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We've gotten a lot of feedback from our readers and some of you told us that the Michaels family exploits can be very confusing, especially for someone just discovering them. Of course, the best thing to do is to start out reading Relativity1, but I understand that isn't always possible. Even then, some people are still struggling with who's related to whom, etc. One person suggested going through the timeline and reading all the stories in chronological order, but if you don't have all the issues, that's a little difficult to do. Also, a lot of the family background exists only in the minds of the authors. We discuss a lot of stuff, but it doesn't all get written down in the stories. What I decided to do is to put down what I hope is a coherent version of the family history. We tried to stick with as much of the original background given to each of the cousins on their respective shows, then expanded on what we had to work with. Of course, some of the shows were terribly inconsistent and some never bothered to give any kind of past to their characters. Most of the basic setting comes from some throw away lines Andy uses on WKRP: the fact that he's from Santa Fe, that his uncle had a farm around Glorieta, that his aunt and uncle were close-minded and opinionated, etc. We took it from there and stuck in some of our favorite characters who fit the bill as cousins.
Not everyone came into the family at the same time. Some characters fit in so well it was scary. When we decided Scott McCall looked totally cousinish, there was a place all ready to plug in both he and Robert. But then some people, like Sam Beckett, cried out to be a cousin but there wasn't really a place to put him, mostly because Quantum Leap aired so many years after the original family was created. We had to make up an entirely new line so we could add him. Then there are the totally made up cousins, created to fill the gaps and round out the family. Hopefully the mix works. A lot of times we came across someone, usually an actor or actress but not always, that looked like a cousin but had no character that fit into the family. That's when we started casting the made-up members. I've included the actors we patterned the characters after to help you visualize them. Keep in mind, not all the family has been cast. And of course, the cousins who came directly from their shows were already cast for us. So, here goes.
(Totally made up)
Steven Andrew Michaels was born in Kansas City, Missouri on May 8, 1900. He left school to work on his
father's farm, then left home at sixteen to go to work for the railroad. That job took him to many different places, but
he finally settled in Phoenix, Arizona when he met Katherine Anne Murphy. She was born in a little town in Arizona
called Thatcher on January 14, 1902, where her father was a doctor. They moved to Phoenix when Katherine was a
young girl. Steven and Katherine were married on April 30, 1920 in Phoenix and had seven children: Jacob, Robert,
Elizabeth, Thelma, Katie, Jennifer and Jonathan. Katherine died on August 12, 1980 and Steven died January 14, 1991.
Physically, Steven was tall and lean. Easy going to a fault, he let his wife handle most of the family dealings. Katherine, though short in stature, was a capable matriarch. Though extremely loving and patient, she had a temper and was a force to be reckoned with when moved to anger.
His senior year in high school, J.J. dated a neighbor girl named Maria Torres. Because Maria's father was Mexican, Jake was furious about the relationship and never missed a chance to try and break it up. J.J. and Maria finally called it quits on their own when J.J. left for West Point. After he was gone, Maria discovered she was pregnant. Confused and frightened, she came to Jake for help. He gave her money and made her promise to move away and never tell anyone about the baby. J.J. came home from school and Jake introduced him to a girl he deemed more appropriate. J.J. went out with her and they were even engaged for a while, but it didn't work, much to Jake's fury. J.J. went back to West Point and played for the football team. While they were at UCLA for a game, he met Rose Foley. It was pretty much love at first sight.
Rose was born on March 3, 1944 to a Japanese mother who was interred at Manzanar during the war. Her father was one of the camp guards. Her mother, disgraced by having a child out of wedlock, committed suicide when Rose was only a few months old. She ended up in an orphanage where she spent the rest of her childhood. There she befriended a small group of other girls and when she was sixteen or seventeen, the whole gang was adopted by millionaire Nick Foley. Though she was older, she still looked on Nick as her father. Nick himself was a self-made millionaire, growing up tough on his own. When Rose met her Jake (she never called him J.J.), it took Nick a while to get used to the idea of letting one of his girls go, but he liked and respected J.J.
