The Torkelsons

This sweet comedy series focused on a 14-year-old girl who's mortified by her crazy and unorthodox family. Dorothy Jane Torkelson just wanted to be thought of as normal, like any teenager, but had a hard time doing so. Her father had recently walked out on the family and they were always short on money. Her perky, optimistic mom, Millicent, saw sunshine everywhere. The rest of the family consisted of brothers - athletic Steven Floyd and studious Chuckie Lee, and sisters - spunky Ruth Ann and cute Mary Sue. They lived in a big rambling house in Pyramid Corners, Oklahoma. Millicent, in order to makes ends meet, ended up taking in a boarder to help with the expenses.

The series apparently turned out to be a little too down home for most people as it never found much of an audience in its original Saturday night timeslot and even less of one when it was moved to Sundays. After a second hiatus, the series was revamped to return in February 1993 as Almost Home. For the new series the family moved to Seattle, where Millicent took a job as a nanny for the two spoiled teenage children of a widower. Two of the Torkelson kids were lost in the new series as they never appeared in Seattle and the show pretended they never existed. The new series, which mostly pitted conservative family values against liberal family values, did not do any better in the ratings and disappeared after 13 episodes.

Opening Theme