A Trip Down Classic TV Lane

It starts like this.  

Here's the story, of a lovely lady, who was bringing up three very lovely girls..

What exactly was the lady’s story? 

If you’re reading this, then like me, you’re most likely a past resident of the 60’s-70’s era.  The ones who spent many an evening parked in the living room, in front of the console television set, watching the weekly shows.

So here’s a question for ya?

What did Carol Brady do?

 We all know what Alice did.

If she wasn’t cooking, cleaning or putting the groceries away, she was tossing the football with Greg and Bobby or at the meat market flirting with Sam, the Butcher.

 Let’s look at other 50, 60 and 70’s moms, shall we?

Starting with June Cleaver.  After applying those pearls each day, Mrs. Cleaver baked fresh cookies for Wally, Beaver and Eddie, and had that cocktail waiting for Ward.

Donna Reed, before becoming a mom and school volunteer, she was a nurse, which is how she met her husband, the pediatrician.

Margaret Anderson from Father Knows Best’ (a now non-politically correct title) was a housewife and practical voice of reason who always seemed to be coming from or going to the mah-ket.

Wilma Flintstone chased after Pebbles and Bam-Bam, went bowling and hung out with Betty, (who giggled, a lot).

Alice Cramden the wife of Ralph and friend to Trixie. Well, that poor woman swept that kitchen floor over and over and over.

Kate Bradley of Petticoat Junction ran The Shady Rest Hotel while raising 3 hot daughters and looking after Uncle Joe.

 But did we know what Carol Brady did?

 Jane Jetson programmed Rosie the maid before getting Elroy off to school, then popped into her space ship to go shopping and to the hairdresser.

Timmy’s mom on Lassie (June Lockhart) took in stray travelers and other dogs, did the cooking and hung the wash on the line to dry.

Maureen the Biochemist wife and mother of two from the hit show, Lost in Space (again June Lockhart) always the voice of compassion; prepared meals, tended the garden, and helped with light construction. Her status as a doctor is mentioned only in the first episode, in the second season.

 But somebody, please, anybody? Can you tell me?  What did Carol Brady Do?
Granny of the Beverly Hillbillies carried a shotgun to run off them revenuers and cooked them vittles. Remember her famous possum stew?

Laura Petrie –former dancer, housekeeper, cook, friend to Millie, active mom to Richie and wife to “Oh Rob”!

Lucy Ricardo was a lovable, troublemaking housewife, friend to Ethel, who tried desperately to get into show business and tried a few different odd jobs.

Caroline Ingalls of Little House on the Prairie? Well, what didn’t that woman do? 

There was plowin’, cookin’, darnin’, square-dancin’ and for one season, she worked in the town restaurant.

We all knew what good ole’ Aunt Bea did. 

She tended to Opie and baked and cooked and baked and cooked.

Samantha on Bewitched, worked at keeping her strange family at bay, bypassing disaster for Darren and raised two kids (one mortal, one not) without hired help. And we all know where nosey neighbor Gladys Kravitz placed her focus….

Lily Munster- consistently tried to make pretty niece Marilyn ugly.

Morticia Adams- I don’t know about you but I got the feeling that Morticia liked to get her nasty on with Gomez. She obviously spent a great deal of time straightening her hair and clipping dead roses, doing the tango, all while overseeing ‘Thing’, Lurch, Wednesday, little chubby Pugslie and Gran-Mamaw…

Shirley Partridge-the single mom, managed a family, was in a singing group and drove a groovy bus.

Jeannie lived in a bottle and worked at wooing Tony. But with her powers she could do whatever she wanted, wherever.

Ginger from Gilligan’s Island was an actress, Mrs. Thurston Howell III, was a socialite. Mary Ann was the girl next door who worked at the Winfield Kansas General Store.

The widow Julia was a single mom, raising Corey and worked as nurse in a doctor’s office.

 Edith Bunker- the modern day Caroline Ingalls was always in an apron, doing all the housework, because it was woman’s duty, of course! It was expected; so she did it all, except sing. That poor woman could not sing.

Peggy Bundy-made hors d'oeuvres, teased her hair, shopped for animal-print Lycra and worked intently at getting Al into bed.

Claire Huxtable- An attorney

Olivia Walton- tended to Ma and Pa, the kitchen, the garden, the kids, the wash and the gossipy neighbors, all up there on Walton Mountain.

Marian Cunningham- Cooked and stayed actively involved with her family plus Ralphie, Potsie and she was landlady to Fonzi.

Florida from Good Times was Maude’s housekeeper.

 The moms on Dallas? 

