TV Show Review: Step by Step - Season 1

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Good laughs and performances, especially from the leads

Cons: Characters are weak cliches much of the time

The Bottom Line: 

New step family

Learning to live together

Needs growth, but still laughs

“We Do Things Together.  We Have Vicious Ugly Fights.”

Step by Step was somewhere in my pop culture subconscious, but it wasn’t a huge part of it.  I was too old to be the target audience, so none of my peers were talking about it.  And it was almost over when I graduated from college and started watching TV on my own.

But, with all the 90’s nostalgia I’ve been getting via podcasts in the last couple of years, I’ve started hearing more and more about it.  I finally gave in and got myself the complete series on DVD, and I’ve been listening to the rewatch podcast two of the stars are doing as I’ve watched season 1.  I’m glad I gave it a shot since I’m finding myself enjoying it.

Stop me if you’ve heard this premise before.  In the pilot episode, we meet a man and a woman who have recently gotten married.  They each have three kids, and everyone is going to have to learn to live together when they all move into one house.

Yes, the premise is very reminiscent of The Brady Bunch.  The wife/mother is even named Carol.  But this is a sitcom from the 90’s, so there is more of a bite to it.  It’s not without good messages and heartwarming moments, but it’s not quite as idealized as The Brady Bunch.

Let’s formally meet the characters, shall we?  The father is Frank Lambert (Patrick Duffy), and his three kids are J.T., Al, and Brendan (Brandon Call, Christine Lakin, and, Josh Byrne).  Meanwhile, Carol Foster (Suzanne Somers) was raising Dana, Karen, and Mark (Staci Keanan, Angela Watson, and Christopher Castile).  But these eight characters aren’t enough.  The first season features Carol’s sister and mother (Patrika Darbo and Peggy Rea).  Plus, pretty early on, we meet Frank’s nephew Cody (Sasha Mitchell) who lives in the backyard in his van.

Over the course of this first season, the new family competes together in the Port Washington Games and goes on a joint camping trip.  Dana sneaks out of the house to see her favorite folk singer, who is appearing in a dive bar.  A television show comes to doing an episode on the blended family.  Meanwhile, Carol gets a new car.  Mark has to deal with a bully at school.  And Frank is less than thrilled when the family gets an invite to join the local country club.

My biggest issue with the first season was the lacks of character development. I get it that we are starting with an insanely large cast, but I feel like we only got to know about half the kids. Aunt Penny and Grandma often just have a few walk on lines. It’s easy to see why they didn’t make it beyond the season 1 finale. And Cody has already devolved into a dumb character. 

We also fall into stereotypes for the characters we do have. This is obvious right from the pilot where Frank and his kids live in the messiest house ever since he’s a single dad. Men can’t clean anything, right? (The fact that my condo could use a good cleaning is beside the point.) Meanwhile, Carol is a hyper organized super achiever. Couldn’t they have found some other characteristics?

And yet, as I watched the first season, I found myself laughing and enjoying the episodes. Yes, the plot lines are familiar to anyone who watches sitcoms, but I’m having fun with it, which is what matters most to me. The insults the characters have for each other make me laugh. The physical comedy is wonderful as well. 

And the acting is great. Patrick Duffy and Susanne Summers are both phenomenal as the leads. The rest of the cast is doing their best with the material they are given. I’m blaming the writing not the acting for my earlier complaints about the characters. And the rest of the cast does get plenty of laughs.

I also appreciated that the family is starting to care for each other. They are far from a cohesive unit, but we get glimpses of the beginnings of those bonds. 

I do have to call out the chemistry between Patrick Duffy and Susanne Summers. You believe their characters are attracted to each other if they aren’t fully in love. The writing for their characters can be a bit risqué, especially for a family show, so keep that in mind. Still, we’ve got much worse on TV these days (or even back then in shows I enjoy).

Season 1 consisted of 22 episodes, what was the standard when this show premiered in the early 90’s. They are preserved in a three DVD set with their native full frame and stereo. The picture can be a little fuzzy at times, especially on modern tv’s, but it works to get the laughs. We don’t have anything in the way of extras. 

It can often be that shows get stronger in seasons two and three. I’m looking forward to seeing if that’s the case here. Because, yes, I was charmed enough by season one of Step by Step that I will continuing on with season two. If you haven’t seen this 90’s sitcom yet, I suspect you will be charmed as well.