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Description: Meet the Evangelistas of Medford, Long Island. As tight and tough as they come, they're like any other hard-working American family, with one major difference - the Evangelistas are bail bondsmen and bounty hunters. Debuting SUNDAY, SEPT. 19 (10:00-10:30 p.m. ET), exclusively on HBO, the new 10-part real-life series FAMILY BONDS reveals the day-to-day dramas of these outrageous people, on the job and off, as they confront the unpredictable dangers of bounty hunting and the challenges of family life with resourcefulness, warmth and humor. Debuting immediately following new episodes of "The Wire," each half-hour episode is directed by Steven Cantor, whose credits include the CINEMAX Reel Life documentary "Devil's Playground" and the Oscar(r) nominee "Blood Ties: The Life and Work of Sally Mann." There's Tom, age 46, the head of the family, a chain-smoking, tough-talking motorcycle buff with a reluctant heart of gold. He's been a licensed bail bondsman for seven years. His company All City Bail Bonds - which posts bail money for criminal suspects who are unable to pay it themselves - has offices in Queens, Manhattan and Long Island. His voluptuous wife Flo has been married to Tom for 23 years. A fiercely devoted mother with a no-nonsense style, she balances her time between helping manage Tom's offices and running the Evangelista household. Chris Evangelista is Tom's fun-loving but volatile nephew. Also a licensed bail bondsman, he has worked for Tom for six years; since his divorce, Chris has lived with the Evangelista family, camping out on the couch. Tom and Flo's son Sal (17) is eager to leave his job at the pizza parlor and follow his dad into the business. Dana Giassakis (20) is Tom and Flo's level-headed daughter, and lives in Brooklyn with her husband Nick; she has finished junior college and plans to attend New York University in the fall to study psychology. Frankie (7) is Tom and Flo's younger son, who observes the chaotic household with wide-eyed curiosity. Dawn Carfora, Flo's brash, body-conscious sister, has been married to Jimmy Carfora for 20 years, and runs the office for Jimmy at All County Bail Bonds, a satellite office of Tom's All City Bail Bonds, in Hempstead, New York. Kim Persinger, Flo's oldest sister, has been the hard-working office manager at All City Bail Bonds since Tom founded the company. FAMILY BONDS follows the Evangelistas on the job, as they track down fugitives, and off the job, where they play as hard as they work. Among their adventures in the line of duty: The All City Bail Bonds team tracks Romanian scam artists in the Ridgewood section of Queens. In Manhattan's Riverside Park, Tom's crew pursues a murder suspect, but the hunt has an unexpected outcome. Apprehending a battery suspect in Brooklyn, Tom discovers significant quantities of methamphetamine. In East New York, a fugitive escapes the dragnet, but Tom figures out another way to get his man. Tom and his crew retrieve a fugitive from Pennsylvania in the dead of night. Tom teaches Sal - now a recovery agent in training - the basics of taking down a suspect, using Chris to demonstrate. Off-duty, the Evangelistas star in other kinds of family dramas: An anxious Frankie receives bike lessons from Tom, who grows too impatient with his son to finish the job. Flo later tries a gentler approach to this rite of passage, with different results. In the Evangelistas' back yard, Sal marks his 18th birthday with a raucous bash that produces a few frayed nerves and bruised feelings. At the Classy Lady nail salon, Flo and her sisters meet regularly to discuss intimate details of their sex lives, among other personal matters. Tom tries acupuncture in an attempt to quit smoking. Dana graduates from junior college at Kingsborough Community College with her proud family looking on, and looks ahead to attending NYU - the first in her family to be admitted to such a prestigious institution. But the result of her pregnancy test throws Dana's college plans into doubt. At John F. Kennedy High School's career day, Tom makes a rare appearance in a suit, explaining his job to rapt teenagers looking for something other than the usual career options. After a hard night of chasing bad guys, Chris shows his tender side when he visits his ex-wife and picks up his three young daughters for a carefree afternoon at the beach. Stung by taunts about his weight from Tom and a suspect who outruns him, Chris begins a program to slim down. Steven Cantor's credits include the CINEMAX Reel Life documentary "Devil's Playground" (producer), the Oscar(r)-nominated short film "Blood Ties: The Life and Work of Sally Mann" (producer and director), "Bounce: Behind the Velvet Rope" (producer and director), "Willie Nelson: Still Is Still Moving" (producer and director) and "Crossover" (producer and director). FAMILY BONDS is produced for HBO by Stick Figure Productions in association with Cactus Three; director, Steven Cantor; executive producers, Steven Cantor and Daniel Laikind; supervising editor and co-producer, Pax Wassermann; producer, Matthew Galkin; co-executive producers, Julie Goldman, Caroline Stevens and Krysanne Katsoolis; original music, Money Mark. Academy Award(r) and Oscar(r) are registered trademarks and service marks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. "My name is Tom Evangelista. I work in New York with my wife, daughter, nephew and in-laws. Our policy is pretty simple: If you get arrested, we'll bail you out. Things only get complicated if you run. Then, we're coming after you. And we're the best in the business. Some people call us bounty hunters, but to me, we're just a family." — from the opening of FAMILY BONDS

Overview

Production Company:
  • Cactus Three
  • Home Box Office (HBO)
  • Stick Figure Productions
Initial Release Date: Sep 19, 2004
Number of seasons: 1 Season
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