No Easy Solutions ‘Party Of Five’ Stands As One Of The Few Television Shows Intelligently Portraying Family Life

In the face of a possible cancellation, the cast of FOX’s “Party of Five” never lost hope.

What helped them keep the faith was the immense loyalty of the show’s core of devoted fans. They bellowed their non-stop support.

“When they found out that we were possibly in trouble, they wrote letters, they faxed, they e-mailed, they did everything they possibly could,” recalled Matthew Fox, who portrays oldest sibling and designated dad, Charlie Salinger.

“I thank (the fans) a great deal. I think that was a part of what brought us back, and I know I’m very, very happy to be back.”

Aside from CBS’ “Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman,” which has consistently succeeded at 8 p.m. Saturdays by appealing to a family audience, the ‘90s have been bleak for dramas about family life.

“Picket Fences,” which really has been more about hot-button social issues and courtroom showdowns than family relationships, limps on in the ratings despite Emmy awards.

More regrettably, fine and all-too-short-lived series like “Christy,” “Under One Roof” and “My So-Called Life” all failed to capture a wide enough audience to be renewed last spring.

This, after all, is the age of laugh tracks. Sitcoms rule.

And when it comes to drama, such admittedly adventurous and high-quality shows as “NYPD Blue,” “ER” and “Law & Order” are 10 o’clock series aimed at adults. They have something else other than sensitive, evocatively wrought family drama in mind.

That’s why “Party of Five,” which airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m., is so worthy of celebration.

It’s arguably the best show of its kind since “Life Goes On.”

In other words, it’s a family drama with a brain, one that doesn’t merely go through the motions and do paint-by-numbers storytelling. These young lives are not bundled in easy solutions.

“I think we could make a mistake and tell stories that are very melodramatic and (our) audience will know exactly what we’re trying to do and turn against us,” said Amy Lippman, who created “Party of Five” with partner Christopher Keyser.

“I think they know what we’ve spent a season trying to do is tell stories that are relatable.”

During the opening episodes that first year, the Salingers came to grips with their intense grief over the death of their parents in an auto accident.

“By removing parents - and by requiring the kids to create a family again - we made a very powerful statement in support of family,” Keyser said.

“In some ways, the parents are as present as if they were alive because these kids make rules, they criticize each other, they set up their own value system. And it reflects the values they were handed by their parents.”

But trying to hold a family together is a complicated affair.

Life keeps getting in the way.

“We try as much as possible to have the emotional development of the characters drive the series, as opposed to events,” Keyser said.

That’s what separates “Party of Five” from the saccharine formula folderol of something like “Dr. Quinn.” There’s a mature, intelligent edge to this Salinger saga, one that acknowledges human fallibility and the uncomfortable gray areas of life.

So politicians aren’t likely to ever embrace “Party of Five” as “the poster child for family values,” Lippman said. And that’s good.

“I don’t think anyone has held this show up as an example of conservative-family-values kind of television,” the producer said.

“I’m glad because I think it gives us license to have these kids make mistakes, to get into the kind of trouble that real kids would get into, without feeling like there’s some watchdog organization looking over our shoulders ready to pull an award away from us.”

Besides, “Party of Five” has already collected a prestigious 1995 Humanitas Prize for its smart, heartfelt profile of one family’s struggle to survive. And thanks to that noble “Party” animal named Fox, the Salingers of San Francisco haven’t joined the family drama casualty list.

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