Hogan Family

By Wikipedia

The Hogan Family is an situation comedy that aired from March 1, 1986 to July 20, 1991.

Early in the series' life, the show was known as Valerie, to reflect the show's star, Valerie Harper. She played the matriarch of the Hogan family, Valerie. Other stars were Josh Taylor as her husband, Michael, an airline pilot (who, in the early seasons, was seldom around); Jason Bateman as her eldest, girl-crazy son, David; and Danny Ponce and Jeremy Licht as her fraternal twin sons, Willie and Mark (Mark was the brainy one, Willie the irresponsible one).

Episodes were typical of most family sitcom fare of the era. Despite this, the show was popular with fans.

Then, a huge change came in 1987. During the summer taping hiatus, Harper had a falling out with the show's producers and left the series. As a result, her character was written off the show as having been killed in a car accident.

When the 1987-1988 season premiere aired, the show was retitled "Valerie's Family." Taking Valerie's place in the household was Sandy Duncan as Michael's divorced sister, Sandy (she took a job as a guidance counselor at the high school where the boys attended). The show later dropped Valerie's name completely, being retitled "The Hogan Family" in June 1988.

The other big change came in 1990, when Michael and Sandy's father, Lloyd (John Hillerman) moved in. The series, which had aired on NBC, moved to CBS for its final season.

The show's theme song, "Through the Years", was sung by Roberta Flack. The song was composed by Charles Fox (from Happy Days).

The show was produced by Miller-Boyett Productions in association with Lorimar Television.

During its five-year run, "The Hogan Family" was known to poke fun at sitcom clichés, such as defying the "happy ending in 30 minutes" in an episode where Willie admits he caused a hit-and-run accident and tries to pin the blame on David (an angry Valerie grounds Willie, even though he came clean, and said that he also had to face his father when he got home).

There were several serious episodes, however, including:

• Shortly after Valerie's death, the house catches fire (an electrical short in a lamp stored in the attic), rekindling the family's grief over Valerie.
• When David jeopardized a long-standing friendship with his friend, Rich (Tom Hodges) by refusing to let him drive home from a party while drunk.
• In the series finale, when David learns Rich had contracted AIDS.

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"i watched this show and the only episodes I remember about this series is the fire episode also the episode where they went to paris and also the zombie episode and I have also been waiting on this show to come out on dvd (every episode from very first to the final episode in order) would love to see this out on dvd as this series also was out when alot of the Awesome80s shows that are on dvd now were out so I will be looking for this series and hope I see it in stores where dvds are sold as this was one of my favorite shows from that era " --bigfeet

"The Hogan Family was a breath of fresh air in an otherwise smog-filled era of network television. It provided me with hope, insight and the belief that daddy would someday stop drinking cheap scotch and become a commercial jet pilot. Before the Hogan Family, I was a lost soul who overate cheesy crackers and became sick with jaundice. This disease forced me to spend years in my bed, as my friends ridiculed me by calling me, "Mellow Yellow. " But then I began watching television, despite warnings that it would rot my brain like crack-cocaine. For a while, I struggled to find meaning in network television during the twilight of ALF and the demise of Night Rider. The Hogan Family changed that, providing me with hopeful thoughts that Sandy Duncan would one day tuck me in at night, undeterred by my affinity for German techno music and the hairy mole on my chin. The show showed me that caring and sharing were more conducive to the human state than hating my brethren and drinking expired milk. " --Natron