Their wedding in Bel Air, on February 5, 1965, should have been a fairy tale, but thanks to Uncle Jake, not everything went perfectly. His intense hatred of the Japanese people left him incapable of accepting his son's bride. They never reconciled.
J.J. and Rose had one son, Nicholas Jacob Michaels, but J.J. never even knew he was going to be a father. While at West Point, J.J. had been recruited by Robert McCall and started working for the CIA type organization known as The Company. Soon after he and Rose were married, J.J. was sent to Viet Nam, where he was killed on May 13, 1965. Nicky was born on December 30, 1965 and he and Rose lived with her father in Bel Air. Rose went on to school and finished her dreams of becoming a doctor. She works as a pediatrician at UCLA.
Yvette Marcel is the illegitimate daughter of Robert McCall. Her mother, a French woman named Manon, was the one true love of McCall's life, yet she never told him she was going to have his child. Manon married Anthony Zerbe's character (pardon me for my lapse of memory here... I don't have The Equalizer on tape to look up this man's name.) and after she died, he raised Yvette in Canada. After she was a grown woman, her father and McCall became involved in a case together and she found out who her real father was. In getting to know her newly found family, she was introduced to Nick Michaels. An attorney as well, Yvette is a prosecutor. Although this made for some interesting conflicts between them, Nick and Yvette fell in love anyway. They made their home in Los Angeles, where Yvette works for the D.A.'s office. They have three children: Cassidy Franklin Michaels, born March 17, 1996 in the middle of a snow storm in Bay City, Illinois; Kendra Ann Michaels, born April 10, 1997, and Kevin Edward Michaels, born February 18, 1999. Both of the younger children arrived less dramatically in Los Angeles.
The Raglands raised Buddy alone for a few years then they eventually took in three more boys who'd been orphaned as a result of criminal violence. Raphael Martinez, Matthew Matheson and much later, Darnell Johnson. Though they started out as foster parents, Mike and Kitty ended up adopting all four boys. They did insist however, that each boy keep his own last name as a link to where he came from.
The older three boys grew up inseparable. They all became police officers and formed an elite squad working under their father. Buddy, always obsessed to punish the man he thought had killed his real father, finally found out the truth and had to do a lot of soul searching to come to terms with what that meant in his life. Around that same time, in 1995, he was found by the Michaels clan. Now he really had to figure out what his life was all about. He agreed to come to the '95 reunion and meet his real family. He is a dead ringer for his father.
Robert Scott McCall was born on July 24, 1935, in Devonshire, England. Somehow, (it was not made clear on the show), he ended up working for "The Company," an American intelligence network. For our purposes we've decided he was recruited in college by Matthew Stetson and became friends with the American couple. When he first started in his line of work, he spent time with the Stetson's and their young son, Lee. When his friends were killed he was on an assignment out of the country and he lost track of Lee for several years. When they met up again McCall took greater pains to keep tabs on the young boy and was instrumental in Lee choosing intelligence as a career.
In the late fifties and early sixties, McCall was involved in some recruiting. During a stint at West Point, he met J.J. Michaels. When he learned he was Jenny Stetson's nephew, McCall became very interested in the young man who already showed great potential for the business. In their dealings, they became good friends. The tables were now turned and McCall was to J.J. what Matt Stetson had been to a young Robert McCall. He was J.J.'s best man when he married Rose and after he was killed, McCall and Rose stayed very good friends. He took J.J.'s death hard, feeling like he was responsible for it. It was through his friendship with J.J. that McCall met Kay Michaels.
McCall started out very idealistic, but the years of covert operations began to wear on him. The line between black and white grew shaded. Never at peace with having to kill anyone, he began to question what he was doing and why. Sometime around 1983 or '84, he "resigned" from The Company, something no one did and lived to tell about. Ever resourceful, he managed to survive and went into the business of helping those with no where else to turn. For a long time he was estranged from his son, but as Scott got older and a little more mature, both father and son became closer.
Scott has always been interested in music and is an accomplished violinist. He played in Europe for a while, until he clashed with the conductor and was dropped from the symphony. When he returned home he came back to McCall's place in New York. While he was there he began to fully understand what exactly his father did for a living. He also found he had a knack for that kind of work himself, though he had no desire to pursue it.
