I Love Lucy, Honeymooners, Leave It To Beaver
Classic Television Shows Exiled To Early Morning
Mar 31, 2009
As early as the 1920s T.S. Eliot complained of there being a decline in common culture. Once most average native speakers of English were aware of the same nursery rhymes, mythological references, and quotations of Shakespeare, now there is no such common knowledge.
Not so many years ago most Americans all read that same works of literature in the same years of school. Now our common culture seems to rely on shared awareness about certain television shows.
No matter what forms common culture, it is what narrows the gap between generations, but since there has been an explosion in individual choices in every genre, even our common culture of television is beginning to no longer exist.
Some early shows of American television became so affiliated to our common culture that generation after generation understood references to these early shows. These same shows, which were the grandparents of all American television, remained watched through regular syndication, but now these shows are being exiled to rare airings in the wee small hours.
I Love Lucy
This show ran for six seasons as half an hour episodes on CBS. The same cast, as the same characters, returned for further hourly specials, meaning that the beloved characters of Lucy, Ricky, Ethel, and Fred were welcomed into homes with new adventures from 1951 to 1960.
The original show I Love Lucy won numerous awards and nominations, and made household names of its stars. Each week Lucille Ball, as the forever selfish child-like character Lucy Ricardo, came up with a new screwball scheme, usually dragging her best friends and neighbors Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance) and Fred Mertz (William Frawley) into her plan, causing Lucy’s long suffering bandleader husband Ricky, played by Ball’s real-life spouse Desi Arnaz, to regularly lose his temper.
I Love Lucy captured the zany goings on of characters who were more like real people than imaginable. The show became so much a part of American life that the episode where Lucy gives birth to the Ricardos’ first child remained, until recent years, the highest ranked in television history. The sight of Lucy holding up a Vitameatavegamin Bottle has become part of our mental consciousness, and the teaming of Lucy and Ethel is as famous a pairing as there can be.
I Love Lucy remains well-known among Americans, and, in fact, it is sindicted world wide. It used to be said that there was never a time in the day that the show was not playing somewhere in the world. But now, in parts of America, the show is only played at 2:30 am on the Hallmark channel.
The Honeymooners
They began as comedy sketches and only 39 half hour episodes of The Honeymooners (1955-1956) were made. However, it has come to be considered a leading example of the American situation comedy, inspiring several other successful series such as The Flintstones and The King of Queens.
The Honeymooners focuses on the misadventures of Madison Avenue bus driver Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason), who continually comes up with get-rich-quick schemes which he normally attempts to launch with his best friend and neighbor Ed Norton (Art Carney).
The show acquires its name from the happy marriage of Ralph with his wife Alice (Audrey Meadows), who despite regularly attempting to force her husband to face up to reality and responsibility, deeply loves her at core goodhearted spouse.
Set in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn, the show was a realistic slice of life, as well as an acclaimed comedy. However, it is now played only once a week at 1:00 am on WPIX. The channel does also annually air a marathon of all the episodes to mark the New Year.
Leave It To Beaver
Leave it to Beaver (1957-1963) was a situation comedy which showed the world from a child’s point of view. The title character of Beaver Cleaver (Jerry Mathers) regularly allows his mischievous friends to lead him into trouble.
Kindly and creative Beaver usually turns to big brother, “All-American Boy” Wally (Tony Dow) for advice and assistance, and parents ward (Hugh Beaumont) and June (Barbara Billingsley), although generally understanding, often find themselves wondering what goes on in the minds of their sons.
Leave it to Beaver is now played sporadically in the early morning on TVLand.
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