A strong family

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Television series
German title A strong family
Original title Step by step
Country of production United States
original language English
Year (s) 1991-1998
length 22 minutes
Episodes 160 in 7 seasons
genre Sitcom
Theme music Jesse Frederick, Teresa James - Second Time Around
idea William Bickley,
Michael Warren
production Thomas L. Miller ,
Robert L. Boyett ,
William Bickley ,
Michael Warren
music Gary Boren ,
Steven Chesne ,
Jesse Frederick ,
Bennett Salvay
First broadcast September 20, 1991 (USA) on ABC
German-language
first broadcast		 January 8, 1994 on RTL
main actor
supporting cast

A strong family (original title: Step by Step ) is an American sitcom that was broadcast between 1991 and 1998 by the broadcasters ABC and CBS and showed the life of a stepfamily in seven seasons .

action

The divorced craftsman Frank Lambert ( Patrick Duffy ) meets and falls in love with the widowed hairdresser Carol Foster ( Suzanne Somers ). The couple then secretly married and decided to settle in Port Washington , Wisconsin . The only problem of the two are the children of Frank, Jonathan Thomas ("JT"), Alicia ("Al") and Brendan, as well as the three offspring of Carol, Dana, Karen and Mark, who immediately meet each other get into her hair and hardly show understanding that her parents are suddenly newly married.

It is only slowly that the two families manage to put aside their aversion and to make friends with each other. However, Frank's crazy but nice nephew Cody ( Sasha Mitchell ), who lives in a van in the family's driveway and believes that he has found his great love in Dana, creates additional chaos . JT's buddy Rich also comes on the show after a while. He and Dana get together through Dana's tutoring for Rich.

background

In the course of the seven seasons produced, the series went through a large number of changes and new appointments:

The roles of Ivy ( Peggy Rea ) and Penny Baker ( Patrika Darbo ), Carol's mother and sister, were removed from the scripts after only one season due to a lack of audience interest; Brendan Lambert ( Josh Byrne ), the youngest member of the family, appeared less and less , especially after the birth of daughter Lilly ( Emily Mae Young ), and disappeared after the end of the sixth season without further explanation from the scene. Nephew Cody left Port Washington in 1996 to go on a world tour ( Actor Sasha Mitchell was forced to quit the series later that year due to allegations made by his wife who sued him for domestic violence , but the allegations were based on a lie); the authors tried to fill his absence with Dana's later fiancé Rich Halke ( Jason Marsden ), JT's new girlfriend Samantha Milano ( Alexandra Adi ) and Carol's new colleague Jean-Luc ( Bronson Pinchot ). However, after just one season, the producers decided to remove the role of hairstylist from the series.

In the course of a restructuring of the program on Friday evening, A strong family (next to everyone under one roof ) finally switched to partner station CBS in 1997, despite steadily falling audience ratings . Although the station tried to attract its audience with a guest appearance by the popular character Cody (towards the end of the 7th and thus last season), the ratings quickly fell into the abyss. The sitcom ended in July 1998 as a result.

occupation

main actor

role actor German voice actor Period
Frank Lambert Patrick Duffy Hans-Jürgen Dittberner 1.01-7.19
Carol Foster-Lambert Suzanne Somers Marina Krogull 1.01-7.19
John Thomas "JT" Lambert Brandon Call Boris Kretschmer
Mario Voy
Tarek Helmy 		1.01-7.19
Alicia "Al" Lambert Christine Lakin Berenice Weichert 1.01-7.19
Brendan Lambert Josh Byrne Nicolás Artajo
Leon Keen 		1.01-6.24
Dana Foster Staci Keanan Ranja Bonalana 1.01-7.19
Karen Foster Angela Watson Dascha Lehmann 1.01-7.19
Mark Foster Christopher Castile Jonas Bamberg
Jan Rohrbach 		1.01-7.19
Cody "Codeman" Lambert Sasha Mitchell Björn Schalla 1.01-5.19, 7.18
Lilly Foster-Lambert Lauren & Kristina Meyering 5.01-5.21
Emily Mae Young Jeany Walpuski
Adak Azdasht 		6.01-7.19

supporting cast

role actor German voice actor Period
Ivy Baker Peggy rea Evelyn Meyka season 1
Penny Baker Patrika Darbo Angelika Milster season 1
Rich Halke Jason Marsden Tobias Nath
Ozan Ünal 		Season 5-7
Jean-Luc Rieupeyroux Bronson Pinchot Stefan Gossler Season 6
Samantha Milano Alexandra Adi Katja Strobel Season 6-7

Trivia

  • The series shares a series universe with a number of other ABC sitcoms. So had all under one roof -Protagonist Steve Urkel ( Jaleel White in the series) two guest appearances (Season 1, Episode 2: The Dance Ball , Season 7, Episode 2: The road to fame ) and Staci Keanan was when Dana Foster in Life and to see me (season 3, episode 21: The happiest place on earth ). In another episode (season 3, episode 22: Appointment with a stranger ) John Stamos was a guest. He played himself but did mention his role as Jesse on the American television series Full House .
  • Large parts of the sets were used simultaneously for everyone under one roof and for the production of the sitcom The Hogan Clan .
  • When Patrick Duffy returned to Dallas in 1986 , he secured the production of another series. After the soap was over, you were contractually bound to create a new series exclusively for Duffy. Over time, the first ideas developed into a later context in a strong family .
  • Sasha Mitchell joined the cast at short notice and therefore appeared for the first time in the fourth episode of the series.
  • Christopher Castile was initially only intended as the second cast of Mark Foster. Although the original young actor was never in front of the camera for official recordings, he was seen in the opening credits of the first season.
  • The series was filmed at the Six Flags Magic Mountain amusement park near Los Angeles , California . The Colossus roller coaster used by the Lamberts and Fosters also existed until 2014 and was then replaced by a new building in the same location.
  • According to the opening credits of the first seasons, a story editor is called Rich Halke , under this name JT's new friend will appear later

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Full Cast & Crew in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  2. ↑ 'Colossus' fire source at Six Flags Magic Mountain