Did you ever identify with Dennis? - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

Samme · 11-19-2013, 01:46 PM

I'm not sure this was ever a kid's show like Leave It to Beaver where we could identify with the child as the main character. Did you? I think most identified Mr. Wilson, the guy being annoyed. Maybe even if younger, we were watching for Mr. Wilson's reactions. The guy was right, Dennis was annoying. So I'm not sure if the show was ever really meant for kids.

gonzo40 · 11-19-2013, 09:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samme

I'm not sure this was ever a kid's show like Leave It to Beaver where we could identify with the child as the main character. Did you? I think most identified Mr. Wilson, the guy being annoyed. Maybe even if younger, we were watching for Mr. Wilson's reactions. The guy was right, Dennis was annoying. So I'm not sure if the show was ever really meant for kids.

I believe it was meant for kids... I was a kid and I watched it along with all of my friends.... If you look at the commercials especially, they were all geared for us....I identify so much with Jay's character in the first season even more than the remaining seasons.... Carrying the cap guns with holster and the episode "Dennis haunts a house" where they were in Mr. Wilsons crawl space and before Tommy entered he had to psst the password to enter.... That is all stuff i remember doing at that age.....Mr. Wilson was a major character for sure, but they played off each other superb.... Now "Leave it to Beaver" on the other hand, I so much enjoyed Eddie Haskel and identified with him a heck of lot more than Beaver... Should have been called "Leave it to Eddie"....

Samme · 11-19-2013, 10:13 PM

Gonzo, you must have been a heck of a kid.

You identified with Dennis the Menace and Eddie Haskel! Eddie was one the best characters ever on TV, and we all knew guys like Eddie, but I never knew of anyone who admitted they identified with him. What your Mother must have went thru

That's a great post!

gonzo40 · 11-21-2013, 08:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samme

Gonzo, you must have been a heck of a kid.

You identified with Dennis the Menace and Eddie Haskel! Eddie was one the best characters ever on TV, and we all knew guys like Eddie, but I never knew of anyone who admitted they identified with him. What your Mother must have went thru

That's a great post!

Great childhood and created more mischief than Dennis and possibly more than Eddie.... I understand Jay's childhood was less than great with his Aunt and Uncle in charge.... I only hope that Jay can take away some satisfaction in his adult years that he entertained and meant so much to all of us...... It probably is not a great memory for him, but I still watch 1/2 dozen episodes a week of Dennis and still laugh over and over as I relate to everything especially in the early seasons.....

MacLeaper · 11-21-2013, 05:41 PM

I've never really seen this live action show much (I am pretty sure I have one episode taped somewhere from years ago, so I've seen a bit of it, but not much.) However, I have seen the 1980s Dennis The Menace cartoon series and read the comic strip plenty of times- and while I can see Mr. Wilson's point of view, I think I can definitely identify with Dennis and particularly even more so when I was a kid. Dennis is just looking to have fun- he doesn't mean any harm or bother to Mr. Wilson- I would say he rather respects and admires and loves The Wilsons in fact. (And somewhere deep down, Mr. Wilson would admit he really loves Dennis too, I think.)

Vito · 11-21-2013, 06:06 PM

No, I never identified with Dennis. I was an extremely well-behaved kid when I was in elementary school, and I thought Dennis was too much like the bratty kids that seemed to f**k everything up, in one way or another.

My teenage years turned out to be sort of wild, with a lot of beer drinking and marijuana smoking...but I still never identified with Dennis!

11-19-2013, 01:46 PM	#1
Samme Member Forum Regular Join Date: Dec 01, 2001 Posts: 674	Did you ever identify with Dennis? I'm not sure this was ever a kid's show like Leave It to Beaver where we could identify with the child as the main character. Did you? I think most identified Mr. Wilson, the guy being annoyed. Maybe even if younger, we were watching for Mr. Wilson's reactions. The guy was right, Dennis was annoying. So I'm not sure if the show was ever really meant for kids.

11-21-2013, 05:41 PM	#5
MacLeaper Child of the 80s Forum 3000 Club Member Join Date: Dec 20, 2001 Posts: 3,355	I've never really seen this live action show much (I am pretty sure I have one episode taped somewhere from years ago, so I've seen a bit of it, but not much.) However, I have seen the 1980s Dennis The Menace cartoon series and read the comic strip plenty of times- and while I can see Mr. Wilson's point of view, I think I can definitely identify with Dennis and particularly even more so when I was a kid. Dennis is just looking to have fun- he doesn't mean any harm or bother to Mr. Wilson- I would say he rather respects and admires and loves The Wilsons in fact. (And somewhere deep down, Mr. Wilson would admit he really loves Dennis too, I think.)
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11-19-2013, 10:13 PM	#3
Samme Member Forum Regular Join Date: Dec 01, 2001 Posts: 674	Gonzo, you must have been a heck of a kid. You identified with Dennis the Menace and Eddie Haskel! Eddie was one the best characters ever on TV, and we all knew guys like Eddie, but I never knew of anyone who admitted they identified with him. What your Mother must have went thru That's a great post!

11-21-2013, 06:06 PM	#6
Vito Member Forum Regular Join Date: Dec 28, 2008 Location: California Posts: 635	No, I never identified with Dennis. I was an extremely well-behaved kid when I was in elementary school, and I thought Dennis was too much like the bratty kids that seemed to f**k everything up, in one way or another. My teenage years turned out to be sort of wild, with a lot of beer drinking and marijuana smoking...but I still never identified with Dennis!