Even If Not A "Family" Fan, "Thursday's Child" Should Be Seen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                 Early episodes of "Family" have lately been turning up on my YouTube queue,  so I might end up watching every episode-- like I did years ago, with "Cold Case."

                                                   Now, "Family" started as a mini-series, back in 1976, with maybe six episodes, to see if it would get picked up, which it was.  "Thursday's Child" is the fifth of these, and the first truly great one on the show.  The only downside is it features Elayne Heilveil in the role of Nancy, whose hair color matches Kristy's, but not her acting.  When the series was picked up, Heilveil was wisely replaced by Meredith Baxter Birney.

                                                      "Thursday's Child" actually should have been the pilot episode, because in it one learns all the essentials about the Lawrences.  And it is deeply moving, centered on  both rebirth and loss.  The scene with Kristy and James Broderick at the cemetery--oh, my God, such acting!!!!!!!!!!!!  And the tears that poured down my face!!!!!!!!!!!  Where these days does one  see this  kind of truthfulness in acting????????????

                                                       But I am getting a bit ahead of myself.

                                                        The plot centers on the christening of Nancy and Jeff's baby.  He is  to be named  Timothy Charles Maitland.  Everyone is fine with this, but Buddy, who is vociferously against it.

She won't go to the christening, she won't wear a dress--and no one can understand why.  From Kate and Doug, one learns there had been a fourth child, also named Timothy, who died five years ago.  Kate says if he were here now, he wold be fifteen years old.

                                                          Buddy thinks naming the baby Timothy would be dishonoring the original sibling.  In a moving monologue,  Gary Frank as Willie--one of his best scenes--recounts to Jeff (John Rubinstein) exactly how Timmy died.

                                                             It was something like Naya Rivera.   Doug, Willie, and Timmy were going on a fishing trip in 1971.  Buddy, of course, wanted to come along.  No one thought it a good idea; she would not let up; so, they relented.  They went out on a lake in a boat,  and, at  first, everything was fine.  But then the boat hit a snag, a tree brach stuck under the water.  The boat capsized, and all made it ashore--except Timmy, who had somehow got tangled in the branches underwater.  By the time Doug got to him,  he had drowned.

                                                             Each of them, understandably, blames themselves for the death.  And now Nancy's christening of  her baby  is triggering these memories.   Even Nancy understands.

Buddy, the youngest, is torn; she does not hate the baby, but feels Timmy cannot be replaced.  It is in this scene that, doing  the math,  one can  figure out the birth years of  the Lawrence children--Nancy,  in 1953; Willie, in 1958; Timmy, in 1961; and Buddy, in 1964.

                                                               The christening goes through, Buddy shows up in a dress, but as soon  as the ministerr pronounces the baby's name,  Buddy walks out.  Her father finds her  sitting  on an  outside bench, and tells her they are going somewhere, before going home.  That place turns  out  to be the cemetery, where Timmy's grave is.  There, father and daughter both acknowledge the blame they hold for Timmy's death, with  Doug reinforcing that it was simply a tragic accident, and it is  time  to  let  go  of the blame.   Buddy falls into  Doug's arms, in a moment  of  unsurpassed  acting naturalness, which is when  I began  sobbing.  They can go  on.

                                                                  I connected to this episode in several ways.  Like Doug (and Buddy?) I was a Thursday's Child, back  on November  18, 1954.  The rhyme says we have "far to go," and I was never sure what that meant--a struggle, or going  far in our accomplishments.  As of now, I feel a bit of both.  The irrevocability of death loss triggers me, too; on my parents' anniversaries, even those of  friends,  I feel deep sadness on those days, no matter how many years have passed.  I don't blame myself, like  Buddy, but I understand the feeling, and still cling to some lost whom I  think  I might have done more  for.

                                                                     You have to see this, girls!  It demonstrates why "Family" was so forward for its time,  maintains a universality today, and revealed, as never before, or seldom since, the realities and pain of  living.

                                                                      But some of those hairstyles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Oh, my God!   Did any of us really look like that.....then????????????????????????????