It's hard enough to raise a kid nowadays but when you have to cope with
THESE kids, things tend to get out of hand! Dr Seaver, a psychologist and
his wife Maggie Seaver, a journalist, try to do their best raising their
family and although their kids, Mike, Ben, Carol and Crissie, cause them
endless problems, they manage to keep the family close together. As long as
they got each other, nothing else matters...
This ABC family sitcom revolved around the Seaver family, who lived on Long
Island in New York. When the series debuted in 1985, Jason (a psychiatrist)
and Maggie (a newspaper reporter) headed a family of three children:
15-year-old Mike, who was irresponsible and an academic slacker;
14-year-old Carol, the brainy nerd and a bit shy; and 9-year-old Ben, who
idolized his brother. In the premiere, Jason moves his practice to his home
when Maggie went back to work (for the Long Island Herald, using her maiden
name, Maggie Malone, as her byline). Most of the stories revolved around
standard family issues (such as the children getting into all kinds of
situations), though there was time to explore serious topics such as
vandalism, gangs and drug use. As the years wore on, the characters
changed. Mike developed a love of acting (he had tried out for a play for
the sole intent of trying to woo an attractive classmate, and found his
hidden talent in the process); he later enrolled in a local college and
began student teaching, while keeping his acting resume updated. Carol
(slightly overweight and insecure in the early episodes) blossomed into a
beautiful young woman and, thanks to her academic success in high school,
was accepted into Columbia University. Ben ... was just Ben. In 1988,
Maggie gave birth to a daughter, Chrissy; she was "turned" six in 1990.
Mike, meanwhile, found his first true love in Kate (future real-life wife
Chelsea Noble), and later took in homeless teen-ager Luke (a young Leonardo
DiCaprio). Jason and Maggie's parents were also seen on occassion, as was
the eternally-incompetent teacher Graham Lubbock (played by Bill
Kirchenbauer, whose character was so popular it was spun off into "Just the
Ten of Us"). In the finale, Maggie accepts her dream job as media relations
director for a U.S. senator, and they bid farewell to their home.
