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Reservoir_Dog
Guest
A part of my mind mentally filters out concept shows like that. It was mentally painful to remember Father Knows Best.
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edwest2
Guest
Leave it to Beaver? I could relate to them.
I Love Lucy?
The Lawrence Welk Show?
Ozzie & Harriet. Now that was a family. I’ve got episodes on VHS.
Peace,
Ed
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Reservoir_Dog
Guest
Listen Ed, this is gonna hurt, but you brought it on yourself. *The Lawrence Welk Show *has been out of production since 1979. All those shows you watch? They’re reruns. That’s right… reruns.
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LittleSoldier
Guest
They weren’t? You mean that Donna Reed and Mrs. Cleaver perhaps didn’t wear dresses while they did the housework? Or that Ozzie didn’t get sent home after consuming too many ice cream sodas?
I’m shocked, I tell you. Shocked and disappointed.
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jmcrae
Guest
Puhlay dat fonkhee myewssik, wite buoy. 
Depending on where you go, or where you live, you can still find people who will watch your kids for free, or lend you their tools if you need them, or help you out when you’re in a jam - but it’s a lot harder to find 20-somethings who aren’t already sleeping with their girlfriends or boyfriends, and it seems as if almost every young couple thinks that living together comes before marriage; not afterwards. The “new normal” is for couples to live together, have sex, and have a few kids, before they “tie the knot.” It’s also become “normal” for people to go through several marriages before they finally “find the right one.”
Ed is right that things have really slid downhill with regard to the relationship between the sexes. Women don’t respect men any more, and men don’t respect women any more - it’s all about “what’s in it for me?” People don’t endure through the hard times any more - they just quit and move on, leaving a lot of destroyed lives in their wake.
Depending on where you go, or where you live, you can still find people who will watch your kids for free, or lend you their tools if you need them, or help you out when you’re in a jam - but it’s a lot harder to find 20-somethings who aren’t already sleeping with their girlfriends or boyfriends, and it seems as if almost every young couple thinks that living together comes before marriage; not afterwards. The “new normal” is for couples to live together, have sex, and have a few kids, before they “tie the knot.” It’s also become “normal” for people to go through several marriages before they finally “find the right one.”
Ed is right that things have really slid downhill with regard to the relationship between the sexes. Women don’t respect men any more, and men don’t respect women any more - it’s all about “what’s in it for me?” People don’t endure through the hard times any more - they just quit and move on, leaving a lot of destroyed lives in their wake.
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edwest2
Guest
This is precisely what I’m talking about. Today, it’s about sex, money and selfishness. Destroyed lives? It’s about me and my happiness. Every man and woman for himself. I’ve got mine and that’s all that matters.Puhlay dat fonkhee myewssik, wite buoy.
Depending on where you go, or where you live, you can still find people who will watch your kids for free, or lend you their tools if you need them, or help you out when you’re in a jam - but it’s a lot harder to find 20-somethings who aren’t already sleeping with their girlfriends or boyfriends, and it seems as if almost every young couple thinks that living together comes before marriage; not afterwards. The “new normal” is for couples to live together, have sex, and have a few kids, before they “tie the knot.” It’s also become “normal” for people to go through several marriages before they finally “find the right one.”
Ed is right that things have really slid downhill with regard to the relationship between the sexes. Women don’t respect men any more, and men don’t respect women any more - it’s all about “what’s in it for me?” People don’t endure through the hard times any more - they just quit and move on, leaving a lot of destroyed lives in their wake.
I know too many people on marriage number 2 or 3, or living alone. This is better?
Lord have mercy,
Ed
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edwest2
Guest
I watched the original shows on my original black and white TV.
And I was not surprised to later find out that most of those actors were just as nice as they appeared on TV in real life. Real life.
Peace,
Ed
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Reservoir_Dog
Guest
In person, did they appear in black and white or Living Color (c)?
