Family

From TeeVeePedia, the Internet TV Encyclopedia.

Family was a one-hour dramatic series broadcast on ABC from 1976 through 1980. In an attempt to cash in on the then-popular Godfather movies, Family depicted the life of a typical New Jersey "crime boss" (the term "Mafia" was never used due to legal restrictions) as seen through the eyes of the people around him. The complex interactions between Doug "Tony" Lawrence (played by James Broderick) and his two families (his actual family and his "crime family") were the focus of this gritty, realistic show.

Co-starring in Family were Meredith Baxter-Birney as Tony's youthful and long-suffering wife, Kristy McNichol as Tony's even more youthful gun moll, Leif Garrett as Tony's top henchman and close friend, Henry Fonda as the aging head of a rival syndicate, and Aaron Spelling as himself.

The final episode of Family, which ended with a black screen and a mysterious voice saying the enigmatic words "Metro customers, there is currently a delay on the Red Line", is still considered a landmark moment in television.

In 1999, HBO attempted to air a thinly-veiled remake of Family which would have been titled The Sopranos. Spelling sued the pants off HBO, and as a result The Sopranos never made it on the air.