When this show first started in 1977 it was touted as "controversial". It was a comedic parody of the day time soap operas based on the families of two sisters, Jessica Tate (Katherine Helmond) and Mary Campbell (Cathryn Damon). Jessica's husband, Chester, makes a personal hobby out of infidelity in spite of the fact that he says he loves Jessica. Mary is in her second marriage, married to Burt (Richard Mulligan) who actually killed Mary's first husband - but nobody knows, including Mary.
Mary's grown children include Danny (who is working for the mafia), and Jody who is gay (this is not a secret). Chuck is Burt's grown son, and his problem is that he channels his personality through a ventriloquist's dummy who says all kinds of hateful prejudiced things, taking no responsibility himself because "the dummy said it". Probably the most enduring character in the show is Benson who is the African American butler in the Tate household. He takes no guff and has funny passive aggressive ways of dealing with those who cross him. But he finds Jessica endearing if not very bright and is kind to her.
Jessica has three children with their own problems. So the story lines include the mafia, a forced marriage that turns to love and then turns tragic, the issue of child custody when one party is gay, UFOs and aliens, South American rebels patterned after the Sandanistas, an adult woman having an affair with a teenage boy, religious cults like the Moonies, oh, and there is the old trope of the murder whodunnit.
This all works well for about two years. During that time the country was becoming more socially liberal, and what once shocked was becoming standard TV fare. That is probably what did in the show - normalcy caught up with it and the characters and their storylines were played out.
This show is on DVD and is worth watching mainly to see where we have been as a society in just a few short decades, and plus there is a human element of the show that is still quite compelling and timeless.
