I was wrong.
Actually, the first I heard of the Ritz Brothers was some years before on a rerun of the old sitcom Leave it To Beaver (Season 6, Episode 30). If you are familiar with the episodes, the boys are featured (in name only) when Beav cheats on a Three Musketeers book report by watching the 1939 Ameche/Ritz version and reporting accordingly.
Beaver got busted. Bad.
I didn't know who the Ritz Brothers were at that time, but I suppose the Ritz reference in "Mr. Saturday Night" got the memory churning, the synapses firing, and ultimately the blogging commenced.
Leave It To Beaver, in my opinion, was one of the better shows to ever be broadcast. It portrayed relationships (adult and child) and their situations with very gentle irony, never so broad as to be parody, but nevertheless layered just below it's wholesome exterior. I encourage you to revisit it with fresh eyes...it's brilliantly written and acted.
The Ritz Brothers and Leave It To Beaver. What an unlikely and fun combination. Here is the link to the episode on IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0630294/
Here is the LITB Season 6 link on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Leave-Beaver-Season-Jerry-Mathers/dp/B001JAHQQ6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310312990&sr=8-1
2 comments:
I actually remember that episode, but didn't pay much attention to the mention of the movie, I guess. I just related to the idea of getting the assignment without having to read it. And I remember that our whole family loved watching "Leave It To Beaver." I have been annoyed more recently over the years when people denigrate the show, making fun of Barbara Billingsly's character wearing heels and a dress to do dishes, saying the program was sheer fantasy and didn't portray the real American ("dysfunctional")family, and claiming it wasn't true or relevant...I guess because it didn't deal with drugs or other "normal" family problems! Too bad that family was nice and treated each other with respect. So un-American of them!
Hi Penny, thank you for your comment. Leave It To Beaver was almost surreal by design in it's exclusion of the world outside of Mayfield. This allowed the show to focus completely on the characters and their interactions. By being non-topical, the show is always relevant, as human nature never changes (I think the Brady Bunch was trying to do the same thing, but with less success). So I think the critics of the show have not dug deeper into what the creators/writers were successfully doing: showing us for who we really are inside, and letting us laugh at ourselves a little bit too. Thanks Penny. Regards, Tim
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