The series focused on the lives of the Mulligan family, who live in the fictitious Southern California community of Birchfield; high school teacher and football coach, Michael (Lawrence Pressman), his wife, Jane (Elinor Donahue), who is a school nurse.

[1] Michael and Jane Mulligan have three children: Mark, Melinda and Jimmy.

Things get tighter moneywise and spacewise when the Mulligans take in their nephew Adam (Moose) and nieces Polaris (Polly) and Starshine (Stevie) Freedman, after their parents (Michael's sister and brother-in-law) are killed in a plane crash in Hawaii while in the process of adopting the Vietnamese-born Kimmy, leaving the Mulligans to finalize the adoption.

Mulligan's Stew was scheduled opposite four Nielsen Top 15 hits: Three's Company and Soap on ABC, and M*A*S*H and One Day at a Time on CBS.

It ranked dead last out of 104 shows airing that season with an average 10.5 rating.