Love, American Style

With Boy Scout meetings getting over at 9:30 during Fridays from age 11-16(1967-1972) I missed the Partridge Family, Wild Wild West, Room 222, and Brady Bunch during their original runs(have seen most Brady Bunchs since but not the others which were never rerun fixtures). However, I remember walking into house on Friday night to see a big American Flag, Fireworks, and a pleasant song and would sit down to watch not knowing anything about Love, sex, girls etc. I did not mind it, and would love to go back to see now what I saw then, and would like to envision what my 14 year old head was thinking about all the changes that were to come over my life in the next 20 years. Bravo Love American style and I always love that "Love and the Happy Day" story where the combination of American Graffiti(great movie) and Grease combined to resurrect this little short into a 10 year TV show.

This show was part of ABC's Friday night line-up back when networks put their good shows on Friday and Saturdays, as opposed to today when those nights are burial grounds for failing TV shows. It was popular in the late 60's and early 70's not just because it was witty, but because it was considered a bit naughty. In fact it was put on last in the evening in the lineup and given a great big warning label - for mature audiences only. For modern viewers, this show will seem much like a precode film from the early 1930's - you'll wonder what the big deal is since by and large nothing shocking ever really happens. Like precode films it does mark a transitional period. Precodes were the last hurrah of controversial material in the movies for the next 30 years. Love American Style marked the first inroad of controversial material on TV, as bigger and bigger shocks would be required to titillate audiences until now, almost 50 years later, the show appears quaint. You just have to remember that at the time this show first aired shows such "My Three Sons" and "The Beverly Hillbillies" were the norm for hit Television. The 60's didn't really happen in middle America until the 70's and this show was part of the first wave of that transition, for better or worse.

The episodes themselves are still pretty humorous, and often you'll see failed pilots end up as episodes of Love American Style. The most famous example was a 1972 episode that turned out to be the pilot for "Happy Days", one of ABC's most successful shows of the 1970's. If you're a boomer you're bound to enjoy this show. If you are younger, it's an interesting and humorous lesson in the journey TV has taken over the years.

I seem to remember a vignette that is supposed to take place in the 50's, possibly featuring Ron Howard, in which a girl to whom he's attracted expresses an interest in him when she discovers that his parents just bought a television set. This may have been the pilot (of sorts) for "Happy Days". Does this ring a bell, anyone? Thanks.

As most mentioned, this was a moment in time not to be repeated again. Definitely a show that stood out as pure fun. I recall vividly seeing this show with my other brother and sisters. The instant we would see the still photos at the introduction to the show we knew it would be funny. I think we were too young to realize it had an adult theme (we thought love was too mushy) but we watched anyway! As soon as we saw someone like Joanne Worley in the beginning credits we knew it would be hilarious. We always like the busting fireworks at the end and who can forget the theme song?! Lovvvve American Style that's you and meeeeeee!!!!

This show is definitely a show that worked for the era it was produced in, the late 60's/early 70's. This show came out at the height of the sexual revolution and could have easily been called "Lust, American Style". Each episode pretty much was about the same thing, men and women in constant pursuit of each other. Also, the most memorable trademark was the ever present brass bed. However, despite the emphasis on sex there were a few more touching episodes in this series. One that comes to mind is an episode in which an old man creates a sculpture of his deceased wife on the anniversary of her death and the angel of death (played hilariously by Soupy Sales) comes down to inform him that he is about to die. At the end of the episode, there is a shot of the old man, who has become a statue himself, holding his wife's hand. This was perhaps the most moving episode from one of the wildest show's of the early 70's.