| Director | Barry Levinson |
|---|---|
| Budget | $20 million |
| Box office | $15.7 million |
It is the late 1940s and early 1950s and much has happened to the family of Polish Jewish immigrant Sam Krichinsky since he first arrived in America in 1914 and eventually settled in Baltimore. Television is new. Neighborhoods are changing, with more and more families moving to the suburbs. Wallpaper has been Sam's profession but his son Jules Kaye wants to try his hand at opening a large discount-appliance store with his cousin Izzy Kirk.
Jules and his wife Ann still live with Jules' parents Eva and Hymie but Ann is quietly enduring the way that her opinionated mother-in-law Eva dominates the household. Ann is a modern woman who even learns to drive a car, although Eva refuses to ride with her and takes a streetcar instead.
The family contributes to a fund to bring more relatives to America and real or imagined slights concern them. When Jules and Ann finally move to the suburbs, it takes a long time for their relatives to travel to their home. After arriving late and finding a Thanksgiving turkey has been carved without him, Uncle Gabriel is offended and storms out, beginning a feud with Sam.
Sam also cannot understand the methods his grandson Michael's teachers use in school or why Jules and Izzy have changed their surnames to Kaye and Kirk as they launch their business careers. But when various crises develop, including an armed holdup and a devastating fire, the family gets through the problems together.