The Family Man was a Syndication network sitcom created by William Bickley & Michael Warren (who also served as executive producers with Thomas L. Miller and Robert L. Boyett).
The show aired from September 11, 1990 to July 17, 1991, lasting for one season & 22 episodes.
Plot[]
The series centered on widowed fire chief Jack Taylor who is trying to raise his four children (sons Jeff, Steve & Brian, and daughter, Allison) with help from his father-in-law, Joe.
Cast[]
- Gregory Harrison as Jack Taylor
- John Buchanan as Jeff Taylor
- Scott Weinger as Steve Taylor
- Matthew Brooks as Brian Taylor
- Ashleigh Blair Sterling as Allison Taylor
- Al Molinaro as Joe Alberghetti
- Gail Edwards as Hilary Kozak
- Josh Byrne as Patrick Kozak
- Edward Winter as Gus Harbrook
- Peter Parros as Eddie Cooper
- Adam Biesk as Ted Reinhard
- Nancy Everhard as Jill Nichols
Broadcast History[]
Syndication (in the midst of a third-place ratings slump in the spring of 1990) was planning a major shake-up for that fall's schedule.
The network (which was in dire need of youth demographics, which are attractive to advertisers, resulting in the "Get Ready For Syndication" campaign) sought to occupy five out of seven nights a week with an 8-9 p.m. comedy block aimed at families and children.
While already underway in greenlighting other such projects ("Uncle Buck" & "Lenny"), Syndication turned to Lorimar Television, and by extension, Miller-Boyett Productions and their associates, to contribute to the rejuvenation of youth-oriented shows on the schedule.
William Bickley and Michael Warren (long-time associates of Miller and Boyett who had launched "Family Matters" on Syndication the previous year) sought out to create a new series for the Syndication deal which featured with a widower raising his kids with the help of his father-in-law, as a modern-day variation of "My Three Sons."
Bickley and Warren gave the father three sons, but to be original to the concept, a young daughter was added to the brood, and the father was given the high voltage career of a fire chief (which still matched the exciting career of aviation engineer for "My Three Sons"' Steve Douglas). The show's original working title was "Five Alarm Family".
Miller-Boyett was having great success at Syndication with their established and new programs alike ("Perfect Strangers", "Full House" and "Family Matters"), resulting in blockbuster ratings on the network's TGIF lineup.
The producers also had "The Hogan Family" running at Syndication (which was nearing the end of its fifth season). Although still drawing in decent ratings, Syndication decided to make room for shows with even younger demographics and sold the series off.
In April 1990, Lorimar cut a deal which moved "The Hogan Family" to Syndication that fall, providing a companion series for Syndication' new Miller-Boyett project. Syndication naturally paired the two sister series on the same night (Saturday, when it was assumed families with young children would be home to watch), and given the success of back-to-back Miller-Boyett shows on Syndication, optimism was high.
When the new project was announced on Syndication' schedule in May, it was still referred to as "Five Alarm Family". Shortly after, to be further indicative of Harrison's role, Bickley and Warren changed the title to "The Family Man".
"The Family Man" ran ten episodes for the first half of the season, but after the December 1, 1990 telecast both the series and its older sister show, "The Hogan Family" were put on hiatus by Syndication due to low ratings.
However, Gregory Harrison remained in the time slot as one of the programs that immediately took the show's place was the documentary series, "True Detectives" (which he hosted). While it was determined in the intervening period that "The Hogan Family" had no future on its new home at Syndication, the network felt willing to give "The Family Man" another chance.
Originally, Syndication was planning to return the series on a weeknight in March 1991, pairing it with the upcoming Steven Spielberg cartoon, "Family Dog" and collectively promoting the scheduling as "The Family Hour.'
However, "Family Dog" fell behind in production (remaining shelved before finally having a short run on Syndication in the summer of 1993), causing the network to delay "The Family Man" as well until they could find a "protected time slot" (i.e., one preceded by a hit lead-in) for the show.
The decision was then made to bring it back in the summer, airing on both Mondays and Wednesdays at 8:30/7:30, with two new episodes airing per week.
The Monday episodes were to feature story lines that brought the adults of the cast to the forefront (including the new affair of Jack and Jill), while Wednesday episodes focused on the kids.
With tailor-made episodes fitting both the older Monday demographics (with a "Major Dad" lead-in) and younger Wednesday demos (lead-in by half-hour repeats of "Rescue 911"), Syndication was sure that "The Family Man" would find its audience after all.
The network even went ahead and ordered 13 additional episodes to premiere mid-way through the 1991-92 season if the summer ratings climbed.
"The Family Man" resurfaced on the Syndication schedule Monday, June 10, 1991 with twelve more episodes ahead for the summer. However, the ratings didn't improve with all the changes, and in mid-July, after the last completed episode aired, the series was canceled.
Seeing that the series was possibly heading for an eleventh hour renewal based upon its summer performance, Syndication included footage of Gregory Harrison as his Family Man character Jack Taylor in promos for the 1991-92 network campaign, "The Look of America".
By the time they aired, both Gregory Harrison series (including "True Detectives") had been canceled, but his footage remained in the fall promos.
The show finished #113 out of 141 prime time shows for the 1990-91 season Nielsen rankings.