"Together We Stand (aka Nothing Is Easy)"

Originally Published February 15th, 2005

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This series had its beginnings in an episode of The Brady Bunch aired in 1974. When the show premiered in 1986 it starred Elliot Gould as the patriarch of a multi-racial family with two adopted children and two biological children. After only a handful of broadcasts the series was pulled and retooled. When it returned, Gould was gone and the series had a new title: "Nothing Is Easy." Despite all the effort CBS put into the show, retooling it and giving it multiple timeslots, the concept simply never caught on with viewers.

In September of 1986, CBS premiered a new sitcom called Together We Stand, starring Elliot Gould and Dee Wallace Stone. Following two successful "preview" airings on Mondays, the series was placed in its regular Wednesday timeslot and immediately sank in the ratings.

After only four broadcasts on Wednesdays, CBS pulled the series from its schedule and placed it on hiatus. It returned in February of 1987 with a new title, Nothing Is Easy, and without Gould. Now scheduled on Sundays, Nothing Is Easy was pulled again after only two weeks. An additional five episodes were shown on Fridays starting in late March before the show disappeared forever.

It isn't entirely unheard of for a series to be yanked off the air due to rating or production issues and later placed on a new day and time, with a new title and new characters. NBC's Spencer underwent drastic changes in 1985 after star Chad Lowe departed -- the series came back as Under One Roof. And Valerie, also an NBC sitcom, turned into Valerie's Family after star Valerie Harper left and Sandy Duncan joined the cast, before eventually becoming The Hogan Family.

Retooling an unsuccessful series is typically a last-ditch effort. And it is not one that always works. In the case of Together We Stand, the retooling failed to save the series. Still, the show is notable for airing in four different timeslots over the course of only thirteen episodes and one dramatic retooling effort.

The success of NBC's The Cosby Show led all three networks to develop multiple comedy pilots in the mid-1980s. Together We Stand was one of 40 pilots in consideration for the 1986-1987 season; CBS alone had 18 [1]. The idea for the series actually went back to the 1970s, when Sherwood Schwartz attempted to sell a spin-off of The Brady Bunch about a family that adopts three boys of -- one white, one black and one Asian -- and loves them all equally. A January 1974 episode of The Brady Bunch, called "Kelly's Kids," was produced as a back-door pilot but was never picked up.

NBC president Brandon Tartikoff, who enjoyed betting on the success or failure of shows on the other networks, referred to the age of the concept behind Together We Stand when he called it a show that Sherwood Schwartz "had been trying to peddle for eons" [2]. A feel-good comedy that combined The Cosby Show with The Brady Bunch (given the connection the shows share, that's hardly surprising), the series starred Elliot Gould and Dee Wallace Stone as David and Lori Randall, a loving couple trying to start a family.

Told they couldn't conceive naturally, the Randalls decided to adopt. They soon found themselves the parents to a girl named Amy (played by Katie O'Neill). And then, completely by surprise, they somehow managed to have their own, completely natural son, Jack (played by Scott Grimes). The couple assumed their family was complete.

After noticing how well the Randalls had integrated an adopted and natural child into their household, an adamant social work convinced David and Lori to adopt two more children. Sally was African-American and six years old and Sam was Vietnamese and fourteen (Amy and Jack were sixteen and fourteen at the time of the additional adoptions).

The addition of Sally and Sam on the Randall household caused a few problems -- and not just for the parents. Amy and Jack weren't happy about sharing their parents with more kids. And cultural differences got in the way as well. Episodes of the series revolved around the antics of the children as they tried to get along at home and at school.

When CBS announced its schedule for the 1986-1987 season, Together We Stand was given the 8-8:30PM slot on Wednesdays, leading off the evening [3]. It would be followed by another new series, Better Days, then Magnum, P.I. and The Equalizer. Its competition on the other networks consisted of Perfect Strangers on ABC and the first half-hour of Highway to Heaven on NBC.

