, Sue Jeannette, who is stalking Jody. (When we last saw Sue Jeannette, eight episodes ago, she was called Sue Evelyn.)
Good-looking guys just have to put up with that kind of attention, Bill jokes. And Bill is looking good in red, isn’t he?
Soon, there’s knock at the door, and the family is welcoming an old friend of Uncle Bill’s.
Frederica–Freddie to Uncle Bill–has accompanied her husband on his business trip to the Big Apple.
The kids take an instant liking to Freddie.
Time warp hint number three: Cissy looks younger here than she has in recent episodes.
When they learn that Freddie knew Uncle Bill in Terre Haute, the kids pump her for stories from “the olden days.”
From her, we learn that Bill was popular without working at it, that he always took time to talk to people and show an interest in their lives, and that he was always happy to let people and animals have a ride in his broken down car.
Yeah, that sounds about right.
The kids enjoy Freddie’s company so much at dinner that they ask her to tuck them in.
This is a cute scene–Freddie applies perfume on Buffy and then on Mrs. Beasley.
This episode’s sub-plot involves Cissy accepting a baby-sitting job from some neighbors. (She’s earning 75 cents an hour, increased to one dollar an hour after midnight.) Uncle Bill doesn’t like the idea of her taking on her first job, but she wants to increase her self-sufficiency.
Time warp clue number four: Um, remember that whole dramatic candy striper thing?
Meanwhile, Bill has plans to take Freddie to dinner when he realizes that he must attend the twins’ first grade open house. Okay, this is more than a time-warp clue–it’s a big, fat continuity glitch. It’s been established that the twins are in second grade this year.
Freddie ends up accompanying the family to school. While she may seem overdressed in her dead-animal regalia, the kids and most of their classmates are pretty decked out, too. Who knew that NYC public schools were so formal in the 1960s?
(Speaking of fashion, Buffy’s familiar first-season green suit is another time warp clue.)
Bill gets a chance to see Jody’s nemesis, Sue Jeannette.
She is rather creepy, at that.
He also endures an awkward moment when Sue Jeannette’s mother assumes Freddie is his wife. Actually, if Freddie wasn’t married, she’d make good wife material for Bill–better than those kid-hating bimbos he sometimes brings home.
After the open house, Bill takes Freddie to New York’s famed “Restaurant” restaurant.
Amid the ugliest decor imaginable, Freddie opens up about her mid-life crisis and her loneliness in her marriage to her busy, go-getter husband. She asks Bill if he has ever had to cope with regrets.
Nope, Bill replies helpfully.
When he returns to his apartment, Bill finds an alarmed French. It’s after 2 a.m., and Cissy hasn’t returned from babysitting.
As a worried Bill prepares to track her down, a police officer escorts Cissy into the apartment.
The officer picked Cissy up for violating curfew. (Does anyone know if New York City really had a curfew for teens in the 1960s? I tried to research it but couldn’t find any answers.)
Cissy explains that the couple she was sitting for arrived home late and made no effort to help her get home. What jerks!
Bill brings a swift end to Cissy’s babysitting career and vows to trust his parenting instincts from now on.
The next night he does let her do some babysitting, though–he hires her to entertain Buffy and Jody while he has dinner with Freddie and her husband.
Freddie arrives with gifts for the kids. Buffy and Jody get bubbles. Freddie’s not a big spender, apparently.
Freddie’s husband, Boring McStuffypants, arrives in time to see his wife playing happily with the kids.
When they have a quiet moment alone, he suggests to a delighted Freddie that they look into adoption when they return home.
Well, Freddie’s problem is solved, which is nice I guess, considering that we hardly know her and don’t have any real reason to care about her.
Meanwhile, Cissy learns that the twins are harder on sitters than they are on sisters.
(It looks like she’s reading them Whitman Tell-a-Tale books. That makes sense, since Whitman published Family Affair books, coloring books, paper dolls, and more.)
The episode ends with Cissy frazzled, Bill bemused, and the laws of time and space apparently righting themselves in preparation for next week’s episode.
Commentary
I’d love to know why this episode, which was obviously filmed earlier, didn’t air until the second season.
Guest Cast
Freddie: Diane Brewster. Greg: Willard Sage. Ruth: Barbara Collentine. Sue Jeannette: Susan Benjamin.
