An Admission: I Cried at Leave It To Beaver

Oh, what a sad story to tell. At least I am coming clean (that's a hint to you, Tiger Woods).
I am almost through with the first season of Leave It To Beaver. I have long thought that the sitcoms of the 1950's have thoroughly maligned over the past forty years so I decided to give them a try. I began with the granddaddy of all family situation comedies - Beaver. There are two things I have learned about this series (at least in its first year).
1) There is genuine affection between the actors on the series. I am always suprised by the constant attention and affection between Ward and June. I don't remember this from hardly any other series of the 1950's or 1960's. They seem to be a married couple who are still deeply in love and generally attracted to each other. The connection between Barbara Billingsley and Hugh Beaumont seems read. You would think that these two were having a real-life affair with the way that they were always hanging on each other. Again, maybe this is unique to the first season of the show. It is also true in the relationship between Beaver and Wally, and frankly between Beaver and his parents. It is none of the hokiness of a Full House - these seem like real breathing characters who love each other.

2) The series does not rest on cheap sentimentality. Sure, Beaver is filled with many touching moments. But some of them are so genuine that they do bring a tear to the eye. In an episode I watched yesterday, Beaver tries to keep up with Wally in school so that his father will be proud of him. Ward is congratulatory toward Wally because of his baseball prowess and frequenly goes to watch his games. Beaver never even makes the team because of his lack of skill so his takes up the clarinet in the school band. Due to his lack of talent, he is also kicked off the band. Too embarrassed to tell his parents and fearful that his father will be ashamed of him, Beaver gets ready to go to a band concert that he will have no part of, with his parents, rather than admit his failure. It is only Wally's intervention that leads to Beaver not making a fool out of himself. The final scene, in which Beaver thanks his father for not embarrassing him is what did it to me. Jerry Mathers grabs Hugh Beaumont by the neck and kisses him, thanking him. You can see genuine emotion in the actor's eyes, he is truly moved by this young boy. Seeing a father and son hug and kiss each other, in this period of rugged masculinity in which men were not to show emotion, completely contradicts popular notions of manhood. This is what did it to me.

Antigone

I am a product of the educational experiments of the late 1960's and early 1970's - which meant that I was assigned none of the classics growing up. Greek and Roman literature - forget about it. We read Vonnegut rather than Shakespeare in high school. I have often felt cheated in my education because of it. I am as big of a liberal as they come but I do believe that all students need a background in the literary canon (so there, I said it) which makes me sound like Bloom.

So, embarrasingly, this was my introduction to Antigone. It was an all-Greek production with Irene Papas playing the title character. Yorgos Javalles does a fine job using the natural scenery and ruins (but not then) of ancient Greece to give the film real character and remove it from any form of staginess. While I was impressed with Papas it was the tyrannical King Creon that moved me the most. Some of the commentary on his ruling style (at least in the first half of the film) reminded me of a certain G W but unfortunately he didn't have a downfall. I strongly recommend this film; I find it highly accessible and could be put to great use in the classroom.

Jarrett Neal v. Ward Cleaver

Well, a little admission. For the past month I have been watching episodes from the classic television sitcom "Leave It to Beaver." This sounds insane for someone who really studies television and film culture but I had the feeling that this show had been reduced to some broad brush strokes of 1950's nostalgia and had not really been studied for the cultural artifact it really was.

"Leave It to Beaver" was first broadcast in the fall of 1957, a point before my present course of study in 1960. It ran through 1963 though so the show was halfway through its run by 1960. I decided to bend the rules a little and give Beaver a go. One thing that most critics agree is that the first season of Beaver was the best. Jerry Mathers certainly was one of the best and most natural child actors of the decade.

My partner is a little amazed that I am wasting my free time watching this sitcom. He particularly loathes Ward Cleaver. Let me quote him, "Ward is a representation of white, racist, capitalist patriarchy." (J definitely went to graduate school - can you tell?) I think that he is a little hard on Ward but after watching almost all of the first season there are indications that he could be a little grating at times. In tonight's episode on the boys' paper route, Ward was upset that everyone wasn't at home to greet him when he arrived home from work. Ward definitely liked to be the center of attention. The boys both respected and feared him a little, emblematic of most young men's feelings toward their father in the 1950's. I think that Jarrett despises Ward for several reasons. He mistakenly believes that Ward is always in control. In fact, he is anything but. Ward can't control the lives of his boys and he certainly can't control June. Jarrett also recognizes that Ward's business associates are key to his social life and he is willing to keep the boys in check or manipulate them in order to maintain his position. There can be a smugness to Ward at times that is also annoying. Ward also likes to thinks he has the answers to all things but one of the leif motifs of television sitcoms of the past 50 years is the lack of control and knowledge of most father figures.

