Parenthood (NBC 1990, Ed Begley Jr, Jayne Atkinson)

Comedy drama series Parenthood was a spin off of the previous years popular movie of the same name and told stories of three generations of the Buckman family. Main focus of the series is financial analyst Gil who is married to Karen. The pair had three kids Kevin, Taylor and Justin and Gill is determined to not make the mistakes that he believes his own father Frank made. Gil feels that because his father was such a workaholic he never had enough for his own kids.

Also a regular part of the series is Gil’s divorced sister Helen and her two kids Garry and Julie (and her husband Tod). His younger sister Susan is a high school teacher married to Nathan who is a house husband working on his Phd, the pair have a four year daughter Patty.

Parenthood the movie had been a popular and critical success so NBC had high hopes for this TV version but never really allowed the room to grow. It was taken off air before all the episodes filmed had aired but the final episode was shown almost a year after the shows original broadcast. Worth picking out in the cast list though is an early role for Leonardo Di Caprio as one of the Buckman offspring and an equally young Thora Birch as another Buckman child.

NBC mounted a new version of the series in 2010.

production details
USA / NBC – Imagine TV / 1x60m-e 11x30m-e / Broadcast 20 August – 10 November 1990

Creators: Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel, Ron Howard / Producers: April Smith, Sascha Schneider / Director: Allan Arkush

cast
ED BEGLEY JR as Gil Buckman
JAYNE ATKINSON as Karen Buckman
MAX ELLIOTT SLADE as Kevin Buckman
THORA BIRCH as Taylor Buckman
ZACHORY LAVOY as Justin Buckman
MARYEDITH BURRELL as Helen Buckman
LEONARDO DI CAPRIO as Garry Buckman
BESS MEYER as Julie Hawks
DAVID ARQUETTE as Tod Hawks
SUSAN NORMAN as Susan Merrick
KEN OBER as Nathan Merrick
IVYANN SCHWAN as Patty Merrick
WILLIAM WINDOM as Frank Buckman
SHEILA MACRAE as Marilyn Buckman
MARY JCKSON as Great Grandma Greenwell