As I watched this episode, my daughter said, “That lady looks familiar–like she was Beaver’s teacher or something.” Kid’s got a good eye. Brewster was indeed Miss Canfield on Leave It to Beaver. She also appeared in the film The Young Philadelphians, in which Brian Keith (and John Williams) had roles. She was the murdered wife on The Fugitive and appeared in many TV westerns. This appearance on Family Affair was her last acting job. She died in 1991.
Sage had film roles in The Tender Trap and That Touch of Mink.
Susan Benjamin had a regular role on a short-lived Jerry Van Dyke comedy called Accidental Family. Like this episode, that show aired during the 1967-68 TV season.
Harris often appeared on The Big Valley as the sheriff.
Notable Quotes
“Guys got different ways of goin’ and gettin’.”–Bill, in reaction to Freddie’s surprise that such a laid-back guy had built a career as a go-getting engineer.
Continuity Notes
We get lots of Terre Haute references, including a reference to the kids’ parents. Jody’s turtle gets a shout-out.
Family Affair Friday(ish): Season 2, Episode 10, “You Like Buffy Better,” 11/10/1967
Attention classic TV fans: Don’t Miss Me-TV’s Summer of Classic TV Blogathon, starting July 15! All week long, a large collection of bloggers will be sharing their thoughts about great shows on Me-TV’s schedule, including That Girl, Bewitched, The Odd Couple, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and many more. (Of course, I’m particularly interested in the bloggers who will be turning their attention to Family Affair.) I’ll be posting my entry, a look at Leave it to Beaver from Ward Cleaver’s perspective, on July 19.
Many thanks to the Classic TV Blog Association for hosting this event and to Me-TV for making so many classic shows available to viewers.
Now, on to Family Affair…
Written by: Hannibal Coons (Seriously? Apparently so, although his real first name was Stanley.) and Harry Winkler. Directed by: Charles Barton.
This week’s episode opens as Uncle Bill prepares for a date, blissfully unaware of all the trouble that’s about to rain down on him.
That trouble begins innocently enough, when Jody requests help with a bridge he’s designing for school. Revealing that he’s learned his lesson about such projects, Bill first seeks assurance that parents are allowed to help.
As Jody and Bill talk engineering, Buffy barges in with exciting news–her dance studio has picked her to try out for a television role.
Jody resents Buffy’s intrusion, while Buffy finds Uncle Bill less than enthralled with her news. (In fairness to him, it’s been established that he hates ballet.)
Neither kids has to worry about it for long, as Bill soon shoos them from the room in preparation for his date.
Buffy and Jody introduce themselves to the lady in question, who has some kind of tumbleweed attached to her head.
“At Uncle Bill’s age,” the kids observe, “men are just more interested in pretty ladies than in little kids.” Ouch.
Later that night, Buffy confides her troubles to Mrs. Beasley.
“I’m glad you’re not a man,” she tells the doll. “At least I have one friend.” Ouch again.
Cissy overhears Buffy’s comments and gets that concerned look on her face–that look usually bodes ill for Uncle Bill.
She waits up for him to return from his date and tells him that he needs to spend more time with Buffy.
Uncle Bill agrees to do so, but when Cissy changes the subject to her latest boyfriend, Bill pleads exhaustion and heads for bed. Great–now all the kids are frustrated.
The next day, Bill makes time to talk with Buffy and to watch her “buttercup dance.” But now Cissy, who was so concerned about her sister the night before, tries to monopolize Bill’s attention for their delayed boyfriend discussion.
By the way, doesn’t the girls’ room look much more spacious than usual?
Soon, Jody enters with a request for more bridge assistance, but Bill keeps his focus on Buffy, especially when he learns that the TV producer she’ll be auditioning for is a friend of his.
Bill calls his friend to put in a good word for Buffy. (Oh, that’s why the room looked so spacious–the desk had temporarily disappeared, as desks are wont to do.)
At school the next day, Ronny Bartlett questions why he hasn’t been able to meet Uncle Bill yet.
Teenage boys are always so anxious to meet their girlfriends’ parents.
Cissy promises that she’ll make the introduction after school, but it turns out to be a chaotic afternoon at the Davis apartment.
In Bill’s absence, French has tried to help Jody with the bridge and made a royal mess of it.