Scott was always the pet of his grandfather Jake and many times acted as a go-between for his cousin Nicky and his grandparents. He and Nicky are only a few weeks apart in age and have always been close friends. Scott's other close friends are his cousins, Jeffers and Allie Carmichael.
Known as Lia, Amelia Michaela Cord was born August 23, 1966 in Los Angeles, California. She is the descendant of the Cords and the Quinns (from Paradise and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman). She comes from a family of policemen, though she herself is a doctor. She works out of the same hospital that Rose Michaels does. It was there that she met Scott, during a siege by some gang members trying to rescue their wounded friends. Because of his feelings for Lia, Scott takes a job with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and moves to L.A. for good. They were married in a double wedding ceremony with Nicky and Yvette on September 16, 1995 at the Foley Mansion in Bel Air. They have three children: Ethan Robert McCall, born October 5, 1997, Kathleen Amelia McCall, born July 6, 1999, and Nicole Yvette McCall, born February 14, 2006. All three children were born in Santa Monica, California.
Margaret Joan Sandler was born on December 3, 1922 in San Francisco, California. She was an only child and her mother died when she was six years old. Her father raised her, taking her from one town to the next, always in search of a job, leaving her alone sometimes for days at a time. Her idea of family life was vastly different than Robbie's. She had just broken off a long time relationship when she met Robbie and the quiet sailor's kind words of sympathy called to her. She rushed into a relationship, taking a breathless Robbie with her. It wasn't long after their marriage however, that she began to suspect she'd made a mistake, though at the time, divorce was not something to be considered.
They were mismatched from the start. All Robbie had ever desired was the kind of family life his parents enjoyed. He wanted a lot of noisy kids and a wife who would be content to stay home and take care of the job of raising those children. Margo on the other hand, soon realized she was not cut out to be the motherly type. She needed to have a life outside her home, all the things women in the fifties and sixties were told they weren't supposed to want. She kept a lot of this buried inside, but all too often it would come spilling out, resulting in more and more frequent fights between Margo and Robbie. They managed to stay together for eighteen years, but theirs was not a happy home. They had two boys: Steven and Murphy. In 1961, Margo left her family for good. No longer able to live with the constant battle, she felt it would be better for the boys if she left. She never contacted them again, though she did keep track of what her children were doing with their lives. She died on July 26, 1978. Robbie was never quite the same after she left and he never remarried.
Steven attended UCLA and became a high school football coach. He met Karen Ann Keeler at college and they were married on August 27, 1969. They have three children: Kevin James Michaels, born July 8, 1972, Patrick Ryan Michaels, born January 29, 1975, and Amy Louise Michaels, born January 3, 1982. The family lives in Newport Beach, California.
As Murphy grew older, he found consolation in athletics. On the playing field he could vent a lot of his emotions and frustrations. He excelled in basketball, eventually playing for USC. He graduated in 1973 with a degree in criminal justice. For a time he had thoughts of becoming a police officer, but had always harbored a desire to find his mother and ended up going into private investigation. He apprenticed at Hayvenhurst Detective Agency. It was while working there that he met and became friends with Laura Holt. From the moment he met her, Murphy was head over heels for her, though he never told her how he felt. Instead, he let their friendship develop until it was rock solid. When Laura decided to establish her own detective agency in 1979, Murphy left Hayvenhurst and went with her. Though that business folded after only six months, Murphy hung in there and went right along with Laura's new scheme, opening up Remington Steele Investigations. Laura and Murphy did all the work for a while until the "real" Remington Steele appeared on the scene. It was then that Murphy's life took a dramatic change.
