Recently, I asked several Irish people if they'd ever heard of the American sitcom Father Knows Best. Actually, I didn't even tell them if it was a sitcom, I just asked them if they got the reference. None of them did.
I was quite surprised by this. I've heard many references to Father Knows Best. For instance, the title of a book by the Catholic apologist Jimmy Akin is The Fathers Know Best. (It's about the Church Fathers.) I've also often heard it mentioned in relation to the "bumbling Dad" stereotype which is at this stage a hoary cliché in sitcoms. Apparently, this was itself a reaction against sitcoms like Father Knows Best.
(But before I get to the sitcom itself, it's very interesting to me that after about a century of immersion in American culture, Irish people still have surprising blind spots. For instance, I asked several Irish people recently if they knew who Jefferson Davis was. None of them did, except one guy who thought he might have something to do with the American Civil War. And honestly, that was about my level of knowledge also, until I happened to read about him recently. He was the President of the Confederate States. But these blind spots aren't only historical, they often have to do with pop culture or idioms.)
Anyway, I'd never actually seen Father Knows Best, so I watched an episode this afternoon. It was this one, "The Great Anderson Mystery".
It was fairly good. I laughed out loud on a couple of occasions. It was charming, and it held my interest for most of the time-- although, honestly, there were a few points where I found it a bit of a drudge. Despite the title of the series, the father figure doesn't actually know best in the episode. In fact, he gets fooled by his youngest child-- as does the rest of the family.
I've decided I'm going to try to see episodes of as many sitcoms as I can. A lot of them are on YouTube.
I've long been an admirer and defender of the sitcom format. I think they're wonderful windows onto social and cultural history, and celebrations of the ordinary.
Last Christmas I did something like this already. I found a YouTube channel that had Christmas episodes of lots of different sitcoms. But there's so many sitcoms out there that I've never seen at all.
Have you ever done anything like this? For instance, deciding to watch a film set in every American state, or to walk down every street in a city (apparently this is a fairly popular occupation), or to play as many sports as possible? I'm fascinated by such personal, self-imposed projects.
One of the most bizarre and unlikely celebrity meeting in history was when Oscar Wilde met Jefferson Davis:
ReplyDeletehttps://jesseyancy.com/jeff-and-oscar/https://jesseyancy.com/jeff-and-oscar/
One of my self-imposed projects a few years ago was to watch all 91episodes of 'The Onedin Line', which was repeated a couple of times during my youth on RTE and which I enjoyed a fair bit. Anyway, I made it to episode 63 before running out of steam, or coal, or wind, given the nature of the programme! I must get back to it someday.
Wow. Thanks for that. It's fascinating. I was especially interested in this passage: "The cause of the South in the late war Wilde compared to that of contemporary Ireland. “It was a struggle for autonomy, self-government, for a people. I do not wish to see the Empire dismembered, but only to see the Irish people free. People must have freedom and autonomy before they are capable of their greatest result in the cause of progress. I look forward to meeting Mr. Jefferson Davis.”
DeleteWell, 63 is a very creditable tally! Presumably when you return to it you are going to start at episode 64. It must be pretty good.
I read recently that Nicolae Ceauşescu used Onedin Line as well as Dallas on communist state-controlled Romanian tv to turn people off capitalism,a reverse psychology that didn't apparently work well. I can understand the latter more so, although I suppose I can't say I really watched the former much.
ReplyDeleteThat's extraordinary. I have literally just been reading about Ceausescu over my morning porridge. He was even worse than I thought. His downfall was precipitated by his arrest of a Protestant pastor in Hungary. On the fateful day his people turned against him, the first sign was that his snipers decided not to shoot at protestors. We can only hope for the same reaction in Iran.
DeleteAh, memories of Dallas at its peak in the 80s come to mind. The very last episode was a brilliant inversion of "It's a Wonderful Life" and is an unsung piece of tv genius.
ReplyDeleteWell, that sparks my attention! How have I never heard this before?
DeleteWell, by 1991 the show had petered out from its mid-80s global peak, so I don’t know how much was interest there was by then. Nevertheless, I stand over the finale as a criminally unappreciated work of pop genius!
DeleteBilly Gray, who played Bud Anderson, the teenage son in Father Knows Best, later appeared in the low budget parody of Apocalypse Now, "Porklips Now," as the Martin Sheen character. You can find it on YouTube. The director Ernie Fosselius also parodied Star Wars as "Hardware Wars."
ReplyDeletePorklips Now, really? Ha! I think I might be more intrigued by Hardware Wars, though! Thanks.
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