What happened to dopey women?

[Larowyn]

Is anyone else tired of seeing men portrayed in commercials as moronic, lazy, and overweight “yes, dear”-type husbands who like to drink beer and watch The Game and cook on the grill and fear the wrath of their wives? Whenever women are in commercials, if they aren’t portrayed as successful single moms with a huge house, a gas-guzzling SUV, and a great and flawless lifestyle, they have emasculated husbands and know everything. It’s like it became illegal around 1999 to suggest that maybe husbands and wives are equals and compliment each other and that women aren’t superior to their husbands. Not that women should be subservient to their husbands and dote on their every need, but it would be nice to see the tables turned once in a while.

 

[ALLGIRLS]

Yes, the image of men has been completely shot in the media. Not that I think either men or women should be portrayed badly. Gee, how about showing some commercials/t.v. shows/movies based on REAL LIFE FAMILIES? That would be so innovative it just might be successful!

Also, what’s the deal w/ all the shows where the dumpy overweight men have wives that look like models (King of Queens, According to Jim, Still Standing. Even Everybody Loves Raymond and 'Til Death, even though the husbands aren’t overweight, they’re just average looking dopey guys, and their wives are hot!). Where’s the show w/ the incredibly attractive guy and overweight or just so so woman? Wouldn’t it be great if there were a sitcom where Charlie Sheen and the actress who plays Berta (can’t remember her name, I love her though, she was awesome in Mystic Pizza) on Two and a Half Men were married? And they truly loved each other, and neither was portrayed as an idiot or a shrew?

Sigh. T.V. just stinks anymore. There’s so few good shows on, especially comedies. Please tell me Hollywood is just out of touch, and they’re not portraying real life? If so, then I’m way more “out of this world” than I thought.

In Christ,

Ellen

 

[LilyM]

Yes, the image of men has been completely shot in the media. Not that I think either men or women should be portrayed badly. Gee, how about showing some commercials/t.v. shows/movies based on REAL LIFE FAMILIES? That would be so innovative it just might be successful!

Also, what’s the deal w/ all the shows where the dumpy overweight men have wives that look like models (King of Queens, According to Jim, Still Standing. Even Everybody Loves Raymond and 'Til Death, even though the husbands aren’t overweight, they’re just average looking dopey guys, and their wives are hot!). Where’s the show w/ the incredibly attractive guy and overweight or just so so woman? Wouldn’t it be great if there were a sitcom where Charlie Sheen and the actress who plays Berta (can’t remember her name, I love her though, she was awesome in Mystic Pizza) on Two and a Half Men were married? And they truly loved each other, and neither was portrayed as an idiot or a shrew?

Sigh. T.V. just stinks anymore. There’s so few good shows on, especially comedies. Please tell me Hollywood is just out of touch, and they’re not portraying real life? If so, then I’m way more “out of this world” than I thought.

In Christ,

Ellen

As a matter of fact there haven’t been all that many unglam looking women as main characters in sitcoms fullstop - apart from Roseanne (loved the show but she did come across as shrewish come to think of it) and Ugly Betty (who apart from the braces isn’t particularly ‘Ugly’ anyway).

And no, sitcoms have only ever reflected the fantasies of overweight, middle-aged male TV writers and execs ever since ‘The Honeymooners’ really.

 

[ALLGIRLS]

And no, sitcoms have only ever reflected the fantasies of overweight, middle-aged male TV writers and execs ever since ‘The Honeymooners’ really.

Oh my gosh, I completely forgot about The Honeymooners! And “The Flintstones”, which was based on “Honeymooners”. Wow, has it really been going on that long? And I thought t.v. was just recently (as in last 20 to 30 years) out of touch w/ real society.

In Christ,

Ellen

 

[roanoker]

Its all part of the “feminization of America”. Been going on for a number of years. Men are ignorant dolts, only women are competent. I think its a political correctness thing. We just have to learn to live with it until it dies out naturally. I hope.

 

[drafdog]

“Family” sitcoms in the 50’s featured men who were less than stellar models of intelligence and wisdom. Nothing is different. “There is nothing new under the sun.”
I can’t drag my wife away from the sports programs. Even as I key this in she’s watching Wimbledon. I have to put up with arena football, golf (she’s really a great Tiger Woods fan), tennis, hockey, and God help us when the Olympic games are broadcast.
I have always been puzzled by the fascination with competition of any sort. I didn’t understand grades in school, team or individual sports, etc. None of it makes any sense to me. And now we have the “competition” between fictional television characters. I don’t want to go there. Can there be anything more pointless?

