Navel Gazing

A Television Generation

In the early 1960s, when I was born, more than 90% of all US households owned televisions. Programming influenced child development of this television generation that I grew up as part of.

I still remember the excitement of getting our first color television. Back then, TVs didn't come with smarts or even remotes and received broadcast signals from antennas, commonly referred to as rabbit ears. My siblings and I watched television together, sprawled out, either sitting on a floor of gold-colored shag carpet or on an old white, patch-covered vinyl couch in the family room. The same couch where, long before the days of a television in every room, during moments of rare privacy, I dry-humped myself silly as I watched Barbara Eden of "I Dream of Jeannie," playing a shapely genie dressed in sexy Arabian apparel, and Elizabeth Montgomery, who cast spells with an irresistible nose-twitch, as Samantha from "Bewitched."

Years later, I would appreciate the provocative images of Tina Louise, who played a voluptuous actress named Ginger Grant; and Dawn Wells, as the perky girl-next-door type, Mary Ann Summers. Each were characters in the television show "Gilligan's Island," and each were not-so-subtly displayed wearing form-fitted clothes, revealing their well-formed figures, as pranced around the island paradise where they were marooned.

The show brings back a memory of puppy-love between the 6th-grade me and, then girlfriend-of-the-week, Corin Geiger. Together, after school, we watched TV, cuddled on her father's Lazy-Boy chair, and sucked-face during the entire 30-minute episode. When the show ended, and our mouths finally parted, a string of saliva hung between us like a wet noodle, humorously reminiscent of the smooching-pooch scene from Disney's "Lady and the Tramp."

1970s television presented a variety of family shows that were impactful as I neared adolescence.  As a kid, two of my favorites were "The Brady Bunch" and "The Partridge Family." The families featured in each suffered a patriarchal loss, which made them unique for the times. I liked these contemporary shows because, other than the addition of a new spouse, or lack of, the antics of their family dynamics more closely resembled my own.

Greg & Marsha Brady and Keith & Laurie Partridge were the grooviest of TV's older siblings, and gave us real-life younger siblings a glimpse of the adventurous events to come.  My favorite fictional sibling was Danny Partridge, that little red-headed boy had moxie.  To this day the actual actor, Danny Bonaduce, out performs that same brashness he displayed as a guitar-playing cynical preteen, with reckless abandonment in his own real life.

I loved the musical presence of the shows.
An early opinion was formed that drums are the coolest instrument, largely due to watching my older brother Don play in his band.  Unfortunately, I was strapped with a hand-me-down clarinet, rejected years earlier by that same brother.  It never dawned on me to pass on to my younger brother, besides, I wasn't half bad at playing.

Another favorite was "The Courtship of Eddie's Father", starring Bill Bixby in his pre-Hulk / Dr. Bannon days. He played a young widow and was a cool looking dad with his sideburns and fashionable-for-the-times glasses. He had an enviable relationship with his son that was summed up in the first line of the show's cover song..."People let me tell you 'bout my best friend...."

He spent his days courting young women, appropriately fulfilling the shows title. Each night, Eddie's father returned home to his son and Mrs. Livingston, their humble, broken-english-speaking Asian housekeeper who seldom spoke, but when she did, conveyed great wisdom, and was rewarded with their admiration. 

[I imagine woman today look unkindly at the premise of this show and the subservient nature of the character portrayed in Mrs. Livingston.]

This nostalgic drivel of television trivia, in addition to serving my own amusement, also hints at a relevant point: In contrast to today's programs where adults are portrayed as buffoonish caricatures and households are controlled by the children, these now-dated shows from my youth revolved around family values and roles. The family members coexisted with love and respect as they navigated life's obstacles, and, at least for me, are unrecognizable in many of today's family-category programs intended for children.

[An undeniable indication that I have grown old.]

Is this a reflection of today's society?  Where now, reality programming dominates and allows for actual families like "Keeping up with the Kardashians" to exist on air?  The scenarios dealt with in each episode are, I have to believe, inconceivable to most.  Family members are compensated for making public their dirty laundry, and millions tune-in to watch. A representation of how deep society's superficial tendencies and quest for celebrity will take us? One can only hope not.

However, coexisting are indications of an enlightened society. Men are freer to express emotion, and women are less defined by theirs. Although the line that divides gender is frequently blurred, and society is complicated with confusing labels represented by the letters L, G, B, T, and Q, once beneath the thin veneer, and regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, I believe that most want the characteristics of traditional roles and morals, remembered from my youth, to be revealed in their own relationships and to prevail.