Bill finds Jody sulking and refusing to work on the project at all.
Before he can offer much help, Bill has another obligation–taking Buffy to her audition.
Buffy gives an underwhelming performance for the TV producer, who has to explain to Bill that she’s not ready for prime time.
Bill takes a dejected Buffy home, where he finds an equally dejected Jody, as well as Cissy waiting with a nervous Ronny.
Random mystery: Buffy both leaves the apartment and returns to it in her leotard, so what’s in that awesome flowered suitcase?
Cissy springs upon Bill the news that she and Ronny are going steady and planning marriage in a few years. Now, from my study of old teen advice books, I know that parents considered “going steady” a fast train to nookie-ville, which explains Bill’s harsh reaction.
By the time Bill finishes his man-to-man talk with Ronny, fruit punch is spilling, the boy’s voice is cracking, and the “going steady” is over.
Cissy takes this development in the calm fashion that any teenage girl would.
“You’ve ruined my life!” she screeches. “I love Ronny!”
By this time, Uncle Bill feels like the challenges of parenting have defeated him (and I’m feeling glad that I have only one child).
French, however, raises an interesting possibility–maybe parenting isn’t the problem. Maybe the kids are acting like little jerks.
Bill seizes on this theory with enthusiasm and calls all the kids into the living for for a talking-to.
Unlike real kids, the Davis kids accept that they’ve been making unreasonable demands on Bill’s attention, and everyone ends up happy.
Commentary
These conflicts would arise in a real family situation, especially when the time Uncle Bill spends at home is so limited. I began the episode feeling sorry for the kids and ended it feeling sorry for Bill. It’s nice to see the kids have to take responsibility for their own behavior at the end.
Guest Cast
Ronny Bartlett: Gregg Fedderson. Miss Peterson: Olga Kaya. Ballet Mother: Katey Barrett. Alicia: Kellie Flanagan. Secretary: Charlotte Askins. Eric Langley: Del Moore.
This is the second appearance by Flanagan, best known for the TV version of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. Oh, Me-TV–any chance you could resurrect that show?
Moore’s career included a regular role on Bachelor Father–a show with a premise similar to Family Affair‘s–and a part in 1963’s The Nutty Professor.
Fedderson, the son of executive producer Don Fedderson, would make many more appearances as Cissy’s date, usually named Gregg. He was the brother of Petticoat Junction‘s Mike Minor.
Fun Facts
Uncle Bill once built a bridge over the Amazon.
Notable Quotes
“I do it better with my costume on–all fluffy and buttercuppy.”–Buffy, practicing her buttercup dance.
Family Affair Friday(ish): Season 2, Episode 9, “Take Me Out of the Ballgame,” 11/13/1967
I know, I know, it’s not even close to Friday this time. My attention is currently a bit divided when it comes to classic TV, for an exciting reason that I will share with you later this week!
Written by: Henry Garson and Edmund Beloin. Directed by: Charles Barton.
This week’s episode opens with Buffy, Jody, and Mr. French walking down a typical mid-town Manhattan street.
Actually, it appears to be an alley, which backs up to a huge, windowless wall. Only in New York!
Stickball practice is in progress, and an errant ball knocks off Mr. French’s bowler. When a kid named Sam comes to retrieve the ball, Jody becomes enraptured with Sam’s team sweatshirt.
To Sam’s credit, he doesn’t say, “Get your hands off me, kid.” Instead, he invites Jody to try out for the 63rd Street Tigers.
French gives Jody’s plan to try out a ringing endorsement:
“If your uncle wishes Jody to play with broomsticks amid sewage covers and garbage can lids, I shall abide by his wishes, however reluctantly.”
Meanwhile, at home, Bill is talking business on the phone while Cissy reviews a teen magazine. When the twins return, Jody prepares to secure Uncle Bill’s permission for a stickball try-out, while Cissy and Buffy discuss fashion ideas for Mrs. Beasley.
Cissy observes that, when it comes to fashion, “Paris is out. London is in.” This is a surprisingly accurate assessment from someone whose magazine apparently dates from the 1940s.
This brief exchange serves to remind us that Buffy is a GIRL. You’ll need to keep this fact in mind to appreciate the full “hilarity” of what’s to come.
Jody finds that Uncle Bill is enthusiastic about his stickball plan.
