Free Association Thread 4

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The Simpsons didn't appear until 1989 when attitudes had already pretty much changed with women on television thanks to Peg Bundy, Ellen, and Clarie Huxtable.

There were a few bright spots of hope back in the fifties and sixties, though.

June Lockhart as Timmy's mom (Lassie) and Shirley Jones as the Partridge Family matriarch helped put the first cracks in the wall. The women on The Big Valley were anything but helpless and demure. Have to give a tip of the hat to Amanda Blake too. Miss Kitty on Gunsmoke held her own most of the time...with or without Matt' Dillon's help. ;)


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Plus, the 1980s brought us the women who could not be tamed...

Pam and Sue Ellen Ewing and the biggest bitch of all time: Alexis of Dynasty.

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Plus, the 1980s brought us the women who could not be tamed...

Pam and Sue Ellen Ewing and the biggest bitch of all time: Alexis of Dynasty.

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And on British TV (that I saw in Australia)..

Mrs Slocombe - the elderly saleswoman (Are you being served?)

Mildred (George's wife) (George and Mildred)

Alf Garnett's wife, Else -

dozens more..
 
And on British TV (that I saw in Australia)..

Mrs Slocombe - the elderly saleswoman (Are you being served?)

Mildred (George's wife) (George and Mildred)

Alf Garnett's wife, Else -

dozens more..

Mrs. Slocombe was so far ahead of American TV women it isn't funny. That entire cast of AYBS was what the US networks wished they could pull together...and writing they only dreamed of getting away with. ;)

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Mrs. Slocombe was so far ahead of American TV women it isn't funny. That entire cast of AYBS was what the US networks wished they could pull together...and writing they only dreamed of getting away with. ;)

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When I think about it, you are right! Lots of British shows which the Americans changed to please (help their audiences understand) just failed in the US.
 
When I think about it, you are right! Lots of British shows which the Americans changed to please (help their audiences understand) just failed in the US.

Part of that can be blamed on the uniqueness of British wit. A lot of people may catch the blatant stuff...like the 'Mrs. Slocombe's pussy' one-liners...but so many of the tongue-in-cheek gems go right over their heads. Another part is most likely because so many people didn't appreciate the Monty Python movies. (yet we turned Animal House, Blazing Saddles, and Airplane! into instant classics. :confused: )

I was fortunate in spending three days in London when I was fifteen and being glued to the TV in the hotel lobby every night laughing my ass off. The only thing funnier was listening to Joe Friday's atrocious German accent watching 1960's vintage Dragnet episodes in a Frankfort youth hostel a week later. :eek:

Norman Lear was probably the only one to pull off a British-to-American blockbuster success with All In the Family.

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Part of that can be blamed on the uniqueness of British wit. A lot of people may catch the blatant stuff...like the 'Mrs. Slocombe's pussy' one-liners...but so many of the tongue-in-cheek gems go right over their heads. Another part is most likely because so many people didn't appreciate the Monty Python movies. (yet we turned Animal House, Blazing Saddles, and Airplane! into instant classics. :confused: )

When I was a lot younger, we had interesting 'humorous' [funny] films. Most of my mates all thought that they were too obvious; the humour wasn't 'humour'; it was slapstick. Even the "crime stories" featured such daft bits as the camera lingering on an important clue that my 12 year-old cousin would have twigged.
What we could not understand was why the presenters had not done the most basic of edits to tighten it up a bit.
 
When I was a lot younger, we had interesting 'humorous' [funny] films. Most of my mates all thought that they were too obvious; the humour wasn't 'humour'; it was slapstick. Even the "crime stories" featured such daft bits as the camera lingering on an important clue that my 12 year-old cousin would have twigged.
What we could not understand was why the presenters had not done the most basic of edits to tighten it up a bit.

Older movies were better.
 

(A note a ways back - Alice Cramden wasn't a dingbat; she was the level-headed critic of Ralph's inanities).

Let's not forget Lois Lane, from Kiss Me, Kate for an independent (and sexually independent) woman.

True to You, in My Fashion

And the other Lois Lane from Superman on 1950s' TV' she was quite independent, and needed Clark's alien-manly strengths far less often than the more recent incarnations of the star reporter.
 
(A note a ways back - Alice Cramden wasn't a dingbat; she was the level-headed critic of Ralph's inanities).

Let's not forget Lois Lane, from Kiss Me, Kate for an independent (and sexually independent) woman.

True to You, in My Fashion

And the other Lois Lane from Superman on 1950s' TV' she was quite independent, and needed Clark's alien-manly strengths far less often than the more recent incarnations of the star reporter.

back to the future then?
 
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