William Sommerwerck wrote:
I've said it before and I will repeat that this is one of the
fundamental changes as we went from the "I Love Lucy"
world to the "All in the Family" world.

The "I Love Lucy" world was a fantasy world that never existed.



Well, literally, no. Even when I was a wee tot, I didn't know anyone's
Dad who wore a jacket or tie at home. But, people dressed up to go out
of the house, girls were required to wear dresses in school (no pants),
boys hair was to be above the collar, etc. Service station attendents
wore bow tie and were courteous, rather than disinterested or surly.
Even if they had existed, nobody would play a boom box loudly on a
public bus. People may have disagreed with their government, but they
had a certain fundamental trust in it none the less. The same goes with
network news broadcasts.

Yes, there were rough neighborhoods, drugs, adultery, prostitution, the
Mafia, theft, corruption, etc. But there was still a social norm that
didn't allow skanky rich sluts to be the focus of national news, for
example.

Children were, in general, much, much better behaved, and their parents
made it so. To paraphrase Garrison Keillor, if a you were a child, and a
strange woman on the street told you to blow your nose, you blew!

That's what I'm talking about.

Regards,

Dave