It helps that Jody is trying out for second base, a position that Bill desperately sought throughout his youth, to no avail. (He couldn’t go to his left.)
Bill’s eager to give Jody some tips, so Jody grabs a broomstick from the kitchen. Oh, dear. If classic TV has taught me anything, its that you shouldn’t play ball in the house.
See? This is why we can’t have nice things. Or even things like that.
Jody’s initial try-out doesn’t go any better than the living room practice session.
As French describes it later to Bill: “If the expression ‘not so hot’ means not hitting the ball on 14 consecutive occasions then he was indeed, sir, not so hot.”
Bill takes Jody to the park for more intensive practice.
This picture doesn’t serve any purpose, but I’m liking the way Bill looks in that shirt. Rowr.
Jody’s skills don’t improve, but one interesting thing does happen in the park. Buffy retrieves an errant pitch from Jody and throws the ball back with startling accuracy.
Then she goes back to cutting out fabric for doll clothes–because she’s a GIRL. Are you starting to sense the comical contrast here?
Jody’s second try-out goes no better than his first.
Buffy surprises the Tigers, though, by catching a ball that comes her way.
They insist on giving her an immediate try-out and observe that she’s a powerful hitter, too.
“That’s my sister,” Jody says proudly. What a good-natured kid.
Both twins return to the Davis apartment wearing Tigers sweatshirts.
Cissy assumes that Buffy is a team mascot and Jody is a player, but she soon learns that Buffy is an outfielder and Jody has been given jobs like bat boy and water boy.
French is just confused by all the baseball terminology, and Bill is out of town, so he can’t weigh in on the latest developments. He returns in the midst of the Tigers’ next game and suffers a series of bitter shocks about the twins’ respective team roles.
Random aside: These stickball games attract a large crowd of nattily dressed city folk.
Bill assumes that Jody feels humiliated about his position with the team. He sneaks off, hoping Jody won’t realize he was there to witness this “disgrace.”
Talking to Jody later, he realizes that the boy is happy with the role he is playing and considers himself important to the team.
From the beginning, Jody only seemed to want a team sweatshirt, anyway.
Meanwhile, Buffy asks if she can skip ball practice the next day.
She’s attending a tea party later in the day and can’t take the risk of mussing her hair.
See, she’s a GIRL! A GIRL has a talent for sports! I hope you’re not hurting yourself by laughing too hard.
Buffy needn’t worry anyway–a category 5 hurricane couldn’t dislodge those pigtails.
Commentary
I love the way Jody has no problem with Buffy’s success. Buffy is equally supportive of Jody throughout the episode.
Uncle Bill acts like a tool here, but at least he realizes quickly that he’s projecting his own feelings onto Jody. It would have been nice if he’d spared a word of praise for Buffy’s ability. At least the cab driver and the police officer appreciated her talent.
This officer is a Family Affair rarity–an African American who speaks! And more than one line!
One random comment: I just love when Jody calls his sister “Buff.”
If you want to learn more about stickball, here is an interesting article about its decline.
Guest Cast
Sam: David Brandon. Officer Wilson: Bob DoQui. Cab Driver: Johnny Silver. Randy: Stephen Liss. Roberto: Miguel Monsalve. Jose: Rudy Battaglia.
This is Brandon’s second appearance and the first of several by Monsalve. DoQui, who died in 2008, worked steadily in TV into the 1990s. He also appeared in many films, including Nashville and the Robocop movies. Silver appeared in the movie Guys and Dolls and in many episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show. He was also Dr. Blinkey on H.R. Pufnstuf. His last TV appearance was on a Seinfeld episode. He died in 2003.
Fun Facts
Buffy is an outfielder. Uncle Bill was a good hitter, but when he threw, he couldn’t go to his left.
Notable Quotes
“Oh, for the playing fields of Eton!”–French
(French doesn’t really have a high enough social standing to have attended Eton, does he?)
One other question: Is a “Play Street” really a thing? (Note the sign.)
Family Affair Friday(ish): Season 2, Episode 8, “The Toy Box,” 11/6/1967
Written by: Arthur Marx. Directed by: Charles Barton.
As we open, Bill is getting cozy with his latest squeeze in the Davis living room, when Cissy’s date for the evening shows up.
Oh, dear.
The boy’s appearance startles Bill, who is even more surprised to see what Cissy is wearing.
