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Family stories have been a television staple for as long as there’s been TV.

They tug at our heartstrings, make us laugh, and remind us that, no matter how chaotic things get, family — whether by blood or by choice — is at the core of the human experience.

But what exactly constitutes “family” has changed dramatically over the years, and television has kept pace, reflecting those shifts in compelling, sometimes groundbreaking ways.

Let’s dive in together and explore how these shows have mirrored our evolving views on what it means to be a family.

(CBS/Screenshot) The Golden Age of the Nuclear Family

Back in the early days of TV, family dramas were practically an extension of a Hallmark card: wholesome, harmonious, and just a little too perfect.

Shows like Leave It to Beaver, Father Knows Best, and The Brady Bunch painted a picture of the ideal nuclear family.

Exclusive: After eight months of bargaining with nonfiction production company Story Syndicate, the Writers Guild of America East and Motion Picture Editors Guild (IATSE Local 700) are putting pressure on the Harry & Meghan producers to finalize a fair deal.

Deadline has learned that unions delivered a joint petition to founders Liz Garbus and Dan Cogan on Thursday signed by more than 250 members, calling on the company to “be the industry leaders they are and set a precedent others can follow to create a truly inclusive and transparent work environment.”

“Long delays, proposals that are out of line with industry standards, and refusals to respond to important proposals would not reflect well on the company’s stated principles,” the petition reads. Read the full petition below.

Signatories of the petition include Lilly Wachowski, John Walsh, Tom Fontana, and Josh Gondelman.

In a statement, Wgae President Lisa Takeuchi Cullen says that Story...

“The Last Animal,” the award-winning bestselling novel from Ramona Ausubel, has been snatched up for film adaptation by production companies Walden Media and Big Beach.

Ry Russo-Young has been set to direct the feature based on the emotionally resonant story. Published in April 2023 by Riverhead Books at Penguin Random House, Ausubel’s work was named best book of the year by NPR, Kirkus Reviews and Oprah Daily, among others. A distributor has not yet been set.

“Last Animal” follows teenaged sisters Eve and Vera, unexpectedly spending summer vacation on their mother’s scientific expedition. Fooling around in the permafrost, the sisters accidentally uncover a perfectly preserved, four-thousand-year-old baby mammoth. The discovery sends mother and daughters from the slopes of Siberia to the shores of Iceland to an exotic animal farm in Italy, resulting in the birth of a creature that could change the world — or at least their family.

“I...

How can you make a film about the fall of Yugoslavia? This is the question American documentarian Travis Wilkerson asks himself at the start of Through the Graves the Wind is Blowing, after acknowledging his own position as a foreigner in Croatia. We see him stating his name, age, height, talking about his family and occupation (a college professor), and what drew him to this corner of Europe. A frank, open narration is characteristic of Wilkerson’s films, and while the 2022 Berlinale Forum entry Nuclear Family (co-directed with his wife Erin Wilkerson) excavated deeply personal themes and transposed them over American nuclear politics, Through the Graves uses this sincerity as a springboard to tell a story that doesn’t belong to him in the first place.

We meet Ivan Perić (playing a version of himself), a police detective in charge of solving tourist murders in Split. Addressing the camera, he...

Exclusive: Producers Peter Saraf and Eddie Rubin, who are in Park City to premiere the Sundance buzz titles Out of My Mind and Winner, have joined forces to create Optimistic Pictures, to develop and produce film and TV properties with an independent sensibility.

Saraf is the co-founder of Big Beach, the producer/financier responsible for one of the greatest successes to break at Sundance, the 2006 film Little Miss Sunshine. After a massive bidding battle that was won by Fox Searchlight ($10.5 million and 10% gross), the film got four Oscar noms including Best Picture, won two Oscars and grossed $101 million, on an $8 million production budget.

After their first teaming on The Farewell, Saraf and Rubin are reuniting with that indie hit’s star Awkwafina. She’ll produce and star in an adaptation of G, the Ling Ma short story which is included in her National Book Critics Circle Award winning collection, Bliss Montage.

Exclusive: One of the most prominent ex-ICM agents still in play, Jessica Lacy, has landed at Range Media Partners as Partner and head of management company’s newly minted division, Range Select. In her role, Lacy will oversee structuring and arranging financing, packaging, and securing distribution for select independent films. She is joined by her former ICM colleague Oliver Wheeler who also will work in the Range Select unit as a manager.

Lacy spent the last two decades combined at ICM Partners — where she was a partner and head of the Independent Film Department for the past 10 years — and Broder Webb Chervin Silbermann Agency (before its 2006 acquisition by ICM). Throughout her career, Lacy has brokered distribution deals for many of the many acclaimed films coming out of the Sundance Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, Berlin Film Festival, SXSW, Tribeca, and the Toronto International Film Festival.

