''Brothers and Sisters'' is an American

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

that aired on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

from January to April 1979. The series attempted to capitalize on the success of the 1978 motion picture ''

National Lampoon's Animal House ''National Lampoon's Animal House'' is a 1978 American comedy film directed by John Landis and written by Harold Ramis, Douglas Kenney and Chris Miller. It stars John Belushi, Peter Riegert, Tim Matheson, John Vernon, Verna Bloom, Thomas Hulc ...

''. It was the second of three frat-house comedy series to air in early

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

(the others were

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

's ''

Delta House ''Delta House'' is an American sitcom that was adapted from the 1978 film ''National Lampoon's Animal House.'' The series aired from January 18 to April 21, 1979 on ABC. Casting Cast members reprising their roles from ''Animal House'' included ...

'' and

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

' ''

Co-Ed Fever ''Co-Ed Fever'' is an American sitcom that aired on CBS in 1979. The series attempted to capitalize on the success of the motion picture ''National Lampoon's Animal House''. It was the third of three "frat house" comedy series to air in early 1 ...

'').

Synopsis

''Brothers and Sisters'' takes place on the campus of Crandall College, with

William Windom William Windom (May 10, 1827January 29, 1891) was an American politician from Minnesota. He served as U.S. Representative from 1859 to 1869, and as U.S. Senator from 1870 to January 1871, from March 1871 to March 1881, and from November 1881 ...

starring as Dean Larry Crandall. Chris Lemmon (Milos "Checko" Sabolcik), Jon Cutler (Larry Zipper), and Randy Brooks (Ronald Holmes III) play three students who live in the basement of Pi Nu fraternity, nicknamed "Le Dump". Rather than attend class, the three cellar-dwellers create havoc with the more strait-laced members of the fraternity, and interact with the Gamma Iota sorority sisters who live nearby. On January 21, NBC debuted ''Brothers and Sisters'' as a follow-up to their telecast of

Super Bowl XIII Super Bowl XIII was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Pittsburgh Steelers and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Dallas Cowboys to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion ...

, three days after ABC aired the first episode of its ''Animal House''-inspired series (which was, in fact, the official series in everything but name). Two weeks later (February 4), ''Co-Ed Fever'' made its debut on CBS after a broadcast of the motion picture ''

Rocky ''Rocky'' is a 1976 American sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It is the first installment in the ''Rocky'' franchise and stars Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, and Burgess M ...

'', but all three " frat-house" series were off the air by the end of April (with ''Co-Ed Fever'' having only one episode broadcast) after all of them ran into trouble with the networks'

Standards and Practices In the United States, Standards and Practices (also referred to as Broadcast Standards and Practices or BS&P for short) is the name traditionally given to the department at a television network which is responsible for the moral, ethical, and leg ...

departments because of their content. ''Brothers and Sisters'' made its last appearance on April 6, 1979; ''Delta House'' followed suit on April 21, 1979. Of the three (if CBS' series had been picked up), ''Brothers and Sisters'' was arguably the least successful of them (mainly because of the networks having three similar shows, not to mention NBC's own woes at the time), with the show's lack of success apparent when series regular

Mary Crosby Mary Frances Crosby (born September 14, 1959) is an American actress. She played Kristin Shepard in the television series ''Dallas'' (1979–1981, 1991).

turned up as a celebrity on NBC's ''

Hollywood Squares ''Hollywood Squares'' (originally ''The Hollywood Squares'') is an American game show in which two contestants compete in a game of tic-tac-toe to win cash and prizes. The show piloted on NBC in 1965 and the regular series debuted in 1966 on the ...

'' for a week in March 1979; host

Peter Marshall Peter Marshall may refer to: Entertainment * Peter Marshall (entertainer) (born 1926), American game show host of ''The Hollywood Squares'', 1966–1981 * Peter Marshall (author, born 1939) (1939–1972), British novelist whose works include ''Th ...

mentioned ''Brothers and Sisters'' as airing "on another network", only to be informed by Crosby that they were, in fact, on the ''same'' network.

Cast

* Chris Lemmon as Milos "Checko" Sabolcik *

as Larry Crandall *

Mary Crosby Mary Frances Crosby (born September 14, 1959) is an American actress. She played Kristin Shepard in the television series ''Dallas'' (1979–1981, 1991).

as Suzy Cooper * Randy Brooks as Ronald Holmes III * Larry Anderson as Harlan Ramsey * Jon Cutler as Stanley Zipper * Roy Teicher as Seymour * Amy Johnston as Mary Lee

Episodes

References

*Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, ''The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946-Present'' *''TV Guide Guide to TV (2006)''

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brothers and Sisters 1979 American television series debuts 1979 American television series endings 1970s American sitcoms 1970s American college television series English-language television shows NBC original programming Super Bowl lead-out shows Television series by CBS Studios Television shows set in Boston