I just started to watch my Family DVD set again. Watching the first few episodes with Elayne Heilveil, Nancy was a doormat: mousy and totally stepped on by her rich-boy husband Jeff. Yet this Nancy had a sweet, innocent quality that made you want to protect her. Had TPTB kept Ms. Heilveil in the role, would Nancy still have evolved into the often thoughtless sexpot that MBB played?

Likewise, I wonder how MBB would've played Nancy if she'd been in the role from the beginning. Would Nancy have still been Minnie Milquetoast throughout the entire series run or would've she always been Blonde Barracuda?? So many questions.

Cheryl Ladd was the original choice to play Nancy when Elayne Heilveil left the series, until Aaron Spelling decided at the 11th hour to go with MBB because she had more acting experience. It would've been interesting to see how Ms. Ladd would've played the role. Alas, Aaron Spelling offered her a role on Charlie's Angels when Farrah Fawcett left, and the rest is history.

Finally, whatever happened to Elayne Heilveil? The only other role I saw her in was as a less-than-helpful salesgirl in a 1973 Mary Tyler Moore episode. So many questions, indeed!! :lol:

I preferred Meredith Baxter-Birney in the role. Heilveil just didn't seem to have the acting chops to play the character. She seemed sweet, but one-dimensional, IMO. Although Baxter-Birney didn't resemble anyone in the family, her acting was far superior (again, IMO), so I preferred her. After having watched the DVD's, the show didn't really pick up until Baxter-Birney entered the picture.

According to IMDB, the last thing Heilveil did was a couple of episodes of the critically acclaimed Beauty and the Beast, which was on from 1989 to 1990.

I would love to see what Elayne Heilveil looks like today. It's a shame that she was never given much to do after the pilot episode. I think Nancy was only in about 3 more episodes before the role was recast.

Here is each Nancy with the rest of the "Family":

I found Elayne Heilveil on Facebook. I requested her as a friend and hopefully will hear back soon!! :D

I preferred Meredith Baxter-Birney in the role. Heilveil just didn't seem to have the acting chops to play the character. She seemed sweet, but one-dimensional, IMO. Although Baxter-Birney didn't resemble anyone in the family, her acting was far superior (again, IMO), so I preferred her. After having watched the DVD's, the show didn't really pick up until Baxter-Birney entered the picture.

According to IMDB, the last thing Heilveil did was a couple of episodes of the critically acclaimed Beauty and the Beast, which was on from 1989 to 1990.

Elayne Heilveil was also in an episode of The Waltons
Season 3 episode "THE JOB" playing a bitter blind woman that john-boy helps

Elayne Heilveil was also in an episode of The Waltons
Season 3 episode "THE JOB" playing a bitter blind woman that john-boy helps
I never knew that - I'll have to check that out. Thanks!! :cool:

Hi there catlover79, Sophie T, & APPLEI. I know what Elayne Heilveil looks like now, because I'm a close friend of hers. If you'd like to know anything about her life now, just let me know. Maybe I could even talk her into contacting you personally.

Hi there catlover79, Sophie T, & APPLEI. I know what Elayne Heilveil looks like now, because I'm a close friend of hers. If you'd like to know anything about her life now, just let me know. Maybe I could even talk her into contacting you personally.

Cool!! :D Please tell her I said hello and hope she is doing well. :cool:

I told Elayne about you and she said to say hi back to you. She is doing fine right now, and hopes you are too. You may want to know that she is also a cat lover (as am I) and has a beautiful calico named Mischa (Mee-Sha).

Awesome!! I also enjoyed her guest spot as a bored salesgirl on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. I found a fairly recent pic of her, dated 2006:

Here are some other pics I found from back in the day:

Hi All,

Just found this blog and wanted to say I've been a fan of Elayne Heilveil's since her first role in a film called Payday. She starred opposite Rip Torn and played a southern groupie. I loved her in the part and couldn't believe she was a New York actress who did many theatre rolls. My brother also loved her in "Birds of Prey" a TV movie she starred in with David Janssen. She also starred in many other TV movies, and guest starred in many episodic shows. I recently goggled her and found that she's an award winning playwright!! How cool is that?

Best to all,
Hallishka

I just started to watch my Family DVD set again. Watching the first few episodes with Elayne Heilveil, Nancy was a doormat: mousy and totally stepped on by her rich-boy husband Jeff. Yet this Nancy had a sweet, innocent quality that made you want to protect her. Had TPTB kept Ms. Heilveil in the role, would Nancy still have evolved into the often thoughtless sexpot that MBB played?

Likewise, I wonder how MBB would've played Nancy if she'd been in the role from the beginning. Would Nancy have still been Minnie Milquetoast throughout the entire series run or would've she always been Blonde Barracuda?? So many questions.

Cheryl Ladd was the original choice to play Nancy when Elayne Heilveil left the series, until Aaron Spelling decided at the 11th hour to go with MBB because she had more acting experience. It would've been interesting to see how Ms. Ladd would've played the role. Alas, Aaron Spelling offered her a role on Charlie's Angels when Farrah Fawcett left, and the rest is history.

Finally, whatever happened to Elayne Heilveil? The only other role I saw her in was as a less-than-helpful salesgirl in a 1973 Mary Tyler Moore episode. So many questions, indeed!! :lol:

Sweet!! :cool: :D

I would love to see what Elayne Heilveil looks like today. It's a shame that she was never given much to do after the pilot episode. I think Nancy was only in about 3 more episodes before the role was recast.

