Old School Family Sitcoms

[ClassyCo]

I was thinking about this thread over the past week. I'm been thinking about those family-friendly comedies that dominated the television landscape in the 1950s and 1960s. Shows like THE ADVENTURES OF OZZIE AND HARRIET were model families for 1950s American conservativism. It may have never won an Emmy, nor ever achieved top ratings, but it stood alone as a prototype for how people imagine suburban families living in the time period.

It spawned a host of other successful and long-running family-friendly sitcoms: everything from FATHER KNOWS BEST and LEAVE IT TO BEAVER populated the television landscape during the fifties and sixties.

What family-friendly sitcoms come to mind for you?
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[Seaviewer]

I don't remember seeing Leave It To Beaver, but it must have been on here at some time. A few episodes of Ozzie and Harriet were repeated more recently and it's still entertaining. Memories of Father Knows Best are very dim.
I also remember Dennis the Menace and I'm currently rewatching Dobie Gillis on Tubi. I see they have The Patty Duke Show as well. I was watching Make Room For Daddy/The Danny Thomas Show but they took it off before I finished. Then we can add My Three Sons, which we've discussed previously.

 

[Crimson]

Overall, I'm not a big fan of this genre of sitcom. Except for some early episodes of LEAVE IT TO BEAVER, I've never found them to be funny. Slightly amusing, maybe. Wholesome, genial and comforting, I guess. But I expect a sitcom to be funny and most of these shows aren't.

I can get into early LEAVE IT TO BEAVER. The show could be funny in an "Little Rascals" kind of way; plus the neighbors (Rutherfords & Mondellos) were funny. I suppose I would say the same about DENNIS THE MENACE.

The rest of them? Mild, bordering on bland and almost always with an out-of-proportion laugh track. FATHER KNOWS BEST, THE DONNA REED SHOW and MY THREE SONS were all tepid. I've never seen any of OZZIE & HARRIET.

 

[Jimmy Todd]

We could add Hazel to the list, which if based on the few episodes I have seen, could be very amusing. I agree with @Crimson that none of these shows, imho, were laugh out loud funny. Amusing and comfortable at their best.
I Love Lucy was very, very funny, but it had a more subversive edge than the others. It was a sitcom about a modern woman trapped in a 1950's scenario trying to break free of it. Even Ethel and Fred's relationship had an edge because of all the implications that they had an unfulfilling sex life. The romance was only rekindled when they were on that ship to Europe and it was heavily implied they were really getting it on. Keep in mind this was the '50's

 

[Seaviewer]

I should have remembered The Donna Reed Show; I quite liked it. Shelley Fabares was pretty, and she and Paul Peterson both had hit songs. Bob Crane was their neighbour.
Hazel I could take or leave. That was just one of those shows you watched after school because there was a two hour block of sitcoms and that's just what you did.

 

[Crimson]

I deliberately skipped mentioning HAZEL. Most shows in this genre are mildly pleasant, but HAZEL was one of the most irksome shows I've ever seen. I shudder just thinking about Shirley Booth with her grating voice and jutting elbows.

 

[Chris2]

Hazel was ubiquitous in the 1970s. Everyone had color TVs by then, and local stations were desperate for color reruns, since so many of the old series available for syndicated reruns were in B&W. Hazel went color particularly early, in 1962, so it got rerun a lot in the 70s. Booth was a marvelous actress and her character meant well, but the character could be pretty abrasive and was best taken in limited doses.

 

[DallasFanForever]

I’ve never seen an episode of Hazel. Shows like My Three Sons, Leave it to Beaver, Father Knows Best and Dennis the Menace, for some reason I just never could get into them. I’m not saying they weren’t all great shows but to me it felt like there was never much difference between any of them. I guess cookie cutter is the best way to describe this genre for me, but of course that was the times.

I did like Make Room For Daddy, as I found it very funny. Does the Honeymooners count in this discussion? It’s one of my all time favorite shows but I’m guessing it doesn’t count. Obviously Ralph and Alice had no children but I still consider it a very family friendly sitcom, despite the lack of children.

 

[ClassyCo]

These are good, old-fashioned "cozy" TV shows. None of them are hilarious, but yet enjoyable and at least amusing.

With that being said:

HAZEL has never been a show that I particularly like. My grandfather is a pretty big fan of it, but it's never been my cup of tea. Shirley Booth isn't funny, she's annoying. The episodes are hard to sit through.

I've never seen a lot LEAVE IT TO BEAVER or THE DONNA REED SHOW, but what I have seen, I have enjoyed. I don't recollect seeing a whole lot of FATHER KNOWS BEST, either, but I wanted to buy the complete series box set once when I saw it at Walmart.

As I've said in other threads, I enjoy MY THREE SONS, especially with Bill Frawley in the cast, as well as OZZIE & HARRIET, if primarily for Rick and Dave. The latter series does have a out-of-sync laugh track, but I like it anyway.

A lot of the shows could've used more subtle, softer laugh tracks.​

One show that I always liked that could fall into this category was BACHELOR FATHER, the John Forsythe comedy series that aired from 1957 to 1962. It has the distinction of being the only TV show in the history of the medium to air consecutive seasons on all three major networks: ABC, CBS, and NBC. It aired on CBS from 1957 to 1959, then on NBC from 1959 to 1961, and finally on ABC from 1961 to 1962.

