Ward and June have such class.

The way they move, sit, dinner manners. The way the house was decorated.

LITB started a few years after FKB. Does anybody know if LITB was created to fill some spot in the TV lineup?

How many sitcoms were there about the family at that time?

How many sitcoms were there about the family at that time?

Here are the 3 major network's primetime schedules for the time period

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1957%E2%80%9358_United_States_network_television_schedule

I always enjoyed LITB, but have come to see certain aspects (Ward lounging around the house in a suit and tie) as preposterous.

LITB started a few years after FKB. Does anybody know if LITB was created to fill some spot in the TV lineup?


I think that LITB was created to fill a spot in writers Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher's careers.
After their success with Amos & Andy 1951-1953, they had "Meet Mr McNulty 1953-1955, a Charleton Heston movie in 1955, then they claim to have found inspiration from their own families to create a sit-com based upon the perspective of the children, leading them to the LITB concept.

Admittedly I am assuming, but what I envision are two proven writers with time on their hands deciding "nobody has done this yet, let's give it a try"

Makes sense!

It was preposterous to have Ward lounging around the house in a suit. Wally and Beaver both asked why Ward was eating standing up why not ask why he’s wearing a suit all the time. I like when he has casual clothes on on Saturday then all of a sudden on Saturday night he’s got a suit on and he’s just staying home.

Just caught an episode of FKB didn’t know I had it what a surprise. At least Bud and Kathy were very real people. I liked Jim too he was pleasant. Jim and his wife are always smooching. Ward and June kissed passionately I think never.

Once in awhile you see Margaret cleaning and she's dressed for it. Old clothes, etc. Not dressed like she's about to attend the senior prom.

Once in awhile you see Margaret cleaning and she's dressed for it. Old clothes, etc. Not dressed like she's about to attend the senior prom.

I watched season 1's Second Honeymoon last night and there was a scene with Margaret wearing a sweatshirt, pants, and a bandana as a head scarf! I thought June would never look that grungy! In 2020, Margaret looked very stylish in her work clothes.:lol:

It was preposterous to have Ward lounging around the house in a suit. Wally and Beaver both asked why Ward was eating standing up why not ask why he’s wearing a suit all the time. I like when he has casual clothes on on Saturday then all of a sudden on Saturday night he’s got a suit on and he’s just staying home.

Did he ever actually lounge around the house in a suit? I can remember him wearing a cardigan, sometimes a sport coat and tie (if he had come from work) or just a shirt and tie without a jacket (ditto). But when did he lounge around the house in a suit and tie?

In the opening of Sweatshirt Monsters, on now, he has on a sweater and a loosened tie.

So there may have been a few times he had on the coat and tie. But I may be overdoing it in thinking he always had one on.

But I think he always had one on at the table.

In Father Knows Best Jim changed into another jacket, a sport jacket, I guess. Probably like my grandmother--she always felt a draft.

Many times Ward came from work and instead of getting comfortable in caz clothes he sits down in the suit and reads the paper. One time he is lying down on the sofa in the suit. June tells him the sink is clogged. Wonder if he wore the suit while plunging.

In another episode he’s dressed in a shirt and sweater on Sunday afternoon by night he has a suit on. By season 3 Ward always dressed for dinner. Once June and Ward are headed out to get the ice cream and cake for Wally’s party dressed like they are headed to a White House dinner.

Guess I'm not overdoing it.

Also there was the time the garbage disposal got stopped up, and his tie got caught in it. June rescued him with the scissors. (kidding!)

Seems as though there were several episodes where....it's well after dinner, the boys are up in their room getting ready for bed, and Ward comes into the boys bedroom still wearing suit and tie, to help them sort through whatever moral dilemma the episode is based around.

Or after dinner, Ward is sitting reading a news paper still dressed from work, , the door bell rings, Ward looks up and either offers to answer the door or encourages someone else to.

I don't think that I am imagining this.

Seems like they are fond for dressing formally for Sunday Afternoon dinner, as well. Maybe some families did this, but the only time we did was when there were invited guests involved.

You have to remember that actors like Hugh and Barbara wanted to appear glamorous and well dressed to the audience. "Realism" wasn't the only value. The wardrobe department dresses the cast in view of making certain effects evident to the viewer, like what sort of people these are, their social class, etc. Or even just to visually convey to the viewer that Ward has come from the office and thus it is a weeknight. How would you know this is he were wearing casual clothes?

But even realistically, it makes sense on a certain level, if you have just come from the office and are wearing a suit, to keep the outfit on in order to look nice in front of your family. Maybe some men would have changed clothes, or just removed the jacket and tie, but I'm sure some would have stayed dressed as they were as a courtesy to those around them.

To me one of the pleasures of these old shows is seeing the sartorial style of that era. That it might not be "realistic" doesn't matter a bit to me.

Can anyone imagine chiffoned dressed, pearl-wearing, high-heeled June's reaction had Ward appeared at the dinner table in a t-shirt, sweatpants (yes, they existed back then) and barefoot? I think she'd have called Aunt Martha and/or threatened to go back to Aunt Martha's had he attempted that so I think he stayed suited as much as possible for family harmony.

