Missing Family Members on TV

When I first wrote this in 2009 it was less known, but now is recognised as a standard TV trope. I included a video this time, which I should have last time.

In the comments is the phrase "...kids, like jackals, sense weakness..." An excellent observation.

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The stereotype is that 1950's television showed stereotypical two-parent, two-child families where nothing went wrong, and this was unhealthy for the attitudes of children growing up watching this. Leave It To Beaver and Ozzie and Harriet are cited as examples.

But more frequently, television killed off a parent somewhere and started the story later, with the bereft or even orphaned child adjusting to a new family situation. Rather creepily, Mommies got eliminated much more often than Daddies, though both parents getting the hook before the series started was also common.

Uncles taking care of nieces was big: Bachelor Father, Sky King, Family Affair. Dads left with the kids also seemed to be a big draw: My Three Sons, The Rifleman, Andy Griffith, Bonanza.

Circus Boy, My Little Margie, Danny Thomas, Gidget, Hank - there's dead parents everywhere. Or live parents nowhere might be a better way to put it. It's easy to see the sympathy draw, and perhaps the losing of a mother rates higher on the instant sympathy scale. Men taking care of kids also offered more opportunity for comedy. Still, it's weird how many moms they picked off here - maybe TV producers didn't like their wives or mothers or something. I can't think of any early single moms except for December Bride. Tough women left with the ranch out West came up though. It seems to be the reverse of the Dad-as-nurturer show - Barbara Stanwyck in The Big Valley winning against all odds.

Super-intact families were used more for comic effect in unusual situations: The Munsters, The Addams Family, The Flintstones, The Jetsons. Still are: The Simpsons, Family Guy. The Real McCoys and The Beverly Hillbillies both had multigenerational weirdness going, with missing relatives seemingly no problem. Maybe that was an Appalachian stereotype thing.

 

 

Universe

 Never look a gift universe in the mouth. GKChesterton, personal correspondence

How To Help

There is a fair overlap between this site and Grim's Hall already, but for those of you who don't visit there, he is currently overloaded as a first responder in the mountains of the west Carolinas. He can occasionally get internet and get a message out, and Starlink is reportedly solving that problem soon. He favors on-the-ground solutions, as do many of us here, and has suggestions how you might help if you've a mind to.

Sleepwalk

 

Is this driving away music or driving home music?

Boston TV

Reposted from 2009

My mother discouraged us from watching this show, as it might be too scary. Such were the times.



But we watched Boomtown all three hours every Saturday. If you were sick and stayed home from church on Sunday, you learned that Rex Trailer was on three hours then, too - and played hymns on his guitar.

My brother and I tried the rope tricks. That is, I made him stand across the room with one of Mummy's cigarettes in his mouth and I would flip a hunk of rope and knock it out. I can't imagine I never missed, but I don't recall any accidents.

I don't know all of the words to "Hoofbeats" or "Boomtown," I'm afraid, though I could get part of them down.

Ten Rats

In the context of discussing the very poor evidence in favor of the toxoplasma idea - that contact with cats increases human risk of diseases such as Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder - Tom Chivers of The Studies Shows said categorically "I'm not going to pay any attention to any study involving only ten rats."  This seems sound. The cat ladies are safe after all.

There is a wonderful site on X justsaysinmice, that appends the proper qualifier IN MICE to news reports of study after study.  Great fun. 

"Exercise in pregnancy protects children from obesity, study finds."   IN MICE

"A new study shows that high-fat diets are linked to anxiety and depression" IN MICE

Should Books Be Banned From School Libraries?

 A good answer from Quora.

There was also one people were oohing and ahhing over on FB locally, of a librarian  patiently explaining that books found there way into age-inappropriate sections because the publishers are trying to expand their markets, people. What do you expect? She was irritated.  To that I say "That's why we hire librarians."

Of course there are books on the margin, which could perhaps benefit the occasional eight-grader but is generally inappropriate for middle school and belongs in the high school, or the high school section of the public library. Having those discussions is appropriate. But there are people on both sides of this who are crusaders, who want to make sure there is nothing in the high school that discusses LGBT students in any way, versus those who want to make sure that the poor fourth-grader trans boy has books that make him feel supported and affirmed. (And how dare your forbid it, because this book won an award! Those books always win awards.)

As a practical matter, most problems can be solved by factoring in age-appropriateness. Political/social questions need to be treated as a different animal, because the personalities are often more important than the content.

Guys and Stuff

 I was walking in the neighborhood.  Sullivan is sitting on his porch.

"So, do you like Corvettes?"

"Not particularly."

He motions me over to show me the 2024 that his friend just bought and describes its features to me. He goes on to talk about Shelby, '61 Impalas, GTOs, an '87 Harley, and various muscle cars that old guys here in the park own.

Guys and gear. Guns, boats, camping, knives, fishing...GEAR.

Till We Have Voices

Still thinking much about Till We Have Faces in preparation for the conference on the 11th.

When the main character chooses to veil herself because of her ugliness, and the god who weds her beautiful sister hides his appearance as well, you can expect that all mention of faces should be noted, even when the faces are not theirs. But when faces are hidden, voices take on greater importance.  Orual finds that her voice is attractive.  A suppliant prince even flirts with her in the dim light. The God of the Mountain, the Shadowbrute, is revealed to have a voice of great beauty and majesty. The shouts of crowds or the murmurs of them in the distance express a great deal. 

I noticed it from two poignant, connected passages, and was able to double back and see the subtle reference to voices, or natural sounds that seemed like voices, throughout the book. I hope to notice more on further readings.

I never heard weeping like that before, not from a child, nor a man wounded on the palm, nor a tortured man, nor a girl dragged off to slavery from a taken city. If you heard the woman you most hate in the world weep so, you would go to comfort her. You would fight your way through fire and spear to reach her. (Orual, speaking of Psyche) Pt 1 Ch. XV

But the situation reverses, or seems to, in the end.

The woman held out her hands to Psyche, and I saw that her left arm dripped with blood. Then came her voice, and what a voice it was! So deep, yet so woman-like, so full of passion, it would have moved you even if it spoke happy or careless things.  But now (who could resist it?) it would have broken a heart of iron.

'Oh Psyche,' it wailed. 'Oh, my own child,my only love. Come back. Come back. Back to the old world where we were happy together. Come back to Maia.'

Psyche bit her lip till the blood came and wept bitterly. (Orual, in Pt. 2 Ch IV)

If you notice similarities in this story of Orual to elements of Beauty and the Beast, it is because both are based on the Cupid and Psyche myth.  Orual would be one of the jealous sisters. 

Also, whenever you hear a bird sing in Lewis's fiction, pay attention.  The plot is about to move in a different direction.

Have You Seen Her Face?

This does not fit Till We Have Faces in the least, but has been running through my head the whole time while listening to a podcast about it.  Fortunately, not during the reading itself.

Though actually, it might fit for Psyche. Yes, that Psyche - the one in the Cupid myth. The Lewis book is told from the POV of one of the jealous sisters.