This show was easily the most cloying and nauseating of the classic 50s sitcoms. The story lines tended toward the obvious and sentimental and created a sitcom world even more difficult to live up to than most of its contemporaries. Other than Jane Wyatt, the cast's personal lives were anything like what was portrayed on screen, which probably should be an endorsement of their acting talent---Robert Young was a heavy alcoholic. Elinor Donahue was in an unhappy teen marriage, Lauren Chapin had an abusive, troubled childhood that went ignored by cast and crew (she later went on to prostitution, drug addiction and irritating religious evangelism--at least she's alive), and Billy Gray was developing a substance abuse problem. What's sadder is that people viewed the cast as role models (and apparently still do). Ozzie & Harriet holds up better (esp. the shows from the 50s) because it was based on real life and despite Ozzie's talky authoritarianism in real life, there was real warmth. Donna Reed occasionally tried to transcend the sappy conventions of the genre, didn't portray her TV hsband as an idiot and was more or less the same person whe appeared to be on screen.In its early years, "Leave it to Beaver" actually tried to capture a child's frame of reference of family life in a away that no show achieved until "The Wonder Years", although later years were filled with tired scripts. The people who idealize this show are obviously in a dream world. Average families were nothing like this in the '50s--people who had their eyes open in this era saw abuse, infidelity, teen pregnancy, alcohol if not drugs, etc. And like most shows, father only appeared to know best and it's unclear what was worse--the passive-aggressive role consigned to women or the nitwit role (softened a bit here incomparison with, e.g.,, "Make Room for Daddy") for the father.
Review of Father Knows Best
