When I was little I loved The Donna Reed show. Donna and her family were perfect. And I mean perfectly perfect. Perfect parents, perfect children, perfect house. I saw it as some other reality in contrast to my messed up life... which probably screwed my head up even more. Last night I was flipping around on Hulu and I came across The Donna Reed show. I thought, oh, Donna! I haven't seen that in years, so I wasted 30 minutes on it.*
In the episode Jeff finds a stray cat. He names him Harry and the kids argue over him. To settle the argument, the head of the household, pillar of the community, perfect Dr. Stone takes the cat and dumps him! OMFG! He put Harry in the car and took him to another neighborhood, opened the door, shoved the cat out and said "Goodbye, Harry, find yourself a nice home." Then he pulled away and left Harry on the street. (cue laugh track) I was left, sitting here staring at the screen and thinking..WTF? I know things have changed, but, can you imagine? I thought these people were perfect. No wonder Paul Peterson is a child actor's advocate. The episode is called Cool Cat.
37 comments:
i never ever liked donna reed....and i really fucking hated it when she replaced miss ellie on dallas for a bit....
i love me some leave it to beaver though!! and father knows best....also i married joan....you bet your life (a game show but still groucho was awesome).....
i always hated lucy too...i really don't understand how people can find lucy funny or like donna reed....
The Honeymooners!
Oh how times have changed since then. I remember watching this being sick on nick at night when I was young. Still cant watch it to (normal for my taste) But I do like the munsters and adams family.
Oh lucy ha.. try to live close near her home town. On halloween its like having 5 million lucy's acting up.
YES! forgot the honeymooners!! love them too!!
One of the earliest sitcoms I remember was a favorite of mine - Batchelor Father with John Forsythe. He was pretty cool (and HOT!) back then.
I liked Donna Reed.I always thought she was more down-to-earth than the Beaver's mom and I loved the clothes that Shelley Fabray(sp?) wore.
It was just the fact that dumping an unwanted animal was accepted back then that farked with my head. It's like that scene in Mad Men where Don Draper and his perfect family throw the remains of their picnic right out in the park and drive off drinking with kids and no seat belts.
I hate old shoes like this because for some reason, most people think they are accurate. "See? Everybody was perfect in the 50s! It says so on TV!" This would be like me telling my future grandkids, "See? In the early 2000s, you could buy a whole designer wardrobe and live in New York and party every night on a magazine writer's salary! It said so on 'Sex and the City'!" DUH.
And anyone who thinks it's funny to watch a guy ditch a stray cat and drive off needs to DIAF.
I have it on good authority that Donna Reed liked being pissed on.
I remember when animal dumping was the accepted way of dealing with inconvenient pets. Inconvenient women were beaten and/or abandoned with little consequence.
Institutionalized racism was the rule. Schools and most facilities were segregated. It was a world by and for White Men.
When the Donna Reed show began in '58, it was an idealized reflection of this reality. Then we blew up their Donna Reed world. You were there , Pat. I was there too. I marched with signs, went to "consciousness raising " groups. I smoked pot, wore flowers in my hair, and freaked out my parents.
The civil rights act was passed, women became uppity, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez gave voice to the thoughts of a generation.
The times, they were a changin' and the Donna Reed show was oblivious. It was cancelled in '66, overrun by reality..
Now some right wingnuts want to put the toothpaste back in the tube and pretend none of it ever happened. Good luck with that!!
Well, if we're going down memory lane....I loved the Donna Reed show. I also loved Jackie Gleason because I was going to be in a troupe like the June Taylor dancers. Anyone remember them? They'd show aerial shots of them and they were synchronized. I wanted to be either one of them or a Rockette....sigh, I never made it. Pat, you're right, there were no seat belts in cars 'back then'. I also loved the Hit Parade, where they'd sing the top 10 songs of the week. Lucky Strikes were their sponsor. You could advertise cigs on TV then.
Notice how no one ever mentions the show Amos and Andy. It was a great show, but you can't admit that you watched it because it is not PC. It's like "I can Be said"----you can't stuff the toothpaste back in the tube. So what do we do? Ignore it! That show didn't happen! Forget about it! It will go away! But those of us who saw the show and enjoyed it should not have to feel guilty. It was a part of black video history. There were also many black films that were really good. You can't find them anymore either.
If we get rid of everything in history that was distastful, I would only teach history for one month out of the year!
Bayou Jane, your post reminds me of the old movie "Uncle Tom's Cabin". I saw it on TV a few months ago. It was so old they used subtitles. Any time a black character talked all the subtitles would be spelled wrong! Stuff like "Shure would like dem ta come ovah here, Massa!" ...If they can play that on TV it should be fine to play "Amos n Andy"! (Which I admit I have not seen, but it can't be worse than mis-spelled subtitles.)
On that note, I wish Disney would release "Song of the South" on DVD, I would like to see it again, but they won't because of racism. I heard that when Disney re-released "Lady and the Tramp" they were thinking about cutting out The Siamese Cat Song because it was racist. Thank goodness they didn't! That was the best part of the movie!
I am from the All in the Family/Good Times generation.
No wonder I was so confused..LOL
Oh, and I'd like to add-whenever I hear the name Donna Reed I think of "Little Shop of Horrors" which was my favorite movie when I was little.