Ward is Ward --- probably a much better father than the majority of real patriarchs in 1950's culture.

Ernie Kovacs, Part Deux

Kovacs definitely had a thing for music. Many of his extended skits involved taking ordinary inantimate objects and having them "move" to a famous piece of music. Two of his best known skits involved the movement of pieces of equipment in an office and another involved kitchen appliances moving. The comedian had one skit in which eggs were cracked, celery was broken and glasses were clinked to Beethoven's 1812 Overture. Kovacs also had a skit in which four people ate in rhythm to a piece of music.

Many of these skits were amusing but not funny. That is the thing with Kovacs' sense of humor. Like a Surrealist, he seemed more to provoke or to question rather than to get guffaws out of the viewer. The musical sketches were quite elaborately staged and must have taken a great deal of preparation. Last night I watched a skit in which six individuals dressed in full gorilla suits danced to Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. The individuals were definitely accomplished dancers; the arabesque of one of the pivotal dancers, in full gorilla outfit, was quite amazing.

The photo above was of Kovac's "Nairobi Trio," three men in gorilla suits. Again, the effect was creepy; definitely one that would scare the hell out of a child.

Ernie Kovacs

Hi. For the past two evenings I have been watching a compilation film of the work of Ernie Kovacs. I have known little about Kovacs with the exception that he was one of those comedians that critics seemed to love but who the public-at-large either ignored or who they considered to be too intellectual.

Well, Kovacs is an acquired taste. This compilation film, available from Netflix, was originally put together by the local PBS affiliate in Chicago in 1977. It is a bizarre collection of short skits, similar in vein to Monty Python. The entire compilation has that air of 1970's head films when long-haired teenagers would smoke pot while watching the clips and laughing hysterically. In fact, it is difficult to even watch the clips without wondering if you are drunk or whether someone put something in your salad that left you high - they are just that bizarre.

To think that these skits were made in the early 1960's makes it that much more strange. They are not only avant garde - they are absolutely unusual in the context of suburban, safe 1960's culture. It is just amazing that they were made in the same era of Leave It to Beaver.

First things first. Percy Dovetonsils is one of the creepiest characters that has ever been on television. Kovacs created an effeminate, sniveling, effete poet in a leopard skin robe, drinking a martini with a daisy as a stirrer. This "poet" is a frightening reminder of the homophobia of early 1960's culture. He is painted as a freak, as unmanly. For a man with the intellect of Kovacs, it is apparent that this was the accepted norm for all American culture. Kovacs has Percy wearing eyeglasses in which the "eyes" are painted on. It creates a disturbing effect that emphasizes the prurient nature of Dovetonsils that much more. Percy laughs at his own jokes and thinks he is more talented than he actually is. In the episode I watched this evening, he made a joke about the muscular legs of the cameraman - a shocking remark from 1960's television.

Introduction

This is the introductory blog for the 1960 site.

A little background.....
As a cinephile, I would hypervenilate when I walked into a video store. That already dates me since video stores don't seem to exist anymore and since I worship at the altar of Netflix. Whenever I went into a wonderful video store, such as Facets in Chicago, I could never decide what to check out. For someone who likes a sense of order in his life.....and who likes to self-educate based on some sense of constency I decided to pick a year - and see everything I possibly could on DVD for that give year. I have completed the years 1950, 1929 and 1930. I learned a hell of a lot and gained a knowledge of the year that I could not possibly have had if I had just arbitrarily started picking DVD's.

Well, I am currently in 1960. Since this is a year in which television was in full fruition I also decided to try to see all of the television shows I could. What I want to share is my views and perspectives on what I viewed in that given year as I actually watch and think about the films and television shows. I hope this makes sense...