While watching Bruce Jenner being interviewed by Dianne Sawyer, several ideas crossed my mind.
First, in the TV situation comedy land of the 1950s and 1960s, audiences were assured "Father Knew Best.” That was the name of the show starring the amiable Robert Young, a Hollywood leading man in the 1930s and 1940s, who was married to 1930s leading lady Jane Wyatt. They were the Anderson family and “father” Anderson knew best when it came to rearing children and solving all domestic matters.
“The Donna Reed Show,” though Reed was an Academy Award winning actress, gave most of the TV sit-com spotlight to husband Dr. Alex Stone, played by the late Carl Betz. The show was a slightly more modern “Father Knows Best” with father being a medical doctor and solving domestic problems while curing illnesses. The Stones’ children were played by Shelly Fabares, now 71 and a liver transplant survivor, and Paul Peterson, now 69. Both Fabares and Petersen had singing careers from their TV show. Fabares was an Elvis Presley girl in the 1960s.
The TV situation comedy father who “knew best” better than them all was the somber Hugh Beaumont as Ward Cleaver on the eternally beloved “Leave it to Beaver.” Beaumont had been an actor in B movies in the 1940s and 1950s, such as “The Mole People.” Beaumont took the role seriously and became the personification of gentle fatherly wisdom.
Beaumont will forever be known as Ward Cleaver. “Ward, I’m worried about the Beaver,” wife June, played by the late Barbara Billingsley, would say on every episode, or so it would seem. The Cleavers had their domestic hands full with two their two sons. The eldest was Wally, played by Tony Dow, now 70, and the youngest was Theodore “Beaver” Cleaver, played by Jerry Mathers, now 66. Neighborhood teens Eddie Haskell, played by Ken Osmond, now 71, and Clarence “Lumpy” Rutherford, played by the late Frank Bank, added to the Cleavers’ problems.
In these three TV situation comedies, fathers always knew best. However when ABC’s Sawyer interviewed Jenner, father of seven children, the Olympic Gold Medalist openly admitted he had, for a long time, questions about his life and sexuality. He was just now being authentic with himself and his family by transitioning to a woman, he told an estimated TV audience of nearly 17 million.
Second, Jenner did not come across as a person confused by his gender. He said he has always been a woman. It is difficult to imagine the TV “fathers” of the 1950/60s sharing such a revelation with their TV children. Yes, the TV fathers of long ago helped educate their children in issues of honesty fairness. Today, Bruce Jenner is educating his children and millions of others in honesty and fairness for dealing with sexuality issues considered taboo in the fiction family TV land.
Third, the reality of 2015 is fathers and mothers come out as gay, lesbian, and transgender to themselves, each other, and their children. Their children do the same. According to my correspondence and files, this has been happening for many decades. But TV, now labeled as reality TV, has only just caught up with the frank talk and situations about sexuality that families have dealt with for generations.
TV situation comedies, like those above and scores of others, never seriously addressed the serious problems children and their parents face as they age and accept sexuality long hidden and seldom discussed. It was the Loud family of Santa Barbara, California, who gave us a view of a real American family in 1973 when son Lance painted his fingernails, applied cosmetics and fragrances, and became America’s Gay Son on camera as Mom and Dad separated and divorced due to Dad’s sexual infidelities. “An American Family,” the groundbreaking PBS series, was a rare dose of real family dynamics broadcast into American homes.
The Jenner and Loud families are Southern Californians who gradually learned to live open and happy lives. It is sad that eldest son Lance, a victim of AIDS, did not live to see the openness, happiness, and HIV longevity possible in 2015.
The multi-episode “An American Family” ended with the music of John Lennon’s “Imagine” as the reality TV camera froze on Lance and father Bill Loud. Father and gay son looked uncomfortable as Lennon sang “Imagine all the people living life in peace.”
While peace escaped the Louds, Bruce Jenner and his family appear to have obtained it and plan to share it with others. By transitioning, Jenner is expressing love for his family and for the many other families caught in the fake TV sit-com families of yesteryear. My vote for 2015 Parent of the Year is Bruce Jenner for sharing his innate wisdom with his family and our nation.
Human Rights Advocate Jim Patterson is a writer, speaker, and lifelong diplomat for dignity for all people. In a remarkable life spanning the civil rights movement to today’s human rights struggles, he stands as a voice for the voiceless. A prolific writer, he documents history’s wrongs and the struggle for dignity to provide a roadmap to a more humane future. Learn more at www.HumanRightsIssues.com.
