Un medico in famiglia (English: A doctor in the family) is an Italian television series, based on the format of the Spanish series of Telecinco Médico de familia, produced by Publispei and Rai Fiction. The series aired for ten seasons on Rai 1 from 6 December 1998 to 24 November 2016.
Since the first season aired, the series immediately became one of the most famous Italian TV series of all time. In 1999 it won the Best Fiction Award and the Best TV Program of the Year Award, two acknowledgements regularly awarded by the Italian TV networks, and the Telegatto for the Best Italian TV Series.
Premise The show focuses on the Martini family living in the fictional neighbourhood of Poggiofiorito (literally Flowery knoll), a quiet residential zone in Rome's suburbs. The patriarch is Gabriele "Lele" Martini, a widower doctor who works in an experimental local Community Health Center (ASL in Italian). His father Libero Martini is a Marxist retired railway worker who, a widower himself, lives with his son and helps him to take care of his children.
The doctor has three children: Maria, Francesco "Ciccio" and Anna "Annuccia". The family is completed by the extravagant and noisy Southern maid Concetta "Cettina" Gargiulo and by Lele's teen nephew Alberto, who lives with his uncle and cousins while his parents are divorcing.
Despite its comedic tone, the show sometimes involves serious subjects.
Episodes
Season 1 1998. The Martini family, consisting of Gabriele 'Lele' Martini, a widowed family doctor, his three children — teenager Maria, pre-teen Francesco, nicknamed Ciccio, and toddler Annuccia — and their sixty-year-old grandfather Libero, a retired railway worker, moves into a new home in Poggio Fiorito, in the Roman countryside. The purchase of the house was the final decision Lele and his late wife, Elena, made together.
For Lele's kids, the new life in Poggio Fiorito is not easy. Everyone is unhappy about leaving their friends, and the idea of changing school does not appeal to them. Maria, in particular, is struggling to fit in until she befriends Reby. Lele hires an au pair to help with chores as his father looks after the children while he works. Concetta 'Cettina' Gargiulio initially poses as a Polish immigrant but eventually reveals her colourful Campanian origins from Mondragone. The family also welcomes Alberto Foschi, sixteen-year-old son to Lele's older sister, Nilde. His parents are going through a bitter divorce, and it is affecting his well-being. To complicate and complete the family picture are Lele's sister-in-law Alice and her parents, the snobbish Enrica and Nicola Solari, as well as Lele's best friend, Giulio Pittaluga.
Lele works at the Local Health Authority (ASL). His colleagues contribute to the antics of the series. Dr. Mariano Valenti, constantly hungry and looking for love; Dr. Laura Mercanti, who harbours romantic feelings for Lele; and receptionist Jonis Muheddin. Last but not least, Tea Molinari, obstetrician, and Jessica, a nurse. The hospital is headed by demanding and boorish Dr Giorgio Giorgi. After Laura leaves, she's replaced by Dr. Oscar Nobili, a psychiatrist whose homosexuality leads to harassment on the workplace. At the ASL, Lele follows several patients and this provides an opportunity to address various issues such as HIV/AIDS, violence against women, exploitation of child labour, and epilepsy.
As the family adjust to their new life after the loss of Elena and their new home, Lele moves on with his sentimental life. After a brief flirt with Laura, he dates Irene Falcetti, a pediatrician, but his heart keeps telling him to pursue Alice, despite both of them trying to resist their mutual attraction. Alice is a step away from marrying Sergio, but when he turns abusive and beats her, she dumps him. Alice is about to leave for Africa to work on a documentary on war zones when Lele chases after the airplane to confess Alice his love, and he is stopped by guards.
Season 2 Lele is anxiously waiting for Alice's return from her reportage job in Africa. Throughout the second series of episodes, Lele and Alice will have to figure out if their love will stand the test of time. Alice is particularly distressed by the idea that she's is stealing her sister's place but Lele reassures her by saying, "You are not taking me away Elena, it's the fate that took her away to me". Alice suffers a miscarriage and is told she is never going to be able to carry future pregnancies just as Nilde gives birth to a mixed race baby boy she names after her brother, Lele Junior. Newly divorcée Grandma Enrica finds reasons to visits the Martinis, even if it means bickering often with Grandpa Libero.
Problems at Martini's household don't lack, and the second series tackles further social issues throughout its run. Alice is stalked by a follower of her radio programme, Cettina and her fiancé Giacinto are having financial difficulties, and Maria is approaching womanhood. Alberto spirals into depression after he's involved in a car accident that leaves his friend Adriano paralysed. In addition, Dr. Giorgi dies due to complications after undergoing surgery.
Alongside the sadness, the Martini family and their friends have joyous moments. Despite the previous diagnosis, Alice gets pregnant again and is married to Lele. For the occasion, Giulio comes back from Africa, where he's working to be Lele's best man. In a tense moment, Alice gives birth to twins in an elevator with the help of Cettina and Maria. She names the twins Elena, after her sister, and Libero after Grandapa Libero. The event further convinces Maria to pursue medicine at university once she graduates.
