MovieChat Forums > The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961) Discussion > Noticing Some Violence in that Era

Noticing Some Violence in that Era

posted 7 years ago by pjpurple@verizon.net (5552)
16 replies | jump to latest

Now of course DvD was a clean show, no cursing and very family friendly. But sometimes they made light of physical violence. Was it just the mindset of the sixties?

'The Lady, the Tiger and the Lawyer' is one of those episodes. There was a thread started on that a long time ago. I can't imagine what they were thinking!

There was an episode when Ritchie kept coming after school beat up with a torn cap. Turned out to be a little girl named Priscilla who wanted him to kiss her. When Laura visited the girl's home, the mother got very angry. She yelled at her husband and was quite abusive towards him. You definitely got the idea that little Priscilla learned that behavior from mom.

Many of today's parents would take it up with the school if their child kept getting bullied. Rob and Laura just let it go after Ritchie gave in and kissed Pricilla. Turns out she didn't like it anway. Not too long ago I saw a (crazy) article of a six year old boy who was accused of sexual harassment for kissing a girl in class. How times have changed!

I just bought season five and watched an episode that I haven't seen in years, "The Bottom of Mel Cooley's Heart." In that episode Alan Brady's poor treatment of Mel finally goes too far. He screams at Mel and really humiliates him in front of the whole stage crew.

Rob points out that Mel is Alan's verbal "punching bag" and he takes the abuse that Alan would otherwise direct at people who would punch back. I think he was referring to Alan's network bosses. Alan relents although he doesn't really apologize to Mel.

I had forgotten how the episode ended. Mel walked into the writers office with a big shiner. Alan hit him! Boy, today Alan Brady would be looking at a big lawsuit!! And punching Mel in the eye? Mel wore glasses. He could've caused serious injury.

Mel said gleefully, 'I punched him back." Did people just accept physial violence at work back then?

I know it was a sitcom but contrast that with a first season episode of The Big Bang Theory. There was a reception for the new head of the Physics department and Sheldon insulted him. He didn't think his new boss was qualified for the job. And he fired Sheldon. In another episode Sheldon had to take a sensitivity training course when his female assistant accused him of sexual harassment. It was just Sheldon being tactless and clueless. But still, men have to be so careful what they say at work these days. Everyone is sensitive.

If two people hit each other at work today, they would be enrolled in an Anger Management Course.

Just noticing how a show back then handled hitting and verbal abuse at work. A different era.

[–] GlenEllyn (21261) 7 years ago

You're right - it WAS a different era. I admit that sometimes when I watch it I cringe. Do you remember the episode with the new neighbor who was a seemingly nice guy but admittedly hit his wife? I can't remember the name of the episode of the top off my head, though.

[–] pjpurple@verizon.net (5552) 7 years ago

Yes, that was the one at the start of my post, 'The Lady, The Tiger, and The Lawyer". The new neighbor, Arthur, admitted to Rob and Laura that although he enjoyed the two blind dates they set him up with, Sally and Laura's cousin Donna, he wouldn't be asking either woman out again.

He had a "tendency" to hit women he cared about. Pretty sick. He admitted he hit both of his wives.

Not a great ending for a sitcom episode!

[–] Owlwise (1513) 5 months ago

Actually,. TV drama had begun to deal with spousal abuse in the early 1960s. Both Naked City and Route 66 featured quite serious stories about it. And even on a comedy show, you'll note that Rob & Laura are horrified when the truth about their neighbor emerges. Yes, Rob hastily locking the door after the neighbor leaves done to humorous effect, but the characters are clearly shown to be shocked, not amused.

[–] godewey (16472) 7 years ago

Funny I'm reading this now. I was just thinking this very thing last week. I watched Une parisienne which is a french movie
with Brigitte Bardot. It's a comedy. 1957 -They're were a few scenes where her husband slapped her. Just during a normal
conversation. She just went on talking. She didn't get mad,upset or angry. It was just another day.
I remember thinking that very thing. It was a different era.

