The Best of Families, 1971-1979

In 1975 CTW funded a proposal by Naomi Foner, the Associate Producer of The Electric Company to study the methods of the BBC historical drama unit, and develop a proposal for a series based on American history. This became The Best of Families, the story of three fictional families living in New York City in the late nineteenth century, played against a backdrop of the social and economic conditions of the time. The series was funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Mobil Oil Company. The series premiered on PBS stations in November 1977. This series contains material related to the program arranged into the following three subseries: Proposals and Administrative Files; Development and Production; and Promotion.