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With Bill Bixby, and Ray Walston as the Martian whom Bixby's character passed off as his "Uncle Martin."
That was one of my favorite shows; I had a huge crush on Bill Bixby at that time although I never cared for watching him as The Incredible Hulk which is probably what he later became best known for.
If Leave it to Beaver truly mirrored real life as it was back then, here's what the character descriptions might look like:
Ward Cleaver: Alcoholic, workaholic, beats his sons with a belt. Bones his secretary on the side. His country club won't allow minorities or Jews to be members. The neighborhood where he bought his home is deed-restricted to white Anglo-Saxon protestant homeowners only. Drives drunk.
June Cleaver: Pops prescription Nembutal (see Mother's Little Helper by the Rolling Stones), and has an unlimited refills script for amphetamine-based diet pills. Her woman's club membership restrictions mirror her husband's country club. Drives high.
Wally Cleaver: Pretends to like girls because of what he faces from family, friends, church and community if he were to be outed.
Beaver Cleaver: As the baby of the family, he's spoiled rotten. Wally resents him and makes his life as miserable as he can. Beaver has been regularly sexually abused by his pastor and little league coach since he was 5, but is afraid to say anything lest his abusers carry out their threats of killing his parents.
If Leave it to Beaver truly mirrored real life as it was back then, here's what the character descriptions might look like:
Ward Cleaver: Alcoholic, workaholic, beats his sons with a belt. Bones his secretary on the side. His country club won't allow minorities or Jews to be members. The neighborhood where he bought his home is deed-restricted to white Anglo-Saxon protestant homeowners only. Drives drunk.
June Cleaver: Pops prescription Nembutal (see Mother's Little Helper by the Rolling Stones), and has an unlimited refills script for amphetamine-based diet pills. Her woman's club membership restrictions mirror her husband's country club. Drives high.
Wally Cleaver: Pretends to like girls because of what he faces from family, friends, church and community if he were to be outed.
Beaver Cleaver: As the baby of the family, he's spoiled rotten. Wally resents him and makes his life as miserable as he can. Beaver has been regularly sexually abused by his pastor and little league coach since he was 5, but is afraid to say anything lest his abusers carry out their threats of killing his parents.
Good one!
My dad may have been a little bit like the good tv Ward Cleaver. However, you're spot on with what our town was like. Like most of the kids in my school, I had to attend a formal ballroom dancing class once a week. After enduring it for two years, I was really relieved when my dad found out that Jews were not allowed, something that I hadn't noticed either. He pulled me out of that class--and fast! He hated prejudice and taught us that it was wrong. Our town was Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish, about equally divided. It was the Catholics and Protestants keeping everyone else out, not WASPS. Actually everyone tried to keep out anyone who was different.
One time the entire neighborhood of Catholics, Protestants, and Jews went into a panic. Someone had seen a black family and they appeared to be looking at a house that was for sale. Everyone was worried about "property values." It was kind of funny when the home owner announced to the neighbors that the black family was not looking to buy their house. The black family were their friends, visiting!
My parents didn't care who moved in as along as they kept the property up and were clean and decent.
What we did have was a new superintendent of schools who came from the South and their family was very religious, Evangelical style. Well, what a hypocrite! He was found by a janitor at night having sex with the school secretary under a desk, lol. Caused a major scandal and he was practically run out of town. My dad didn't usually negatively of anyone, but he had despised that guy right from the beginning.
The very same prejudices that we deal with today, existed back then too. They could get away with it though and probably in some towns it was a whole lot worse that what I saw. I think the town has a few token blacks these days.
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