Affectionate cheek-tweak of the Seventies sitcom and perennial re-run. The premise is a little far afield -- the conformist family of the TV show is now radically nonconformist: custodians of Seventies clothes, hairstyles, language, music, etc., in blissful defiance of their Nineties surroundings -- but the artificiality of the world enclosed on a studio backlot and inside a TV picture tube is knowingly and lovingly preserved. And the cast -- Shelley Long as the perky mom; Gary Cole as the sententious dad ("People like to be corrected when they're doing something wrong. That's how we improve ourselves"); Christopher Daniel Barnes as the wise older brother (and would-be pop star, under the alias of Johnny Bravo); Christine Taylor, a ringer for the young Cybill Shepherd, as the pampered Golden Girl; and on down -- put up an impenetrable front. They elicit no real laughs, but some pleasant smiles. Directed by Betty Thomas. (1995) — Duncan Shepherd
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