NBC takes a winning look at the family

By William Hickey

Television critic

While critics of television, professional and otherwise, take great delight in pointing out the frailties of commercial network prime-time programming, very few ever seem to notice efforts that properly fall into the category known as extraordinary, unless a tremendous publicity campaign is mounted by the men who toil on Broadcast Row.

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For prime example, few critics ing both those who are paid to monitor the medium and those who observe its doings offhandedly from living room chairs take much interest in documentaries or other programs that smack of network news bureaus' hands, especially when the subject matter touches on societal problems.

It has never made much difference with the critics of the medium how well designed or executed a documentary might be; if it deals with any serious problem, it triggers a tuning out of monumental proportion. What a pity that is, for some excellent work has been and is being ignored.

This past Tuesday evening, NBC News took a three-hour look at the present state of one of the nation's most vital societal underpinnings the family. The Rockefeller Center newsmen wanted to know if the American family unit is an endangered species and strove mightily to find the answer. The fact that they did not entirely succeed is neither here nor there, what is important is that they presented their struggles to find out to the viewers scattered across the country.

For the past several years, NBC News has annually devoted a three-hour program to a subject of general interest and import to the public. Such topics as foreign affairs, the state of current medicine and violence have been given their due, but "The American Family An Endagered Species?" was easily the best effort yet presented.

With correspondents Edwin Newman and Betty Rollin serving as guides, NBC News explored 14 modern American families, ranging from the stereotypical Norman Rockwell type to a lesbian couple rearing the children of their failed marriages. The program deserved at least an A-minus.

NBC News wisely turned over the major portion of the three hours to the 14 families involved, who, by the way, were selected from varying economic strata and geographical regions. The participants were allowed to tell

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their stories in their own style and at their own pace. The overall effect was nearly overwhelming and thoroughly taxed the emotions.

The only truly weak part of the program came in the form of a panel of "experts," who periodically broke into the flow of things to explain to viewers what the screen had already told them with no uncertainty -that wherever love exists between husband and wife and flows out to the children, the American family remains rock-like in its stability.

That truism did not seep out of the three hours of interviews, it exploded out with the force of a 10-ton bomb. Where love and devotion exist, the family unit, the basic staple of this or any society, is not in the least threatened.

The Mahoneys of Massachusetts, the Hartmans of Maryland the Sorianos of Texas were living examples of the traditional close-knit, caring and stable families Norman Rockwell once painted so touchingly, despite the fact that they were different in almost every conceivable way. What they had in common was an ability to care and share.

The scene stealers were the Sorianos, a

Mexican-American family living in San Antonio, who, despite being large in number and limited in încome, were nevertheless well-adjusted and as happy as humans are ever likely to get. More to the point, they were examples of responsible citizens and determined that their offspring would follow in their footsteps.

At the other end of the family spectrum was a couple in New Orleans, staging a bitter personal war that was all but devastating their three children, and a divorced 35-year-old woman who was afraid to deny her daughter anything, lest she opt to live with her father. In both cases, it was heart-wrenching time for the children involved.

The program did bring out one unsettling fact that while the American family of tradition is not endangered, many of the rules and definitions of what constitutes family life have been changing in recent years. Many families are being altered by social pressures, economic necessity and other impacts on their lifestyles. In some cases, mothers have been forced to seek outside work to make ends meet and in others, single persons are creating families through adoption.

One of the special's most touching moments centered on the interplay of love between a single man named Brice Bosworth and a handicapped child he adopted. That scene alone made the program worth the watching and certainly must have advanced the cause of singles seeking to adopt children a hundredfold.

Good on you, NBC News.