"I cook like, Betty Crocker,
And I look like, Donna Reed!"
:)
never watched amos and andy....
oh i love car 54 too!!!
The Lil Rascals was good too... when you're 10 years old.
We had a coffe percolater just like that. You made coffee on the stove with it.
yeah, the actors on Dalls hated her and treated her poorly. Her son was interviewed and said it wasn't her as much as Barbara BelGeddes being replaced.
Hated the honeymooners. All the screaming Ralph did at home scared me
I hated the Honeymooners and Lucy. Anyone remember watching Hazel? I always loved Ben Casey. All the doctors sitting around the hospital smoking. I also liked Dr Kildare. When my dad would switch shifts ( he was a Chicago Cop) we usually had to watch whatever he wanted to watch. That usually consisted of The Rifleman, Combat, The Real McCoys, Bonanza or Car 54.
A big deal to us was staying up with my mom, having popcorn and watching Lawrence Welk and following the bouncing ball.
Saturdays was always American Bandstand.
I agree with you Bayou Jane. Amos and Andy was a hoot! I loved Andy Griffith.
I can't stomach those old shows for that reason - their morals seem cruel and rigid and I can't imagine how they enjoyed life much. I wouldn't have.
My sister and I used to watch "Three's Company". Now that I'm older I can't believe we would have enjoyed it so much, since 90% of the jokes are about sex and we were really little at the time. But we LOVED the episode where Jack Tripper got drunk at a party and was dancing with a plant on his head. I think we kept watching the show just because we were always waiting for that episode to repeat!
Gotta agree with Tia about the whole Dallas debacle. Awful! But you know what I thot of when I was looking at that picture? I was thinking like I did as a child & I saw this..."man, they are rich!"..."look at that glass coffee pot...what is that thing?" "How does it NOT break when it gets hot?, How does that work?" I ALWAYS thot that. We always just had a regular percolator, like Lucy & Ricky had! LOL! Then my mom got a Rival coffe pot, it was reddish with black starbursts on it. That was rich to me! But dayum, Donna Reed is f'g RICH ya'll! Thats my childhood mind at work, and thats what I was thinking about. It still bums me out.
rox
Alison I hate old shoes too! Go get some new ones! LOL
And I think back when I was a kid that Indian commercial with that tear falling from his eyes & trash at his feet finally got people to stop throwing their trash from their cars. Remember the hwys used to be sooo littered? Then they made laws prohibiting trashing the highways and that Indian was the symbol of a cleaner America. Now you "adopt" a highway or the convicts clean it up. Throwing away an animal was not an issue back then, as it still is fine with many still today. We are trying like mad to find a home for a male Great Pyrenees that is being starved & runs off just to get food & water. The crazy lady that owns him is so involved with her mini-horses that she neglects him & is afraid he will knock over her little horses. This woman is nuts. We are about to get the sheriff to remove the dog, we have several new homes lined up, but she has to give him up. He's gonna die. Dumbass selfish bit**.
rox
Wow Rox,
Here in CT..if you are deemed being cruel to your animals like this woman clearly is..they take the animal away and plop you in jail.
They just arrested a couple people this week for cruelty.
I cant believe my parents let me watch Three`s Company at MY age! ROFL
But they did.
:(
I went back for more Donna Reed. Last night, her hubby dumped a stray child at a remote park. Same line as the cat.."go find your home."
Do you live in a rural area, Rox? If so, that woman should be training her dog to be a livestock guardian. Great Pyrenees are very gentle and laid back around their "charges".
I'm glad you are trying to involve the sheriff, and hope that help comes in time to save him/her.
My childhood favorite was Gilligan's Island. I really did love that show when I was seven, or so. I wound up watching a lot of Lucy and Honeymooners, and stuff because my parents wanted to, but I never really liked it. I just don't understand the attraction.
After school, I loved to watch Topper, and I Married Joan. When I was in nursing school, I would come home and watch The Gong Show to decompress a little. I also watched a number of pure crap game shows loaded with sexual innuendos. I am glad to have HD Cable, but wish I could wipe the schedule clear of all the "paid programming". I hate that shit.
gilligan's island! YES!! oh and burns & allen!!! love them!! jack benny too!!
Ha ha Rox I noticed that too but it was already posted..I need an edit button!
One of the earliest shows I remember when we first got a TV was Boston Blackie, think that was the name. Came on right after Kit Carson.
Ed Sullivan Show, Laugh In, Three Stooges.
OMG that story is just so sad. Of course being the 'mommy' of 9 cats makes me biased.
As far as memory lane goes, I loved 'Oh Susanna' (Gale Storm & Zazu Pitts and an ocean liner), 'I Married Joan' (Joan Davis & Jim Backus, 'Dobey Gillis', and 'Life of Reilly'.
oh yeah, dobie gillis...maynard g. krebs should have had his own show!
Dobie, the ultimate teenager. Loved it.
Dobie was the stoner LOL, Maynard (Gilligan) was the obvious choice being the "Beatnick" of the crowd. Looks can be decieving. And whats her face-was the dyke. For realz.
Rox
Re Dobie Gillis: Sheila James played Zelda. Completely forgot Tuesday Weld was in it too. Obviously the femme fatale.
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