for example: the Jay North "Dennis the Menace" tv show:

In the final season, Jeannie Russell was twelve years old, yet in those last episodes, her character of Margaret was still pushing her doll carriage up to the Wilson home and asking if Dennis can play "house" with her.

You have to wonder what the creators were planning to do had the show not been cancelled, as Russell's developing boobs would have become obvious within a year or two.

Anissa Jones and Johnny Whitaker Buffy and Jody from Family Affair.  Anissa died of a drug overdose in 1976 when she was just 18 and Johnny never got over the fact that she didn't have anybody to keep her from getting into trouble.  He said "her so called friends just left her in a hotel room to die."

Would you also put "Leave It To Beaver" in that category?

for example: the Jay North "Dennis the Menace" tv show:

In the final season, Jeannie Russell was twelve years old, yet in those last episodes, her character of Margaret was still pushing her doll carriage up to the Wilson home and asking if Dennis can play "house" with her.

You have to wonder what the creators were planning to do had the show not been cancelled, as Russell's developing boobs would have become obvious within a year or two.


Dennis the menace was based on a comic strip where the characters never age. There was no plan for the series to age because if Dennis "grew up" he'd have no reason to keep doing stupid menace shyt

Anissa Jones and Johnny Whitaker Buffy and Jody from Family Affair.  Anissa died of a drug overdose in 1976 when she was just 18 and Johnny never got over the fact that she didn't have anybody to keep her from getting into trouble.  He said "her so called friends just left her in a hotel room to die."


I thought drive her to hospital but dumped her there...leaving her on the sidewalk outside the ER and driving off.....ot was that some other celebrity who died of an OD? I remember it vividly on an E! special.

Would you also put "Leave It To Beaver" in that category?


Beaver never learned from his mistakes hence the very repetitive nature of the trouble he got into but in away the kids were allowed to age because Wally got a car and had girlfriends and as beaver hot older his problems were changing with him.

I thought drive her to hospital but dumped her there...leaving her on the sidewalk outside the ER and driving off.....ot was that some other celebrity who died of an OD? I remember it vividly on an E! special.


You're right about that Q.  I knew that they left her somewhere to die but I hadn't remembered where?

Nobody was there to look out for her.

I'm reminded of-17-year-old Judy Garland having her breasts being so that she would look younger as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz (1939). Shirley Temple was the studio's original choice (who at 11 was surely already past her classic, diminutive, exaggeratedly cutesy persona for which she is most remembered, but still young enough to be seen as a kid rather than a teenager), so that should tell you what kind of look they were seeking. I imagine they must have done the same thing with girls in said 50's and 60's sitcoms whenever they inconveniently hit puberty while playing child characters.

I remember seeing an interview with Susan olsen a couple years ago. She said she asked if Cindy could lose the braids in the final season of the Brady Bunch but Sherwood Schwartz said no

I remember seeing an interview with Susan olsen a couple years ago. She said she asked if Cindy could lose the braids in the final season of the Brady Bunch but Sherwood Schwartz said no


Why did he say no?

Were The Bradys allowed to age?



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSq7E91-hoA


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9dcK1ayByE


Cat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSq7E91-hoA


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9dcK1ayByE


Cat


Sorry Cat, that was a dumb question.

re: Anissa Jones - after she OD'd, two of her so-called friends stole Anissa's car and went back to Anissa's apartment to dispose of drug paraphernalia there before the cops could seal off the apartment.

Even though it wouldn't have happened on sixties tv, the image of Margaret telling Dennis she had got her first bra brings out quite the giggling. Seriously though, had Dennis the Menace not been cancelled, it would have become very obvious fairly soon that Margaret was entering her teenage years.

Why did he say no?


Because he wanted to retain the illusion of young innocent sweet Cindy brady. He didn't want her to  appear to mature during the initial run of the series.

Sorry Cat, that was a dumb question.


It wasn't a completely dumb question Howard. The series had so many sub shows but initially...while the older kids faced more adult issues like *gasp* smoking or getting caught stealing a school mascot...the younger kids were stuck with dumb kid plots like selling crap door to door and turning greg's hair orange with a perm gone wrong.

The younger kids were allowed to age on the subsequent series and the situations were way more serious in the hr long Brady series.

It wasn't a completely dumb question Howard. The series had so many sub shows but initially...while the older kids faced more adult issues like *gasp* smoking or getting caught stealing a school mascot...the younger kids were stuck with dumb kid plots like selling crap door to door and turning greg's hair orange with a perm gone wrong.

The younger kids were allowed to age on the subsequent series and the situations were way more serious in the hr long Brady series.



Yeah, like calling someone a "stinker" or playing ball in the house.  ;) :D ;D ;D ;D



Cat

Because he wanted to retain the illusion of young innocent sweet Cindy brady. He didn't want her to  appear to mature during the initial run of the series.


She appeared mature in later years of The Brady Bunch during the late 70's and early 80's.

also, Schwartz didn't want to have to change the theme song.