He'd been content to be Laura's friend, working with her and just being near her. Now, as he watched Laura fall in love with Steele, Murphy felt her slipping away from him. His animosity towards Steele increased until it became an intolerable situation. He finally found the courage to tell Laura how he felt about her but by then, it was too late. She tried to let him down gently, but he knew she would never be more than a friend. He decided it was best for everybody if he left the Agency and struck out on his own. Before he could accomplish this, an incident occurred that forced him to hide Steele out in the mountains. During the resulting melee, Murphy was shot in the leg. Steele saved his life that night, changing Murphy's attitude about a lot of things. The bullet wound left him with a bad left leg that acts up every once and a while at our authors' discretion. (See "Will You Steele Need Me?" in Steele Files)
Murphy moved to Denver, Colorado and opened up Colorado Investigations and Security. While there, he renewed his relationship with Sherry Webster, a woman he'd met shortly before he left Los Angeles. They were married at the ranch in Glorieta on August 1, 1985 and have one son, Thomas Alexander Michaels, born May 11, 1986.
Sherry Webster was born March 15, 1954 in Torrance, California. She was always the kind of woman who excelled in just about anything she tried, though she found it a bit of a nuisance to always beat the guys she was trying to date. She developed a habit of down playing her own abilities. She became a psychologist, though when she met Murphy she told him she was a stewardess. From the moment they met, Sherry knew Murphy was the right person for her. When he moved to Denver, she obtained a teaching post at Denver University and followed Murphy there. They resumed their relationship and were married. Sherry knows that Laura Holt will always hold a special place in Murphy's heart, but she also is secure about Murphy's love for her. After she had Tommy, she had five miscarriages and then the doctor told her not to try anymore. It is a source of sadness for both Sherry and Murphy that they couldn't have any more children, though they are godparents to Laura and Remington's daughter, Katie Laura. Later they become Katie Laura's in-laws, when she and Tom are married.
Tom takes after his father. Tall and blond, he is athletic, though he doesn't really pursue any collegiate sports. His big interest is motorcycles, something that stays with him his whole life. He attended college and started out in pre-law. He then decided he wanted to go into law enforcement and joined the California Highway Patrol, as a motorcycle cop of course.
Around the age of fifteen Tom discovered that his feelings for Katie Laura were more than just friendship, though he never told her this. It takes them many more years before they progress to anything further. They finally marry on June 15, 2012 at the Steele home in Los Angeles, California. At the time of this writing, only one of their children is identified, Robert Remington Michaels. He is born on February 5, 2014. According to Pat, the creator of the Katie Laura Universe, Tom and Katie have two other children, a daughter who dies of SIDS at around eight months old and another son. This is mostly unexplored territory however.
Katherine Laura Steele was born on May 15, 1987 in Los Angeles, California. Her physical features most resemble her father. She has dark brown hair, blue eyes and a slim build. Her temperament is more like her mother. She is a workaholic, energetic and single-minded of purpose, with a wild, rebellious streak that comes out occasionally. She grew up being nurtured by her father and her nanny, Maggie Parks. When she got older she attended private schools in L.A., then went on to attend her mother's alma mater, Stanford. She graduated with a degree in criminology, then interned with her "uncle" Murphy at his agency in Denver. After that she spent a year with New Scotland Yard in London, but decided she wanted to come home and work with her parents. After she came back from London, she met back up with Tom Michaels and they realized the depths of their feelings for each other.
In 1975 Elizabeth and Addison were involved in an auto accident with a drunk driver which left Elizabeth partially paralyzed. She spent the rest of her life confined to a wheel chair. They are a close-knit family and all five children keep in frequent contact with their parents.
Melanie Slozar was born on August 27, 1951 in Billings, Montana. The only daughter of a cattle rancher, she was encouraged from birth to compete right alongside her three brothers. She went to college and graduated with a Ph.D. in physics. She went to work for NASA as a fuel expert. There she met Skip and they dated for a while but she grew tired of what she termed his "hare-brained schemes." Plus, he never seemed to be serious about the two of them. She broke it off with him and soon after resigned from NASA. Her work went unrewarded, mostly due to her being a woman and she grew tired of the inequity. She ended up rigging special effects for movie studios in Hollywood. It was there that Skip found her again and recruited her for Harry's project. Though she was skeptical at first, she began to believe in the dream and joined their team whole-heartedly. She ended up accompanying Skip to the moon.
