The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
On Bewitched
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on October 25, 2013, 05:37:15 pm ---And not only material things, but outdated attitudes, as well.
One of my favorite shows as a kid was Here Come the Brides -- a Seattle-set historical dramedy about a 19th-century logging camp and a parallel camp of women who'd been shipped in to be courted by the loggers (if it were more real-life, it would have been a whorehouse, but the women were all chaste and "proper"). Anyway, at the time it was seen as sort of feminist: the cast was full of strong female figures.
But a friend of mine who'd also been a fan checked Season 1 out of Netflix a couple of years ago and we watched in horror. It's actually laced with sexist stuff.
--- End quote ---
That was one of my favorites, too! I've thought about buying it, but it's still pretty expensive. I think I must have had a crush on Robert Browne but was too thickheaded to realize it! :laugh: I was always puzzled by the fact that only the youngest Bolt brother (Bobby Sherman!) had a steady girlfriend. :laugh:
But anyway, believe it or not, supposedly the show had a ... tenuous ... base in historical fact. Were the historical figures prostitutes whitewashed by their civic descendants? I don't know. I've never gotten around to doing the research.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: Luvlylittlewing on October 25, 2013, 06:53:09 pm ---Or cooking dinner and cleaning house in pearls and high heels? :)
--- End quote ---
Now, now. ...
I do remember my mother getting dressed up to go downtown shopping. And she dressed me up to take me along with her!
And both of my grandmothers wore dresses--or at least a skirt and blouse--every day, even to do housework. My mother, however, wore trousers.
There's a generational change, I do believe. :)
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on October 25, 2013, 07:50:29 pm ---That was one of my favorites, too! I've thought about buying it, but it's still pretty expensive. I think I must have had a crush on Robert Browne but was too thickheaded to realize it! :laugh: I was always puzzled by the fact that only the youngest Bolt brother (Bobby Sherman!) had a steady girlfriend. :laugh:
--- End quote ---
I recommend renting a season on Netflix first. I found that as I watched I could practically say the lines along with the characters, so easily did the shows come back to me. And yet at the same time I was somewhat shocked by their primitive social norms (I mean primitive circa 1968, not late 1800s).
I was more of a Bobby Sherman girl back in the (fifth grade) day, but as I watched it recently I realized that Robert Browne was much more interesting and attractive than his brothers. Heck, Aaron Stemple was more attractive than Bobby Sherman! However, according to the internet, as the seasons go on, Browne's character becomes less and less interesting -- more an asexual and slightly comic figure, while the younger brothers are established as the romantic leads.
I suppose it had something to do with the music biz. Bobby Sherman was cranking out hits, and David Soul followed with one or two of his own.
--- Quote ---But anyway, believe it or not, supposedly the show had a ... tenuous ... base in historical fact. Were the historical figures prostitutes whitewashed by their civic descendants? I don't know. I've never gotten around to doing the research.
--- End quote ---
If you ever have a chance to watch HBO's mid-2000s' series Deadwood -- and I highly recommend it -- you'll see what I would guess is a more realistic depiction of the times. There it's about a town settled around gold mines rather than logging, but prostitution is big. Almost all of the women in the show are prostitutes of one kind or another, but in most cases it depicts their characters with sensitivity and nuance.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on October 26, 2013, 12:07:55 am ---I was more of a Bobby Sherman girl back in the (fifth grade) day, but as I watched it recently I realized that Robert Browne was much more interesting and attractive than his brothers. Heck, Aaron Stemple was more attractive than Bobby Sherman! However, according to the internet, as the seasons go on, Browne's character becomes less and less interesting -- more an asexual and slightly comic figure, while the younger brothers are established as the romantic leads.
--- End quote ---
As best as my poor middle-aged memory can remember it, it seems to me most girls were more Bobby Sherman fans back in the day. ;D That said, I think I might have had a "45" of his recording of the theme song. But that's exactly what I was remembering, Joshua and Jeremy being the romantic leads (with Jeremy going steady with Candy Pruitt), but what the heck was the matter with Jason? ???
Oi, how is that I remember so much about this show? I do remember Candy and Lottie the saloon proprietor (Joan Blondell) being what I guess you could call "strong characters," and also Miss Essie, the schoolteacher. And here I think we could almost spin off into another thread: How do you define a "strong" female character in a TV show--especially a show from 40 years ago--and were there more "strong" female characters "back then" than we tend to remember?
--- Quote ---If you ever have a chance to watch HBO's mid-2000s' series Deadwood -- and I highly recommend it -- you'll see what I would guess is a more realistic depiction of the times. There it's about a town settled around gold mines rather than logging, but prostitution is big. Almost all of the women in the show are prostitutes of one kind or another, but in most cases it depicts their characters with sensitivity and nuance.
--- End quote ---
I've heard good things about Deadwood (if nothing else it had Timothy Olyphant, at least for a while ::) ), and I don't doubt for a minute the prevalence of prostitutes in a place like that, but after watching three seasons of Hell on Wheels, I've also developed a sneaking suspicion that producers of Westerns these days may, in the interests of "realism," be bending over backward a tad more than necessary in making things "messy," as if they're overcompensating for the "sanitized" Westerns of the past.
delalluvia:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on October 25, 2013, 05:37:15 pm ---And not only material things, but outdated attitudes, as well.
One of my favorite shows as a kid was Here Come the Brides -- a Seattle-set historical dramedy about a 19th-century logging camp and a parallel camp of women who'd been shipped in to be courted by the loggers (if it were more real-life, it would have been a whorehouse, but the women were all chaste and "proper"). Anyway, at the time it was seen as sort of feminist: the cast was full of strong female figures.
But a friend of mine who'd also been a fan checked Season 1 out of Netflix a couple of years ago and we watched in horror. It's actually laced with sexist stuff.
--- End quote ---
Wouldn't that add to the historical aspect of the show? 8)
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