Personally, I think she looks cute–like a Twist n Turn Barbie.
Bill, however, has a different reaction.
Coming home from work the next day, Bill confronts another parenting challenge. It seems the twins have been leaving their toys strewn about the house.
Like Jody’s skateboard, for instance.
Bill decides to institute a system he encountered in the Army–the “slob box.” Toys that aren’t put away will be confiscated, put in a box, and donated to charity.
The box starts filling up pretty quickly. (That toy stove is cute.)
Meanwhile, Bill shows Cissy a magazine picture of his girlfriend, a top model, and talks obliquely about the Japanese principle of shibui, or simple elegance.
Cissy is appropriately mystified.
After staring at the magazine picture for a while, though, she seems to get the point.
Uncle Bill wants her to dress more like a middle-aged woman!
Ever compliant, Cissy asks French to help her lengthen her skirts. Uncle Bill is thrilled with her new attitude and even asks his girlfriend to take Cissy shopping for new clothes, presumably of the matronly variety. (Bill’s obsession with Cissy’s wardrobe started to seem a little weird around this point.)
Fully believing that Cissy has come to her senses, Bill returns home from work to this debauchery:
Taken aback, Bill is curt to the point of rudeness with Cissy’s friends.
I’m not sure why he’s so upset about Cissy’s dress. It’s the boys’ outfits that are truly disturbing.
After her friends leave, Cissy calls Uncle Bill out for judging them unfairly.
He admits that he usually tries to avoid judging people by appearances and apologizes for having done so. What a relief–I wouldn’t want to lose respect for Uncle Bill. (By the way, that mural in his bedroom is really something, isn’t it?)
He does make Cissy to wear non-mod clothes every now and then, though.
Meanwhile, the twins have lost so many toys to the box that they’re actually turning to books for entertainment.
Well, at least Buffy still has Mrs. Beasley.
The next day, she is having a bridge party with her doll, when French calls the kids to wash up for dinner.
As they scramble, the twins accidentally brush against Mrs. Beasley.
Nooooooooooo!
When French finds the doll on the floor, he appreciates enormity of this moment.
To his credit, his first instinct is to sneak the doll back onto the chair, but he’s interrupted by Bill and the kids entering the room.
It’s all up to Bill now–is Mrs. Beasley a goner?
To Buffy’s relief, Bill decides that the toy box has outlived its usefulness.
From now on, he will just count on the twins to remember to pick up their toys. (As a parent, I am absolutely sure that this approach will work.)
Commentary
This is a rather slight episode, but the mod scenes make it entertaining.
Guest Cast
Joan Wilson: Cay Forester. Ronny: Dennis Olivieri.
Dennis Olivieri worked steadily throughout the sixties on television, sometimes under the name Dennis Joel. He had a regular role on an interesting-sounding 1969 series called The New People.
Inconsistency Alert
In the bridge party scene, Mrs. Beasley moves under her own power.
In the wider shots, she’s perched on the edge of the chair.
In the tighter shots, she’s leaning back.
Creepy.
Family Affair Friday(ish): Season 2, Episode 7, “Fat, Fat, The Water Rat,” 10/23/1967
Written by: Phil Davis. Directed by: Charles Barton.
My favorite episode! This one is a perfect mix of the silliness and sweetness that is Family Affair.
As we look in on the Davis family, Buffy is getting ready to go to dance class. French, rhapsodizing about English dancing-school girls in organdy dresses and patent leather shoes, criticizes the jeans-and-turtleneck look Buffy’s got going on.
It doesn’t seem like an ideal outfit for dancing, but in the end it doesn’t matter–Buffy gets dropped off at an empty studio, only to learn that her lesson is cancelled.
Buffy goes outside to wait for Mr French, who’s due to return in an hour.
That’s when we learn that Buffy’s dancing school is located on the set of a Dead End Kids movie.
“Fat, fat, the water rat, fifty bullets in his hat,” group leader Mike chants as the kids march down the sidewalk. Googling suggests that this is a real schoolyard rhyme, dating back to at least the 1930s.
Mike’s wardrobe also dates back to the 1930s.
Buffy takes an immediate liking to Mike and the gang. When they ask her to play, she jumps at the chance.
