Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries - Together We Stand ( a.k.a. Nothing Is Easy): Cast Photo

Together We Stand (aka Nothing is Easy) aired from September 1986 until April 1987 on CBS.

One of Tv's many amalgam-family comedies, Together We Stand had a short , disrupted run during the 1986-1987 season.Originally it starred Elliott Gould as David Randall, a former pro basketball coach for the Portland Trail blazers , who stayed in the area after retiring to open a sporting goods store.Most of the action took place at home, where he ,and his wife, Lori ( Dee Wallace Stone), had a houseful of kids aquired from various sources.Amy ( Katie O'Neill), the oldest had been adopted before Jack ( Scott Grimes), the natural son they thought they could not have ( "it was a miracle")was born. Seeing how well they did mixing a natural and adopted child , a pushy social worker then foisted on them two more adoptees , Asian-American Sam ( Ke Hu Quan) and a cute little black girl , Sally ( Natasha Bobo). Stories revolved around the cultural differences among the members of this suddenly multi-ethnic family and the adjustments that had to be made by all-Sam and Kelly having parents for the first time, and Jack and Amy having to compete with the new arrivals for their folks' time and affection.

After a low-rated and often preempted fall season, Together We stand was pulled from the schedule. It returned in February with a new title, Nothing is Easy and without star Elliott Gould. Lori was now a widow ( David had been killed in an auto accident), coping with this United Nations of kids alone. She had gone back to work, was taking courses at night school to become a legal stenographer and had to fend off the adoption agency, which had begun to think this was all a bit much for one woman. At least she gained a next-door neighbor, cynical Marion ( Julia Migenes), who was a divorcee and also a single parent.

A Review from The New York Times

By JOHN J. O'CONNOR
Published: September 22, 1986

In ''Together We Stand'' -produced and written by Michael Jacobs, directed by Will Mackenzie -the suburban parents are David and Lori Randall (Elliott Gould and Dee Wallace Stone), who have two teen-age children: Amy (Katie O'Neill), who is adopted, and her younger brother Jack (Scott Grimes), who is not. When an adoption-agency representative suddenly appears with a proposal to expand the family, Lori is gooey and willing (''I love us when we're raising children''), while David is wary.

Both are nonplussed when the ''child'' showing up for a one-day trial visit is 14-year-old Sam (Ke Huy Quan), a Vietnamese orphan whose father was an American soldier. They are no sooner charmed by perky Sam than they learn he has a 6-year-old ''sister'' (Natasha Bobo), who turns out to be black and potentially as irresistible as the youngest daughter in Bill Cosby's television family. The soundtrack audience is reduced to drawn-out ''aaaws.'' Groans would be more in order.

Mr. Gould, who has gone through several failed sitcoms in recent years, has perfected the art of looking goofy while conveying the impression that he has just visited the set for his own amusement. The younger performers are fine, especially the playful Mr. Quan, who was equally ingratiating as Short Round in the film ''Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.'' The show has its requisite quota of little lessons. Looking at the new brood of brothers and sisters, David intones, ''Sometimes you don't have to be born that way to love each other.'' No one is likely to argue. But Mr. Cosby does it better.

For a Website dedicated to Elliott Gould go to http://www.elliottgould.com/

For another Elliott Gould Website go to http://www.elliott-gould-zone.net/

For the Official Dee Wallace Website go to http://officialdeewallace.com/

For a Tribute to Ke Huy Quan go to http://huyquantribute.tripod.com/

For more on Together We Stand ( Nothing is Easy) go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Together_We_Stand