Season 3
Three years later, Lele is working in Australia in order to study a new cure for a rare infantile disease. Alice is currently working in Brazil but will soon join him and the twins.
Back in Italy, the Martini are adjusting to the new family dynamics. Grandpa Libero is struggling to make ends meet and look after his growing grandchildren. For this reason, he decides to rent Lele's vacant room. After a series of bizarre circumstances, Dr Guido Zanin ends up living with them. He is the new titular 'doctor in the family', a surgeon from Milan who previously met Maria on campus as she enrolled for the medicine faculty. Guido becomes fond of the Martini, particularly Libero and Annuccia (who projects a transference of her father onto the young doctor) and starts to consider them as the family he never had since he grew up in an orphanage. Guido and Maria are mutually attracted to each other but are initially advised against it by respective friends due to Guido being 10 years her senior. In the meantime, Guido dates Carlotta Wilson, a nutritionist suffering from a phobia of physical contact due to maternal trauma. Maria, instead, starts hanging out with Gianluca Chiodelli, a young lawyer from an upper-class family that Grandma Enrica is acquainted with. However, the man turns out to be addicted to cocaine and cheating on Maria when he tries to seduce her friend Jessica.
Marcello, Guido's best friend, takes over Alice's job at Radio Tua whilst Cettina finds out that Giacinto married another woman after disappearing for months without a word. She eventually stars believing in love again when she meets Augusto Torello, her choir director. However, upon finding he is also the director of Torellhonor, a renowned funeral home hailing from Lombardy, Cettina is concerned about what people might think as well as being superstitious about a death-related job.
The local ASL now directed by Alida Castellani continues to be a way to address social and health problems such as the aforementioned nutritionism related to eating disorders such as bulimia, phobias, loneliness and social isolation of elderly people, substance abuse. Dr Zanin, in particular, becomes involved in several projects in the district.
Grandpa Libero has a heart attack when he mistakenly thinks that Gianluca has involved his beloved niece Maria in drug trafficking. Meanwhile, Jessica and Oscar have sex whilst drunk and sad over their respective lives despite he is gay. This poor choice affects them in the long run when Jessica finds out she is pregnant and does not know whether the child is Oscar's or Giovanni's, her boyfriend who renounces his vocation to become a priest to form a family with Jessica and the unborn child. At the same time, the romance between Maria and Guido seems to be over due to an unfortunate misunderstanding, but she runs to declare her love for him by shouting it at the train station, following Lele's example at the airport. They reconciled in time to attend Cettina and Augusto's wedding.
Season 4 The Martini family is back from their visits to Lele, Alice, and the twins in Australia. Guido is tired of shuttling back and forth between Rome and Milan, where he is stationed after the transfer he obtained when he and Maria had broken up, and only sees Maria for a few hours a week. The two decide to move in together first in Milan, but when Guido gets the transfer to Rome, the two can live out their love close to their family. Cettina and Augusto gift the couple the little villa next door to their new home, bought right next door from the Martini house. Guido and Maria's relationship is hindered by the arrival of Franco Caselli who has come to train medical volunteers for the humanitarian organisation 'Doctors Against War', an in-universe adaptation of Doctors Without Borders. Franco and Maria will have a brief affair against Grandpa Libero's wishes, who have come to see Guido as his own grandson.
Meanwhile, the now sixteen-year-old Ciccio gets engaged to Miranda, the daughter of Andrea Biglietti, who is the new partner of his aunt Nilde. They dodge a pregnancy scare that brings up a few unresolved tension in the young couple. Namely, their plans for the future — Ciccio would like to settle down, but Miranda has different ideas in mind.
Grandpa Libero is diagnosed with a serious heart problem requiring immediate open-heart surgery. In order not to lose his decent pension as a former railwayman and to leave his grandchildren in financial difficulties, Grandpa Libero and Grandma Enrica decide to get married. Enrica has, in fact, become more and more present at the Martini house she moved into after losing all her assets in a Ponzi scheme in which her ex-husband Nicola was tricked into. Turns out it was a misdiagnosis, but Libero and Enrica realised they had grown fond of each other, and with the children and grandchildren all grown up, they'll care and keep each other company. Unbeknownst to them, friends and family discovered their plan to marry in secret and surprise them on the wedding day.
At the ASL, now converted into a private clinic with the hard work of Guido and the rest of the staff who otherwise risked being sent to other facilities following the closure, former colleagues of Lele are now Guido and Maria's friends and colleagues. Maria finds out that the obstetrician Tea writes romance novels and, through Enrica, sets up a meeting with a publisher. Nurse Jessica is raising her daughter Agnese with Giovanni and "uncle" Oscar, who is more involved in the child's life than her dad. Moreover, through DNA paternity testing and with the help of a reluctant Guido, Oscar finds out he's Agnese's biological father. Jessica and Giovanni break up, and he can finally follow his vocation for priesthood. Around the same time, Maria and Guido reconcile and decide to get married before leaving for Africa to work as volunteers for Franco's organisation.