The Family Channel (U.S. TV network)

The Family Channel is an American general entertainment television network owned by Luken Communications, and based in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

History

In September 2008, ValCom announced that they would purchase the assets of Faith TV, relaunching it as a more broadly-distributed family television network. On December 15, 2008, ValCom deal to purchase Faith TV closed and they relaunched Faith TV as My Family TV. On October 1, 2009, ValCom completed the purchase of the network after making its final $250,000 payment. The network had no connections with the similarly-named Fox Television Stations-owned MyNetworkTV programming service.

On March 22, 2011, ValCom announced that My Family TV would become a joint venture with Luken Communications. Many of the programs seen on My Family TV, such as Route 66, Lassie, Highway To Heaven and Daniel Boone also air on sister network RTV. Some of the shows licensed to RTV are now on the newly acquired My Family Television schedule. Many of them were licensed by Peter Rodgers Organization, including The Rifleman, The Bill Cosby Show, Celebrity Bowling, Zorro, Peter Gunn, Daniel Boone, I Spy, The Comedy Shop and The Cisco Kid. A partial list of programs broadcast by Retro Television Network notes this relationship with Peter Rodgers Organization.

My Family

My Family is a British sitcom created and initially co-written by Fred Barron, which was produced by DLT Entertainment and Rude Boy Productions, and broadcast by BBC One for eleven series between 2000 and 2011, with Christmas specials broadcast from 2002 onwards. My Family was voted 24th in the BBC's "Britain's Best Sitcom" in 2004 and was the most watched sitcom in the United Kingdom in 2008. As of 2011, it is one of only twelve British sitcoms to pass the 100 episode mark.

Set in Chiswick in west London, it stars Robert Lindsay as Ben Harper, Zoë Wanamaker as his wife Susan, and Kris Marshall, Daniela Denby-Ashe, and Gabriel Thomson as their children Nick, Janey and Michael. Since the show’s debut, several characters have left and others have been introduced. The character of Janey left in 2002, then returned in 2004 and remained until the end. Kris Marshall's character, Nick, left in 2005 and returned for occasional brief guest appearances, though he was frequently mentioned by other characters. The character of Abi, as played by Siobhan Hayes, was introduced in 2002 and left in 2008. The characters of Roger and Alfie were introduced in 2003 and 2005, played by Keiron Self and Rhodri Meilir.

My Family (series 2)

The second series of the BBC family sitcom My Family originally aired between 31 August and 30 November 2001. The second series was commissioned after good ratings from the first series. The opening episode, "All Roads Lead To Ramon", re-introduces the five main characters from the first series, with the addition of Brian, played by Kevin Bishop, who appeared in nearly every episode in the series. All thirteen episodes in series two are thirty minutes in length. The series was produced by Rude Boy Productions, a company that produces comedies created by Fred Barron. The series was filmed at Pinewood Studios in London, in front of a live audience.

Episode Information

Reception

Viewers

Upon the success of appearing in a prime-time Friday evening slot, the second series was given the same slot for the majority of episodes. The series continued to be a hit with viewers, with the first episode of the series gaining 8.95 million viewers, the second highest rating for the week. The second series averaged 10.38 million viewers for each episode.

My Family (series 10)

The tenth series of the BBC family sitcom My Family originally aired between 9 July 2010, and 27 August 2010, with a Christmas special that went to air on 24 December 2010. The series was commissioned following consistent ratings from the previous series. The opening episode, "Wheelie Ben", re-introduces the six main characters, with the addition of regular appearances from Kenzo Harper, played by Tayler Marshall. however, the character of Roger Bailey only made an appearance in the series finale. All episodes from the tenth series are thirty minutes in length, with the exception of the Christmas Special. The series was once again produced by Rude Boy Productions, a company that produces comedies created by Fred Barron. Unlike previous series of the show, which were filmed on a yearly basis, both Series 10 and 11 were filmed back-to-back. For the first time in the show's history, two episodes of the series remained unaired for some time. At the time of release, the DVD of the series contained two episodes that had yet to be broadcast on television. On 17 June 2011, one of these two episodes were aired, and the other is scheduled to air on 22 July 2011. The series averaged 4.55 million per episode, however managed to get over 6.00 million viewers for the Christmas Special.