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LittleSoldier
Guest
Could you relate to Father Knows Best? That was once the most popular show on American TV. Here’s a summary of the show:
Los Angeles, CA - Enter the perfect family life of a General Insurance agent Jim Anderson. Beginning in 1954, Jim would come home from his office, take off his sports jacket, put on his comfortable sweater, and deal with the everyday problems of a growing family without breaking a sweat. His picture perfect wife Margaret is a vibrant mother of three – Betty, Bud and Kathy. To the millions who watched the six-time Primetime Emmy®-winning Father Knows Best, starring Robert Young and Jane Wyatt; Elinor Donahue, Bill Gray and Lauren Chapin, this long running TV sitcom not only captured the hearts of American viewers, but also stood as the representation of mid-century traditional family values.
tvshowsondvd.com/news/Father-Knows-Best-Season-1-Press-Release/8613#ixzz16ssGbuZ8
I think we would agree on most of what is posted above. But that doesn’t tell the whole story. Lauren Chapin coauthored a book entitled Father Really Does Know Best,. I apologize for the following link but I am having computer problems and am finding it difficult to search using any of my search engines. The following is part of a customer review about the book (which I have not read but have ordered):
“All I can say is WOW! This is truly an incredible story. I learned of Lauren Chapin from an episode of the “E! True Hollywood Story”. I had to know more so I got this book. It was written in the late 1980s, '89 I believe. Her abusive father lived to see this book, but I don’t know if he read it (I doubt it). One thing on the TV special that is not in the book is when Lauren was by her father’s side when he died. He aparantly[sic] showed no remorse or appologies[sic] for the horrific abuse he put his daughter through, and asked if there was a Hell. Lauren replied ‘Well, you’re soon gonna find out!’.”
Lauren’s home life, which is not fictional was in direct contrast to her life as “Kitten” on the show.
You may be able to relate to Leave it to Beaver, The Donna Reed Show, and more like it. But they were FICTION. I doubt there were many families in the U.S. who lived like the people in these shows “lived.”
My family life bore little resemblance to any of the shows we are discussing. People had problems. People were alcoholics and addicted to other drugs. People raged at their children, slapping and beating them because of frustration. With all the soldiers being discharged suddenly taking advantage of the GI Bill and obtaining their degrees, there must have been a rush on available jobs at the beginning of the 50s, which means that some people most likely had problems finding employment related to their education. That had to be frustrating, especially if we’re talking about people who had hungry children to feed.
I don’t see that these shows caused any sort of change in the structure and activities of the “normal” American household. If anything, things have gotten worse. If these shows were so great why are the people who watched them, those that grew up in the 50s and 60s, guilty of abusing their own [real] children? Why has the use of pornography sky-rocketed? Why are people so cruel? Certainly blaming these shows would be an ultra-simplistic theory. Why people act the way they do now is probably due to a plethora of reasons.
And maybe these shows actually helped to a small degree. Like during the Depression when people could still afford to watch a movie, these shows may have allowed people to escape their problems and worries for a short time.
I’m not saying that everything you have posted is incorrect. It is true that pornography is more prevalent now and much easier to obtain. It’s true that the rates of abortion have increased along with the use of ABC. Wasn’t this all predicted by a certain Pope? He was completely correct in his predictions.
My problem with what you post is that you appear to think that the 50s and 60s were somehow immune to problems, both personal and social, that have been with us since man first walked the earth. Another problem I have is that you base your conclusions on weak anecdotal evidence. If the 50s and 60s were all that great, why don’t you post some evidence to back up your claims? Maybe you’re right but I’ll never agree with you when all I’ve seen you provide are a few examples of politeness and respect from your childhood. Please post something to back you up - did the rates of murder and other crimes decrease during the 50s and 60s? Did the number of homeless people and/or those living in state-run mental hospitals drop? Did drug use, including the use of alcohol, decrease? Were there less instances of [reported] child abuse? Were there less instances of [reported] spousal abuse?
There must be a ton of evidence out there. If you show actual evidence, people will be more likely to accept what you are saying. Isn’t this the sort of thing you know how to do? Don’t you work in the media? Surely you have the knowledge and ability to dig up what is needed research.
And I do recommend you buy the book. You can pick up a used copy at Amazon for one cent plus shipping.
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LittleSoldier
Guest
Did you meet these actors? Are you aware that they were “actors?”; i.e. they knew how to make a good impression on people because they knew how to act (well, at least most of them did).
