Un medico in famiglia

Cast

Season 1

1997. The Martini family, composed by Lele Martini, medical widower of the ASL, by the three children Maria (15 years), Ciccio (8) and Annuccia (1) and by their grandfather Libero, ex railroader by now retired, moves to a new house in Poggio Fiorito, in the outskirts of Rome. The purchase of the house had been one of the last things that Lele did together with his wife Elena before her premature death. For the chilkdren the new life in Poggio Fiorito is not easy: they are all upset for having had to leave their friends; as well as for having had to change school; Maria is the most unsatisfied of them all, and she will suffer from this situation until she meets Rebby, who will become her best friend. The Martini also hire a housekeeper, Cettina Gargiulo, who at first pretends to be Polish in order to be hired by them, and later on confesses to be Southern Italian.

Season 2

The second season starts with Lele anxiously waiting the return of Alice, his sister-in-law, whom he is very close with, from her trip to Africa. Upon her return, they try to understand whether their love relationship can last. Their relationship continues, although at first it has its ups and downs, mostly due to the fact that Alice is jealous of the photographer Clara, an old fling of Lele, and by the fact that she is puzzled by the fact that she has now taken the place of her sister Elena in the family. The latter problem gets solved when Lele tells Alice: "You are not bringing Elena away from me, the destiny did". In the end, they decide to get married. Lele's best man will be Giulio, his best friend, who has moved to Africa in the meantime. During their honeymoon, Alice has a miscarriage, which will leave her sterile. Nilde, Lele's sister, is also pregnant at the same time, and will later on give birth to a black child, who she had together with a man that the Martini family had never met before. She will be calling this child Lele Junior. More problems develop in the family: Alice starts being stalked by an admirer, Alberto, Lele's nephew, starts suffering from depression after his best friend, Adriano, gets involved in a car accident and remains paralyzed, and the relationship between Cettina and her boyfriend Giacinto becomes troubled. Furthermore, Doctor Giorgi, the boss of Lele, dies after a kidney transplant. The final event of the season is positive, though: Alice, who got pregnant in the meanwhile despite her previous diagnosis, gets stuck in an elevator with Maria and Cettina when her waters break. She will give birth in the elevator to two twins, Libero and Elena. After such experience, Maria decides to study Medicine.

Season 3

The third season is set about three years after the previous one. It starts with Lele leaving to Australia with his two twins, in order to study a new cure for a rare children syndrome. Alice is in Brazil, but she will be reaching her family son. Grandfather Libero is now faced with more responsibilities, among which having to manage the family budget. Therefore, in order to increase their income, he decides to rent Lele and Alice's former room. Maria, excited to start university, decided to attend some courses before she enrolls officially. During one of these courses, she meets a young surgeon, Guido Zanin, to whom she immediately feels attracted. She then proposes him to become the new tenant of the room they put on rent. Guido accepts, and immediately starts growing fond of his new family. In the meanwhile, he was dating a girl named Carlotta, who suffered from OCD. After breaking up with her, he starts a relationship with Maria, despite their big difference in age. After some time, Guido will have to leave Rome. In the meanwhile, Ciccio has to stop playing rugby because of a shoulder injury, and at the same time starts dating some girls. This series focuses a lot also on the friendship between Jessica, a nurse at the hospital, and Oscar, dear friend and colleague of Lele. One night, while drunk, they sleep together, although Oscar is gay and Jessica has a boyfriend. Jessica will later on discover to be pregnant, but she does not know of who. At the same time, Cettina discovers that Giacinto ran off with a woman from Calabria to start a family with her. After a while, she will meet a man named Augusto, with whom she will eventually get married.

Season 4

The Martini family goes to find Lele, Alice, and their two twins in Australia. After the trip, they fall in Poggio Fiorito with news. Guido, tired to move between Rome and Milan and seeing Maria only when it is at home, asks his girlfriend to move in with him. I love nest for Cettina and Augusto, who after marriage go to live in the house next to that of Martini, to always stay close to the family. A new character, also appears in the series: This is Dr. Franco Caselli, a new doctor of the ASL, belonging to an important humanitarian organization, Doctors Against War, for which Maria loses his head, having momentarily left Guido. Meanwhile, the sixteen year old Ciccio gets engaged to Miranda, the daughter of Andrea Biglietti, the new companion his aunt Nilde. At the end of the series it will be avoided the danger of her pregnancy. During a regular inspection, at Grandfather Libero is diagnosed with heart problem, which would require open-heart surgery: decides to ask Nonna Enrica to marry him, or so his pension will not go wasted; the two decide to get married, even if the diagnosis was wrong. Soon they really fall in love. In this series there is a fleeting return of Grandfather Nicola, confirming his reputation as a playboy. Maria is reconciled with Guido: the two decide to get married, and then go to work in Africa as volunteers doctors account for : Medici Contro La Guerra (Doctors Against The War) . A few days before the wedding Guido, unknown to all, a thousand sacrifices, together with those (useless) so as not to close the clinic, bought the old house where Mary was born and raised and where he had lived before going to Poggio Fiorito. Maria had shown the house before their quarrel, one morning while they were going to work with the scooter. The season ends with Lele returning from Australia after four years of absence: the situation is a bit 'changed, his father was married to his mother-in-law, his daughter is about to marry a man he has never seen but which he has only heard about and especially Annuccia has gotten young adult and more autonomous.