The producers want to make sure we understand that these kids are poor–so poor that Mike’s sister Katie is wearing a dress about three sizes too small.
Meanwhile, back at the Davis apartment…
…Jody is getting a lecture from Mr. French on the inappropriateness of “cavorting.”
No wonder Buffy finds the tenement kids’ messy, active playing so invigorating. She also gets a chance to enjoy a new snack–bread and butt-ah.
Mike’s mother lovingly flings this food to her children from the window.
There’s only one problem on the horizon: Mike makes it clear that he hates “fancy kids.” By this, apparently, he means kids who wear clothes that aren’t falling apart.
(Notice that by the 1960s, American TV had embraced “diversity” by including one African-American person in any large group scene. This person would never actually get to talk, of course.)
Play time ends when French shows up.
Having a British butler come to pick you up is pretty fancy. Luckily, the other kids don’t see Mr. French’s arrival.
French is appalled at Buffy’s dirty appearance.
At home, he sends Buffy straight to the bath tub and her clothes to the incinerator.
In the palatial Davis bathroom, Buffy daydreams about the wonderful time she had playing with Mike and friends. When Uncle Bill comes in to talk to her, she eagerly tells him about her adventures.
Having Uncle Bill present during Buffy’s bath is a little squicky by modern standards.
She wants to play with the kids again, and Bill supports her, even through French is certain to disapprove, and Mike won’t like her if she shows up in her normal “fancy clothes.”
Now, Uncle Bill could say that he makes the parenting decisions for the kids, and that Mr. French, as his employee, must accept that. He could say that Buffy should wear comfortable play clothes, and if Mike doesn’t accept her because of her clothes, he’s not a real friend.
Instead, he decides that he and Buffy should both sneak behind French’s back and pose as common folk in Mike’s neighborhood.
Uncle Bill dons his work clothes and takes Buffy to a rummage sale, where she finds a truly wretched outfit.
Of course, her original outfit was wretched, too, in it’s own way.
(Note that while she was in the dressing room, she changed her own hairstyle. Impressive.)
As they leave the rummage sale, Bill donates Buffy’s original outfit to charity. Nice gesture, but won’t that make it hard to sneak back into the apartment later? And won’t French notice an outfit is missing?
Oh, well, the important thing is that Buffy gets have fun…by beating on the backs of poor youths.
Uncle Bill also makes a new friend, Mike’s father.
Uncle Bill meets Uncle Fester!
Mr. Callahan assumes Bill is down on his luck, and Bill admits to being “between jobs.” I suppose it seems better than saying, “Funny story: I’m actually rich, but my niece likes playing with poor kids!”
Uncle Bill and Buffy even get to sample that well known slum delicacy, bread and sug-ah. (The Callahans are out of butt-ah).
At home, Bill and Buffy sneak back in, then make plans to visit the Callahans again. When they do, Bill learns that the neighbors are having a rent party for the Callahans, who can’t otherwise afford to pay their rent. The Callahans do, however, have some old dresses that their daughter Katie has outgrown, and Mr. Callahan generously offers them to Bill for Buffy.
Major cringe.
Can this situation get any more awkward?
Yes. Yes it can.
French has tracked Bill down with urgent messages from someone in Brazil and an under-secretary of state in Washington, D.C.
“Slumming is such a good sport…sort of like polo.” sneers an understandably angry Mr. Callahan. Ouch.
And Bill has another irritated, portly gentleman to deal with at home.
Is French upset because his employer felt the need to lie and sneak around behind his back?
Not really. He’s just disappointed that he’s failed to make a “gentlewoman” out of Buffy. Bill and the kids manage to convince him that it’s behavior, not clothing, that make a gentlewoman. At least, they seem to convince him of that. I bet he’d love to throw Buffy’s rummage-sale clothes in the incinerator, though.
Bill and Buffy attend the Callahans’ rent party, and Bill calls out Mr. Callahan for his family’s reverse snobbery against fancy kids.
I would have gone with abject groveling, but Bill’s approach works with Mr. Callahan, especially when Buffy chimes in to explain how much she wanted to play with Mike and the other kids.
Everything ends well, of course. Bill finds a job for Mr. Callahan.
Jody joins the ragamuffin ranks with Buffy.
And French learns to stop worrying and love bread and sug-ah.
