I have reviewed shows like Buffy where even today (whenever you are reading this, this will still be true) there are essays and theses still being written about how Joss Whedon's "vision" of what a story arc "should be" changed the nature of TV forever. This was another such show.
To appreciate it, simply (for example) compare and contrast a similar show from a mere 7 years earlier, Father Knows Best. On the surface they are both "family" shows, ie, father comes home from work and adventures ensue. But the similarity stops there. In FKB, the lead role was played by Robert Young, a straight-laced and fairly boring dramatic actor left over from the pre-TV film era. In DVD, the lead is played by a gifted physical comedian, who, if he needed to, could also sing and dance. In FKB, the wife was also played straight and dull, by Jane Wyatt. In DVD, wife by Mary Tyler Moore, not only one of the most attractive TV stars of the day but someone who, if needs be, could hold her own with Dick on a theatre stage. In FKB, lots of kids. In DVD, one child, better matching the new demographic of 1960s America. Now here it really gets interesting.
In FKB, we never see Young at work! In DVD -- and this was the real brilliance of the show - Dick spends about half the show at work where (whatta concept!) he is a writer on a TV comedy working with a bunch of other writers.
This was ground-breaking in its day. Remember that when these writers talked about a skit for their "star," - a common setup -- the skit itself was never funny, but the inter-action between them, the bickering, was. Raised the bar for TV, set the bar for TV, one of the most formative TV shows of all time. The censors were in your face of course and years later the two stars doing interviews would explain that they not only had to have separate beds for all the bedroom scenes, but at least one of them had to have a "foot touching the floor" at all times. Tyler Moore went on to become a TV phenom, and justifiably so.
To appreciate it, simply (for example) compare and contrast a similar show from a mere 7 years earlier, Father Knows Best. On the surface they are both "family" shows, ie, father comes home from work and adventures ensue. But the similarity stops there. In FKB, the lead role was played by Robert Young, a straight-laced and fairly boring dramatic actor left over from the pre-TV film era. In DVD, the lead is played by a gifted physical comedian, who, if he needed to, could also sing and dance. In FKB, the wife was also played straight and dull, by Jane Wyatt. In DVD, wife by Mary Tyler Moore, not only one of the most attractive TV stars of the day but someone who, if needs be, could hold her own with Dick on a theatre stage. In FKB, lots of kids. In DVD, one child, better matching the new demographic of 1960s America. Now here it really gets interesting.
In FKB, we never see Young at work! In DVD -- and this was the real brilliance of the show - Dick spends about half the show at work where (whatta concept!) he is a writer on a TV comedy working with a bunch of other writers.
This was ground-breaking in its day. Remember that when these writers talked about a skit for their "star," - a common setup -- the skit itself was never funny, but the inter-action between them, the bickering, was. Raised the bar for TV, set the bar for TV, one of the most formative TV shows of all time. The censors were in your face of course and years later the two stars doing interviews would explain that they not only had to have separate beds for all the bedroom scenes, but at least one of them had to have a "foot touching the floor" at all times. Tyler Moore went on to become a TV phenom, and justifiably so.