MovieChat Forums > Leave It to Beaver (1957) Discussion > This isn't what the 50's was really like...

This isn't what the 50's was really like.

posted 7 years ago by shadaif
72 replies | jump to latest

I often worry that people think this show (and Donna Reed, Andy Griffith, Father Knows Best) present a factual account of 50's life. While the show and TV at the time was "wholesome" 50's reality was harshly different. Teen pregnancy was just as common except girls were sent off to convents or unwed mothers' homes where they were forced to endure painful childbirths and their babies were taken away without them even getting a chance to see them. Women were trapped in abusive marriages because divorce was illegal in many states. Segregation and racism was the accepted norm. I get really sick and tired of people longing for "the good old days." They never existed. We should never want to return to an era where one race or gender is allowed social dominance. The only part about the 50's that we should "yearn for" is the ability to support a family on a single income. But, even back then, 60% of households had two working parents.

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[–] McQualude (4231) 6 years ago

The worst part is that some look back and believe the fantasy was reality.

[–] strntz (10801) 6 years ago

It was reality for many - including my family.

Most people don't know that in the 1950s, most black children were born to married couples. Today it's less than 25%. There were less black families in poverty in the 1950s than today.

LBJ's great society may or may not have been well-intentioned (a debate for another day), but it's effect was to destroy the black family dynamic.

I was born in 1957 so really grew up in the early and mid 60s, but we were a black family living in a middle class Jewish-Italian neighborhood. After the first couple of years of tension, we were accepted and blended in just fine. My dad often spoke with enormous pride of the first July 4th neighborhood picnic at *our* house that the white folks attended. But while mom worked part time and didn't wear pearls every day, we had our own home, a car (then two), a color TV, and lived very much the suburban life that the white Cleavers had.

[–] McQualude (4231) 6 years ago

There are always some who have it better, just don't believe it was that way for everyone.

[–] strntz (10801) 6 years ago

I didn't say it was nor would I ever.

I was answering those who said Leave It To Beaver was a "fantasy" (in this context meaning bullshit). Their lifestyle may not have been the majority, but it still wasn't uncommon. There was plenty of dysfunction back then, they just didn't make TV programs that showed it.

I can say a lot more about the true reasons of criticizing these shows, but I'll stop here.

[–] MIchiganJFrogg (-35) 6 years ago

[deleted]

[–] McQualude (4231) 6 years ago

I'm not criticizing the show, I'm criticizing the people who can't tell fantasy from reality. And for most people, Beaver Cleaver wasn't reality.

[–] hyperjet (633) 6 years ago

You're criticizing crazy people? Of course it wasn't reality. It's a tv show and it's no more fantasy based than any other show (except for actual fantasy based shows like the Munsters and Bewitched). As far as social issues...why?
To the OP, it's a comedy and played for laughs. If you want to see broken families and dated social issues, there are plenty of shows from the 70s and beyond that tackle that stuff.

[–] McQualude (4231) 6 years ago

You know, people say things like that but deep down they believe it's real. Lots of people say you can't trust anything on the internet but then believe every no-name blog site that seems to go along with their own political outlook, or post idiotic things on Facebook without fact checking. Intellectually they know you can't trust news but they watch cable news for hours every day and regurgitate what they see. So when people say things like, of course it's fake, I remain skeptical about whether they really understand that.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

WHAT? Something on television wasn't real? I can't believe it. I won't believe it. I DON'T believe it.

[–] McQualude (4231) 6 years ago

I'll copy what I posted to someone else...

You know, people say things like that but deep down they believe it's real. Lots of people say you can't trust anything on the internet but then believe every no-name blog site that seems to go along with their own political outlook, or post idiotic things on Facebook without fact checking. Intellectually they know news can't be trusted but they watch cable news for hours every day and regurgitate what they see. So when people say things like, of course it's fake, I remain skeptical about whether they really understand that.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

Good for you.

[–] McQualude (4231) 6 years ago

Is it good for me?

[–] [email protected] (690) 6 years ago

While I agree with what you are trying to convey, in the 60's I lived in a very middle-class, very white world. We weren't rich, but we were privileged and safe. Similar to what these shows portrayed.

[–] PaladinNJ (20310) 6 years ago

Leave it to Beaver was pure entertainment, a parody of what life in the 50's would ideally be. Shouldn't be taken as anything more than that

[–] kenburke (2280) 6 years ago

Of course it wasn't the way the 50's were "really like". It was romanticism pure and simple.

[–] EleazarHisSon (594) 5 years ago

It's funny today that you see people whine and complain about kids with things like autism and ADHD like as if they are disorders that warrant an abortion because the kid is so annoying. As if there were no bad kids in the past.

I am not American and not familiar with how things were there, but my mother knows a man who was born in the 1950s, neglected and in foster care and he was labelled a threat to the country.

[–] kwestmo (4114) 4 years ago

and shows today aren't like what 2010's are like. It's TV

[–] pluckytotheend (263) 4 years ago

=b d=