We had family visiting today, and the TV was on 'mute' as images of an old episode of The Brady Bunch flashed on the screen. This led to talk about family television shows from the 1960s - such as The Partridge Family. We could have talked about Father Knows Best, and Leave It to Beaver, and The Ozzie and Harriet Show but came up with two other programs. One was My Three Sons, a show with a dad, grandfather, and three boys. The other was Family Affair about a wealthy civil engineer (Uncle Bill) and his valet (Mr. French) who took in two nieces and a nephew after the kids' parents were lost in a car accident. Both shows were popular and survived many seasons. The characters were household names; the actors received many accolades.

Tonight I watched YouTube clips from My Three Sons and Family Affair, at times funny and touching. I thought about what we call traditional families today - the mom, the dad, and the children. It's a relatively new and constricting concept. I look back at stories from my parents' family trees. In some cases (we're talking 1920s through 1940s here) stray aunts, uncles or cousins were patched into the nuclear families, or they filled in as caretakers, rearing kids when families were hobbled by illness, death, war, jobs requiring long absences, or emotional/mental issues. Kids were raised by the family community, and this wasn't out of the ordinary and it was not frowned upon, but was accepted, expected, and respected. The family - in its larger definition - was providing for the kids. Uncle Bill and Mr. French reluctantly filled a great need taking responsibility for three kids. The three kids in turn transformed the lives of their new parents.


This photo was a publicity shot for My Three Sons circa 1962, and was available through Wikimedia Commons : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1962_My_Three_Sons.jpg