She was part of...

Filmmaker Ry Russo-Young is not only the creator and director of the HBO Documentary Films series Nuclear Family, but also one of its main subjects.

The three-part series revolves around her upbringing as the daughter of a lesbian couple, Sandy Russo and Robin Young. Back in the late 1970s and early ’80s, couples like Sandy and Robin couldn’t get access to sperm banks if they wanted to start a family, so they relied on friends to recommend possible donors. That worked out fine for Russo and Young until Ry’s biological father, after spending time with the young Ry, became emotionally attached to her, and then sued Ry’s mothers for visitation rights. It turned into a terribly bitter court case.

Contenders TV Docs + Unscripted — Deadline’s Complete Coverage

“The thing that’s important to stress is that when my lesbian moms started a family, there was no precedent.

Stars: Maria Thayer, Michael Cassidy, Ray Wise, Chris Marquette, Julie Brister, Syd Wilder, Brian Sacca, Grant Garry, Ned Donovan | Written by Kyle Rankin, Andy Selsor | Directed by Kyle Rankin

There are some films that, upon viewing, you just can’t help but fall in love with (and Night of the Living Deb is not the only film at this years Frightfest to hit me in my horror-loving heart). Back in 2009, at my very first Frightfest as a reviewer – covering the festival for Bloody Disgusting – there was one such film… Infestation. A parody of nature run amok movies like The Swarm, Phase IV and Them!, Infestation was a near-perfect comedic take on the killer-insect genre (even though those original creature-features are funny enough as they are) with stellar performances from Chris Marquette and Ray Wise. Well that was 6 years ago. a long six years. Since then director Kyle Rankin has been...

Vuguru's new 20-part original sci-fi drama "Nuclear Family," starring Corin Nemec, Kinsey Packard, Ray Wise and Sharon Lawrence, is now available on Xbox Live via the Syfy app. This is Syfy Digital's third original series.

Check out all the details of the show on Syfy.com and follow Nuclear Family on Twitter (@NuclearFam).

From the Press Release

For the first time ever, Syfy Digital launched a digital original series exclusively on Xbox Live via its Syfy App. On October 1st, all 20 episodes of Vuguru’s sci-fi drama "Nuclear Family" premiered on the Syfy App on the Xbox Live entertainment platform, followed by simultaneous premieres on Syfy.com, Hulu, VOD, Syfy’s mobile and tablet apps, and Syfy’s new Roku channel starting on October 15th.

"Nuclear Family," Syfy Digital’s third original series following the highly successful "Riese" and "Mercury Men," stars Corin Nemec ("Stargate Sg-1"), Kinsey Packard ("Sleeper Cell...

Of course Stan Lee will be at Comic-Con; are they allowed to have it without him? We now know of at least one thing that he’ll be doing: promoting his YouTube channel, Stan Lee’s World of Heroes. The channel has already launched, but it’s being given a lovely push out of the nest with a panel on the first day of the Con.

It’s a pretty great channel; you can check it out here.

Vuguru To Premiere Stan Lee’S World Of Heroes Youtube Channel At San Diego Comic-con Panel Comic Book Legend Stan Lee, Adrienne Curry, Peter David, Jace Hall, Bonnie Burton, And America Young To Discuss The Channel And Upcoming Content

Thursday, July 12th, Vuguru will present a panel at San Diego Comic-Con to premiere the new YouTube channel, Stan Lee’s World of Heroes. The comic book icon will be debuting a slate...

Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers? I'm interrupting this normally scheduled column so I can talk ever so briefly about a project I'm not only excited about but only discovered earlier this week.

I know I am down for a good apocalyptic thriller, and Kyle Rankin is keen on bringing us just that with his follow-up to Infestation. Kyle recently sat down to discuss his new flick on television, and it’s there you can view some exclusive clips and news about a possible release date.

Nuclear Family begins the story of a young couple, John and Lynn, who are trying to survive in the woods after what appears to be a nuclear holocaust. They stay on the move with their 11-year-old daughter, Pauline… all the while searching for their missing 8-year-old son, Grant. Meanwhile, present society has disintegrated, and the family must stay one step ahead of the Berserkers: lawless, wild, brutal men who rape,pillage and destroy as a way of life. Shot as a pilot presentation for a TV series the story will take this family, and the others they...

Like always, Comic Con International is revealing the schedule of events day by day. It certainly makes planning a lot easier. But that's neither here nor there. There's a lot of panels to cover, so let's just get to it. Check out the pertinent film and television panels set for the first two days of the show after the jump.

