TVWI: CBS picked up Family Affair on its Saturday Morning schedule

Family Affair is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from September 12, 1966 to March 4, 1971. The series explored the trials of well-to-do 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' traditional English gentleman's gentleman, Mr. Giles French (Sebastian Cabot), also had adjustments to make as he became 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).

Family Affair
ran for 138 episodes in five seasons. The show was created and produced by Edmund Hartmann and Don Fedderson, also known for My Three Sons and The Millionaire.

In 1971, CBS asked that Family Affair's daytime reruns to expand to six days a week, and wanted to put it in the Saturday Morning 11:30am slot, winning it over reruns of the H-B cartoon Josie and the Pussycats, in order to make it more suitable for family viewing. The Saturday Morning reruns of Family Affiar premiered on September 11, 1971 and ending it on September 2, 1972, replacing in the slot with the second half of The Flintstone Comedy Hour, downgrading Family Affair's daytime reruns back to 5 days a week and moving it to 4:00pm and ending it at January 12, 1973.
 
Last edited:
When did Saturday morning cartoons really become a thing? I think most kids would prefer that to Family Affair.

I actually watched quite a bit of Family Affair in syndication(mostly after-school IIRC), but it was kind of like one of those foods(for me, sunflower seeds) that you'd eat and mildly enjoy if they were sitting in front of you, but that you wouldn't go out of your way to pursue otherwise.

Looking back, I wonder who the target audience of that show was. Was it kids? It seems more like the kind of thing adults would watch, hoping to admire and emulate Uncle Bill's parenting skills. Generally, I don't think children are inclined to care much about the sort of child-rearing issues on which the show focused.
 
Yeah, I dont recall any Prime Time sitcoms ever airing on Saturday Mornings, even if they had popularity among children (maybe on syndicated stations, but not on the then big 3 networks). You'd be more likely to have a FA animated series.
 
Yeah, I dont recall any Prime Time sitcoms ever airing on Saturday Mornings, even if they had popularity among children (maybe on syndicated stations, but not on the then big 3 networks). You'd be more likely to have a FA animated series.

I remember one of the channels in Washington DC ran Star Trek the Animated series and then ran the Live action series but that was most likely a choice made by the local Channel.
Most older sitcoms were put on in the afternoon between 3 and 6 pm.
Family Affair was one of those that seem to be put on between two that I would really like so I left it on but paid little attention to the show.
 
Here's the Fall '71 Saturday Morning TV Schedule for CBS from 8AM-1PM ET

8:00 AM: The Bugs Bunny Show
8:30 AM: Scooby-Doo, Where Are You
9:00 AM: The Harlem Globetrotters
9:30 AM: Help... It's The Hair Bear Bunch!
10:00 AM: The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show
10:30 AM: Archie's TV Funnies
11:00 AM: Sabrina, the Teenage Witch
11:30 AM: Family Affair
12:00 PM: The Monkees
12:30 PM: You Are There
 
From personal memory, by 11 AM on a Saturday, we would long since be outside playing; no way would I have stayed indoors to watch Mr. French search for Buffy's dumb doll again.
 
Here's the Fall '71 Saturday Morning TV Schedule for CBS from 8AM-1PM ET

8:00 AM: The Bugs Bunny Show
8:30 AM: Scooby-Doo, Where Are You
9:00 AM: The Harlem Globetrotters
9:30 AM: Help... It's The Hair Bear Bunch!
10:00 AM: The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show
10:30 AM: Archie's TV Funnies
11:00 AM: Sabrina, the Teenage Witch
11:30 AM: Family Affair
12:00 PM: The Monkees
12:30 PM: You Are There

So, basically, Family Affair came on AFTER the cartoons, as the first in a series of live-action shows straddling the lunch hour.

My guess would be that it was aimed at an older demographic than Sabrina. Even The Monkees I don't think really had much appeal for pre-teens. And You Are There seems like definite adult fare. (I only ever saw The Electric Company parody You Weren't There)
 
Hm. Wikipedia lists You Are There as children's programming. I'm guessing more teenagers, and probably the more precocious among them.
 
You do that, and then the fallout of what happened to its underage cast means that family sitcoms (other than Good Times and possibly Happy Days) take a bigger bath in the ATL '70s and '80s and only recover with the premiers of Married With Children and Rosanne.
 
Top