Tom Shales of The Washington Post noted that although the setup was "badly manipulative," the series was able to "transcend the gimmickiness of the situation and get the maximum number of funny and tender moments out of it" [4]. John J. O'Connor was less positive, writing that "the show has its requisite quota of little lessons," lessons that "Mr. [Bill] Cosby does ... better" [5].

CBS broadcast a special preview episode of Together We Stand (the series premiere) on Monday, September 22nd from 8:30-9PM. The episode drew a 17.1/26 rating, losing only a small portion of its Kate & Allie lead-in and ranking 24th for the week [6, 7]. A second preview episode, aired in the same timeslot a week later (on September 29th) drew an 18.1 rating and ranked 23rd for the week, again losing a portion of its lead-in [8]. Even in the desirable "hammock" timeslot between Kate & Allie and Newhart, share levels on CBS dropped when Together We Stand was shown [9].

Ratings for Together We Stand dropped drastically when it moved to its regular Wednesday timeslot two days later. For the evening of October 1st, 1986 as a whole, CBS ranked third: Together We Stand opened with a 10.0/17, Better Days a 9.7/16 and -- due to the poor lead-in -- a two-hour Magnum, P.I. could only muster a 15.4/25 [10]. The Wednesday episode of Together We Stand plummetted to the bottom of the weekly Nielsen chart, ranking 68th out of 72 shows [11].

On October 21st, CBS announced it was placing Together We Stand (along with The Twilight Zone) on hiatus and canceling Better Days [12]. The October 29th broadcast, the sixth episode overall, was the last to air in the Wednesday timeslot.

In mid-October, it was reported that Elliot Gould would not be returning when Together We Stand rejoined CBS's schedule and his character would be killed off [13]. When CBS made major changes to its Sunday line-up in January of 1987, Together We Stand (now called Nothing Is Easy) was given the 9:30-10PM timeslot, following Designing Women, which returned the previous week [14].

In Nothing Is Easy, the Randall family faced life without patriarch David. Lori returned to work and school, studying to become a stenographer. Joining the cast was Julia Migenes as bitter divorcee Marion Simmons, the Randall's neighbor. In the first episode, the adoption agency that placed Sam and Sally with the Randalls reconsiders due to David Randall's passing.

Airing opposite "The Two Mrs. Grenvilles, Part 1" on NBC and "Romancing the Stone" on ABC, Nothing Is Easy drew an 11.4 rating and ranked 60th for the week, while Designing Women did slightly better with a 14.5 rating, ranking 44th for the week [15]. By comparison, "The Two Mrs. Grenvilles, Part 1" had a 23.4 rating and "Romancing the Stone" a 20.5. The following week, opposite "Amerika, Part I" on ABC and "The Facts of Life Down Under" on NBC, Nothing Is Easy fell to a 10.0 rating and ranked 67th for the week [16].

In the face of stiff competition from ABC and NBC, CBS made major changes -- again -- to its Sunday lineup in late February, bringing back the Sunday Movie and placing Designing Women and Nothing Is Easy on hiatus [17]. Only two episodes were aired in the Sunday timeslot; the series was pre-empted on February 22nd and March 1st, and on March 8th CBS began showing movies again.

Still, it was not over for Nothing Is Easy. On Friday, March 27th, the series returned in another new timeslot, airing against Roomies on NBC and The Charmings on ABC. A total of five episodes were broadcast on Fridays, the longest uninterrupted stretch the series, in either of its incarnations, ever saw. Nothing Is Easy ranked a dismal third in its timeslot, sinking as low as an 8.1/16 rating on April 17th [18].

For the 1986-1987 season as a whole (September 22nd, 1986 through April 19th, 1987), Together We Stand and Nothing Is Easy averaged an 11.7 rating, ranking 66th out of 83 shows across all three networks [19]. The final episode of Nothing Is Easy aired on April 24th and in mid-May CBS cancelled the series [20]. In all, thirteen episodes of Together We Stand and Nothing Is Easy were broadcast by CBS over the course of the 1986-1987 season.

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Last Updated June 25th, 2008