A few years later, while trying to work on a way to bring an iceberg down to help solve a small island's water shortage, Melanie met a young girl around eleven years old. Michelle Ryan's parents had been physicists but they had been killed several years before. Michelle was living in a small orphanage on the island. She hero worshiped Melanie and Mel, in turn, grew attached to the bright little girl. She wanted to adopt her but at the time, single parent adoptions were practically unheard of. This prompted Skip to finally act on the feelings he'd had for some time. He proposed marriage at last. He and Mel got married and adopted Michelle.
Phillip King was born on June 4, 1972 in Arlington, Virginia, the oldest son of Joe and Amanda King. His parents divorced when he was about eight or nine. He never saw much of his father until he got a little older. By then, Amanda was involved with Lee Stetson and Phillip looked on Lee as a substitute father. Phillip knew Michelle since they were kids but had always thought of her as a tag along. When he was about eighteen or nineteen, he realized Michelle had grown up, but it isn't until they meet up again a few years later that anything develops between them. They get married on July 12, 1997. Phillip attended college at Georgetown and then followed in Lee's footsteps and joined the intelligence community, though more in the Jack Ryan vein of analysis, rather than a lot of field work. Phillip and Michelle have three children: Joseph Lee King, born June 20, 1999; Melanie Sue King and Kelly Marie King, born March 1, 2001. The family lives in Baltimore, Maryland.
Mickey Foley was born on April 21, 1955 in Sherman Oaks, California. Orphaned as an infant, she spent her early years in an orphanage until she was adopted with five other girls by Nick Foley. The youngest of the group, she spent the most amount of time with Nick and he considers her his baby. She also attended UC Davis' vet school. That's where she and Jeffers really got to know each other. They were married on December 1, 1986 at the Foley mansion in Bel Air. They have two children: Jessica Mary and Jenna Rose Carmichael, born July 12, 1988. They live in Glendale and both work for the Equestrian Center in Los Angeles.
John Samuel Beckett was born on July 26, 1925 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He was raised on his father's dairy farm in Elkridge, Indiana. When his father died, John took over the farm and that's where he and Thelma raised their family. They had three children: Thomas John Beckett, born December 2, 1949; Samuel James Beckett, born August 8, 1953 and Katherine Marie Beckett, born April 24, 1957. All three children were born at home.
Because it was a working farm, the Becketts seldom returned to Glorieta for any of the family reunions. Consequently, the Beckett children didn't know their cousins well. John Beckett died on December 3, 1972.
Sam's best friend is Al Calavicci, an admiral in the Navy with a penchant for women and a slightly troubled past. Together they developed Project Quantum Leap, a way to travel in time. Sam became impatient with all the government red tape and bureaucracy and decided to test the project on himself. As a result, he has been caught in a time loop, leaping around his own lifetime for the past several years. The family has no idea that he is gone, only that he's busy on some top secret project.
Stories involving Sam can be unique and varied, depending on whether all the leaping has changed any of the family's history.
Richard Clayton Travis was born on February 8, 1925 in El Paso, Texas. The oldest of ten children, he left home at fifteen to make a living for himself. He had many different occupations but finally settled in Phoenix and worked at a hardware store. As soon as he was old enough to fight in the war, he joined the army and fought in Germany. When he came back he meet Katie at a church dance. He fell in love right away but it took him a while to convince Katie they were meant to be together. She wasn't certain he was stable enough to provide for a family. He eventually won her over. They were married on February 14, 1947 in Phoenix, Arizona. They had three children: Andrew, Carol and Richard. Shortly after their last baby was born, Clayton got a chance to buy a landscaping business in Santa Fe and he packed up the family and moved them there. That's where they stayed.
Andy was always Uncle Jake's pet whipping boy. Maybe because Jake never got along with Andy's mother. Or maybe because Andy would talk back to him. Whatever the reason, Andy and Jake never got along and Jake was always ready to pin the blame for any trouble on his feisty young nephew. It wasn't until Andy was older that he learned to just ignore his uncle.
Andy was always interested in radio. He attended the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque where he majored in Broadcasting and Communications. His college years came at the end of the sixties and the early seventies. Though he got into the hippie lifestyle a little, mostly his hair, clothing and anti-war sentiments, he never got into the drug scene. He did indulge in some drinking escapades, mostly beer parties, but it was never a habitual thing.
