The Oliver Effect
In the final season of the Brady Bunch they added "Cousin Oliver" to the show. This definite sign that the show had "jumped the shark" came because all the once cut kids were now getting older, 12-19, not so cute.
The Oliver Effect is a term I've coined to the effect of families in the media to have more and more children. Because honestly, 6 kids in a bunch is enough! You can see the need in the media to make families larger and larger, it's getting dangerously out of control.
Let's look at the Timeline
1 - I Love Lucy - 1 Kid (Little Ricky)
2 - Leave it to Beaver - 2 Kids (Wally and ... well, you know)
3 - My Three Sons - Those three sons.
6 - The Brady Bunch - (7 if you count Oliver, I do not.)
5-8ish -The Cosby Show - (Sondra, Denise, Theo, Venessa and Rudy but in a classical Cousin Oliver Move they added little Olivia. The other two "kids" were the husbands of Sondra and Denise, Elvin and Martin respectively. Not to mention Bud, Cockroach, and that fat kid who ate all their meals at the Huxtable house.)
Then Movies Got the act.
12 - Cheaper by the Dozen (I didn't see the "original") Ok this is getting nuts twelve kids! In fact they had a sequel, where one kid had a kid of their own, pushing the number to 13. They should have called it "Cheaper by the Bakers Dozen"
18 - Yours mine and ours (Again, I didn't see the original) INSANITY! 18 Kids.
Here is where I think we are headed in the future. My Ideas for the Future:
The Brady Bunches and Bunches - In a shameless remake with a twist. Two fertility doctors (one male, one female) are each in Brady Bunch style families (only with 8 kids each, instead of just 6). Their spouses die and the only logical thing to do is get married bringing their 16 kids together in an abandoned summer camp (they need the bunk beds). Their new experimental fertility drug leads them to have a set of quads a year for three years! Bringing their total up to 30 kids (12 of which are under 3!). They also adopt their identical cousins Rascal (the trouble maker) and Randal (the prematurely uptight kid) in season 4. Bing 32!
Cheaper by the Gross (A gross is a dozen dozens, 144, often used in inventory). An elderly Steve Martin wants to keep his family together so he has a family reunion. Each of his 12 kids has each had 12 kids in turn giving him 144 grandchildren. At the reunion all the adults are poisoned by the punch and die except Steve and his new trophy wife Denise Richards who survive to raise 144 kids in a remodeled psychiatric hospital. Hijinx ensues.
posted by Trey Laminack @ 10:36 AM
10 comments
10 Comments:
Someone left a comment that got deleted because I accidentally posted this things twice and had to delete one. So repost if you want.
Jump the shark comes from Happy Days which did their own "Oliver Effect" with assorted characters after Richie and Ralph left the fold. I can't think of the actors name, but he was an Oliver on "The Love Boat" as the photographer, and an Oliver on "Happy Days" as the new teacher. I never watched "Married With Children" but I saw him on that show too. Was he brought in as an Oliver there also? Inquiring minds want to know. Ted somethingorother. Anyway. He gets my vote for most Olivers.
um.....is someone feeling overwhelmed at the number of children enrolled in the Children's Education division????
OK "Survivor-Fertility Island"
I thought it was a contest someone was trying to win.
Signed,
JAmes (oldest of eight)
heyman, I think you're talking about Ted McGinley.
Ty and I were talking about the Oliver effect (and even called Olivia an Oliver) last week. So, jinx! Or, great minds think alike.
what happened to my Cliffs Notes version??
That thing was hilarious.
You missed a mediocre homecoming
Indeed.
The Cosby Show also added a cousin, the name of which I don't know (or care to recall), who had to live with them to improve her chances of a normal life after some disaster.
Pam, her name was Pam. And she was unutterably lame. No personality whatsoever.
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