Commentary
I’m not the only one who loves this episode–it seems to linger in the minds of people who haven’t seen Family Affair since childhood. One source of its appeal might be the strangely retrograde world in which the Callahans live. Writer Phil Davis was born in 1904, which may explain the Depression-era vibe here. (Davis certainly presents a different perspective on the working classes than the episode two weeks back did.)
Anissa Jones, whose “happy” scenes sometimes seem forced to me, does a great job conveying Buffy’s delight with her new-found world; she just beams, especially in the bathtub scene.
I can’t help wondering if Jones felt a stronger connection than usual with this script. Buffy’s dilemma as a “fancy kid” reminds me of the difficulties child actors face in being cut off from normal childhood activities.
On a shallow note, I always enjoy seeing Buffy’s hair in styles other her signature one. In this episode, we get to see it…
…down…
…in an up-do…
…and in her play-time pony-tail.
This episode also shows Family Affair‘s continued preoccupation with confronting the various cultures of the big city. (The writer emphasizes the New-York-as-melting-pot theme by having the Callahans invite Bill to an upcoming rent party for their neighbors the Goldbergs. Mr. Callahan mentions enthusiastically that blintzes will be served.)
Guest Cast
Tim Callahan: Jackie Coogan. Mrs. Callahan: Marcia Mae Jones. Mike: Todd Baron. Miss Brown: Sandra Wirth. Woman: Lovyss Bradley. Katie: Sheila Duffy.
Coogan, of course, was a prolific child actor in the early days of film. Most memorably, he played the title role in Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid. His experiences led to the law that protects the earnings of child actors. Coogan’s later career as a character actor reached it’s apex when he played Uncle Fester on The Addams Family. Marcia Mae Jones began acting at a young age, also, and appeared in the Shirley Temple films Heidi and The Little Princess, William Wyler’s These Three and The Champ with Jackie Cooper (not Coogan). Wirth appeared in the Family Affair pilot.
Continuity Note
We know that Buffy has taken ballet lessons in the past. (If her class in this episode was ballet, though, shouldn’t she have worn a leotard?)
Inconsistency Alert
In future episodes, Buffy will wear the outfit Uncle Bill donated to the rummage sale.
Family Affair Friday(ish): Season 2, Episode 6, “The Candy Striper,” 10/16/1967
Written by: John McGreevey and Jerry Devine. Story by: Jerry Devine. Directed by: William D. Russell.
And now we come to the episode that made such a big impression on me when I was little.
It begins with Uncle Bill awakening and bellowing for French.
Judging from the speed at which French responds, he has apparently been lurking right outside Bill’s door with orange juice and the newspaper.
Bill thinks he’s late for work, until French reminds him that it’s Saturday. Bill fantasizes about spending the whole day relaxing in bed–it has apparently slipped his mind that he’s a parent now.
Not to worry: The kids are quick to remind him. First, Jody barges in and tells him about a problem he’s having with his two best friends, Pete and Herbert.
I’m just glad to hear that Jody has friends. Although, come to think of it, we never actually see Pete and Herbert in this episode.
Cissy enters and chastises Jody for bothering Uncle Bill–then she proceeds to tell her uncle about her own dilemma.
You see, Cissy wants to be a hospital volunteer–a “candy striper.” But she’s a few months shy of the minimum age–16–so she needs Uncle Bill to intercede for her.
He agrees, even though it means giving up his Saturday morning to meet with the hospital administrator. Well, at least he has his afternoon free.
Or not.
Buffy also wants to join a new activity–the Brownies. When Uncle Bill asks what a Brownie is, she responds that it’s what you are before you are a Girl Scout. (That was true then, and in the following decade when I participated. To me, it was a dull, three-year purgatory I had to endure before earning my spiffy green uniform and the ability to earn badges and sell cookies. Today, Brownies and even younger girls–Daisies–are full-fledged Girl Scouts themselves.)
Bill agrees to take Buffy to Brownie meeting that afternoon.
First, though, he has a successful meeting with the hospital administrator and tells a jubilant Cissy that she can be a volunteer. (Continuity alert: Cissy’s friend Sharon is also a candy-striper.)
When Cissy reports for duty, the nurse in charge stresses one rule–don’t give patients food or drink without permission from a doctor or nurse. Do you hear that, Cissy?!
Meanwhile, Uncle Bill takes Buffy to meet her prospective Brownie leader.
