This Was Us

If you want to hook me on a TV drama, you don’t have to go for vampires, mobsters, or lifestyles of the rich and famous.
Tell me the stories of a family, with attention to detail and believable characters played by actors who balance strength and subtlety.

tnocs.com contributing author chuck small

If you want to throw in great music and pop-culture references, even better.

We’re coming near the end of NBC’s This Is Us, a series that has done all this for six seasons, and while I’ve enjoyed it (or at least most of it – every series has its “off” episodes), it’s just one of many I’ve liked.

Here’s a half-dozen that kept my attention enough to get the series on DVD when available.

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Family (1976-1980, ABC)

For a show with a title so generic, this series was anything but – built on strong storytelling by creator Jay Presson Allen and initially produced by Mike Nichols, it told the tales of the Lawrences, an upper-middle-class California clan. What stands out is consistently strong acting from James Broderick (known today as the late father of Matthew) and Sada Thompson as parents Doug and Kate, and Meredith Baxter Birney, Gary Frank and Kristy McNichol as their offspring, Nancy, Willie and Buddy.

Sadly, while its first two seasons were released on DVD, later ones were not. What DVD viewers learn (or remember) is that Baxter Birney was not the first Nancy; brunette Elayne Heilveil was in season one, bringing a low-key vibe that contrasted with Baxter Birney’s tempestuous version. We also learn that another Lawrence sibling, Timmy (for whom Nancy’s child is named) died in an accident five years earlier. (In 1976, my dad wouldn’t have allowed 12-year-old me to be up late enough to watch season one. By the time I was watching it, this sibling wasn’t referenced.)

McNichol is a revelation, authentic and supportive as preteen Buddy. As her role led McNichol to stardom, Buddy would be thrust into lead storylines with varying degrees of success. Frank’s Willie earns a lot of respect from me for being committed to finding his own path (although the show does acknowledge the family’s relative financial privilege). And the relationship between the Lawrence parents is clearly loving but full of undercurrents that keep them from being boring.

Musically, the only thing to note is that the series theme from Season 2 on is not the same as the basic piano of the initial season.

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thirtysomething (1987-1991, ABC)

This series’ lifespan was roughly a decade after that of Family, and just like Family, accurately captures the ’70s vibe, so too does this series distill the essence of the ’80s.

Loads of think-pieces abound concerning this seminal series (“seminal” in the way that its creators, Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, went on to create many other shows, and its cast later spread out all over TV – currently Ken Olin, this series’ Michael, is a director on This Is Us).

To me, what thirtysomething did so well was broaden the notion of family drama beyond blood relationships to friendships, acquaintances, affairs and co-workers, often showing the meaningful emotional connections between them.

Its third-season episode “Strangers” was culturally notable for being the first network series to show two men in bed together, but in true thirtysomething fashion, Russell and Peter are there having a meaningful conversation . (Seriously, I did like that the gay characters were portrayed as emotionally resonant, and complicated, as the straight ones.)

This series made it completely onto DVD, although collectors had to be patient for the final two seasons.

Musically, yes, there’s a storyline with Melissa working on a Carly Simon project, and yes, J.D. Souther of “You’re Only Lonely” and Souther-Hillman-Furay note has a significant acting role in season three as a co-worker of Hope’s to whom she feels a growing attraction. But the most significant musical contribution is the consistent acoustic, folky presence of the show’s soundtrack created by W.G. Snuffy Walden.

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China Beach (1988-1991, ABC)

For a series not about music per se, it sure featured plenty of it – so much so that the production of the DVD set was delayed for years over rights to the dozens of Vietnam-era songs showcased throughout episodes (some of which were replaced on DVD). This series, about an American evacuation hospital in Vietnam in the late 1960s, pushed “family drama” to its limits, being about a dozen or so individuals who become family through the trauma of daily survival amid war.

By the series’ end, when a time jump takes the characters into the ’80s, the “family” portion becomes more literal. With John Sacret Young as executive producer, the series remained committed to showing the toll war takes on survivors as well as those who died.

It rightly made stars out of Dana Delany (McMurphy) and Marg Helgenberger (KC) and burnished the credentials of Michael Boatman (Beckett), Concetta Tomei (Lila), Troy Evans (Sarge), Jeff Kober (Dodger) and Robert Picardo (Dr. Richard).

The initial eight-episode summer season was, in part, about a musician – specifically, USO singer Laurette Barber (Chloe Webb), who finds in her short time on the beach romance, friendship and purpose as well as a harrowing, firsthand look at war. The DVD boxed set contains detailed notes that include the key songs in each episode, right up through the two-hour finale’s devastating use of Michael McDonald’s “I Can Let Go Now” at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Still, for most “China Beach” fans the song most associated with the series is Diana Ross and the Supremes’ “Reflections,” a No. 2 Billboard hit that was the show’s theme song for every episode except one (which featured Eric Burdon and Katrina and the Waves doing “We Gotta Get Out of This Place”).

