I think the brother/sister(s) dynamic is more realistic with the Andersons than the Cleavers, but I think Andersons parent way different than the Cleavers.

The Anderson kids behave kind of creepy at times.

The writing for the kids is odd at times. For example, in the sixth season Princess complains she's never won anything, or come in first. So she takes fencing lessons to try to win a contest.
Never won? There's several episodes about here being campus or prom queen, class valedictorian, etc.

Then Bud sort of matures, shows emotion when Jim gives him the family watch before graduation, and then his newer car. Next thing you know he's pawning his traffic ticket off on Betty, and taking his Chicago girlfriend out on the town and shaming his debating team, nearly getting expelled in the process.

And Kathy. By the fourth and fifth season you think she'd grown up a little. But, no--as mentioned in another thread, she thinks a cameraman's pony is hers, and in a later episode she takes money Bud has earned mowing lawns and buys her boyfriend a model boat.

IMO, the brattiest, most selfish and spoiled sitcom kid is Michelle Tanner from Full House.

The writing for the kids is odd at times. For example, in the sixth season Princess complains she's never won anything, or come in first. So she takes fencing lessons to try to win a contest.
Never won? There's several episodes about here being campus or prom queen, class valedictorian, etc.

Then Bud sort of matures, shows emotion when Jim gives him the family watch before graduation, and then his newer car. Next thing you know he's pawning his traffic ticket off on Betty, and taking his Chicago girlfriend out on the town and shaming his debating team, nearly getting expelled in the process.

And Kathy. By the fourth and fifth season you think she'd grown up a little. But, no--as mentioned in another thread, she thinks a cameraman's pony is hers, and in a later episode she takes money Bud has earned mowing lawns and buys her boyfriend a model boat.

I try so hard to like them and I will keep watching. I hope they grow on me but...

I try so hard to like them and I will keep watching. I hope they grow on me but...

Lauren Chapin is really a cute little kid. Pre-teen/teen, not so much.

You try to like them and Betty does these things like treat her farm-raised cousin like a piece of dirt. And same with that oaf of a football player, Muly. And that girl, the troubled freshman she was to mentor. Her crime? Getting whistled at. Per Betty's thinking, that was the girl's fault.

I just watched the one where there was a dance recital (or something similar) coming up and Betty and a cute blonde new girl were vying for it. Betty got so pushed out of shape over some real competition that she started crying.

I am like, what the heck, you are supposed to be the American girl next door and you start bawling because life isn't going to be handed to you. To the Gulags with you!

I try, I really try. I have the last disc of season 5 and all of 6 to get through. Sigh.

They seem pretty selfish most of the time and are often mean to each other. Maybe that's the way kids behaved in the 1950's.

If you've ever watched Home Improvement, note how mean those older boys are to Mark, the youngest. It let up in the later years but they were awful to him early on. Point being, this may just be natural with some siblings.

Bud does come thru sometimes. In an early season 5 episode he suspects Betty has ulterior motives for being nice to him, and when Kathy tells him Betty needs him to sub-babysitting for her, he thinks he has it figured out. So he ignores that--and she misses a scholarship interview because of it.

When he finds out he tracks down the prof. who was going to interview her, and drags him to the house. For the normal happy ending.

If you've ever watched Home Improvement, note how mean those older boys are to Mark, the youngest. It let up in the later years but they were awful to him early on. Point being, this may just be natural with some siblings.

Bud does come thru sometimes. In an early season 5 episode he suspects Betty has ulterior motives for being nice to him, and when Kathy tells him Betty needs him to sub-babysitting for her, he thinks he has it figured out. So he ignores that--and she misses a scholarship interview because of it.

When he finds out he tracks down the prof. who was going to interview her, and drags him to the house. For the normal happy ending.

The one where Bud interferes with Betty's date kissing her was fairly normal and well written. He did not run into the walls one time during the whole episode.

For the life of me, I do not know why the writers wrote Bud and sometimes the girls the way they did. It is mostly a decent show otherwise.

In the later episodes it's odd to not see Bud run into a wall or tip his chair over. Maybe he wanted to be a stunt double in his next gig.

In a normal family somebody would say, What's wrong with that boy? We need to take him to the doctor.

I think the kids are very realistic.

I think the brother/sister(s) dynamic is more realistic with the Andersons than the Cleavers, but I think Andersons parent way different than the Cleavers.

The Anderson kids behave kind of creepy at times.

I completely agree with you regarding the Anderson kids creepiness. I never liked this show as a child. Everybody in the family looked like they were one bad day away from a complete mental breakdown. Of all of the classic TV families--and they were all a little flawed--this is the only one I could see going the whole murder/suicide/family annihilations route.

The Cleavers were saccharin, but completely harmless.

The Cleavers were saccharin, but completely harmless.

They would be like the Von Trapp Family having a breakdown and wanting to sing to you over and over and over again, even standing in your front yard to do so. So Long, Farewell, Alvederzane, Good Night...

We should come up with trading cards of the 1950s-1960s TV families gone nuts.

The Anderson would be the most favorite traded card. Princess would be the one that everyone would want to put in the ground first. I can hear her now, whining about having to go nuts at an inappropriate time.

I agree about Princess. She was an annoying, self-centered snob. At least the other two were halfway normal kids.

They would be like the Von Trapp Family having a breakdown and wanting to sing to you over and over and over again, even standing in your front yard to do so. So Long, Farewell, Alvederzane, Good Night...

We should come up with trading cards of the 1950s-1960s TV families gone nuts.

The Anderson would be the most favorite traded card. Princess would be the one that everyone would want to put in the ground first. I can hear her now, whining about having to go nuts at an inappropriate time.


I agree. Betty would be ridiculously difficult to be around on a regular basis. Such a drama queen!