Though a bit shorter than some of the typical jocks (Gary Sandy has claimed to be six feet tall, though I still am dubious), Andy was athletic anyway, playing a lot of pickup basketball, football and baseball. He never lacked for dates and, true to the mores of his generation, had no qualms about one night stands until he got a little older. After he graduated, he began a series of jobs in the radio business, becoming an exceptional program director. He never stayed at one place very long though. He was good at his job and would come in, get a station going, then move on. It was during those years that he had a serious relationship with an aspiring singer, Linda Taylor. Though things looked headed in a long term direction, Linda's career got in the way. She moved on, leaving Andy to pick up the pieces. They met up again a few years later, when Linda was a successful entertainer, and tried to take up where they'd left off. It didn't work out for them. Too many other things were important to Linda. This time it was Andy who ended it and moved on.
In 1978 he accepted a job as program director of WKRP in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was a turning point in his life. Though the place was a certifiable loony bin, Andy finally found a place he could call home. It took some attitude adjusting on his part to accept that this crazy place was where he wanted to stay, but he did and he worked wonders with the station, bringing it up as high as number six in the ratings. It was a constant battle with the station's owner, Lillian Carlson, a ruthless business woman who never let anything stand in the way of making money.
In 1986 Andy attended the annual family reunion, held that year at Disneyland. There he met Caitlin O'Conner. They hit it off pretty well but the geography was all wrong for anything serious. Caitlin lived in Los Angeles and Andy was in Ohio. After he went home, the two corresponded occasionally but it wasn't until the winter of 1987 that anything else happened between them. They both attended a holiday ski trip hosted by Murphy and Sherry. It was during that time that they realized how much they meant to each other. It was one of the fastest courtship's on record. They were married at the lodge on January 6, 1988. They have five children: Katrina, Daniel, Shane, Shawna and B.J.
In the summer of 1994, after Uncle Jake died, Andy was offered the chance to come back to New Mexico and run the ranch. Scott and Nicky had no interest in the place but they didn't want to sell it either. Andy was a prime candidate. Mrs. Carlson had driven nearly all his friends to seek employment at other, more lucrative stations and he was at his wits end, trying to support his family on the small amount of money he was being paid. He took the job and moved his young family back home to Santa Fe.
Caitlin O'Connor was born May 24, 1956 in Dublin, Ireland. Her mother died at her birth and the only thing Cait knows is her name was Katherine. She never knew who her father was. She was raised in St. Timothy's Home for Orphan Children in Dublin until she was sixteen. At that time she ran away and made her way to London. On the streets alone and without any money she resorted to prostitution as a way to support herself. She lived on the streets for a couple of years then she shared a flat with another prostitute friend who ended up being murdered by one of her tricks.
Scared, Caitlin used all the money she'd managed to save to buy air fare to New York. Hoping to start a new life, she soon found herself in the same situation she'd been in before. Hungry and broke, she resumed the only work she knew. For a time she worked for a pimp named Rudy Stanton, but his involvement in drugs and the way he treated the girls who worked for him disgusted her. Cait turned Rudy over to the police and went to work on her own again. In 1982, now 26 years old and despairing of ever getting out, she witnessed a murder. In the course of events, she met Robert McCall and Mickey Kostmayer. McCall saw something of promise in the young woman and gave her enough money to really start over. Cait moved to Los Angeles and finished her schooling. She was able to get a decent job and make an okay living.
Early in 1985 Caitlin was introduced to Remington Steele. Both Irish born of dubious parentage, they were the victims of a hoax to release a vast fortune that was tied up in probate until two missing heirs were found. They were told they were half brother and sister, that they had the same father. There was an instant bond between them. Physically they resembled each other, with their dark hair and blue eyes. Cait was tall and slim like Remington. Without waiting to find out the truth, both knew they were brother and sister. When the hoax was revealed it also came out that both their mothers were named Katherine. So instead of having the same father, they may have had the same mother. Though there is no way to prove their relationship, both accepted it as true.
