The Hogan Family is an American television situation comedy that aired from March 1, 1986 to July 20, 1991, from Warner Bros. Television.
The show was originally titled Valerie and starred Valerie Harper as a mother trying to juggle both her career and the raising of her three sons while her husband, an airline pilot, was seldom around. Harper left the series after the second season because of a dispute with the show's producers, and her character was killed off. Sandy Duncan joined the cast as the children's aunt, who moved in and effectively became their surrogate mom. During the show's third season (Duncan's first as the show's star), the series was known as Valerie's Family: The Hogans, and after this was known simply as The Hogan Family.
The Hogan Family was televised in the United States on NBC from 1986 to 1990, and on CBS from 1990 to 1991.
Valerie
For its first and second seasons, the show was known as Valerie, and its stories revolved around the show's star, Valerie Harper. She played Valerie, the matriarch of the Hogan family, who struggled with everyday family problems while her husband, Michael (Josh Taylor), was a pilot who was seldom around due to his demanding schedule (at least in the early seasons). Other stars included 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).
In the season two episode "Bad Timing", which first aired February 7, 1987, David and a former girlfriend debate whether to have sex; the episode featured the first prime-time use of the word condom. Parental discretion warnings were issued in ads for the episode.[1][2]
During the 1987 summer taping hiatus, Harper had a disagreement with the show's producers, after which she was dismissed and her character was written out of the show as being killed in a car accident. NBC explained that the series would take on difficult issues facing the family during the grieving process.
Valerie's Family: The Hogans / The Hogan Family
When the 1987-1988 season premiere aired, the show was retitled Valerie's Family: The Hogans. The timeline of the third season began six months after Valerie's death. NBC's decision to continue the series despite the departure of Valerie Harper was controversial at the time, however the series survived the departure of its main star and the show continued its run on the network for three more seasons. Taking Harper's place in the household was Sandy Duncan as Michael's sister, Sandy, who had moved in with her brother to help the family in their time of loss. She took a job as a guidance counselor at the high school the boys attended following her recent divorce. Later, the network dropped Valerie's name from the title completely, partially to avoid further legal issues involved in continuing to use the original star's name and partially to move on from the very public and sensational attention being drawn to her dismissal. One notable episode in the third season helped to better explain Valerie's departure; when an electrical fire burns down the house, virtually all the photographs and mementos of the family's matriarch were destroyed, causing the family to express grief.
The cast of The Hogan Family with the inclusion of Sandy Duncan.
In 1990, NBC informed the producers that it would cancel the series due to declining ratings. CBS then picked it up, making it one of the rare programs to jump networks. In the final 13-episode season on CBS, Michael and Sandy's father Lloyd (John Hillerman) moved in with the family. In a 1990 episode, Sandy Duncan was reunited with Valorie Armstrong, her former co-star on Funny Face, when the latter made a guest appearance as Mrs. Gordon.
The theme song, "Together Through the Years", was performed by Roberta Flack and composed by Charles Fox.
Syndication
ABC Family currently holds the U.S. syndication rights to the program, and began airing episodes twice daily in September 2006, however this only lasted for several weeks.
DVD releases
| DVD Name |
Ep # |
Release Date |
| The Complete First & Second Seasons |
32 |
TBA |
References
External links
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