I think they were going for "capraesque" but just came across as amateurish. Casting one of the sisters as "Ramona" who's supposed to be the grown up daughter of the character played by Faye Grant was really dumb--they look fairly close in age, not like mother and daughter.
Plus the whole romance thing with Ramona and the lawyer implying that somehow this girl is really attractive--sorry, but only when your family is producing the show will anyone lie that blatantly and expect anyone to go along with it. If she could actually act, maybe her unfortunate appearance would be easier to overlook.
There's a really long scene superimposed over a disco ball with what i assume was Shirley Jones' voice singing the whole time. Very painful to sit through--the voice hasn't aged well. (Or was it another member of the uber-talented Burton family singing there? I couldn't bring myself to bother checking the credits)
A couple of bright spots--Wendy Malick is good, and I see from her bio she has a Buffalo connection, so maybe this is a "friend of the family" or "the priest said I had to do it as penance for murdering that family" thing. Also, Cloris Leachman and the late Frank Gorshin still had their acting chops for this--Shirley Jones showed she still can't really act very well.
The casting in general, though was atrocious--unless some of the people went to some alternate universe for a while where you age at a different rate, and they forgot to mention it.
Plus the whole romance thing with Ramona and the lawyer implying that somehow this girl is really attractive--sorry, but only when your family is producing the show will anyone lie that blatantly and expect anyone to go along with it. If she could actually act, maybe her unfortunate appearance would be easier to overlook.
There's a really long scene superimposed over a disco ball with what i assume was Shirley Jones' voice singing the whole time. Very painful to sit through--the voice hasn't aged well. (Or was it another member of the uber-talented Burton family singing there? I couldn't bring myself to bother checking the credits)
A couple of bright spots--Wendy Malick is good, and I see from her bio she has a Buffalo connection, so maybe this is a "friend of the family" or "the priest said I had to do it as penance for murdering that family" thing. Also, Cloris Leachman and the late Frank Gorshin still had their acting chops for this--Shirley Jones showed she still can't really act very well.
The casting in general, though was atrocious--unless some of the people went to some alternate universe for a while where you age at a different rate, and they forgot to mention it.