‘A Friend of the Family’: See the Cast vs. Their Real-Life Counterparts
Years after the Netflix documentary Abducted in Plain Sight told the true story of Jan Broberg and how she was taken twice by family friend Robert Berchtold, Peacock is dramatizing the same sordid saga with the new limited series A Friend of the Family.
The nine-episode show stars Jake Lacy (The White Lotus) as Berchtold, Hendrix Yancey (Stranger Things) and Mckenna Grace (The Handmaid’s Tale) as Jan Broberg, and Anna Paquin (True Blood) and Colin Hanks (The Offer) as her parents, Mary Ann and Bob Broberg.
“The Brobergs — devoted to their faith, family, and community — were utterly unprepared for the sophisticated tactics their neighbor used to exploit their vulnerabilities, drive them apart, and turn their daughter against them,” the Peacock description reads. “This is the story of how their lives were permanently altered — and how they survived.”
Scroll down to see photos of the cast of Friend of the Family in character, alongside archival photos of Berchtold and the Brobergs.
A Friend of the Family, Limited Series premiere, Thursday, Oct. 6, Peacock
Jake Lacy as Robert Berchtold
After authorities caught up with him, Berchtold was charged with kidnapping and other offenses in 1977, but he was ultimately acquitted and sent to a mental facility for six months, according to Parade. Decades later, Berchtold attacked a member of Jan and Mary Ann’s security team at a 2003 book event and was found guilty of assault, and he died by suicide in 2005 while awaiting sentencing, the magazine reports.
Anna Paquin as Mary Ann Broberg
Both Mary Ann — who wrote the 2003 book Stolen Innocence: The Jan Broberg Story — and Bob revealed in Abducted in Plain Sight that they had separate sexual interactions with Berchtold as part of his manipulation of the family.
Colin Hanks as Bob Broberg
Bob, who died in 2018 at age 80, admitted in the documentary that his dalliance with Berchtold was the worst thing he had ever done “as far as breaking the trust and the fidelity that I had with my wife.”
Hendrix Yancey as Young Jan Broberg
In her adult years, Jan Broberg became a TV actress, playing nurse Louise in more than three dozen episodes of Everwood, for example. She and Mary Ann have a new book out, titled The Jan Broberg Story: The True Crime Story of a Young Girl Abducted and Brainwashed by a Friend of the Family.
Mckenna Grace as Jan Broberg
“We have to talk about these things because it’s something that’s happening to someone,” Jan told CBR recently. “If it’s not you, then it might be someone you know. Everybody knows someone that has this kind of child abuse in their life, and we don’t talk about it enough.”
Conversation17 Comments
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P
Am I to understand from the above article the pedophile/kidnapper had sex with his victims mother and father???
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O
I was mad the entire show!
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O
You don't think the parents were also victims of the manipulative monster called B? And you think they are worse than parents who deliberately abuse, neglect, and/or murder their own children? Diana Downs? the Turpins (who kept their kids locked up in the basement and chained to their beds)?
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O
And the award goes to the worse parents in history, kidnapped not once but twice & parents let everything happen.
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C
Great series! Every parent should watch this! Predators are usually people we know.
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G
The way her parents behaved was idiotic
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O
Sickest family ever.. This crazy ass man had the whole damn family. It was hard to feel sorry for them.
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P
I just started this series, and I cannot say enough good things about it. The kids are absolutely the most adorable kids I've ever seen. Jack Lacy as Bob Broburg is so sufficiently creepy-nice I can almost feel his breath as he goes about grooming Jan and her parents. Colin Hanks and Anna Paquin are the most excellent representation of the parents of the perfect Mormon family circa 1975 (I was Jan's age at that time, too) Ive ever seen, and the girl who plays 'Young Jan' is just so cute and high-energy, you just want to jump through the screen and give her a big hug! It brought back so many good, nostalgic memories of that time. My family wasn't Mormon, or as perfect, but still, friends, sleepovers after dinner at Pizza Haven on a Friday night, singing in our school choir, and just the whole 'innocence' of that time is perfectly captured in this "snow globe" of memories. True Crime lovers must not miss it!
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O
I am soo mad at how the mother even delt with him after the husband situation and the kidnapping
The real daughter is sooo compassionate and brave to forgive her mother and not guilt her
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B
Is this a weekly show, like will other episodes be released or has the whole season been released?
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G
Looks like 4 episodes have been released now on Peacock but the remaining ones will be weekly
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P
sick to my stomach, so many times I wanted to throw something at the tv. The church could’ve helped to send him to jail.
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J
Still watching- Manipulation- Lies- deceit- Delusional -
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G
I think they're both bad and someone's shock at hearing both parents had sex with him is completely normal.
Calm down and relax, no one has to judge everything.
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O
I've seen the documentary. He had a sexual affair with the mother, and an incident with the father which was described as him asking the father to "give him release" - it's unclear whether the father did this orally or via hand.
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G
Colin Hanks play Broberg & Lacy plays Burchtold
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R
Honestly, the show is riveting but Anna Paquin is terrible. What a ham.
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