The first "day" of the show is Preview Night only, so there's only a couple things happening that night:

6:00-9:00 Special Sneak Peek Pilot Screenings: Alcatraz, Person of Interest, The Secret Circle, and Supernatural: The Anime Series—

Comic-Con and Warner Bros. Television proudly continue their annual Preview Night tradition with exclusive world premiere screenings of the pilot episodes of three of the most highly anticipated TV series pilots of the 2011-12 television season — Alcatraz, Person of Interest, and The Secret Circle — as well as Supernatural: The Anime Series,...

We're less than two weeks away from the 2011 San Diego Comic Con, and convention organizers have finally released the schedule for the first day of programing. You can find the full schedule on comic-con.org [1], or after the jump I've listed the film and television highlights, which includes the Masters of the Web panel which I've been invited to be a panelist on (In full disclosure, I've been asked to be on this panel for a few years now, but I've only just recently gotten over my fear of speaking in front of large audiences). It should be a fun panel, and I hear they will be giving away some really cool prizes as well. Wednesday (Preview Night) 6:00-9:00 Special Sneak Peek Pilot Screenings: Alcatraz, Person of Interest, The Secret Circle, and Supernatural: The Anime Series— Comic-Con and Warner Bros. Television proudly continue their annual Preview Night...

Our friend Kyle Rankin who did the excellent insect post apocalyptic film Infestation (review) is is finally done the pilot for his new post-apocalyptic web series called Nuclear Family which will premiere as a feature at the 2011 Fantaspoa film festival.

Rankin both wrote and directed the project which stars Corin Nemec (Parker Lewis Can't Lose, Stargate), Ray Wise(Twin Peaks, Reaper) and Kinsey Packard (Infestation).

Synopsis:

Nuclear Family tells the story of a young couple, John & Lynn, who are trying to survive in the woods after a nuclear holocaust. They stay on the move with their 11-year old daughter Pauline... all the while searching for their missing 8-year old son, Grant. Meanwhile, society has disintegrated and the family must stay one step ahead of the Berserkers: lawless, wild, brutal men who rape, pillage, & destroy as a way of life (lead by a sadistic figure called The Man: Ray Wise).

We...

Fantaspoa, the biggest fantastic film festival in Latin America, has announced its full line-up this week. The festival will present a total of 150 films from across the genres (55 short films and 95 feature films) and the festival will bring to Brazil more than 20 international guests. The fest will present the world première of highly awaited Brazillian feature films, such as Pólvora Negra (Black Gunpowder), directed by Kapel Furman and our opening film The Night of the ChupaCabras, directed by Rodrigo Aragão. Also, in the festival, Kyle Rankin (Infestation, The Battle of Shaker Heights) will be present to première his anticipated new feature: Nuclear Family. The closing film of the festival will be Stake Land, presented by Jim Mickle. In the short film slate, some highlights include The Lost Thing (Andrew Ruhemann and Shaun Tan), winner of this years’ Oscar for Best Animated short film, Maska (The Quay Brothers) based on the text of the polish master,...

Fantaspoa, the biggest fantastic film festival in Latin America, has announced its full line-up this week. The festival will present a total of 150 films from across the genres (55 short films and 95 feature films) and the festival will bring to Brazil more than 20 international guests. The fest will present the world première of highly awaited Brazillian feature films, such as Pólvora Negra (Black Gunpowder), directed by Kapel Furman and our opening film The Night of the ChupaCabras, directed by Rodrigo Aragão. Also, in the festival, Kyle Rankin (Infestation, The Battle of Shaker Heights) will be present to première his anticipated new feature: Nuclear Family. The closing film of the festival will be Stake Land, presented by Jim Mickle. In the short film slate, some highlights include The Lost Thing (Andrew Ruhemann and Shaun Tan), winner of this years’ Oscar for Best Animated short film, Maska (The Quay Brothers) based on the text of the polish master,...

One of my favorite creature features of the last few years is Kyle Rankin’s superb Infestation. Well, he is back with the post-apocalyptic Nuclear Family, a film that I had the pleasure of being an “extra” on. As soon as we hear of a release date we will let know.

Nuclear Family begins the story of a young couple, John and Lynn, who are trying to survive in the woods after what appears to be a nuclear holocaust. They stay on the move with their 11-year-old daughter, Pauline… all the while searching for their missing 8-year-old son, Grant. Meanwhile, present society has disintegrated, and the family must stay one step ahead of the Berserkers: lawless, wild, brutal men who rape,pillage and destroy as a way of life. Shot as a pilot presentation for a TV series the story will take this family, and the others they meet along...

