Many of you know that my aliases for this blog are based on the Leave It to Beaver sitcom from the early 1960's. However, some of you new readers may not realize this. My husband is Ward, my sons are Wally and Theodore (Beaver) and I am June. When I chose these aliases for my blog world, I didn't think much about them except there were the right number and gender in the Cleaver family, and they were from a show that made me smile. I remembered that Beaver and Wally always got themselves into scrapes that frustrated their parents but from which ultimately everyone learned a lesson. Since picking the Cleavers, I've leaned a few other things about the show:
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| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leave_It_to_Beaver |
--The makers of the show wanted to get gentle laughs. If anything got a really big laugh, they changed the script to make it more of a chuckle or smile.
--June wore pearls and heels when she was cooking and cleaning around the house. This was often made fun of because it was so unrealistic. However once I heard an interview with Barbara Billingsley, the actress who played June, and she explained why those wardrobe choices were made. Apparently the hollow at the bottom of her neck looked strange on film, so they had her wear pearls around her neck to fix the problem. Also, as the actors who played Wally and Beaver grew, they wanted her to be taller than them so she would to still look authoritative as a parent. Thus, they had her put on heels.
-- Leave it to Beaver was the first TV show in which the kids were the main focus and not the parents.
So there you have it. Leave it to Beaver in a nutshell. Gotta go now because Ward is calling.
But Wait There's More:
If you read here very often and you've been paying attention, you may have noticed that several other major and minor Leave It to Beaver characters show up in my posts. They are aliases for various other family members and friends.
I like your Beaver factoids! :) I don't think our society today values gentle humor--which is too bad. I can't bring myself to watch most of the in-your-face humor on tv today. We enjoyed the Best British Baking Show on PBS this past winter because the contestants and the judges valued excellence but they were kind about it--no cut-throat competitions. It was a nice change of pace when compared to their American competitive cooking show counterparts.
ReplyDeleteOops! Lost my reply. In brief, we like the British baking show also. As you said, it didn't have the edge that all of the competition shows here have. Nice music too.
DeleteWhat a great idea, to have aliases, from a TV show. You are giving me ideas!
ReplyDeleteIf you go with TV shows, there are so many to chose from. Have fun.
DeleteWe use Eddie Haskell as a very, ie: Do not Eddie Haskell me! It won't work!
ReplyDeleteOne of my nephews chose Eddie Haskell as his blog alias. I think almost everyone knows about Eddie even if they have never seen the show.
DeleteI have often thought of your aliases and wished I could come up with something similar instead of referring to family members as oldest, youngest etc. I even thought to use the first initial of their names but two have the same initial and others have names that there are only a few names beginning with that letter for that gender so I might as well be telling the world their actual names.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Leave it to Beaver facts, I did know why the pearls were used but not why June wore heals around the house. Very interesting, Hollywood has some weird reasons for why they do certain things don't they?
It was much easier to start with the aliases. I don't if I could have come up with them in the middle of things. It's funny that one of friends, who reads my blog, can't remember my son's real names now. She calls them Wally and Theo.
DeleteI watched ''Julie and Julia'' a few days ago and the cook Julia Childs also wore pearls in the kitchen- maybe they were from the same era?
ReplyDeletezannierose A-Z
Never thought about it, but most of the times I remember seeing Julia Child she had pearls on. Interesting.
DeleteI like watching old "What's My Line" episodes with John Daly (You Tube) for similar reasons. Everyone is so polite. I'm not sure that Arlene Francis or Bennett Cerf would be that polite to regular folks, but you can imagine it.
ReplyDeleteArlene Francis--she was on there forever. Today, I think they would have writers that would provide them with one line zingers and I'm not sure all of them would be polite. At times, I think we all want to go back to kinder and gentler times.
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