An 'Affair' to remember
Long before Haley Joel Osment played the adorably creepy boybot in ``A.I.," Johnnie Whitaker and Anissa Jones cornered the annoyingly sweet market as twin orphans who are taken in by their swinging bachelor uncle on ``Family Affair." The first season of the squeaky-clean show, which ran on CBS from 1966 to 1971 , comes out on DVD today . Kathy Garver, who played older sister Cissy, reveals how she kept her sanity in the midst of all of that cuteness.
CHRISTOPHER MUTHER
What did you think of the new version of "Family Affair" [which ran on the WB in 2002]? I thought it was about as entertaining as watching the butcher slice deli meat.
It had no color at all. Pale doesn't even come close to describing it. I think it's difficult to do a remake when the original characters are so ingrained with the audience.
Were you jealous of Mrs. Beasley and the fact that she stole every scene she was in? The camera loved that creepy doll for some reason.
She did hog the camera, but because she didn't get any lines it was OK. I was able to overcome my jealousy.
I've always had a strange feeling that there was more to the relationship between ``confirmed bachelor" Bill Davis and ``man servant" Mr. French -- and, by the way, I'm winking repeatedly when I say ``man servant." My theory is that the show was really about the homoerotic tension between two men struggling to raise a family in a time when society wasn't prepared to accept their love.
That has been raised, but because it came from Don Fedderson , who had done ``My Three Sons," the issue wasn't addressed at all. It was such an innocent show, and it was such a fantasy that I don't think it really addressed important issues that were going on.
I bought a ``Family Affair" lunch box on
I don't sell any of my memorabilia. I have a friend, Robert Nudelman , who is with Hollywood Heritage , and also curator of the Debbie Reynolds Museum . . .
Wait a minute! There's a Debbie Reynolds Museum? I'm sorry, please keep going.
So he's putting together a ``Family Affair" Museum for me. I have the lunch box, a Mrs. Beasley doll, the Reader's Digest, the little ``Family Affair" clocks, and all of that.
Do you have the ``Family Affair" Colorforms set?
That's one of the few things I don't have. I have Mrs. Beasley's Sticker Book, the coloring book. But I don't have the Colorforms.
So there was a Mrs. Beasley sticker book, but not a Cissy sticker book? Man, that creepy doll really cleaned up.
There was a thing with the rights, because Mrs. Beasley went to town with the licensing.
I never understood why Jody [played by Whitaker] was immediately taken to see a doctor for a little itch in the episode when he was allergic to modeling clay, but never saw a specialist for his speech impediment. The kid couldn't say ``Uncle Bill" to save his life.
[Imitating Whitaker] Uncle Be-eel! Uncle Be-eel!
You do that really well.
Thank you, I heard it for a long time.
Your website mentions that you will teach a children's acting class at Dawn Wells's Film Actor's Boot Camp in Idaho this summer. Who knew Mary Ann was tough enough to run a boot camp? But I'm wondering if the class will cover how to best hold up convenience stores when the post-puberty acting jobs start to disappear?
I don't think we're exactly going to teach that. We're going to talk about how to keep some money in your pocket while you're pursuing your dreams of being an actor. But we're not planning to get into firearms.
