Being a parent isn't easy, especially when you have children. Valerie's husband, Michael, is an airline pilot, so the job of raising their three boys falls mostly to her. There was 16-year-old girl-hungry David, fun-loving Willie, and briany Mark. Willie and Mark were 12-year-old fraternal twins. The family resided in Oak Park, Illinois. The original title of the series was "Valerie." But that had to be changed in the fall of 1987 when Valerie Harper abruptly left the show. The show was retitled "Valerie's Family." Late in June 1988, it became The Hogan Family. Valerie was written out of the series as having died, and Michael's divorced sister Sandy, a high school counselor, moved in to serve as a sort of surrogate mother.