During the late 1950s and early 1960s, there was a fad of nuclear family sitcoms, set in small town Mayfields, with a pipe-smoking Dad, a Mom who did housework in high heels, groovy teenagers, and wise-cracking preteens. They actually weren't very popular at the time; adults preferred Westerns, swinging detectives, and musical-variety shows. But the first generation of Boomers remembers getting their first glimpses of what family life was like -- or should be like -- from the nuclear family sitcoms.
They generally identified with and/or mooned over the teenage boys: the muscular physiques of Bud (
Billy Gray) of
Father Knows Best and Wally (
Tony Dow) of
Leave it to Beaver, the blatant bulges of
Ricky and David Nelson (
Ozzie and Harriet), the teen idol cuteness of Jeff (
Paul Petersen) of
Donna Reed. But there's a lot to be said for the dads, too.
Unfortunately, they weren't always as gay-friendly as their tv sons.
1. Born in 1906, bandleader Ozzie Nelson and his wife, former dancer Harriet, started
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet on the radio in 1944. They transitioned to television in 1952, and lasted until 1966, making
Ozzie and Harriet the longest-running fictional program on radio/tv. Still not satisfied, he tried a spin-off,
Ozzie's Girls, in 1976 (in which Ozzie takes in three college girls as boarders).
Ozzie and Harriet had many gay friends in real life, although no openly gay characters appeared on their show (that would have been impossible in the 1950s).
2. Robert Young (here apparently informing us of his size) was not only less than adequate physically, he was homophobic.
After his tenure on
Father Knows Best ended, he starred in
Marcus Welby, M.D., one of the most homophobic tv series of the 1970s. In one episode, Dr. Welby diagnoses a man with "homosexual tendencies," but assures him that with the proper counseling, he can overcome his affliction. In another, he treats a gay pedophile, with the implication that all gay men are pedophiles. Gay activists protested, but the network -- and Dr. Welby -- wouldn't budge.
3. Born in 1909, Hugh Beaumont started out as a minister, but moved into acting during World War II. Although a devout Methodist, he played his share of scoundrels, in
Apology for Murder (1945) and
The Blue Dahlia (1946), plus hard-boiled detective Mike Shayne.
Leave It to Beaver was meant to be a change of pace, but he was so typecast as Ward Cleaver that he took only a few roles afterwards, and ended up retiring to grow Christmas trees.
No data on whether he was a gay ally or not, but apparently his tv wife, Barbara Billingsley, was nonchalant about gay people.
4. The youngest of the 1950s sitcom Dads, ex-football star Carl Betz was only 36 when he was cast as Dr. Alex Stone, husband of the practically-perfect Donna Reed. He had been making the rounds of tv adventure series, with guest parts on
The Big Story, Waterfront, Sheriff of Colchise, Panic!, and
Perry Mason, and he continued to be a sought-after performer throughout his life.
While he was playing the titular lawyer in
Judd for the Defense (1967-69), one of his clients was a father who thinks that his son's friend is "recruiting" him into the "homosexual lifestyle." Judd assures him that there's no cause for believing such a scandalous rumor.
