Was life in the 1950's as perfect as the TV sitcoms portrayed them??

Question

Such as:
Father Knows Best
Leave It To Beaver
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
etc......?

This was during the time of the "American Dream" and almost everyone lived it. It seems a little unrealstic to me. It just doesn't seem possible for life to be so absolute and perfect. Or is it?

i haven't really watched the shows (only heard about how they are) but we learned this in class the other day that the families were actually like that.

Answer 1

I don't know that it was unrealistic. My Dad was a construction worker and was gone a lot. My Mother took care of the three of us. We had hot dogs, we went to ball games, we played at night outside until the street lights came on. We walked or rode out bikes everywhere. We knew our neighbors, we went to church and Boy Scouts. When Dad was not working steady we had to economize. During that time we did not have soda pop or IceCream. One year Christmas was non existant.

My brother and me both got broken bones, we both got dirty, we both played football without protective gear and we did our homework before going to bed. We were not emotionally damaged when we were told no.

Was it perfect? No, it was not, do the authors of the movies think it was? No, they do not. They like to remember a swimple time when life was easy for them. And like an old war vet, they embellish. There were, however great evils you will not see on tv. Poverty was accepted, racism was rampant, corruption of government officials was common place. It just did not make the news.

I believe that every time is the best time of our lives.

Answer 2

In some aspects the 50's were like the tv shows. But tv land will always be tv land. None of the moms I knew ever did housework in pretty dresses hi-heels and pearls. OUr parents didn't drive new cars and a lot of parents gave spankings instead of talking to their kids about what they did wrong and talking it through like tv families did. There was more freedom for kids to go off and play without parents having to be worried that their children would be kidnapped or raped or killed. That pretty much sums up the differences I think. Grew up in the 50's.
LL

Answer 3

I was born in 1941 and thus my crucial adolescent years were in the 1950's. Life was not perfect but I look back fondly on a time period which may appear to be vanilla. It is very easy to look back on those years and be critical of its simplicity but it is that America that so many of us aging people can look back upon with warm feelings for the years that have followed 60's,70's,80's,90's, have been years of turmoil, tumult and tribulation magnified greatly by television news which has brought events to our attention.

Answer 4

"Leave It to Beaver" (we'll pick on that one, since it's been shown the most of these on TVLand) portrayed an idealistic society. It was very unrealistic, and television at the time swept all of the big problems under the rug (which is why you would never have seen a show like All in the Family at the time). It was a time when television was never offensive or controversial.

Answer 5

Of course not. Women were submissive,they were their husbands property,if they left they had to sleep with people to get a job. Children were rebelling,becoming pot smokers,and lovers of rock. Life is never perfect,and accordingly,if you seen the movie,"Mona Lisa Smile",very good btw,you can see t hat nothing was ever as what everyone wanted to portray it. Of course you'll always have people who will fake the perfect life,but everyone knows deep down,that everything isn't what it seems.

Answer 6

If you're a junior in high school or older, read "You Must Remember This" by Joyce Carol Oates. It's set in a much less than idyllic 1950s America. If your teacher in class told you families actually were like "Leave it to Beaver" (which is itself not true), this book offers a very alternative view.

(I mention your age because this is a very sexually graphic novel, and whether or not "you can handle it", it's not really appropriate for someone younger than 17 or so, not to mention it takes a high level of literary knowledge/intuition to get the most out of it. I read it as a sophomore in college.)

Answer 7

No, that's just TV. Life then was hard, just in different ways. Racism was a much more blatant problem, and women's liberation was still an event on the horizon. Things really weren't better then; people just like to romanticize the past.

Answer 8

no there was never a time when life was better.
each different era from the beginning had its own kind of problems'
even now there are somethings that seem better then there are things that are much worse .
so i think it kind of balances out in the long run.
but no specific time was better than another

Answer 9

REALLY??? They taught you that in school??? Did they mention that black and white people couldn't sit together in restaurants, or drink from the same water fountain? Did they mention that women were taught to be maids in school...they called it home economics. Drinking and driving was common and acceptable. Domestic abuse wasn't even talked about.

Answer 10

No, it wasn't. Most of those shows were propaganda to show hwo good the life in America was. But they were never accurate to real life.