Is it me? Or did Coke in glass bottles taste better than the stuff that comes in the "eco-friendly" recyclable plastic crap?
Posted on 11/07/2013 6:36:30 PM PST by lowbridge
The Nelsons really were a family, not assembled by a casting director, and Ricky and David literally grew up right in front of our eyes. When David and Rick (as he was known in later shows) got married, their actual wives even became series regulars. Ozzie and Harriet has become, a buzz term for a way of life that sums up all of the black and white family shows of the 1950s and '60s, yet it's unlike any of them.
Ozzie supposedly based the show's "Adventures" on things that happened around his own house or to people he knew. That's perhaps why the show seemed to be "a show about nothing" before Seinfeld even coined that phrase. One 1957 episode even had Ozzie craving tutti-frutti ice cream late at night when the stores were closed, and driving around town to find some. That was actually the main plot of that episode, and it worked. Leave it up to other family shows to warm your heart, tell Aesop fables and teach you lessons, the Nelsons were happy just to be your friends and make you chuckle. Don't get me wrong, the show had plenty of laughs; one 1955 episode, "The Pajama Game" (in which Ozzie and his neighbor Thorny get locked out of their houses in the middle of the night, fall asleep in a station wagon, and end up stranded in town in their pajamas) was outright hilarious, still is even now. (So's the 1953 episode about the store that keeps mis-delivering the chairs.) But it was the exception, not the rule. For the most part, if you just chuckled and shook your head, they were fine with that.
(Excerpt) Read more at tvwheniwasborn.blogspot.com ...
Grew up with the Nelsons and beaver and all the others
Turned away for drugs and sex
nearly died a couple of times
Found Jesus
Wish the nelson's were still here.
Y'never miss y'water 'til yer well runs dry.
Thanks for bringing up memories.
Good shows. They reflected everyday life as it was back then. Handled with humor.
Of course, we all knew everything wasn’t perfection behind those white picket fences, and it is the exploitation of that imperfection that ruined “family television”.
welcome home!!
That is why I would like to begin purchasing old classic shows because I know one day they will never be shown on tv again and that include movies.
Miss the simpler, happier life in this country. The Progressive path this country has been on has not been for the good.
There is a channel on Roku that has many of the Ozzie and Harriet shows. Still funny and relevant
Nice analysis of the “Ozzie and Harriet Show”, a microcism of the 1950’s (mainly for the white audience, but I suspect the family was also a near mirror image for the then intact black families who didn’t have a TV show until later “Cosby Show”, “Fresh srince of Belair”, “Moving on Up”, and Jimmy Walker - Dynamite’s family show (but with uncalled for loss of the hard working black father, John Amos).
Each of these black family shows had very important elements in them which made them work, including the family as an important unit, stress on getting an education, hard work (Sherman Hensley’s little speech to boy he employed about hard work, echoed by the Uncle to Will Smith in “Fresh Prince of Belair” about how he got his big house and its contents, were priceless scenes worthy of showing to today’s youth).
The humor was good, often poignent, the acting good, and they were positive shows regardless of race or ethnicity (re the old “Goldbergs” now rehashed and I won’t see it).
There was a professional code of writing for the shows of the 1950’s and much of the 1960’s, which reflected American values, hopes and dreams (which, for many, became more attainable due to the Civil Rights movement).
Compared to today’s crap, it would be nice to go “Back to the Future”. It was safer, you actually learned in school, achievement was something both awarded and to be proud of, and crime was not rampant, nor were drugs.
Those writers actually understood what made America both “good” and a “dream to strive for”. Today’s writers have long forgotten the “American dream” and have scourred the gutter for show themes.
That is why I no longer watch regular tv shows. I know the difference between “class” and “crap”.
Public domain:
http://free-classic-tv-shows.com/Sit-Com/index.php
Has the ‘chairs’ episode and lots of others.
My fave is ‘Roadside courtesy’- I’m a big fan of Joi Lansing...sigh.
The modern Coke sold in America has fructose sweetener and doesn't taste the same.
Mexican Coke has sugar and tastes like the old Coke.
Always enjoyed the old-time shows, and in seeing some “Ozzie and Harriet” episodes in recent years (not to mention, “Leave it to Beaver”), I’ve actually been struck by how much genuine wit is often found in the writing. Low-key, dry humor, to be sure... but rather brilliantly conceived, in the classic, verbal sense.
Perhaps too foreign and far-removed from the current manic (and rather depraved) culture to be appreciated by many nowadays. Not to mention the genuine morality and goodness that underlines it all, which entirely conflicts with modern America.
Was watching Perry Mason and Paul Drake light up cigarettes while discussing a case and Paul calls Della Street “beautiful”. Times; they have-a-changed.
There was an episode of Bachelor Father (about a single uncle raising his niece) that centered around the family trying to get rid of an obnoxious bird that was keeping everyone ( uncle,niece, and live in butler) up all night.
It was hilarious. Simple plot, but we have all been there.
And yes, coca cola tasted better in glass bottles.
I never understood how Ozzie ate so much ice cream and stayed so thin !
Don't waste your money.
DVD/CDs are quickly going to go the way of VHS tapes and LP records. You can already stream most older TV shows off the Internet and before too long, you will be able to stream just about anything that was every recorded.
The Cokes that came out of the Coke Machine that my Dad had at his Business in the late 50’s tasted the best. They were Ice Cold and there was a little burn when you chugged it down.
They were the 6.5 oz. Bottles and you had to push the crank lever mechanism to get the drink out of the machine. I saw the same machine on one of those Renovation Shows. Another thing for my Lotto Winner list.
I think they cost a nickel or a dime back in 1959.
Unintended Rhyme Alert.
I enjoyed Ozzie and Harriet. There is a lot to be said for TV’s Golden Age. Leave it to Beaver was one of the best family shows of all time and the first few seasons of it will always be classics.
Today I think the two best family shows are Duck Dynasty and The Neighbors (a great, funny show starring Larry Byrd, Jackie Joyner Kersey, Reggie Jackson and Dick Butkus that deserves a better time slot).
I’ve always thought coke tasted better in the glass bottle too. Coke in cans or plastic looses it’s flavor.I still get the small bottles(6oz. I believe) sometimes,although expensive.Ah,the good ole days.
I’m of the age that I remember watching these shows the first time around. The writer is correct about fathers keeping the “work world” away from home. I knew my dad worked for American Airlines, and that was it. It was a long time till I knew the reason he hurt so much was from standing hours on end at the ticket counter. Or it could have been from him doing house painting and hanging wallpaper on his days off. All that so my mother, three sisters and me could have a better life than he did growing up in the depression. I wish I was half the man he was.
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