Hi All,
Well, I was totally excited when I saw a show at the Music Center in Los Angeles (Follies) about a week ago and I stared at this really attractive woman (who looked exactly like Elayne Heilveil used to look, with long, curly great hair) and I went up to her and asked if her name was Elayne. She said 'yes' and asked if she knew me? I then asked if she was the actress who I'd seen in so many things and she said, yes. I immediately asked her to sign an autograph and take a picture with me, then all these other people recognized her and asked for autographs too and she was surrounded. I asked her if she had a picture of Dorian Gray in her attic, cause she looked exactly the same as I remembered her. She was really beautiful in person and so sweet and gracious. I saw the very first film she did, called Payday, where she starred opposite Rip Torn and you wouldn't even believe she was the same actress. She played a southern groupie and the New York Times said she was an 'all american original'. I've watched her career ever since. She's done so many different things. I was so excited to actually meet her, it totally made my week!

^ Awwww, that's terrific. I'm so glad you got to meet Elayne and that she turned out to be everything you expected and more!! :cool: :D

I haven't seen her on anything in a long time, doesn't she want to do acting any longer? Does she do plays or anything?

Since she was on the show longer, i'd have to go with MBB.

Meredith Baxter-Birney actually brought me to the show, when I looked for her work pre-Family Ties. Still, the more I watched Family, the more I realized I wasn' truly interested in her character. Kristy McNichols and Sada Thompson (both of them I had never seen before) really made it for me.
I think Elayne Heivel and MBB had a different view of Nancy. The former was more of a childlike, frail character, while the latter, although pretty brazen, seemed able to take her life in charge. I guess I prefer Heyvel's potrayal in the end. More dramatic, and more original, sometimes in a rather disturbing light: like her casual, innocent behaviour at her son's christening, as she's apparently unaware of the painful memories it brings back to the rest of the family. Heyvel made Nancy aloof, yet likeable. Baxter-Birney, on the other hand gave a more down-to-earth character, that suited well the change of mood in the series, since the second season : more of a mix between drama and comedy.

Meredith Baxter Birney. I didn't like the first Nancy at all although I wasn't a big fan of the 2nd Nancy either. But MBB was good. And so pretty. But Kristy McNichol is the one who made the show for me.

I just found some Family episodes on Youtube. I was very confused when watching the pilot because the only Nancy I knew was played by MBB. I loved watching this show when I was younger however I now see that I didn't start watching until the second season. I had NO idea there was another son, Timmy, who died. Really wish there were more shows like Family on TV now days.

After I watched the first episodes again I liked Elayne as Nancy. Meredith was ok too but they turned her character into a selfish, self important, person whom I didn't care for. That wasn't Meredith's fault. But I do wish that John Rubinstein would have been in more episodes. I thought he was cute.:)

Cheryl Ladd was not the second choice for the role of Nancy. An actress named Jane Actman got the role after Elayne Heilveil was let go. After filming two episodes, she was also let go. Meredith Baxter Barney was hired - over Cheryl Ladd - and then refilled all of Actman's scenes.

Ladd didn't start on Charlie's Angels until a year after the lost out on the part of Nancy.

I'll have to go with Elayne. Meredith's acting is certainly fine, but I'm finding how her character was handled maybe a little heavy-handed by the writers.

After I watched the first episodes again I liked Elayne as Nancy. Meredith was ok too but they turned her character into a selfish, self important, person whom I didn't care for. That wasn't Meredith's fault. But I do wish that John Rubinstein would have been in more episodes. I thought he was cute.:)

Yeah, he was really cute!:) And I sort of agree, I think Elayne was better as Nancy than Meredith ! Even though I was more familiar with Meredith being she was in more episodes . Elayne looked more like she belonged in that family ! Meredith didn't look like the rest of them at all !! :confused:

Yeah, he was really cute!:) And I sort of agree, I think Elayne was better as Nancy than Meredith ! Even though I was more familiar with Meredith being she was in more episodes . Elayne looked more like she belonged in that family ! Meredith didn't look like the rest of them at all !! :confused:

Meredith just seemed out of place as the new Nancy. Elayne really fit in, but I assume she didn't want to continue playing the role when ABC renewed it for a full season in fall 1976, following the spring mini-series. She probably thought it wouldn't have been picked up as a regular show. I'm actually trying to locate episodes of shows she was in (like in a 1977 episode of Serpico, the short-lived TV series with David Birney, the religiously-themed special 3 Days from 1984, and the unsold HBO pilot All Night Radio from 1982).

I had never seen the original Family episodes with Elayne Heilveil until recently … had only seen Family with Meredith Baxter-Birney. This would ordinarily have made seeing a different actress in the role an adjustment and put her at a disadvantage. But Heilveil was outstanding. Her performance in the opening sequence was especially memorable. It’s unfortunate she wasn’t given a little more time while she was with the series.

Overall, I favor the original version of Nancy. At first she seemed more the victim of Jeff’s immaturity, but with the change she seemed to take the upper hand in that department, leaving Jeff the more sympathetic character. Elayne Nancy was a warmer, more likable character. Meredith Nancy seemed cooler and more immature and self centered. A bias against ‘strong’ women? Not if Kate is any indication … she is formidable, but likable, inspires respect, and generous. Buddy was my personal favorite, having been a teen at the time the show debuted. Had Elayne Nancy had more time to develop character dimension, I think she would be remembered more positively even by Meredith Nancy fans.

Not to take anything away from Baxter-Birney … just a different look and a different personality. The writers seem to have changed their approach along with the casting change. Baxter-Birney played the lines she was given flawlessly. Crucially for the series, she fit the Lawrence family well.

As far as the Family women are concerned, Sada Thompson and Kristy McNichol played the indispensable roles.

By today’s more serialized standards, we might wish for more multi-episode story arcs, but the rarely on-the-nose dialogue, and especially the setting, characters, music and sepia tinged ambience make Family still one of my all time favorites.