History Series / FamilyAffair

* PracticallyDifferentGeneration: Cissy is nine years older than her younger siblings Buffy and Jody. Due to Cissy's DawsonCasting and the twins being NotAllowedToGrowUp, the age gap looks even bigger than that.

* BittersweetEnding: The ChristmasSpecial, "Christmas Came a Little Early." The Christmas party given by Bill and the family makes IllGirl Eve happy, but Eve is still going to die soon. The episode ends with Buffy realizing this sad truth and crying in Bill's arms.

* WrittenInAbsence / SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: When Sebastion Cabot became ill and had to miss part of the first season, Mr. French was said to be off accompanying the Queen on a tour of the Commonwealth. His brother, Niles French (John Williams), took over the household duties in his stead.

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''Family Affair'' was a 1966–71 Creator/{{CBS}} DomCom about three children named Buffy, Jody, and Cissy who, having lost their parents, went to live with their bachelor uncle Bill Davis (Creator/BrianKeith) and his British butler/manservant Mr. French (Sebastian Cabot) in a swanky Manhattan apartment.

Today, the show is mostly remembered for both the network and creator-producer Don Fedderson insisting that the character of Buffy [[NotAllowedToGrowUp should remain a young, prepubescent child]], even as her actress Creator/AnissaJones entered puberty and got closer and closer to high school.

A {{revival}} of the series, starring Creator/GaryCole and Creator/TimCurry, aired on Creator/TheWB during the 2002 season.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Cissy's real name is Catherine, but hardly anyone calls her that. Sources such as the show's Website/{{IMDb}} page give Buffy's full name as "Ava Elizabeth" and Jody's as "Jonathan," though these never seem to be stated in the show, so the canonicity of these is dubious. "Ava" was the name Buffy briefly considered changing hers to after making a new friend called Lana (not [[Music/RoyOrbison that one]]) in the season 3 episode "The Latch-Key Kid" so it is likely that hazy memories of the episode (as ''Family Affair'' was not widely syndicated for a long time) turned into general public mis-remembering of "Ava" as Buffy's actual first name and then that became CommonKnowledge in the era of the web.

* ActorAllusion: In the second episode, Mr. French reads ''Literature/WinnieThePooh'' to Buffy and Jody. Earlier the same year, Sebastian Cabot had narrated Disney's ''[[WesternAnimation/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree]]''. Repeated references to French reading them the book are made throughout a good part of the series.

* SpiritualSuccessor: ''Family Affair'' has several elements in common with the earlier show ''Series/BachelorFather''. Both involve a successful, footloose bachelor with a foreign manservant becoming responsible for his sibling's orphaned offspring.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Cissy's real name is Catherine, but hardly anyone calls her that.[[note]]Sources such as the show's IMDb page give Buffy's full name as "Ava Elizabeth" and Jody's as "Jonathan," though these never seem to be stated in the show, so the canonicity of these is dubious. Interestingly, "Ava" was the name Buffy briefly considered changing hers to after making a new friend in the season 3 episode "The Latch-Key Kid."[[/note]]

* ActorAllusion: In the second episode, Mr. French reads ''Literature/WinnieThePooh'' to Buffy and Jody. Earlier the same year, Sebastian Cabot had narrated Disney's ''[[WesternAnimation/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree]]''.

* IllGirl: Creator/EvePlumb of future ''[[Series/TheBradyBunch Brady Bunch]]'' fame plays one in the episode "Christmas Came a Little Early".

* NotAllowedToGrowUp: Buffy and Jody were still made to act like 7-year-olds toward the series' end when they were pushing 13, not only on the show but in their real-life public appearances too. The whole sordid story is on the trope's [[Analysis/NotAllowedToGrowUp analysis page]].
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Cissy's real name is Catherine, but hardly anyone calls her that.

* PrecociousCrush: In one episode, Jody becomes enamored of his [[TeacherStudentRomance teacher.]] Eventually the family realizes why: the teacher bears a striking resemblance to his MissingMom.