Tv

I love Lucy

Leave It to Beaver

Honeymooners

Superman

Quiz shows!!!!

Leave it to Beaver contributed to the notion of the perfect Fifties family. Parents never raised their voices or were too busy for the kids. Dad didn't work late.

Mom, well, poor Mom seemed obliged to remain perfectly coifed and dressed regardless of task. Dusting, vacuuming, cooking. No matter. She always had a dress and her heels on. What they never showed was Mom ironing which must have been a daily ordeal to keep all those nice outfits pressed.

A life crisis consisted of a lost report card or failure to eat your vegetables.

Still, we watched. Amused by the comings and goings of the Cleaver family and I suspect, wishing our own families could be as perfect as the Cleavers.

The Honeymooners was really television's first spin-off.

I Love Lucy

Lucille Ball was a pathfinder who paved the way for all the women in TV to follow. Without Lucy, arguably, there might not have been a Carol Burnett or Mary Tyler Moore. She proved women could be the leads and carry a show. Not one show, but several. None of which takes away from Desi Arnaz's estimable talents as a producer. His "can do" attitude made the "I Love Lucy Show" work. He innovated the three camera filming format still in use today. Previously, shows like this were performed before a live audience and preserved on kinescope which makes poor copies. Desi's filiming of Lucy is the reason there are great copies today. The show ran in a period of TV history when married people slept in separate beds which would explain why on TV, women didn't get "pregnant."

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