Or did you read about them? If so, what did you read? Autobiographies? Biographies? Reviews?
Did you meet them in their homes and watch their interactions with their families?
You’re not providing enough information here. How did you obtain the information that makes you believe the actors were just as nice in real life?
Which actors are you referring to? I am asking this because (if my computer allows me) I would like to find out more about them.
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Reservoir_Dog
Guest
Or watch The Man With The Golden Arm (drug addiction) or A Summer Place (infidelity, etc.) for more realistic depictions of life on the other side of Fantasy Lane.
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edwest2
Guest
In the 1950s and 1960s, the media spotlight was turned on the functional, not the dysfunctional. There were a few drunks in the neighborhood. My neighborhood and others in the area represented the lives we actually lived. In 1963, blacks and whites wept at the funeral of President Kennedy. I stood on Michigan Avenue a few months prior to this and saw the President in a motorcade.
Greasers and J.D.s were not allowed on American Bandstand in the late 1950s. Dick Clark said as much. Kids respected their parents. We were expected to be in the house at a certain time. We were taught personal discipline and hard work.
Peace,
Ed
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LittleSoldier
Guest
I’m not disagreeing that the rates of divorce, contraception, abortion, etc. rose in the 70s. But my Mom was told to have me aborted by a physician who practiced only at a Catholic hospital (I assume he would not have been allowed to conduct this procedure but I’m becoming more skeptical as I read these threads). This was in the 50s - right smack dab in the middle of your “Time of Good Morals.” He also offered to sell me so I must assume that in the 50s there was a black market which bought and sold babies.
I don’t think anyone is saying that having numerous divorces is better, although you should remember that even if a person obtains an annulment, he/she must also obtain a divorce.
I live alone. And yes, it is better. For me. It’s better than living with a husband who became verbally and physically abusive and then abandoned his family. Why did you bring up that part about living alone? Lots of people live alone and are happy.
So please go into some detail, if you would be so kind. Why is living alone “not better?”
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LittleSoldier
Guest
Um, it doesn’t appear to me that you responded at all appropriately to the poster you uh, responded to.
What is a greaser? What is a J.D.? Who respected their parents? Who was expected to be in the house at a certain time? Who was taught personal discipline and hard work?
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Reservoir_Dog
Guest
Just like in the un/realistic depiction of small town life in the Andy Griffith Show, where blacks were conveniently somewhere else and that goldarn by krakie civil rights movement totally unnecessary. Because, God knows, no one born after 1960 was ever taught discipline and hard work.
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Reservoir_Dog
Guest
That “greaser” Richard Steven Valenzuela snuck past Clark and made it on AB a couple of times, using the obviously fake name Ritchie Valens. Can’t trust those “greasers”, eh?
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LittleSoldier
Guest
What does any of what you’ve written here have to do with the poster’s suggestion that you watch some movies which might show life from a more realistic perspective?
What does seeing the President in a motorcade have to do with anything? What does the following remark mean?
“My neighborhood and others in the area represented the lives we actually lived.”
I am honestly confused right now.
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Seeker2010
Guest
My first marriage was miserable. Almost from the get go. My second is wonderful. I would have had a much more miserable life had I been forced to remain married to my first wife.
Re: Annulment, I had a friend once who was Catholic (though I am not certain how devout) who got divorced. He explained to me that he had to get an annulment from the church before he could marry again, and went on to further explain that all he had to do to get the annulment was to write a big enough check. I don’t know if that’s par for the course or not, but I found it interesting, and it seems every Catholic I’ve known who needed one has received them.
He did get his first marriage annulled, and remarried in the church with me in attendance. Some months later the priest who married them had a scandal of his own when it turned out that he, himself, was married.
PS… No, the holy water didn’t boil when I touched it.
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Reservoir_Dog
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So you weren’t either a “greaser” or a Juvenile Delinquent?What does any of what you’ve written here have to do with the poster’s suggestion that you watch some movies which might show life from a more realistic perspective?
What does seeing the President in a motorcade have to do with anything? What does the following remark mean?
“My neighborhood and others in the area represented the lives we actually lived.”
I am honestly confused right now.
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