I remember watching BACHELOR FATHER on Antenna TV when I was getting ready for school. I thought it was at least mildly amusing, baring in mind I watched this show when I was big into DYNASTY.

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[Seaviewer]

The more you mention, the more I remember. I enjoyed Bachelor Father as well.
John Forsythe tried to replicate the formula with the less successful To Rome, With Love.

To Rome with Love (TV series) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

BACHELOR FATHER wasn't seen that much in reruns or all that well-remembered, perhaps because the young girl cast wasn't very telegenic.

 

[ClassyCo]

The more you mention, the more I remember. I enjoyed Bachelor Father as well.
John Forsythe tried to replicate the formula with the less successful To Rome, With Love.

To Rome with Love (TV series) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I've never seen TO ROME, WITH LOVE.​

BACHELOR FATHER wasn't seen that much in reruns or all that well-remembered, perhaps because the young girl cast wasn't very telegenic.

I do remember her being a little awkward on the show. Her name was Noreen Corcoran and her career was primarily inside television. IMDb lists her last acting credit for 1965, just three years after BACHELOR FATHER was cancelled.

 

[ClassyCo]

 

[Soaplover]

The Donna Reed Show was considered a unique show because it starred a woman and it was told from the perspective of a woman vs a man... and it was basically her idea/vision. Seeing her get into scrapes, making mistakes, and having a healthy and affectionate rapport with her husband really showed me how a couple could be if they respected and worked as a team.

Father Knows Best was also funny while the kids had just as much focus as the parents with older daughter Betty having feminist ideas for the 50s including briefly considering becoming an engineer, and one memorable episode called 'Betty, the Pioneer Woman ' where Betty is tasked with selecting a couple to recreate a 12 mile trek that resulted in the founding of the town. She selects a Pre-Bewitched Dick York as the male and she decides to select herself to go with him when he proclaims women are the weaker sex. As it turns out, Betty manages to complete the trek while managing to nurse his injury that prevents him from walking the rest of the way.

For the 1950s, I'm surprised that there were some feminist elements within the wholesome 50s sitcom

 

[Seaviewer]

I remember Robert Young saying that the title was originally supposed to be Father Knows Best? - with a question mark - not the rather pompous sounding statement that it became.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Most of them were hard to watch -- although, as a kid, I did (in reruns). And I agree that early LEAVE IT TO BEAVER (which today, would mean something else) was indeed the best of the bunch, the early dialogue between the brothers almost subversive in its honesty -- such that the adults would never be permitted the same repartee.

All these '50s domestic sitcoms were snapshots of the decade -- or, rather, what the decade wanted us to believe it was -- but FATHER KNOWS BEST was the most emblematic of all that stuff. There was a tribal, slightly tragic, The-Bomb-is-New, doomed mood that underscored the "comedy" that the other shows were mostly too silly to quite glimpse.

The last season of BEAVER ('62-'63) had a whistling version of the theme I find rather hauntingly of the period (kind of like the theme from the first season of PETTICOAT JUNCTION) but they seemed to drop it midway thru the year.

EDIT: okay, maybe it was Season 5:

My mom quite rightly pointed out that The Beaver was a cute little kid in the beginning, but, even as a child, Jerry Mathers didn't age well.

John Forsythe was reportedly responsible for casting his niece in BACHELOR FATHER, so maybe Joan was right about him.

I remember Robert Young saying that the title was originally supposed to be Father Knows Best? - with a question mark - not the rather pompous sounding statement that it became.

Oh, that's really interesting. They should've left in the question mark. The 'misogynist' title has haunted the series for dead.

 

[Chris2]

I hated Father Knows Best. I hated how the intro started with this big important orchestral fanfare over a shot of the house, like it was Playhouse 90 or something. I hated how the oldest daughter called him “Father”. I hated the mother’s hoity-toity accent.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I hated Father Knows Best. I hated how the intro started with this big important orchestral fanfare over a shot of the house, like it was Playhouse 90 or something. I hated how the oldest daughter called him “Father”. I hated the mother’s hoity-toity accent.

Yes, but that's what made it "so 1950s"!

 

[Soaplover]

Oh, that's really interesting. They should've left in the question mark. The 'misogynist' title has haunted the series for dead.

I don't think mother knows best either at least any of the 80s/90s/00s/10s sitcom I've watched. They are just as clueless as the father's are in most cases.

I tend to find the term misogynist to be an over-used term that has lost any impact. In fact, misandry seems to be in fashion nowadays.

 

[Crimson]

I have a feeling Gen Z would enjoy these mild family shows. In various reddit groups I belong to, younger fans seem to really dislike any characters that have, well, personality. In the I LOVE LUCY group, younger fans complain about everything. Lucy is too conniving, Ricky is too hot tempered, Fred is too miserly, little Ricky is too fussy, Cousin Ernie is a freeloader, Caroline is two faced, etc. (They all love Ethel though.) The traits that make the characters funny are considered "cringe". The same holds true in dramas, where characters who are dramatic are disliked. It seems like they want pleasant, happy shows where the characters are all pleasant and happy.