TV sitcom-family washer trivia question

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The Cleavers

I was happy to hear about the BEAVER episodes on the laundry topic as I don't ever recall seeing the laundry facilities in the Cleaver home. I thought maybe it was because all of the Cleavers were so squeaky clean, they never needed to do laundry to begin with. Maybe they didn't really have a bathroom either because they didn't have to shower or do disgusting things like, well, you know. I enjoyed the show in a way, but June Cleaver was a bit much, fixing dinner, dusting, vacuuming, etc., in high heels, pearls and the works. At least Donna Reed got herself into crazy predicaments once in awhile, a la Lucy Ricardo. Ward Cleaver was also just a bit more much with his stick-in-the-mud demeanor. Carl Betz had more warmth and personality as Dr. Stone. Oh well, at least Wally Cleaver was good eye candy, at least back then. Turned out he's just as squeaky clean in real life; heard he sued TVLAND for running an ad for the show's reruns which was doctored to show Wally and Beaver in today's style with tatoos and piercings; he felt this did not maintain his wholesome image. "Gee, Wally," maybe you wouldn't pierce or tatoo yourself in real life, but can'tcha take a joke?
 
The Thrill of it all...and more

Oh, yeah, I remember Beverly Boyer's spot with the Whirlpools.
Those models were very attractive. Remember the stainless Frigidiare kitchen appliances? Great movie, one of the few Doris Day romantic comedies that is well regarded by the critics. Carl Reiner script, incredible '60s camp and just a lot of fun.

The Russian spy on the Debbie Reynolds episode was Nina Talbot, who also played a Russian spy on Hogan's Heroes. (A little type cast there, Nina?) Curious about the FL mistaken for the dishwaser. I'ts been a long time, but it looked like a Norge (?) with the flat-bottom oval window. And, didn't the front panel match the cabinets for the built-in look? But, as I said it was a long ... long time ago.
Kelly
 
Ok, my memory is only as good as the color TV version of the Beverly Hillbillies, and I remember the Maytags in the back laundry room hall where Jed and Jethrow used to enter the kitchen where Granny was cooking "vittles" on her 8 burner double sided stove. Did granny ever do laundy in those fabulous Maytags?
 
I do remember vaguely one scene, but odn't remember what the entire context was, but granny sayin' "Ellie-Mae, go set the wursher for hot wursh".
 
Beverly Hillbillies' Maytags

I never ever saw the Maytags used by a human the entire time the show was on the air. Originals or reruns. The only time I saw Granny actually touch the machines was when she sat on top of them shaking a mop at Jethro in the kitchen while in the dog house with Granny. She was making him do something to make up for being in trouble.

One thing to notice. In the original black and white episodes during the first year the washer had a pushbutton control and the dryer had a round dial control. In the color episodes the dryer was switched out to the all pushbutton control to match the washer. The refrigarator was moved to the other side of the kitchen.

I still love to watch episodes of the Beverly Hillbillies!
 
David, the pair from the original black & white portion of the series, were a matched pair. Maytag didn't have an all-pushbutton dryer at that time. Yes, the buttons on the control panel were just that, like the all pushbutton model, but kinda could "go both ways". Gansky1 I do believe has that same original black & white model set, maybe he'll post pics of them.
 
In the credits at the end of the Beverly Hillbillies, credit was given again to the American Gas Association for the appliances. You have to admit that, for a mansion of that size, the kitchen was pretty realistic with the double gas refrigerators, cooktops and ovens. Rarely seen, but in the kitchen at least for part of the run, was the Preway gas dishwasher with the spark plug to ignite the gas burner under the tank. There was a vent for the conbustion tube that opened on the front down near the floor in the toe space. If the spark fired a bit too late or was getting weak and did not spark the first time, when it did ignite the gas, there would be this brief flash at the end of the vent. I guess the owner's manual cautioned against putting throw rugs in that area. The machine could guarantee either a 140 or 160 degree wash (bad memory)and a 180 degree final rinse. I don't believe there was a detergent dispenser so it was wash, rinse, rinse. Preway did not have to worry about heating up the machine. After the last rinse, a little motor pushed the door open a couple of inches and as the steam billowed out, the dishes flash dried because they were so hot. If you had a wood or particle board base for the countertop, it would have to be well sealed to keep the heat and steam from warping it.

I thought I remembered a time or two when Granny had clothes hanging out by the cement pond and some of the critters started messing with them. Didn't the kangaroo (AKA the giant jack rabbit) bound through the sheets in an episode?
 
"See-ment" Pond

I don't remember about the kangaroo messing up the laundry, or ever having seen the terrific Maytags in use, but I also didn't realize people in some parts of the country really SAY "see-ment" until I ended up in THIS area where they say it all the time. That, and EYE-TALIAN.
 
Language in the South (GA) (AL) etc.....

Born and rised in North GA all words have 2 syllables as four is fo-ur, two is tw-oo. Words end with an "er" when spoken....example Atlanter, LuLa....Luler, or Camilla... Camiller.

You don't go over there it's "over yonder".

I had a lot of Lanugage habits to break when I worked in customer service at my last job. No one could understand me or they made fun of me!

However I still have my southern accent which I will take to my grave! I'm very pround of it!
 
TV Sitcom Washing Machines--and more!

Oh, man, you're bringing back more than a few memories about washing machines!

