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ARTICLE
DVD Review: Family Affair - Season 1
by R.J. Carter Published: May 10, 2006
Rating: Country: USA Release Date: June 27, 2006 Distributor: MPI Home Video Cast: · Brian Keith · Sebastian Cabot · Anissa Jones · Johnnie Whitaker · Kathy Garver · Mrs. Beasley Related Sites: ·IMDb: Family Affair
Grade: A
Bill Davis (Brian Keith, "The Parent Trap") is a wealthy bachelor and a highly sought-after engineer. To help him keep his hectic business and social schedules together (as well as apart), he employs the services of Mr. Giles French (Sebastian Cabot, "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh") as a gentleman's gentleman. His easygoing demeanor and confidence make him a man capable of handling just about anything the world can throw at him.
And then, quite suddenly, he finds himself saddled with his dead brother's children. First six-year-old Buffy (Anissa Jones), who is then quickly joined by her twin brother Jody (Johnnie Whitaker, Sigmund and the Sea-Monsters and Cissy (Kathy Garver). While it seems to be the onset of the apocalypse for the put-upon French, it quickly evolves into what became one of the gentlest situation comedies ever to air on national television.
Now, one of the first of the emerging series of the era to be filmed in color has been collected into DVD form -- twenty-nine episodes of pure charm and warmth. Buffy and Jody are the personification of guileless innocence, and you can never tell what's going to come out of their mouths -- only that it's certainly something that will give the starched Mr. French an appalling chill. Uncle Bill is a near unflappable father figure -- he still makes mistakes, like forgetting to pick up Cissy from school when work gets in the way, but in the end he always makes the right family decision, achieving the heart-to-heart connection with the kids as well as with the viewers.
Two of Family Affair's biggest stars:
Sebastian Cabot and Mrs. Beasley.
Guest stars in this first season included Robert Reed (The Brady Bunch) as one of Cissy's intellectual idols, and John Williams as Giles French's brother, Nigel (during a period of filming where Sebastian Cabot had fallen ill.) But of all the stars and guest-stars, none shone brighter than the one character who never had to say a word: Mrs. Beasley, Buffy's doll and best friend, who went on to become the best friend of many a little girl of the time. (My wife still has a Mrs. Beasley doll sitting in our cabinet, and she treasures it.)
The special features are to be found on the fifth disc, in the form of a photo gallery of production stills, and a featurette in which Kathy Garver reminisces about the family atmosphere that was fostered behind the scenes as well as on the set. We learn through her that Glenn Ford and Terry Thomas turned down the roles of Bill Davis and Mister French, and other interesting tidbits of the casting of the characters. (Fans of animation may be interested in knowing that Ms. Garver has been active in voice acting since Family Affair, playing characters such as Firestar in Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends.)
There are few shows out there better than Family Affair for family viewing. Forty years after it's debut, this show has lost none of it's appeal.
The audio is English only, with optional English subtitles. The episodes are shown in full-frame, and the transfer process has retained the brilliant technicolor.
Family Affair Season One
Disc 1
Disc 2
01. Buffy
02. Jody & Cissy
03. The Gift Horse
04. The Matter of School
05. Room with a Viewpoint
06. Mrs. Beasley, Where Are You?
07. Who's Afraid of Nural Shpeni?
08. A Matter for Experts
09. Beware, The Other Woman
10. Take Two Aspirins
11. Think Deep
Disc 3
Disc 4
12. Love Me, Love Me Not
13. The Thursday Man
14. Hard Hat Jody
15. That Was the Dinner that Wasn't
16. All Around the Town
17. One For the Little Boy
18. Fancy Free
19. A Helping Hand
20. Once in Love with Buffy
21. Ballerina Buffy
22. The Mother Tongue
23. Everybody Needs Somebody
Disc 5
24. The Way It Was
25. All Nephews are Created Equal
26. The Prize
27. What Did You Do in the West, Uncle?
28. The Award
29. The Butler Method
Special Features:
