Posted on 10/20/2010 6:52:48 AM PDT by Paladins Prayer
>> It was a time when the family was intact, the out-of-wedlock birthrate was low, and the biggest problems in school were chewing gum and running in the hallways.
> If your shirt tail was hanging out, you could also get in trouble...
In fact wearing jeans to school was considered unacceptable. And if you were out in public in general, society expected you to be dressed up in today’s equivalent of business casual as a minimum on weekends.
On blue jeans, they were associated with being poor or being in biker gangs. One thing I am glad of is blue jeans are considered acceptable except in certain places.
I was so sad that Billingley died this past weekend. However, we really don’t want to go back to the 50’s. We should always appreciate where we are in life and try to make it better in this time. Dreamers and unrealistic folks are always living in the past but that is just not healthy. However, getting some conservatives in 2010 might be a nice start to improving our place in history TODAY.
Child actor Ken Osmond, now 66, played Eddie Haskell on "Leave It to Beaver" in the late '50s and early '60s. After serving in the military, he became a motorcycle officer in the LAPD, retiring on a disability pension after he was shot on the job. He now serves as the first vice-president of American Legion Post 520 in Sunland, CA.
Actually, for its time, Adam-12 was the most realist portrayal of beat cops that Americans had ever seen. Kent McCord's web site has articles from th early '70s showing how he and Martin Milner spent their off seasons traveling to cities all over America and getting awards and honorary badges. And these were cities like Cincinnati and Milwaukee, not East Podunk.
The late great Stephen J.Cannell wrote for Adam 12. He regularly took story ideas from real cops for the show and paid them $500.
I mentioned it because Adam 12 used the same “street set” as Leave it to Beaver.
I'll be darned - so he actually WAS an LA cop. Are you sure your source is correct?
As a funny aside. Back in the 70’s and early 80’s there was a persistent rumor that he had gone into porn. A girl I was dating back then really wanted to see if it was him. Porn on VHS had just arrived, but was sold only at really seedy dives. We went to several, I guess expecting to find a tape that said “Eddie Haskell” on the cover. A couple of weeks later, one of those question and answer columns (probably Parade Magazine in the Sunday paper) said he didn't die in Viet Nam, didn't do porno, etc. I thought it said he wasn't a cop, although maybe that was a cover story. The girl friend was REALLY unhappy. Any woman in a porno store back then really got leered at.
It is true that he was an LA cop...he is a family friend;)
A ping for Ward, June, Wally and the Beav (and Eddie Haskell, too)
“It is true that he was an LA cop...he is a family friend;)”
That’s great to know! Tell him one of the kids that watched him is still around and kicking. Glad to hear he is too!
I remember the phony stories, about the porn and Vietnam. Actually, there were stories about Jerry Mathers (Beaver) being killed in Vietnam. Apparently concocted by lefty college kids trying to scare Mr.& Mrs. Middle America about the thought of their son potentially being drafted.
Will do!
I forgot about him, but there were a lot of stories about him as well. Lost all his money as a compulsive gambler was one I remember.
What's ironic about all those people was how LITTLE money they made for being on the top rated shows of the day. Today somebody on a minor sitcom gets $50k an episode. I remember one of the guys that was on “My Three Sons” talking about how for the first three years he made less than the average factory worker. Of course pretty much the same could be said about professional athletes of that time versus today.
Now it's part of the Desperate Housewives Wisteria Lane set.
Burt Ward (Robin) during Batman’s first season was paid $350 an episode. That’s $2350 today. There were 34 episodes produced so he grossed $79,900 A YEAR in todays dollars. And no residuals. Holy ripoff, Batman!
I know. Amazing. And that kid will get residuals, too
“It was great unless you were black and living in the South.”
I was alive back then and I remember Jim Crow, etc. I’m not defending it. BUT, I suspect all the social evils are far worse in da hood today than they were back then.
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