Here are a few that I remember: The first "Bewitched" episodes (before they moved to 1164 Morning Glory Circle) did feature an old flat-top Maytag automatic in the rental house Darrin and Samantha had...but when Chevrolet came on board as an alternate sponsor with Quaker Oats, the Stephens kitchen boasted TOL Frigidaire appliances, including a Flair range and fridge with a push-button door latch. In 1969 (between seasons), a fire swept the Screen Gems studios and destroyed the "Bewitched" set--except for, of all things, Elizabeth Montgomery's dressing room! And since Chevrolet dropped "Bewitched" after the 1968-69 season, the producers replaced the Frigidaire appliances with those made by other makers (Maytag washer and dryer, for example), and a gas stove (one episode has Samantha saying, when Larry Tate asked what happened to Darrin, "the pilot light's gone out in the stove...he went to fix it.")

"Hazel" started its first season with RCA Whirlpool appliances, but when Ford bought Philco (including Philco-Bendix washers and dryers with that distinctive glass window!) in late 1961, they cobbled up an episode where Missy (Dorothy Baxter) and Hazel conspired to convince George to remodel the kitchen (including a shot of an electric knife sawing through a milk carton on the cramped worktop)--and voila! Philco appliances appeared!

When GE came on board as co-sponsor with Ralston-Purina for "Leave it to Beaver" circa 1960-61, Ward and June moved to the new home and a glamorous new kitchen full of TOL GE appliances (including the washing machine that oversudsed spectacularly when Beaver and Whitey did the wash!)

Interesting note on Doris Day and "The Thrill of it All": You are right that the Happy Detergent commercials have her surrounded by RCA Whirlpool Mark XII automatics--but in a kitchen scene where she's talking about fixing a roast for dinner, she and James Garner are standing in front of a built-in Frigidaire Custom Imperial oven!
 
Beverly Hillbillies had O'Keefe & Merritt gas built-ins. Anybody remember the indoor gas barbecue grill? Think it was a Waste King with a Vent-A-Hood.
I only remember Donna Reed with the Kenmores. I think they had a built-in gas cooktop and an oven from an eye-level gas Classic range.Didn't know that that was available like that.
 
Forgot to mention that I remember Hazel with a O' Keef & Merritt stove. Does anybody remember the movie with Bob Hope moving into a subdivision. He oversuds the front-load washer that I later found out that it was an O' Keefe and Merritt combo(didn't think that was available nationwide).
 
Great thread! What was the brand of washer/dryer combo that Lisa had in the kitchen of Green Acres? I believe it was pink?

I remember seeing a re-run of "Our Gang" comedies that had the kids in the basement of a house using the wringer washer. I believe mom was upstairs with a house full of women and soap bubbles came up by one of the windows in the room that they were in? I wonder what brand that washer was?
 
another hillbilly washer show

I'm not sure of the episode, but there is in one in which Jed and Jethro are "scrubbin'" their clothes in the kitchen using a wooden tub and washboard. Elly Mae comes in and asks why they aren't using the washer. Jed replies, "We don't know how to run it." I think the whole theme of the episode was a "women's lib" rebellion by Granny and Elly Mae, but am not sure. I love the show too, and I very vividly remember seeing the first episode in September of 1962. The Clampetts were weekly visitors at our house....
 
What machine did Joan Crawford have in her Brentwood basement again? Glass fronts on both machines, it's the scene where they had to let Helga go, so they are doing the laundry (gasp) themselves.
 
Debbie Reynolds and GE Dishwashers

I have seen (and in fact have) the Debbie Reynolds magazine ads for the GE Potscrubber dishwasher ... I am not sure of the time frame, but it was about the time her marriage to the shoe executive broke... and she did get financially wiped out.

There was an actor by the name of Kevin McCarthy (was he the one from "Invasion of the Body Snatchers?") who appeared in GE ads for fridges and stoves about the same time ...
 
Mommy Dearest-The Joan Crawford story

The washers in the basement were Kenmores wash/dry combos. They set them up to look like a washer dryer set.
 
Andy Griffith

Just saw an episode of the Andy Griffith Show,on TV Land,where Aunt Bea wins big on a TV game show. She wins a new 1965 Frigidaire bottom freezer refrig in coppertone,a coppertone washer and dryer(looked like Whirlpools),a top load dishwasher,a TV,garbage disposer,ice crusher,and a mink coat.
Couldn't tell what brand the DW,or TV was.

kennyGF
 
Just was watching Green Acres yesterday and noticed that next to the pink Maytag combo was another pink laundry appliance - perhaps set up to look like a dryer - anyone know what that was? Positive ID was near to impossible. Also, the particular shade of pink in Lisa Douglas' kitchen was pretty intense - not like the pink one would have normally seen - I wonder if those appliances were repainted with a different shade so they would show better on TV....
 
Meanwhile, back on "The Lucy Show"...

While Westinghouse appliances appeared on the Connecticut-based episodes of "I Love Lucy" in 1957--and when "Westin-Gouse", as Desi Arnaz mangled it, sponsored "Desilu Playhouse" and "The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour" from 1957 through 1960--I recently saw an episode of "The Lucy Show" that may have featured a Norge refrigerator.

It was the episode in which Lucy and Mary Jane snuck away from work to go shopping--and, of course, Lucy is honored as the department store's 1-millionth customer...in one scene, she literally yanks the doors off a coppertone two-door top-freezer refrigerator with a turquoise-blue interior. To me it looks like a Norge from about 1966 or 1967 since I saw contemporary Norge magazine ads featuring a similar-looking top-freezer model...(it was also one of the first color "Lucy Show" episodes)...

can anyone confirm or deny?
 
Lucy's appliances

You're right! I remember the washer and dryer, but the fridge caught my attention since Norge did a marketing push in '66-'67 ("Knock on any Norge") and it was one of the few times I saw a Norge appliance showcased for anything...
 

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