Mark Devanow[Richard Kind] Fran's now ex-husband, a gynaecologist and obstetrician who had a considerable practice in Manhattan ($300,000 a year).

An easy-going, good-natured person who likes opera and eating out, he summed up his outlook on life on the train-ride back from a Connecticut Thanksgiving: "... gotta live in the moment, keep moving on; everything else is just riding backwards."

After 10 years of marriage, he left Fran and Ryan to lead a bohemian existence on the road, with no regard to his wife's or son's welfare.

Returning a year later to attempt a reconciliation with Fran, he found her indifferent to the idea. But he persisted and Fran relented in the end.

In between, he managed to stay in touch with his son Ryan, spending weekends, and once Thanksgiving as well. - Although the character of Mark Devanow has not been written out of the series, it is unlikely he will return to MAY after season #4.

Ryan Devanow[Spencer Klein] Fran and Mark's "devil child", whose tantrums once prevented his parents going to the circus with the Buchmans. Ryan could recite Hiawatha's poem and sing the Muffin Man song off-key, and played Cupid at his mother's Valentine's Day parties.

Ryan was featured only in season #1, until a violin recital 4 years later.

After his parents separated for the first time, he was packed off to his grandmother's in Boca Raton, Florida.

But he is back in school in NYC, and Paul, Jamie and Ira went with Fran to a benefit at his school, while Jamie and Paul attended his violin recital. When his parents were separated, he got to spend weekends and Thanksgiving with his father.