So we’ve been getting our money’s worth from Amazon Prime Video during this lockdown. After watching reruns of “That Girl” over the winter, “The Mothers In Law” was in our suggestion pile so we gave it a whirl.
Before we started watching the show I didn’t remember a lot about it. Every once in a great while my husband and I would be reminiscing about old television shows and he’d bark out “Kaye Ballard!” and then “The Mothers-In-Law!”. I don’t remember watching the show as a kid but I sort of remembered Kaye Ballard, mostly from mentions Rosie O’Donnell made during her talk show way back when.
The first couple episodes of the first season are a little rough to watch. I think it has to be the first series outside of “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” where (almost) all of the lead characters used their real first names. Kaye and Roger live next door to Eve and Herb. Their kids fall in love and get married, and the in-laws don’t really get along but they really do and they get into all sorts of whacky situations.
I remarked the other night in my blog entry writing spree that Kaye Ballard chews up the scenery in this series but the truth of the matter is that’s just Kaye Ballard. And I’m enjoy her performance. Kaye Ballard and Eve Arden are a lot like Lucy and Ethel and ahead of the curve in a little bit Laverne and Shirley. “The Mothers In Law” was produced by Desi Arnaz. He directed quite a few of episodes, and Desi Arnaz, Jr. appeared in an episode tonight. He played a drummer of a band in a club run by Rob Reiner (without his mustache). There were a couple of seemingly ad libbed lines. I’m now enjoying watching the show very much and I’m interested to see how the dynamic changes when we get to season 2 when Roger C. Carmel (Harry Mudd from Star Trek) is replaced by Richard Deacon (who appeared in everything in the 60s and 70s).
I read somewhere online that during this pandemic people are looking for “familiar” entertainment. Well, we’re going retro with our entertainment and enjoying “The Mothers In Law”.