Miss Ellie, the Matriarch, managed a ranch and kept an eye on spoiled and naughty granddaughter, Lucy.

Pamela was a Senior Executive at Barnes-Wentworth Oil, competitor of the Ewing Oil business. 

Vixen Sue Ellen former Ms. Texas, was just consistently up to no-good.

Dynasty’s Krystle Carrington was a one-time geologist who worked for Denver-Carrington, eventually marrying owner Blake Carrington. Krystle was the mother to Krystina, and aunt of Sammy Jo, the only child of her late sister.

Alexis, the evil mother of Blake’s children, Adam, Fallon, Steven, and Amanda, was a former socialite turned businesswoman who married repeatedly, (Blake Carrington, Cecil Colby, Dex Dexter and Sean Rowan).

Falcon Crest’s Angela Channing was a tyrannical matriarch who ruled the Falcon Crest vineyards.  

Valene Ewing of Knots Landing started out as a waitress in a diner but later became an author.

Elyse Keaton of Family Ties, a former extreme liberal hippie, active protester turned independent architect. 

Alice was a waitress, a wannabe hopeful singer, widow and single mom to Timmy and friend to “kiss my grits” Flo and elfish Vera. 

Ann Ramone, Bonnie Franklin’s character in the original One Day At A Time was a working single mom and worked in marketing.

Weesie from The Jefferson’s helped run a dry cleaning business.

Angela Bower from sitcom, ‘Who’s The Boss’, was a New York advertising executive who employed retired baseball player Tony Micelli to raise their children.

Kitty Foreman- From That 70’s Show was a nurse with a little itty-bitty alcohol issue

But what the heck did Carol Brady do? A career? A hobby? What?

 More recent popular moms seldom leave to question as to what they are busy doing.

 Everybody Loves Raymond’s Debra, (Patricia Heaton) worked in public relations for the New York Rangers hockey team and dated several sports celebrities before she married Ray and became a mom to three. 

The Middle’s mom Frankie (also Patricia Heaton) worked for a car dealership then went back to school to become a dental hygienist.

Modern Family’s Gloria was former hairdresser, Claire helps with dad’s closet business and Cam, who assumes the mom/feminine role, works in community theatre and is a substitute teacher and coach.

Even the dysfunctional mother-daughter pair Bonnie and Christy, from todays’ hit, MOM, both have jobs, raise the kids, do most of the home repair and faithfully attend their AA meetings.

But Carol Brady? Housekeeping? Cooking? What?

Inquiring minds want to know. 

We are all over 50 now so it’s all clear and pretty safe to let the cat out of the bag. 

If you know…. then spill.

Could it be that this was the origination of the Kardashian complex happening right before our very eyes? The beginning of the ‘do nothing’ and have hired help to help you do nothing mind-set? 

Were we just so wrapped up in the daily drama of Marcia, Marcia, Marcia that we didn’t care?

Some say they watched because they could identify with poor Jan and her struggle with the dilemma of the second child syndrome?

Maybe we were too busy drooling over Greg and Bobby?

I can still hear Carol’s voice.

“Oh Greg”

“Oh Peter”

“Oh Bobby”

“Oh Marcia”

“Oh Cindy”

“Oh Jan”

And “Oh Hey Alice”

But for the life of me, I cannot remember what Carol did with her days. Can you? Did we even care ?

 Bottom line?

It doesn’t matter!

We loved that show and those characters. 

In fact, we loved most of the above-mentioned shows and their cast and the roles they played.

They came into homes weekly dealing with the issues of the times. Those were the times of our lives, too. 

Some were role models but all were entertainers. 

We took away something from each role that was played.

Hopefully those hours spent in front of the TV were reminiscent of healthy, wholesome family time, and good lessons learned.

 What you are reading here today should dip deeply into the crevices of our minds and our memories.

That crazy trivial, forgotten and useless information we all have floating around in our heads taking up space but warming our hearts. 

It’s so good for our generation to exercise our minds with thinking games like Sudoku, Crosswords, Bridge, Mahjong and Trivia. It’s healthy to learn new things while still able to retain the old as well.

So the long-standing, still unanswered question for former 70’s residents remains. What did Carol Brady do? If you have the answer, then please feel free to share with the rest of us.

So there you have it. A topic for sharing. A question for tomorrow’s coffee break, your next luncheon or when happily gathered ‘round at the holiday table.  

I hope you enjoyed this trip down classic TV lane. 

May it will have sparked a good memory or two. 

It is my wish to make the reader smile. 

Keep thinking, Keep smiling, Enjoy.

Peace.