To me one of the pleasures of these old shows is seeing the sartorial style of that era. That it might not be "realistic" doesn't matter a bit to me.

Me too. I can joke about the way Ward and June were dressed, but some of the criticism is over the top. Besides, most people on a TV show dress better than most of us in the real world when lounging around the house.

You have to remember that actors like Hugh and Barbara wanted to appear glamorous and well dressed to the audience..

Oh, I readily appreciate why they were doing it. I believe that it was you who asked "did he actually do this?" I was just documenting a handful of occasions that I could think of, off the top of my head, that fit the bill.

It comes across as "pretentiousness" to me, much in the same vein as Fred Rutherford's "social awareness" antics that frequently get a raised eyebrow out of Ward.

I'm not saying that any of this makes Ward a bad person, nor that it makes the show unwatchable. It simply gave me the feeling that Ward was trying to be one of the Joneses that everyone else was supposed to be trying to keep up with.

I just thought the majority of fathers would loosen a tie and sit in his rolled up sleeves like Ward did in the first two seasons then he got formal.

Perhaps I am the "bad animal" here? In my upbringing, I was taught that the biggest risk to an expensive suit was to wear the trousers out from over wearing them. SO I typically would always try to buy a second set of matching trousers, whenever available, to extend the service life of the suit. Even so, I usually tried to err on the side of practicality anytime a suit cost neared a weeks salary

So in my "office" era, the tie typically came off before I reached the home drive way, and I'd head straight to the bed room to change into something more "cozy" as soon as I'd get in the door. Good way to avoid gravy stains on the lapel, as well.

That doesn't necessarily mean a greasy sweatshirt and cargo pants, but definitely something that didn't require dry cleaning

That’s being practical but LITB wasn’t practical or natural. I loved seeing Ward sitting at the dinner table in his shirt with sleeves turned up like in Part-Time Genius. He looked comfortable and realistic. Seeing Ward always in the suit simply made it look like a TV show. At least little Beaver got dirty like a kid. Later the show had too many scenes that were not realistic. Like when Beaver and Wally walk downstairs together like they just got their cue. At the end of one episode Wally and Beaver are called down to help with dishes and take out the trash. Beaver stands in the room waiting for Wally so they can walk out of the camera together. I get a kick out of how scripted it was. My favorite is having the boys go into the den and wait for Ward to discuss something like an appointment.

Or that ridiculous dialog in the football hero episode. "Aw, cut it out, Gilbert and Whitey."

None of this would fly on FB if a moderator saw it. They don't realize you can like a show and pick it apart. If we hated the show we wouldn't be watching it.

Season one of FKB, Bud is having a hard time talking to girls. Jim sits with him on Bud's bedroom floor. Jim is still wearing a suit and tie having forgone the change into his corduroy-home lounging jacket as he usually does. So, I guess it wasn't uncommon for the dads to stay dressed up apparently.

Or that ridiculous dialog in the football hero episode. "Aw, cut it out, Gilbert and Whitey."

None of this would fly on FB if a moderator saw it. They don't realize you can like a show and pick it apart. If we hated the show we wouldn't be watching it.

That's right. You can poke affectionate fun at things you love. Although we love these shows, we can recognize their foibles, and be affectionately amused by them.

In the book I am reading about TAGS, the author points out many inconsistencies that the writers allowed to get into the scripts. For example, Howard Sprague has been living in Mayberry his whole life, yet we've never seen him for the first seven years of the show and Andy has not had any reason to do business with him. Goober's last name changes, Barney's middle name changes twice. In the first episode Barney is a new deputy, then later on it is stated he has been deputy of Mayberry since 1952. Characters went to high school together, yet they seem to have just met. If anything, TAGS seems to have more inconsistencies than LITB, yet people don't love it any less.

Yes, they originally gave Goober a different last name, used only once, I think. It's perfectly logical for a cousin to have a different last name, so changing it to Pyle could have been a goof, or intentional.

Yes, we had never seen Howard, and the actor, Jack Dodson, originally played a different character, a one-shot as Andy's insurance man. Sam Jones, another one we'd never seen, and suddenly he's gonna be a councilman.

Yes, they originally gave Goober a different last name, used only once, I think. It's perfectly logical for a cousin to have a different last name, so changing it to Pyle could have been a goof, or intentional.

Yes, we had never seen Howard, and the actor, Jack Dodson, originally played a different character, a one-shot as Andy's insurance man. Sam Jones, another one we'd never seen, and suddenly he's gonna be a councilman.

I wonder if that was by design? Andy kinda got a "trial" on the Danny Thomas show, so I wonder if some of these other one-offs were trials? Perhaps Don Rickles, Jerry Van Dyke, .....I think even Hal Smith was a one timer who "stuck"?

Perhaps each was a "let's run it up the flag pole and see how she flys?"

Yeah, that's probably true.

They probably liked Jack Dodson, for example, but they wanted a different character. So they developed Howard and his possessive mother, played perfectly by Mabel Albertson.