Valerie

First of all, back in late-1985, early 1986, NBC was originally gonna name the show "The Hogan Family," but later changed their mind and opted for a name that reflected its original famed star "Valerie Harper." Thus, it was retitled "Valerie."

After, the famed contract dispute over her salary, Valerie Harper left the show, or was fired - depending who's side of the story you hear- thus the show was renamed "Valerie's Family: The Hogan's." This angered "Valerie Harper" very much, and she sued the producers for still using her name as the title of the show without her permission.

Thus, the producers opted to revert back to the original suggested production title: "The Hogan Family."

In reality they were always 'The Hogan Family.'

I remember watching Valerie when it first aired. And I remember the huge deal when she left the show, and it continued on. It was one of those rare shows that keep going even after the title character has left the program. I don't remember if I followed the show on it's entire run.

Fast forward to 2021. Over the years I've been a huge fan of Jason Bateman's work in the movies. He's one of the best straight man comedians on the big screen today.

I'm flipping the channels and come across the Hogan Family on TV. Mind you, it's at the Sandy Duncan years. I'm actually enjoying this show. It's not irreverent comedy like Arrested Development, or gut busting hilarious like Seinfeld. I would put it more in the 'feel good' category. I guess it's more of a male-oriented program, considering it's about 3 sons and their father (and aunt), so I can relate to a lot of the issues they talk about.

So if you want to watch something that's entertaining, and like I said, feel good TV, give this show a shot. Give it a shot again, if you hated it back in the day, too. Maybe as you've gotten older, you can appreciate the more simpler times in this sitcom.

I can't remember a worse show than this. Family Hogan is boring and meaningless. I never found a laughable joke. This must be product of a lame mind. Pathetic from the very beginning, more ridiculous even than `7th Heaven', although Linkan-3 can doubt it. Too moralist, the subjects are never smart. But the Hogans will please old ladies who had never seen that machine called TV.

This show really belonged to Valerie Harper, no offense to her replacement Sandy Duncan. Harper left the show under uncertain circumstances. Regardless, the show and network wrote her off sadly. While on, she was the mother to three boys and a pilot husband who was often absent. The cast was first rate including Edie McClurg as a neighbor, Christine Ebersole as her snobby unmarried sister-in-law, and the boys played by Jason Bateman, Jeremy Licht, and Danny Ponce. Ponce and Licht played fraternal twins who were as opposite as night and day. They touched on some issues like AIDS and homosexuality and other issues in this series but the show never fully recovered from the blow of Harper's absence.

This show is another under the radar gem, it wasn't a show that was overlooked, the show was a hit and was popular in the 80's but as time went on it' s been forgotten. Though I never forgotten it, I actually saw a little of the show when I was about 8, though I'll admit I wasn't highly into it as there were lots of other sitcoms going on at the time, most notably "Who's the Boss" but I did like this show. The show is also kind of a lost gem as it hasn't had a DVD or Blu Ray release, hopefully somewhere along the line a release will be considered cause there are fans of the show let alone of actor Jason Bateman so why the heck not.

The only bad thing about the show would be it may seem a little uneven. Due to the fact the main star Valarie was dejected or quit, (I honestly don't know the real story), in the first half of the shows run. Which of course meant changes to keep the show going, this could put some people off as some were fans of the actress. Though personally this never really bothered me, I never watched the show for her, I'm not a fan of the actress (let alone never grew up watching the shows she was in), let alone this show by it's nature was never really all about her character it was about the entire family in general.

The change you could say is the one thing that gives the show a slight uniqueness if not complete; usually when things like that happen in any show it's a kiss of death but surprisingly it wasn't it actually worked, because they were able to keep the chemistry and bits of development going and storylines with the family interesting.

As for the rest of the format of the show, it's nothing special, but that's not a bad thing because it's everything done right. There is good comedy and like how it dealt with certain issues going on at the time and are still going on now. I like the brothers I thought they were all solid each of them are well rounded, they support each other but also clash with one another.

From Mark Hogan (Jeremy Licht) and Wille Hogan (Danny Ponce) both are fraternal twins but are total opposites, their sort of your teenage odd couple as Mark is brainier and cleaner while Wille is more athletic and messy.

Though my favorite character is David Hogan played well by Jason Bateman. This is cool because I really like the actor, this show was literally Jason's debut and it was a good start for the guy, which is true for a lot of other well known actors. But I like his character because he's an aspiring filmmaker and photographer which makes him a little relatable as I love both those things and am one myself. He's got a bit of an ego but on a small and harmless scale, he's also a bit of a smart alec in a funny sense.

Of course, there is that theme song, which is one of my favorite theme songs of all time, it's memorable and perfectly fits the show as it's really touching singing about the joy of family.

Overall, this is a solid show, it's not on the same level as other comedies/sitcoms I really like or love the best. But still if you're into vintage comedies from the 80's decade "The Hogan Family" is worth a visit.

Rating: 3 stars