Passing: Jane Wyatt, Mother on Father Knows Best
Another one of my Moms has passed away. Not my real one - she is fine thank you.
No, one of my TV Moms. You see, I am one of those who was weaned on the golden age of television. News, sports, variety shows, kids shows, situation comedies (not many dramas). They were all friends in our home.
And we had many friends too. Folks like Captain Kangaroo, Howdy Doody, Huntley & Brinkley, Ed Sullivan, Dinah Shore, Perry Como, Jimmy Durante, Mel Allen and my personal favorites, the Mouseketeers from the Mickey Mouse Club.
Then there were the TV families. Jane Wyatt was one of my Moms (Robert Young was a Dad). I'll tell you about some of the others some other time. Anyway, Jane Wyatt died October 20 at her home in Bel Air, California. She was 95.
Ms. Wyatt was a reluctant TV Mom. She enjoyed the role but according to the New York Times she would have preferred "playing the murderer or the heavy". She starred in many movies and television programs, mostly "the good wife of a good man" (Cary Grant and Gary Cooper, for example). Nonetheless she will be best remembered by the likes of the Times as "America's ideal suburban mom during the 1950's".
Yes - the Anderson family in a midwestern town called Springfield might have been an idealized version of family life, but I believed it served an important purpose - individually and as a society. We have come to cliche the passing of heroes ("Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio ?" sang Simon & Garfunkle). Moms and Dads were heroic and remain so.
But one must pause to contemplate whether later generations to mine are not worse off for the lack of those idealized families in their formulative years. These days and in the future where are those role models to be found - especially when so much more time is spent at outside the home "activities" or in front of a "game boy" ?
Was Jane Wyatt's family so perfect that it was imperfect ? Yes, perhaps. But perfection was not necessary - I don't think many of us "olders" are worse for wear because we embraced what some later decided was an outmoded model. And for your reluctant role in that I say thank you to Jane Wyatt, one of my TV Moms.
Jane Wyatt's obituary may be found at:
No, one of my TV Moms. You see, I am one of those who was weaned on the golden age of television. News, sports, variety shows, kids shows, situation comedies (not many dramas). They were all friends in our home.
And we had many friends too. Folks like Captain Kangaroo, Howdy Doody, Huntley & Brinkley, Ed Sullivan, Dinah Shore, Perry Como, Jimmy Durante, Mel Allen and my personal favorites, the Mouseketeers from the Mickey Mouse Club.
Then there were the TV families. Jane Wyatt was one of my Moms (Robert Young was a Dad). I'll tell you about some of the others some other time. Anyway, Jane Wyatt died October 20 at her home in Bel Air, California. She was 95.
Ms. Wyatt was a reluctant TV Mom. She enjoyed the role but according to the New York Times she would have preferred "playing the murderer or the heavy". She starred in many movies and television programs, mostly "the good wife of a good man" (Cary Grant and Gary Cooper, for example). Nonetheless she will be best remembered by the likes of the Times as "America's ideal suburban mom during the 1950's".
Yes - the Anderson family in a midwestern town called Springfield might have been an idealized version of family life, but I believed it served an important purpose - individually and as a society. We have come to cliche the passing of heroes ("Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio ?" sang Simon & Garfunkle). Moms and Dads were heroic and remain so.
But one must pause to contemplate whether later generations to mine are not worse off for the lack of those idealized families in their formulative years. These days and in the future where are those role models to be found - especially when so much more time is spent at outside the home "activities" or in front of a "game boy" ?
Was Jane Wyatt's family so perfect that it was imperfect ? Yes, perhaps. But perfection was not necessary - I don't think many of us "olders" are worse for wear because we embraced what some later decided was an outmoded model. And for your reluctant role in that I say thank you to Jane Wyatt, one of my TV Moms.
Jane Wyatt's obituary may be found at:
posted by eric model | 4:34 AM
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