本剧主要讲述住在纽约长岛的西佛一家的日常生活故事,是中国大陆较早引进的国外情景喜剧,在中国从1990年一直播出至1994年。1990年代初期一经播出就引发了收视高潮,片中迈克开朗调皮的形象为广大观众所喜爱。而剧中西佛医生对子女采取启发式教育的方式,也让观众得到启示。
Maggie: You let him do what?
Jason: Maggie, he's fifteen years old now.
Maggie: So what! He's fifteen! It's completely arbitrary to just pick an age like that, and say that is when a kid is mature.
Jason: You know that by the time Mozart was fifteen, he'd written seven symphonies.
Maggie: That's because Mozart's father didn't let him go to "The House of Sweat".
Who did he go with?
Jason: I don't know. Some kid...Jerry Dolish, Dellish.
Maggie: Jerry "dog killer" Dellish.
Jason: Maggie, he hit one dog.
Maggie: Yeah, but he hit it four times。
Jason: Ok, well, err, Mike isn't Jerry, and a kid needs some freedom in order to learn responsibility.
Maggie: Ah Jason I know you believe in this unlimited human potential...stuff. And that's great for your patients, but when...
Maggie and Jason: ...it comes to your own children...
Maggie: ...I believe in original...[qh] 我只相信...
Jason: ...sin.
Maggie: Sin. Oh I don't know, maybe I shouldn't have gone back to work.
Jason: Now come on Maggie, don't say that.