Season 5

After two and a half years: the new doctor in the family is Emilio Villari, betrothed the grandson of an old lover and cousin to grandmom Enrica. The main romance will be between him and the Indian, Dr Sarita . Lele was again absent because he moved to Paris where he worked at the Sorbonne. The series opens with the boyfriend of Nilde, Andrea Biglietti in prison. Andrea has been cheated and save Libero and Nilde decide to sell the villas at Poggio Fiorito that he had bought. The villas will be sold to friends of Martini, including many of the doctors were in the cast, and will become the new clinic . Poggio Fiorito become an independent municipality and Grandpa Libero is elected mayor. Alberto and Eloisa break-up's and then the guy comes home. To raise the cheered of the boy will try it his father, Carlo Foschi, with which Alberto did initially good relations, since he had mysteriously abandoned him and his mother.

At the beginning of the third season, Lele, Alice and their two children leave Rome to go to live in Australia. Grandpa Libero cares for his grandchildren (Maria, Ciccio, and Annuccia) in absence of their father. Maria decides to attend the faculty of medicine and here she meets Guido, a doctor. The Martinis give hospitality to Guido and he falls in love with Maria. In the meanwhile Cettina falls in love with Augusto Torello but when she discovers that Torello is a funeral director, she leaves him. Eventually, Cettina, after a lovestory with an Italo-American named Peppiniello, decides to marry Torello. Maria leaves Guido because she thinks he is betraying her. After this painful event, Guido decides to move away to Milan. He is getting on the train for Milan when Maria joins him and states that she forgives him. After this, Guido gets out of the train and he and Maria go to Cettina's wedding. The season ends with the wedding.

Season 6

At the beginning of season six, Libero, Maria, Ciccio and Annuccia return to Rome after having spent the holidays in Australia with Lele. Guido is working as a doctor in Milan and he is attempting to convince his head physician to accept his transfer request to Rome. Eventually, he returns to Rome. Cettina and Torello try to have a child but their attempts fail. Eventually Torello's nephew Rosalbo comes to Rome in order to learn how to become the funeral director; if Cettina has no children, Rosalbo will inherit Torello's funeral home. Eventually Cettina lies saying that she is pregnant in order to chase away Rosalbo.

Guido and Maria move away to their new own home. However Maria has words with Guido and she decides to leave him. Maria decides to begin a new love affair with a new doctor, Franco Caselli: Franco is a humanitarian doctor from Africa. However Maria decides to leave Franco and to forgive Guido. In the season finale Guido and Maria get married, Cettina finds out she is pregnant, and Lele Martini returns from Australia; Lele finds out that his daughter Annuccia is angry with him because he left her when she was a toddler and he wasn't present at her First Communion but eventually she decides to forgive him. Maria and Guido decide to go to Africa for an humanitarian mission.

Season 5

Cettina is replaced as Martinis' au pair, at the beginning of the season 5, by Melina, Cettina's cousin. In Season 5, Cettina leaves Torello because she falls in love with Kabir (the owner of an Indian restaurant, portrayed by Kabir Bedi, famous for having portrayed Sandokan) but Kabir rejects her love and eventually she and Torello return together. Guido leaves Rome to go live in Africa and he is replaced as family doctor by Emilio, a new character introduced in this season. Emilio falls in love with Sarita, Kabir's granddaughter but she isn't allowed by her grandfather to marry Emilio. Eventually they manage to get married. Maria manages eventually to get a degree in medicine.

