Ward Cleaver: S.O.B.

[Wag]

I've been watching some of the old TV Land shows, and it's really interesting how much attitudes have changed.

Leave it to Beaver is a prime example- Ward Cleaver is a real bastard. In this episode alone, after The Beave (heh) has a nightmare about monsters after watching a horror movie, Ward tells him that he shouldn't "act that way" (be afraid). After Beave obsesses that a local lady he's walking a dog for is a witch, Ward tells the woman why Beaver was frightened, he tells his wife "Well, there's just no easy way to tell a woman she looks like a Witch". He also tells Beave before a dentist visit that he shouldn't cry if it hurts.

Pretty harsh stuff, but interesting, especially with the laugh track going on at the same time.

 

[GasX]

Yes, we should coddle our kids and pander to their fears and phobias...

 

[MacGaven]

Haha 1950's @-hole model paternal figure.

 

[Brutuskend]

Do you know where Ward Cleaver (Hugh Downs) went after the show finished?


He ended up making a TON of $$$ selling X-Mass trees in L.A.

 

[tm37]

Originally posted by: Mwilding
Yes, we should coddle our kids and pander to their fears and phobias...

YES WE SHOULD!
how else will they learn to be weak and gullible?

 

[JC]

Mrs. Cleaver: Ward, don't you think you were a little hard on the Beaver last night?

 

[GasX]

Originally posted by: JC
Mrs. Cleaver: Ward, don't you think you were a little hard on the Beaver last night?

ROFL!

 

[Wag]

I resisted from that joke.

It's one thing to coddle your kids, it's another to be totally insensitive. When someone feels bad do you tell them, "You shouldn't feel that way because it's totally unjustified". Geez, I hope not.

It's not just his attitude towards his kids, it's his wife too. At one point June starts to give advice about how to discipline Beave and in front of his kids he essentially tells her to shut up, and who's the boss, and she says "Listen to your father kids".

 

[RU482]

When i was in college, "Mathers" was slang for pussy

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Kind of hard to judge a generation by standards that did not exist then. Remember, yours will be judged and come up wanting too, like every other.

Also he needed to ditch that godawful tie :evil:

 

[Feldenak]

Originally posted by: Wag
I've been watching some of the old TV Land shows, and it's really interesting how much attitudes have changed.

Leave it to Beaver is a prime example- Ward Cleaver is a real bastard. In this episode alone, after The Beave (heh) has a nightmare about monsters after watching a horror movie, Ward tells him that he shouldn't "act that way" (be afraid). After Beave obsesses that a local lady he's walking a dog for is a witch, Ward tells the woman why Beaver was frightened, he tells his wife "Well, there's just no easy way to tell a woman she looks like a Witch". He also tells Beave before a dentist visit that he shouldn't cry if it hurts.

Pretty harsh stuff, but interesting, especially with the laugh track going on at the same time.

Suck it up and walk it off.

That's about as sensitive as I get...my feminine side has a restraining order against me.