Matthew

 

[Larowyn]

I think competition between spouses would only increase tension in marriage. It seems like it would make more sense if the husband and wife complimented each other rather than have a marriage in which one “wears the pants” as is frequently depicted in the commercials I have a problem with. I don’t think it helps to give a good impression of marriage, especially when commercials seem to make single parent life look better than married life.

 

[Ghoti]

"Family" sitcoms in the 50’s featured men who were less than stellar models of intelligence and wisdom. Nothing is different. “There is nothing new under the sun.”

I’d have to disagree slightly. I don’t think any of the following husbands and fathers were buffoons, and in some cases were portrayed as models of intelligence and wisdom. Some male leads from sitcoms in the 50s and 60s:

Ward Cleaver (Hugh Beaumont) in Leave It To Beaver
Jim Anderson (Robert Young) in Father Knows Best
Steve Douglas (Fred MacMurray) in My Three Sons
Danny Williams (Danny Thomas) in Make Room for Daddy
Ozzie Nelson, Ozzie and Harriet
Tom Corbett (Bill Bixby), The Courtship of Eddie’s Father

Sitcom characters are often archetypes (or even stereotypes). Back in the day, it was more common (I believe) in shows with kids to portray the parents as paragons of wisdom and virtue (in keeping with the nuclear family idealism of the Eisenhower years). Dad had a good day job, smoked a pipe, and dispensed ageless wisdom from the easy chair, while Mom kept house and home spotless and baked pies for the Church picnic while wearing crinolines, heels, and pearls.

If I’m not mistaken, any such idyllic scenario in sitcom-land is deemed to be an unrealistic “Ozzy and Harriet” naïveté – not unlike the way “Kumbaya” has become a byword to refer to touchy-feely peacenik naïveté.

 

[bloo]

Ward Cleaver (Hugh Beaumont) in Leave It To Beaver
Jim Anderson (Robert Young) in Father Knows Best
Steve Douglas (Fred MacMurray) in My Three Sons
Danny Williams (Danny Thomas) in Make Room for Daddy
Ozzie Nelson, Ozzie and Harriet
Tom Corbett (Bill Bixby), The Courtship of Eddie’s Father

you could even add the brady bunch parents to this list

it is worse now tho there are no choices like these listed above
(if there are please enlighten me)

i think it is the liberal media’s way of undermining the family

 

[Larowyn]

Herman and Lillian Munster seemed to have the roles reversed. Lillian was the perfect foil to Herman and that’s why they got along so well.

 

[puzzleannie]

we’re still around, we are the ones worrying ourselves into a frenzy about ring around the collar, and serving the right soft drink to our kids’ friends so we get the cool mom award, and you see us dancing in the moonlight around our new kitchen appliances.

My parents had an iron clad rule about TV sitcoms growing up (when we had a TV, which was infrequently) we absolutely did not allow into our home programs that depicted men as idiots, loudmouth tyrants, or childish bunglers. That ruled out Make Room for Daddy, Honeymooners, Lucy and a whole lot of other shows.

 

[LilyM]

you could even add the brady bunch parents to this list

it is worse now tho there are no choices like these listed above
(if there are please enlighten me)

i think it is the liberal media’s way of undermining the family

The Brady Bunch broke the mould a bit - for one they actually had a bathroom with a toilet in it and the parents actually shared a bed, neither of which had been shown on TV before.

Besides which, Mrs Brady never seemed to do any work around the home, I don’t remember ever seeing her cook or clean or anything (hence Alice the maid). Did she maybe have a day job of her own as well that we weren’t told about?

 

[exoflare]

and the parents actually shared a bed, neither of which had been shown on TV before.

What about “The Munsters”?

 

[Ghoti]

The Brady Bunch broke the mould a bit - for one they actually had a bathroom with a toilet in it and the parents actually shared a bed, neither of which had been shown on TV before.

The Cleaver’s bathroom had a toilet in it; the episode that showed it didn’t make it through the censors in time for airing (I think it was the pilot) so it was released later in the season – jakes intact.

Ozzie and Harriet shared a bed, which was not considered scandalous because they were actually married in real life.

 

[Larowyn]

I thought it was Bewitched that had the first television depiction of a married couple sharing a bed.