Season 6

Ciccio is going to get married to Miranda, but she leaves him the day of their marriage. Lele returns home with his children (he divorced Alice) to attend his son's marriage, and eventually decides to remain in Rome for a year. Grandpa Libero decides to leave Rome to go live in Apulia. Cettina is believed dead in a shipwreck. Guido returns from Africa and he and Maria want to live in their apartment but their tenant (Dante Piccione) doesn't want to leave the apartment. Guido and Maria find out that Maria is pregnant; she gives birth to her daughter, Paola. Guido gets acquainted with his mother, Ave, who abandoned him when he was an infant. Eventually he forgives her.

The Martinis find out that Cettina is still alive; after the shipwreck, she lost her memory and became a very rich woman in the USA. She decided to go to Italy for a holiday, and when she heard somebody saying "un Martini, per favore" ("a Martini [drink], please"), the name "Martini Libero" came in her mind, and she began to remember the events of her life she had forgotten. Cettina stays at Martini's home for a little, speaking in a strange way (she speaks a language that is a hybrid between English and Italian. Example: "Le tue braccia non sono strong" [your arms aren't strong]). After recovering her memory, she leaves Poggio Fiorito forever and goes to Brescia, joining her husband and her son.

Lele falls in love with Fanny, a very young doctor, but he eventually decides to leave her. At the end of the season, he is engaged to Bianca, Giulio Pittaluga's (one of Lele's friends) sister. Guido feels neglected by Maria and he betrays his wife spending a night with another woman. Eventually he tells Maria that he betrayed her but now he is remorseful; Maria decides to leave him but she is eventually convinced by her father to forgive Guido. Melina falls in love with Dante Piccione, and he finally leaves Guido and Maria's apartment to go live at Melina's aunt home. Ciccio decides to get married to Tracy, a jockey.

The season ends with the marriages between Ciccio and Tracy, and Libero Martini and Enrica Solari.

Season 7

Three years have gone since Guido died in a car crash, the casualty happening some time after the end of season six. Supported by her family, Maria manages to deal with her job and her child Palù, but it is tough for her and Ave to live a happy life. Ave finds out that her son's heart has been transplanted to the son of dance teacher. Enrica introduces Marco to Maria: he's a single journalist whose son Jonathan attends Palù's school. Their relationship is troubled by misunderstandings. Francesco, a psychologist, falls for Maria getting in the way of her story with Marco. Lele proposes again to Bianca, but she is still waiting for the divorce proceedings from her ex-husband Gus, who wants to win her heart back. Virginia, Lele's colleague in Paris and ex lover, shows up in Rome. Ciccio and Tresy go live together, experiencing some marital problems: she wants to pursue her career as a jockey, while he would rather raise a family. Ciccio seeks Tresy's long lost parents, while trying to have a baby with her, but she prefers her career to motherhood. Sixteen-year-old Annuccia becomes school president becoming popular among her peers. She has some problems with boyfriend Gianfilippo, but after a school musical the two get back together, losing their virginity at Lele and Bianca's wedding. Rebby is back from Milan and meets Albina, who becomes one of her best friends. Alberto, the Martinis' nephew and Rebby's boyfriend, comes back to Rome looking for a new job and has an affair with Albina while working at her real estate agency. Rebby ends up with Francesco, who was once in love with Maria, while Albina and Alberto decide to go live together in Apulia. Grandma Enrica and grandma Ave purchase the house next to the Martinis', where once Cettina lived, and both step into business: Enrica founds Puglia D.O.P., a company selling produce from Apulia, while Ave swes bridal gowns. Dante Piccione and Melina decide to get married, and Piccione has to look for some extra jobs to make hands meet. In the season finale, Giulio convinces Lele and Bianca to go get married on the mountains. Melina finds out she is pregnant and marries Dante. Bianca is pregnant too, and while she is having her ultrasound, they meet Ciccio and Tresy, who also is pregnant with twins. Marco must leave for Francfort with his son and his ex-wife. Maria drives to the airport to say goodbye, but she comes too late. The Martinis gather on the mountains for the wedding, but as usual Giulio's plans go down in flames having Lele get lost. Lele and Bianca finally marry. In a turn of faith, Marco shows up with his son, declaring his love for Maria and saying he won't leave for Germany after all. The season ends with the Martinis waltzing to "Parlami d'amore, Mariù", dedicated to the late Carlo Bixio, the creator of the series.

Season 8

This season is now airing in Italy, the list below will be complete after the announcements of all episodes.

Awards

In the season 1999/2000, Un medico in famiglia won two awards as best fiction [fiction=Italian TV Series] and as best TV program of the year. In the same season, Un medico in famiglia won Telegatto (lit. Telecat) as best Italian TV Series.