Accidental Family is an American sitcom broadcast on NBC during the first part of the 1967-68 U.S. television season. The show ran for sixteen episodes, from September 15, 1967, to January 5, 1968.
The show aired on Fridays at 9:30pm, sandwiched between the non-sitcoms Star Trek before it, and documentaries after, which was not considered an auspicious timeslot. The program consistently lost in the Nielsen ratings to both the CBS Friday Night Movies and the ABC Western The Guns of Will Sonnett and was cancelled, midseason as a result. It was initially replaced by the first prime time run of the game show Hollywood Squares.
Van Dyke publicly groused about the show's timeslot, complaining that nobody watched the show because of its competition. By October 13 — the airdate of the fourth episode — Van Dyke was already declaring defeat in the Arizona Daily Star. "In this business you've got to have such confidence," he said, "and I never did, so I'm beginning to wonder about myself. I'll tell you; I could use a success about now, and I believe this is a good show, but we've got to get out of that Friday night."