 

[LilyM]

The Cleaver’s bathroom had a toilet in it; the episode that showed it didn’t make it through the censors in time for airing (I think it was the pilot) so it was released later in the season – jakes intact.

Ozzie and Harriet shared a bed, which was not considered scandalous because they were actually married in real life.

Wow, that’ll teach me to believe everything I read, not that I can remember where I read it.

 

[bluerose]

The Brady Bunch broke the mould a bit - for one they actually had a bathroom with a toilet in it and the parents actually shared a bed, neither of which had been shown on TV before.

Besides which, Mrs Brady never seemed to do any work around the home, I don’t remember ever seeing her cook or clean or anything (hence Alice the maid). Did she maybe have a day job of her own as well that we weren’t told about?

I sent a card to my SIL (the one with 12 kids) that pictured Mrs. Brady saying something to the effect of not understanding how she could have a husband who’s an architect and still have only one bathroom for six kids… and it was between the boys’ and girls’ rooms!

 

[LilyM]

I sent a card to my SIL (the one with 12 kids) that pictured Mrs. Brady saying something to the effect of not understanding how she could have a husband who’s an architect and still have only one bathroom for six kids… and it was between the boys’ and girls’ rooms!

Haha, brings back memories. In our house there were five girls, and being the youngest I usually had to get up extra early to use the bathroom before the elders hogged it. Of course the two eldest were eight and nine years older than me respectively, so it got a lot easier after they left home.

Of course Mum and Dad had their ensuite, as did the Bradys, and of course those of us who were in a rush used it when need be.

 

[Cat]

There have been some wonderful sitcoms in the last decade or so that showed good male role models.

Cosby Show
Family Matters (the one with Urkel)
Step By Step
Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper
Full House
Family Ties
My Wife and Kids
Happy Days (actually, that was a 70s show!)
Webster

These are just a few of the shows that I can think of quickly. My girls used to love Carl (the father on Family Matters). When he was shot, my younger daughter had nightmares and woke up screaming, “I don’t want Carl to get shot!” (He was a cop on the show.)

Also, one of the BEST shows (not a comedy) on TV features strong, brave men who willingly face grave dangers to keep our country safe. I’m speaking of The Unit. The character of Jonas Blane (played by Dennis Haysbert) is absolutely fantastic–a real man’s man (and every woman’s dream man). His wife Molly (played by Regina Taylor) is just as sharp as he is. Several episodes have featured their daughter, and they are great parents. If you want to stand up and cheer for brave, smart men, watch The Unit. (There are a couple of philanderers on the show, but their lives are miserable because of their failings–we see the real consequences of SIN on The Unit and it isn’t pretty at all.)

Good television does exist. There are Christian producers and writers and actors who continue to “salt” Hollywood and keep it from descending totally into the pit.

BTW, all the shows I mentioned above were MEGA-HITS in their time. So decency and family values pays off in Hollywood.

 

[LilyM]

There have been some wonderful sitcoms in the last decade or so that showed good male role models.

Cosby Show
Family Matters (the one with Urkel)
Step By Step
Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper
Full House
Family Ties
My Wife and Kids
Happy Days (actually, that was a 70s show!)
Webster

These are just a few of the shows that I can think of quickly. My girls used to love Carl (the father on Family Matters). When he was shot, my younger daughter had nightmares and woke up screaming, “I don’t want Carl to get shot!” (He was a cop on the show.)

Also, one of the BEST shows (not a comedy) on TV features strong, brave men who willingly face grave dangers to keep our country safe. I’m speaking of The Unit. The character of Jonas Blane (played by Dennis Haysbert) is absolutely fantastic–a real man’s man (and every woman’s dream man). His wife Molly (played by Regina Taylor) is just as sharp as he is. Several episodes have featured their daughter, and they are great parents. If you want to stand up and cheer for brave, smart men, watch The Unit. (There are a couple of philanderers on the show, but their lives are miserable because of their failings–we see the real consequences of SIN on The Unit and it isn’t pretty at all.)

Good television does exist. There are Christian producers and writers and actors who continue to “salt” Hollywood and keep it from descending totally into the pit.

BTW, all the shows I mentioned above were MEGA-HITS in their time. So decency and family values pays off in Hollywood.

I reckon Diff’rent Strokes was a good show too in terms of role models - had a single father character raising his own daughter and dealing with interracially adopting two kids as well.

Happy Days comes more into the ‘Honeymooners’ mould though - unglam man marries good-looking woman.