Actress Danielle Harris has had to face off against quite a few horror icons over her illustrious 24-year-long film career in Hollywood. She's taken on two incarnations of Michael Myers, Victor Crowley in Hatchet II and even a lesser degree- a crazy, revenge-seeking Rebecca Gayheart in Urban Legend. But now Harris is gearing up for a new chapter in her career, which kicks off this week when Jim Mickle's Stake Land hits theaters this Friday.

Recently, Dread Central had the opportunity to chat with the ever-busy Scream Queen to talk all things Stake Land, the evolution of her career and why 2011 is shaping up to be a banner year for the actress.

Even though Harris has made a name for herself in the horror genre in both studio and independent films, Stake Land took a little more consideration than usual for the actress, especially since she wasn’t able...

Kyle Rankin, my hat is off to you. You clearly have one fearsome set of stones.

The director of Infestation is currently hard at work on Nuclear Family, a post apocalyptic thriller with Rankin regular Ray Wise once again featured in a key role. What it doesn't have, apparently, is Rankin's regular infusion of goofy comedy, the director apparently opting to play things straight this time. What it also doesn't have, apparently, is a locked script or even a firm commitment to a set format. With a pair of cameras roaming the set, Rankin is leaving his actors free to experiment and improvise heavily with the whole thing shot in verite style. And once he feels like it's all shot he's going to figure out what it is. Web series? Television? Feature? Maybe.

This sort of free form approach to things is one that can be hugely rewarding if you've...

Kyle Rankin, writer and director of the post-apocalyptic horror flick Infestation, is heading back to the subgenre that afforded him some critical success with another futuristic horror project. If you’re of the mind that we don’t get enough cannibal, mutant rapists in our steady diet of horror flicks, then you’re in luck!

Quiet Earth got the drop on Rankin’s newest post-nuke project, Nuclear Family, which “tells the story of a young couple, John and Lynn, who are trying to survive in the woods after a nuclear holocaust. They stay on the move with their 11-year-old daughter, Pauline... all the while searching for their missing 8-year-old son, Grant. Meanwhile, society has disintegrated, and the family must stay one step ahead of the Berserkers: lawless, wild, brutal men who rape, pillage, and destroy as a way of life (lead by a sadistic figure called The Man, portrayed by Ray Wise,...

Infestation director Kyle Rankin dropped Bloody Disgusting a line to reveal that he's back behind the camera for a new genre film, Nuclear Family, which stars Corin Nemec (Parker Lewis Can't Lose, Stargate), Ray Wise (Reaper, Twin Peaks), and Kinsey Packard (Infestation). You'll find the first details, along with 3 images by reading on. "It's a post-apocalyptic action/drama with lots of fighting, blood, and gunplay," Rankin tells Bloody Disgusting. "It's about a small family trying to survive and find their missing son while staying one step ahead of a brutal band of lawless, horrible men called the Berserkers." He continues, "We've started shooting in the hills of Topanga, CA, and will wrap on the 20th." Watch for webisodes coming soon.

Our friend Kyle Rankin who did the excellent insect post apocalyptic film Infestation (review) is back with a web series which he both wrote and is directing, and which stars Corin Nemec (Parker Lewis Can't Lose, Stargate), Ray Wise (Twin Peaks, Reaper), and Kinsey Packard (Infestation). Shooting has begun and they hope to be finished by the end of April.

Nuclear Family tells the story of a young couple, John & Lynn, who are trying to survive in the woods after a nuclear holocaust. They stay on the move with their 11-year old daughter Pauline... all the while searching for their missing 8-year old son, Grant. Meanwhile, society has disintegrated and the family must stay one step ahead of the Berserkers: lawless, wild, brutal men who rape, pillage, & destroy as a way of life (lead by a sadistic figure called The Man: Ray Wise).

Stills after the break.

Head to Quiet Earth to see the stills.

One of last year's surprises was Infestation , a goofy, violent creature feature about alien insects that invade earth. Chris Marquette starred as an office worker who gathers up a few survivors to fight back. It was simple, amusing and had a few fun twists. Well, the director of that film - Kyle Rankin - is switching gears for Nuclear Family , which stars Infestation Ray Wise, Corin Nemec ( The Stand ) and Kinsey Packard. It sounds a bit like The Road , replace the father and son with a family of four as they try to survive in the woods after a nuclear blast. Wise's "The Man" and his brutal army of rapists and killers make that difficult. Rankin is currently in production on this project which is geared to be a web series. You can check out some photos here .