Cait became friends with Laura and Mildred, as well as meeting Murphy and forming a friendship with him. When the Michaels family held their reunion at Disneyland, the Steeles and Cait were invited. This was where she met Andy.
When she married into the Michaels family, Cait became enamored with the concept of such a large extended family. She never had that herself and took it upon herself to become the official family historian. When they moved to the ranch in Glorieta, she was never happier than when hosting the reunions.
Daniel Clayton Travis was born on December 12, 1989 in Cincinnati, Ohio. His birth put to rest any lingering doubts about Cait and Remington's relationship. With his dark hair and blue eyes, he looks so much like his Uncle Remington it becomes a family joke. He is very close friends with his cousin, Brian Steele and when they are ten years old, he is kidnaped in Brian's place.
Shane Andrew Travis and Shawna Michelle Travis were born on June 3, 1991 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Just as Andy was about to give up on having any genetic influence on his offspring, the twins were born blonde and blue eyed.
Robert James Travis, known as B.J. to the family, was born on December 30, 1994 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He at last is the blending of both parents, with light brown hair and green eyes. He was named after Robert McCall, who had a great deal of influence on Cait's life as well as Andy's. He was also instrumental in B.J. being born at all since he helped save Cait's life early in her pregnancy.
Matthew Lee Stetson was born on June 6, 1925 in Hartford, Connecticut. He had one brother, Charles who was five years older. Their parents died in 1935, when Matt was only ten years old. Charles took care of Matt until 1941, when World War II broke out. Charles joined the army. Sixteen year old Matt took care of himself after that until he was old enough to join as well. He was sent to Germany and was wounded in his first battle. He never saw any more fighting. He was recruited into the Army's intelligence division where he stayed the rest of his life. He spent time in Korea and after the war, was sent to Japan. His only family besides Jenny and their son Lee, was his brother Charles, who had also become career military. Matt regretted being the cause of his wife's estrangement with her family and always hoped for a reconciliation one day.
In 1952, the family was assigned to England. There Matt met and befriended a young Robert McCall. A rookie in the business, Matt took him under his wing and helped him a great deal. It was after Matt's death that Robert made the move to America.
When Lee was eleven years old, the Colonel was sent to White Sands, New Mexico on a classified mission. He took the occasion to drop Lee off at the ranch to stay for a few days. It was the first time Lee had met his mother's family. He quickly made friends with his cousins, Skip, Andy and Murphy. They became his closest confidants and stayed that way throughout his life. This was also the year that Lee met up with Robert McCall again. McCall had a profound influence on the young boy and from then on they never lost touch with each other again. Lee also developed close attachments to his Grandma Michaels, finding in her the mother he never had. Lee ended up staying at the ranch the entire summer and each summer after that would come for a visit. Each year though, it became harder and harder to leave. He began to distance himself emotionally and as he got older and started college, his visits became rare, though he did stay pretty much in touch with his cousins. As an adult he stopped coming back altogether, with the exception of attending his grandmother's funeral. Then, in 1984, he returned while trying to help Amanda rescue her kidnapped son. After that, he started coming more regularly again.
During his college years, Lee was unsettled. He wasn't sure what he wanted to do with his life and as a result, got into quite a bit of trouble. He was "asked to leave" several colleges. He finally did graduate and was recruited into "The Agency." He was a promising agent and was assigned to the Oz Network, where he worked under the brilliant Paul Barnes. His code name Scarecrow, a nickname in childhood games, was pegged on him then and stuck with him the rest of his career. Lee quickly made a name for himself as an agent, as well as a playboy. Emotionally he was cautious about becoming close to people and he almost never entered into long-term relationships with women. He had a partner who took a bullet in the head meant for Lee. After that, Lee worked alone, refusing to have another partner.
In the fall of 1983, Lee happened to meet Amanda King, a divorced mother of two who was about as opposite of Lee as anyone could be. They were thrown together because of the case Lee was working on and after that they became unofficial partners. Amanda started out as strictly civilian help, but she showed a lot of promise and in her eager enthusiasm, went on to take all kinds of agent training courses. She and Lee eventually became legitimate partners as well as very good friends. Of course that friendship became more over the course of time, but Lee was reluctant to admit to any feelings for Amanda. Finally neither one could deny how they felt and they were married, secretly at first for her family's safety. When Amanda became pregnant, Lee began to look into other ways to make a living, since he was concerned about his family's well being. He left the field and took a desk job at the State Department. He did that for a few years but gradually became bored with it. He and Amanda eventually start their own business doing investigative work for the government.
