Saturday Palaver

[kbobam]

This 'moment in time' is from the old Donna Reed television show.

It both cracks me up and horrifies me.

The good doctor (pediatrician!) of the town has been 'volunteered',

without his knowledge or consent, to judge a 'beautiful baby' contest.

Talk about being between a rock and a hard place!

It's also an unusual moment in that it's very rare to see this sort of

'point-of-view' vantage point in older situation comedies. You're seeing

the scene through the character's eyes, which makes it easier to put

yourself in his position. I think that's why this kind of makes me cringe.

[Steph]

I loved that show. It was a strange moment in time all by itself -- strong non-traditional woman playing strong traditional woman, and then in later years when her character tried to break into the non-traditional she had to act incompetent and need the man to rescue.

Too serious?

[lstmmrbls]

I prefered Leave it to Beaver

[kbobam]

I think I liked Beaver at the time too. Leaning more toward Donna these days.

The one thing I remember about all the old 'family' sit-coms is that as a rather

precocious young boy I was pretty 'hot' for all the moms. The more age-appropriate

daughters just didn't cut it in comparison. I have no idea if this was simply

good taste on my part, or if I have some real problems.

That's interesting about the 'progression' of the Donna Reed show.

Way back when, my tv viewing was pretty random, and I don't think I was

especially conscious of any time sequences or 'attitude adjustments'.

But these days it's really fun when an 'oldies' network decides to broadcast

a complete 'marathon' and you can start watching from the beginning.

The 'pilots' and 'finales' of some of the great old shows can be particularly

entertaining, if you're not in the mood to watch or record every episode. ( :

[lstmmrbls]

Never missed an episode of Father Knows Best