america at the time. patrick gomez: advertisers wanted to cater towards that new suburban family that needed to buy that kitchen appliance or needed to buy that vacuum. jacqueline coley: and after i love lucy, there was a formula for what the american family should look like. cybill shepherd: ozzie and harriet. announcer: the adventures of ozzie and harriet. cybill shepherd: i just loved everybody in it, actually. david: hurry up, bring it in. i m starved! candice bergen: it was a happy, gentle american family of the 1950s. ozzie: how much do you need? david: never mind pop, that s okay. ozzie: no don t worry about it, you can pay me back. david: honest pop, i don t want it. ricky: what s the matter with you david, you got rocks in your head? linda lavin: the kids were very polite. everybody was very nice to each other. those were not real people, but they entertained and delighted us. jim: alright kids, dinner is on, we re sitting down. jennifer armstrong: when you get to father knows
maude: now you can either come to the table and eat, or you can lie there and feed off your own fat. jim colucci: the story goes that by the time that episode had aired, fred silverman, who was in charge of cbs at the time, had called norman lear and said, get that woman her own show. and then there s maude. and then there s maude! that uncompromisin , enterprisin , anything but tranquilizin , right on maude! adrienne barbeau: it was not your all-american family. carol: you re getting senile in your old age. maude: thank you darling. i only hope i live long enough to become a burden to you. adrienne barbeau: maude is an independent strong woman who speaks her mind. she was married to her fourth husband, walter, played by bill macy. here, have some cold knackwurst. eric mccormick: i loved their combative relationship. i still to this day if somebody pisses me off i ll say, god ll get you for that walter.
jim: ah. a quiet evening at home. i could use it. [slam] billy gray: and i played bud. bud usually had a problem with the truth telling, on some level. jim: what was all that racket upstairs? bud: i didn t hear anything. billy gray: father knows best represented the good life; the american dream. jim: i ll read you one story, then off to bed you go. bob: and then leave it to beaver enters the sitcom realm in 1957. wally: what s that? beaver: a haircut i think. tony dow: the real key to leave it to beaver is that it s written from a child s point of view. wally: why didn t you let stanley cut your hair? beaver: i losted my money. jerry mathers: you have the character of beaver and you have wally his older brother who usually does things right, beaver s always the one that gets in trouble. june: [gasps] marisa guthrie: and there were the parents to teach them,
steven: you re a young man, you shouldn t be worried about success. you should be thinking about hopping on a tramp steamer and going around the world. alex: the 60 s are over, dad. steven: thanks for the tip. gerrad hall: family ties is a reversal in many ways of all in the family, except now you have the liberal parents and the conservative child. elyse: this morning i found a copy of the wall street journal under his bed. steven: you think maybe he was switched at birth and the rockefellers have our kid? meredith baxter: michael was just wonderful. he was young and energetic and he had such good timing. alex: who did this? michael gross: we started rather slowly, nbc was moving us around a little bit, trying to find the right place for us. jim colucci: family ties pumped a little bit of life into the family sitcom, but the sitcom in general had been pronounced dead. there were very few on the air. and then all of a sudden comes the cosby show in 84.
on some level. jim: what was all that racket upstairs? bud: i didn t hear anything. billy gray: father knows best represented the good life; the american dream. jim: i ll read you one story, then off to bed you go. bob: and then leave it to beaver enters the sitcom realm in 1957. wally: what s that? beaver: a haircut i think. tony dow: the real key to leave it to beaver is that it s written from a child s point of view. wally: why didn t you let stanley cut your hair? beaver: i losted my money. jerry mathers: you have the character of beaver and you have wally his older brother who usually does things right, beaver s always the one that gets in trouble. june: [gasps] marisa guthrie: and there were the parents to teach them, to show them the right path. ward: we want you to feel that you can come to me or to your mother with any problem and we ll understand. patrick gomez: in the 1950s, sitcoms were really giving us an idealistic version of america.