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« TVGuide.com Asks....
What Are the Most Heartwarming TV Shows of All Time?
A show can be awwwwww without being sappy like Little House or The Waltons!
My vote:
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS!
Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can't Lose
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Dec 12, 2007 4:34 PM
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How about Family Affair?
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Dec 12, 2007 4:58 PM
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Highway to Heaven
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Dec 12, 2007 5:31 PM
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While I can see a lot of votes going to The Waltons and Little House on the Prairie, I have to go with the original The Addams Family.
The Addams family may have been genuinely odd, but there was nothing odd about the way they cared about each other. At one point or another, virtually everyone of the characters went way beyond the call of duty to help another family member.
I was always struck by how passionate Gomez was, not just for his wife - the gorgeous Morticia - but for maintaining a happy family.
He helped defend his children against scurrilous truant officers; constantly praised his brother Fester's scientific investigations; helped Lurch deal with his family, and made sure that Cousin Itt found a wife worthy of him.
He even repaired relations between Thing and the family when Thing felt taken for granted.
And the cool thing was that Gomez wasn't the only member of the family who'd go to such lengths to keep his family ahppy - everyone was willing to go to the same lengths!
No matter how much other shows piled on the homilies and cornpone, The Addams Family said all the same things without being the least bit precious.
That's not a feat that's easily managed, and yet The Adams Family pulled it off for three seasons without even seeming to work at it.
That's why it The Addams Family is my choice, here.
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Dec 12, 2007 6:53 PM
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I loved The Wonder Years (I guess I'm a sucker for coming-of-age/family dramas), but...
I'm gonna have to go recent with my answer, soooo it's going to have to be Everwood. Everwood all the way. I've cried, I've laughed, I've bonded, I've loved watching it. And I still miss it.
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Dec 12, 2007 7:23 PM
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Family - starring Sada Thompson, James Broderick, Meredith Baxter, Gary Frank and a very young Kristy McNichols.
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Dec 12, 2007 9:40 PM
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I loved Family too. It had wonderful stories and a great cast.
Honorable mention goes to Under One Roof starring James Earl Jones, which lasted only a few episodes in 1995. It was probably the first realistic television drama series about an African-American family. Unfortunately, in 1995, America wasn't ready for a such a show and it got anemic ratings.
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Dec 12, 2007 10:59 PM
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I loved Family--I have a clear memory of Willie asking Buddy, "Did you take a bath?" and her response, "Why? Is one missing?" 
I'm going to go with Homefront, about the struggles of residents of small-town River Run, Ohio, in their attempts to reclaim "normal" lives after the end of World War II. The wealthy Sloane family, dealing with the loss of their only child and the unexpected arrival of an Italian war widow; the Metcalfs, as the returning soldier brother/son hopes to pick up where he left off, and the sister who had received good wages working on the factory floor had to give her job back to a man; Ginger Szabo, the jilted fiancee of a man who returns with a shrewish English bride; and the Davises, domestics for the Sloanes who just want to save enough money to start their own business. I am still waiting, after 15+ years, for this show to come out on DVD.
I also love Hope Island, a show that ran on PAX for one season starring Cameron Daddo as Reverend Daniel Cooper, who arrives on tiny Hope Island to reopen one of the churches, and hoping to heal from his own tragedy. In the process he gets tangled up in the lives of the quirky residents who bicker with, annoy, and ultimately care about each other.
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Dec 13, 2007 1:30 AM
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My vote: Everwood, Family, Little House on the Prairie, and The Waltons.
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Dec 13, 2007 10:53 AM
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While I'm a diehard Little House fan I'd also have to add Life Goes On.
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Dec 13, 2007 10:54 AM
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Journeyman.
Please bring it back...
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Dec 13, 2007 10:56 AM
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And! My Three Sons? It was one of my all time favorite shows and it hasn't been on television for years. Anyone want to start a grassroots effort to get it back on TV Land?
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Dec 13, 2007 11:04 AM
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Anyone want to start a grassroots effort to get it back on TV Land?
No thanks! Have you ever heard what an ass Fred McMurray really was? He did most of his scenes without anyone else and hated the fact that he was working on TV.
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Dec 13, 2007 11:33 AM
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Oh, I'm sorry. Were you there? When exactly did the merit of an entire television series come to rest fully on the alleged character of one actor portraying one role? If that is the case you must not watch much television.
My Three Sons ran for 12 seasons. Somebody, somewhere must have been doing something right.
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Dec 13, 2007 1:00 PM
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