Amanda West was born on February 10, 1952 in Arlington, Virginia. We don't know a lot of detail about her early life, though it was probably pretty normal. She spent a lot of time in the outdoors, camping and hiking in the hills around her home. Her father died fairly young, probably when she was a teenager. Amanda went to college locally and there met Joseph David King, a young law student. They were married on May 7, 1970. They had two sons, Phillip and Jamie. After law school, Joe King started working with various government agencies and spent a great deal of time away from home. This more than anything contributed to the break up of his marriage to Amanda. When it became obvious that the boys weren't her husband's first priority, Amanda and Joe split. Theirs was probably the most amicable divorce in history and they remain friends to this day.
Amanda's mother Dotty moved into the house to help Amanda cope with raising her sons. Amanda, previously content to stay at home and be the best mom in the world, now had to struggle with finding a job and dealing with the work force. She did meet and have a relationship with a weatherman named Dean, but she wasn't willing to make a commitment to him. It seemed Dotty liked Dean more than Amanda did. They went out for a while but went no further.
When circumstances threw Amanda and Lee together, it kindled in Amanda a spark of excitement in her otherwise day to day life. And Lee wasn't bad to look at either, though he was arrogant and rude most of the time. They eventually came to terms with each other as partners and then more than that. Amanda fell in love with Lee a long time before she would admit it to herself and it was even longer before Lee declared his own feelings. They finally did marry and it was the best thing that could have happened for both of them. After a little adjustment all around, both Phillip and Jamie looked to Lee as a friend and substitute father. Lee and Amanda had two children of their own: Jennifer Leigh Stetson, born May 1, 1989 and Matthew Murphy Stetson, born at home and delivered by Lee on November 28, 1990. The Stetsons live on some small acreage in Rockville, Maryland where they keep several horses.
Eleanor Jean Wallace was born on February 7, 1938 in Sacramento, California. She attended college at Berkeley and became a high school biology teacher. She met Jonathan when he attended a safety seminar at her school. It is with their children that the APOCRYPHAL COUSINS begin.
Stephanie Crandell was born on January 16, 1960, in Los Angeles, California. She went to Pepperdine College and became a lawyer and later a judge. That's how she met Joshua. While Stephanie doesn't actually have any extraordinary powers or abilities, her children swear she is psychic.
Laura Holt is an over-achiever from the word go. The middle of three girls, she was always trying to prove herself to a mother who never understood her independent daughter. Laura graduated with honors from Stanford University in 1975 and apprenticed at the Hayvenhurst Detective Agency, where she excelled but got little recognition for her efforts. It was there that she met and became friends with Murphy.
Eventually Laura left Hayvenhurst and opened her own agency, which folded after six months. She then devised the whole scheme of inventing a male boss and doing all the real work herself. Murphy went along with her on this and they pulled off the hoax until the mystery man showed up and became a real live Remington Steele.
Remington and Laura's relationship was rocky to say the least, but they did end up together. In August of 1986 Laura realizes she is pregnant and she and Remington decide to marry. They tie the knot on October 25, 1986.
They have two children, Katherine Laura and Brian Daniel. After the children come, Remington divides his duties between the office and home, being somewhat of a "Mr. Mom." They hire Maggie Parks as a nanny for the children and she becomes a life long friend to the whole family.
Maggie went to college and majored in business writing and psychology. When she met Fred it was love at first sight and they shortly moved in together. In '86, when Laura was frantically looking for a nanny, Maggie became the obvious choice. Maggie has always loved children and had none of her own as yet. She becomes nanny to both the Steele children and, along with Fred, is a fast family friend.
The Parks live in a guest house on the Steele property. When Brian is about 3 years old, Maggie and Fred start their own family and eventually have three sons: Jack, Cameron and Morgan.