horizonbeach11
08-09-2018, 09:43 AM
As I'm watching these very early episodes of M3S where the entire household was male, I can't help but think of my own childhood growing up in a household that was just the exact opposite. It was me, my mom, and my two sisters because my dad died very young and my mom didn't remarry until we were grown.
In light of the times in which this show was on the air, do you think anyone would have ever thought to do a show like this but instead with a widowed mother and her three daughters? I don't see it, just because women were still portrayed at that time as the weaker sex and a woman's place was still largely in the home and under the authority of her husband. The idea of a widowed mother with only daughters just doesn't feel right for the the early '60s era and it seems that no one would have been willing to write the mother as a strong, competent, and yes, working outside the home, leader. The implication would have been that the poor, somewhat scatterbrained females needed a male in the mix to be the strong leader.
If you think about it, it was not until the mid-'70s that a show like this existed, "One Day at a Time", and it was considered somewhat groundbreaking, thought the minor difference was that the mother was divorced and not widowed. There were earlier shows with widowed mothers to be sure, "Petticoat Junction", "The Doris Day Show", "The Partridge Family", and "Alice" are the ones that come to mind. But in all of those shows the mothers either had a son or sons that helped add a certain "strength" to the cast (Keith and Danny Partridge who were wiser than their years, Tommy Hyatt who Alice sought advice from fairly often), or an older male mentor who helped around the house (Uncle Joe in "Petticoat Junction", the older guy in "Doris Day", don't remember his name). The idea that Ann Romano in ODAAT could manage a household with two daughters all on her own was a new phenomenon and she was forced to play the part in a fairly tough and gritty way to reinforce the idea that she could handle it. And even then they had to throw in a male character in the person of Schneider, the building superintendent who popped in on the family constantly.
I think it's an interesting question, if M3S could have succeeded, or even been made in the first place, as M3D. My thought is no.
In light of the times in which this show was on the air, do you think anyone would have ever thought to do a show like this but instead with a widowed mother and her three daughters? I don't see it, just because women were still portrayed at that time as the weaker sex and a woman's place was still largely in the home and under the authority of her husband. The idea of a widowed mother with only daughters just doesn't feel right for the the early '60s era and it seems that no one would have been willing to write the mother as a strong, competent, and yes, working outside the home, leader. The implication would have been that the poor, somewhat scatterbrained females needed a male in the mix to be the strong leader.
If you think about it, it was not until the mid-'70s that a show like this existed, "One Day at a Time", and it was considered somewhat groundbreaking, thought the minor difference was that the mother was divorced and not widowed. There were earlier shows with widowed mothers to be sure, "Petticoat Junction", "The Doris Day Show", "The Partridge Family", and "Alice" are the ones that come to mind. But in all of those shows the mothers either had a son or sons that helped add a certain "strength" to the cast (Keith and Danny Partridge who were wiser than their years, Tommy Hyatt who Alice sought advice from fairly often), or an older male mentor who helped around the house (Uncle Joe in "Petticoat Junction", the older guy in "Doris Day", don't remember his name). The idea that Ann Romano in ODAAT could manage a household with two daughters all on her own was a new phenomenon and she was forced to play the part in a fairly tough and gritty way to reinforce the idea that she could handle it. And even then they had to throw in a male character in the person of Schneider, the building superintendent who popped in on the family constantly.
I think it's an interesting question, if M3S could have succeeded, or even been made in the first place, as M3D. My thought is no.