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My So-Called Life (1994-1995, ABC)

The DVD set is fittingly subtitled The Complete Series, since the show (created by Winnie Holzman and produced by thirtysomething’s Zwick and Herskovitz) didn’t survive to a second season.

That was a real shame. It took the conventions of Family and thirtysomething and spun them into a fresh look at adolescence in the ’90s. Claire Danes, the show’s lead as high-schooler Angela Chase, rightly propelled into other film and TV work, and Jared Leto, Devon Gummersall and Wilson Cruz also made their initial marks here. (Leto would later earn attention and acclaim in the music world in Thirty Seconds to Mars.)

Musically, the series is a primer to alternate rock and pop in the mid-’90s; a soundtrack released during the show’s brief run featured tracks by Archers of Loaf, The Lemonheads, Sonic Youth and Buffalo Tom, as well as a Juliana Hatfield track (“Make It Home”) that was featured prominently in a pivotal episode, “So-Called Angels.” Those who don’t have the DVDs but want to check the series out can find it streaming on Hulu.

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Any Day Now (1998-2002, Lifetime)

ABC wasn’t the only network to feature family dramas. Cable outlet Lifetime tried a different approach with this series featuring Annie Potts and Lorraine Toussaint.

Set in Birmingham, Ala., the parallel stories of young white Mary Elizabeth and young black Rene in the ’60s and the women they’ve become by the late ’90s are emotionally resonant and frank in their depiction of racism. The dominant racist slur is used periodically both in past and present-day scenes, and a two-part episode dissects the ways the word has been and continues to be used. Amid the contemporary and decades-old storylines, there’s drama in both M.E. and Rene’s families as well as between the two women.

The show was stereotyped as “television for women,” perhaps because that was the network’s own tagline in the early ’90s. Still, it presaged a host of 21 st century dramas featuring multiracial casts and storylines. (It’s not available on DVD, but its episodes have been uploaded to YouTube.)

Music played a background role in both the ’60s and contemporary storylines. The theme song is Lori Perry’s version of the Burt Bacharach composition originally recorded by Chuck Jackson and remade in the ’80s by Ronnie Milsap.

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American Dreams (2002-2005, NBC)

The last in this set owes a lot to its predecessors. Like Family, this drama tells the story of a clan – this time, the Irish Catholic Pryors of Philadelphia. Like China Beach and Any Day Now, the ’60s play a key role in American Dreams – but unlike the other series, this one is fully set in that decade.

Like My So-Called Life, the principal character is a teen, Meg Pryor (Brittany Snow), who becomes a regular dancer on American Bandstand. Like thirtysomething, storylines develop outside the lead family. Like Any Day Now, a key is the personal and societal relationships between the white Pryors and the black Walkers, the family of Henry, who works in and later co-owns the store of Meg’s father.

Unlike its predecessors, music is in the forefront of American Dreams. Meg’s role on Bandstand (a series that, in reality, left Philadelphia for Los Angeles in 1964) is a key part of seasons one and two set in 1963-65. Singers perform at a record store, a coffeehouse and a college campus. Top 40 songs are in the background throughout, posing a similar DVD licensing issue to that of “China Beach.” (Only season one of “American Dreams” ever made it to DVD.)

Created by Jonathan Prince and executive produced by Dick Clark, the series inventively used contemporary artists to play hitmakers of the ’60s performing on Bandstand (e.g., Michelle Branch as Lesley Gore, Ashanti as Dionne Warwick, and Kelly Rowland as Martha Reeves). And like China Beach and My-So Called Life, a soundtrack CD came out from this series, including its great theme song, “Generation,” from former Tonic lead Emerson Hart.

With a cast including Tom Verica (L.A. Law), Gail O’Grady (China Beach), Will Estes (Blue Bloods) and a grown-up Joey Lawrence (billed as “Joseph,” he’s quite effective in season one as Bandstand producer Michael Brooks), the show brought enough gravitas to balance the teenybopper enthusiasm of the Bandstand storylines. Unfortunately, it was cancelled before it could wrap up Meg’s growth in the challenging late ’60s. A key player in that maturation was her season three boyfriend, Chris, with whom she had sex for the first time. And who played Chris?

None other than Milo Ventimiglia, family patriarch Jack Pearson on This Is Us.

So, what’s your favorite family drama series? And did music play a part in your enjoyment of it?

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