Dick Van Dyke also had an episode The return of Happy Spangler where the lecture he was giving was on how
slapstick comedy was a thing of the past. People now days were too sophisticated to laugh at another person in pain.
This show relies on slapstick a great deal. I think it was just a different mindset back then. A lot of people who watched
this show were from the era of the Stooges, Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, Harold Lloyd etc....

I think those episodes would not be allowed today.

[–] GlenEllyn (21261) 7 years ago

Unfortunately, you're probably right. Too much political correctness and everyone being overly sensitive. It's sad that we can't laugh at such obviously fictional situations anymore.

[–] liscarkat (17136) 2 years ago

When I was a kid in the early '60s my dad showed me how to punch and defend myself so I could handle a school bully. This was perfectly normal procedure at that time.

[–] pjpurple@verizon.net (5552) 2 years ago

It is normal and a good thing for parents to teach their children how to defend themselves.

I don't know if you watch Roseanne, in one episode D.J. was being bullied by a bigger boy. He had to give him a Twinkie every day so he wouldn't get beat up. But D.J. came up with an alternate solution. He enlisted the help of a tough classmate named Maxine(!) who would "take care of" the bully every day for a Twinkie. He preferred to pay her instead of dealing with an extortionist.

[–] strntz (11297) 2 years ago

I'm pretty sure every sitcom had a bully episode. Even little Cindy Brady was being bullied!

[–] pjpurple@verizon.net (5552) 2 years ago

Yes. Ritchie was bullied by cute little Priscilla Darwell. It turned out that she kept hitting him because he wouldn't kiss her. Today that little girl would probably be expelled for sexual harassment.

[–] R_Kane (15828) 2 years ago

My friend, I don’t know your age, but this was 60 years ago and the world was very different. Violence to women was neither condoned nor tolerated—as much because violence against a weaker person is an act of cowardice as it was an act that was just plain despicable, and cowards were not suffered gladly back then among men—but men could and did slug each other. The guidelines for masculinity were different then. I’ll not elaborate beyond that, but I’ll say that we’ve not necessarily progressed.

[–] DoctorThirteen (11667) 2 years ago

Even remembering the old 'Charles Atlas' ad where the skinny guy would have a confrontation with some bully on the beach and have to back down in front of his girlfriend. Then he'd spend three months building himself up, back to the beach with the same girl, confrontation with the same bully - and this time slug him. Guy becomes 'Hero of the Beach' and his girl praises him for being a 'real man' after all.

I haven't seen an ad for Charles Atlas for a long time, but if they are still running them I'd be very surprised if they were still the same.

[–] liscarkat (17136) a year ago

When I was a skinny kid back in the mid 1960s I actually sent away for a Charles Atlas "Dynamic Tension" exercise book from an ad in a comic book. It consisted of black-and-white photos of barrel-chested Mr. Atlas, in very tight shorts and shirtless, demonstrating the exercises. It came with an advertising brochure about all the other Charles Atlas merchandise I could order to make myself into a real he-man. I guess I didn't take it seriously enough, because here I am almost sixty years later, and still skinny.

[–] DoctorThirteen (11667) a year ago

I remember reading about some guy suing Atlas because he wasn't getting the results that he expected from the course. It ended up in court, where it emerged that Atlas had been seen frequenting gyms and using weights. The implication being that this was how he'd built himself up, and not by using 'Dynamic Tension'. When Atlas was questioned in court about this he stated that he did indeed attend gyms and use the weights - but this was purely to test how much stronger he'd got by using his Dynamic Tension method. When pressed by counsel as to how often he did this, Atlas replied 'Three times a week, for two hours at a time'! 😂

[–] strntz (11297) 5 months ago

I'm just bummed the super x-ray glasses didn't change me into a man..

[–] liscarkat (17136) 5 months ago

I was always tempted to send away for a pair of X-Ray Specs, because the ad showed a lecherous looking guy ogling a chick and seeing her nude silhouette through her dress. I wanted to be that guy! Never got the glasses, though.

[–] strntz (11297) 5 months ago

They only give you a headache.

So I heard!