Series Description

The American Family TV show was a 60 minute family drama series on PBS about a Latino-American barber trying to make a better life for his kids in Los Angeles after the sudden death of their mother. He had already put his daughter Nina through law school and his son Conrado was in medical school. But everything was not great in the Gonzalez household. Nina decided to use her law degree to provide free legal aide for illegal immigrants and daddy didn't approve. He also didn't care much for Conrado's decision to drop out of medical school to enlist in the Army and head for Kuwait. And that was just the beginning of their challenges!

American Family Cast

Edward James Olmos .... Jess Gonzalez
Sonia Braga .... Berta Gonzalez
Raquel Welch .... Aunt Dora
Constance Marie .... Nina Gonzalez
Esai Morales .... Esteban Gonzalez
A.J. Lamas .... Cisco Gonzalez
Austin Marques .... Pablito Gonzalez
Rachel Ticotin .... Vangie Gonzalez-Taylor
Kurt Caceres .... Conrado Gonzales
Jackie Guerra .... Gordie
Maria Canals .... Christy
Liz Torres .... Rosa
Valeria Andrews .... Valeria

American Family Trivia:

The name of this series initially was "American Family: Journey of Dreams" and then was shortend to simply "American Family" for the second season. Airing on PBS allowed American Family to take some risks that commercial television programs rarely attempt. It's episodes involving the Iraq War reminded audiences that while patriotism and defeating evil tyrants are admirable things, we should always consider that people are killed in wars and others have their lives ruined by severe mental and physical injuries. Innocent citizens in those countries are displaced from their homes or otherwise harmed. All of these things must be considered before making war, not simply patriotism.

American Family was the first broadcast TV drama with a mostly Latino cast.

The pilot episode and twelve others had been produced for CBS and then the network decided to not buy it. Luckily, PBS bought the series. While PBS regularly runs original prime time series from the United Kingdom, this was the first prime time U.S. produced original series to air in its entirety on the network in decades.

Jess Gonzalez may have been of Latino heritage but he was a true American patriot in every sense of the word. He believed in hard work, no hand-outs and the pursuit of the American dream. He also was a Korean War veteran!