Oh, dear lord. If leaders had to wear uniforms like that today, one particular troop in my town would be short at least one leader.
Although Bill hopes to make a quick exit, the leader encourages him to stay for the meeting.
He’s not at all uncomfortable in that environment.
Unlike her uncle, Buffy has a great time at the meeting, and it’s clear that she can’t wait to join the troop.
(My 1970s Brownie uniform was a little different from the one these girls are wearing, but the hat was the same.)
Soon Buffy is sporting her own uniform, carrying her (authentic) Brownie manual, and practicing the pledge.
Jody is not impressed. He says he’d rather be a Marine…or a Cub Scout.
Jody has bigger problems when Cissy returns from her first day as a candy-striper: She’s so taken with the idea of nursing that she takes one sneeze from Jody as cause for alarm.
During her next session at the hospital, Cissy faces a more serious test.
This pitiful sounding old woman begs Cissy for a glass of water–and a sympathetic Cissy hurries off to get one.
Uh-oh.
Fortunately, the head nurse catches her before she gives the patient any water. She can’t have any because she’s awaiting surgery, the nurse explains to Cissy. Giving her water would have forced the doctor to delay the procedure–a delay that could have had serious consequences.
Cissy feels awful, of course, and a pep talk from Uncle Bill about moving on after mistakes only comforts her a little. The next day, she figures her career in stripes is over when her name is missing from duty roster.
She’s thrilled when the head nurse tells her that she’s merely been transferred to another floor–the maternity ward.
She redeems herself by comforting a woman who’s laboring all alone.
Her husband is in the Army, the mother-to-be tells Cissy. Oh, sure. That’s what they all say.
My bad–she really does have a husband in the Army, who shows up after the birth.
Isn’t that an odd nursery set-up, with the babies in one big bed?
Cissy returns home high on nursing again and thrilled to have played a small part in the miracle of birth.
Meanwhile, Buffy has mastered the Brownie pledge and has earned two “unofficial” badges. (French wasn’t thrilled–one of them was for cooking!)
She becomes a official Brownie at a meeting in Central Park.
When Uncle Bill casually mentions Buffy’s age to the leader, however, things take an unfortunate turn. Buffy is only 6, and the leader says that Brownies must be 7–no exceptions.
(Time sure moves slowly in the Davis universe. None of the kids have celebrated birthdays since they arrived in New York.)
That night, Uncle Bill has to break the news to Buffy that her Brownie career is suspended until she celebrates her next birthday.
Though sad at first, she soon perks up–after all, she notes, she only has to wait 92 days.
Commentary
This is the episode I remembered best from my childhood. At the time, I found the scene with the old woman and Cissy’s subsequent reprimand harrowing. Oddly, I had totally forgotten about the Buffy story, which now seems more moving and which was about a child much closer to my age.
I’m sure it was this episode that made me want to be a candy striper as a teen–and I did, sort of. Volunteers at our hospital didn’t wear candy-striped dresses, darn it. Just ugly burgundy smocks.
Scouting-themed episodes are common on sitcoms aimed at kids–even several of the current Disney Channel shows have done such episodes. The scouts in these episodes, though, always represent some made-up organization, like the Frontier Boys or the Sunflower Girls. I can’t think of any other show besides Family Affair that featured real Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts. I’m curious about how that happened–did the Buffy character’s great popularity with young girls convince the Girl Scouts of America to use the show as a recruiting vehicle?
It’s pretty obvious that they got some “technical advice” from the Scouts, since the portrayal was so authentic. (Even the badges Buffy is holding in the featured image atop this page are recognizably real.) The only thing I question is the age rule–membership goes by grade level now, and I’m pretty sure it did in my day, too. Otherwise, girls would be changing levels chaotically throughout the school year as they celebrated birthdays.
Guest Cast
Mrs. Russell: Alice Frost. Sharon: Sherry Alberoni. Mrs. Warren: Karen Green. Mrs. Elkins: Nydia Westman. Randy: Debi Storm. Mrs. Thompson: Audrey Dalton. Dalton made many guest appearances on TV westerns. Her film credits include 1953’s Titanic. Debi Storm made a memorable Brady Bunch appearance–she was Molly Webber, the girl Marcia made over.
Embarrassing Treasures 