I think I went to the 1st and 2nd grades with Rob Reiner at PS-8. It was early in Carl Reiner's career and the family lived in the Bronx. I recall being Rob's only friend. I remember Rob drew pictures of people as having a round head with 4 straight lines for arms and legs coming from the head where the neck would have been. His people never had a body. I, the Michelangelo of grade school, tried to show him that just another circle below the head where he could stick the appendages was a vast improvement but Rob would always become angry and continue to draw his spider people. Once in a while Rob became angry enough to get into a scissors fight with another student (never with me, I was his artistic mentor).

I really don't blame Rob for venting such anger. Our teacher for 1st and 2nd grade was Mrs. Schtall (or something like that) whose job it was--as it was for all the other "teachers" of PS-8--was to destroy any individualness we might exhibit and prepare us to work obediently in the factories and offices and consume whatever was advertised.

Rob disappeared in the middle of 2nd grade and was obviously enrolled in a real school that didn't traumatize the children so that 50+ years later psychiatrists aren't sending their kids to school in Switzerland off the fees they charge the ex-students of PS-8.

I remember Carl Reiner made an appearance at Evander Childs H.S. He said a few nice things in the auditorium.

Rob Reiner, of course, went from "Meathead" (all in the family), to a good producer of movies.

Clinton H.S. was famous for it's football team kicking the tail off Evander, and they had real rumbles after the games.

I ran into a Clinton graduate down here in Southern N.J.

He sells insurance now, and remembers those football games.

You only have to watch "West Side Story" or "Rebel without a Cause" to get a feel of what teenagers (they called them Juvenile Delinquents or J.D.'s)were like back in the day.

Today's kids got hooked on video games and the like.

Imagine if they took to the streets like we did?

You know, D.A.'s and Pompodours and Elvis look-a-likes.

You had wheels then (a car), you were king.

Today a car is an endless monthly payment with air bags to keep it from falling apart.

The good old days...COME BACK!

Reiner's first wife, Penny Marshall is also from the Bronx. Her brother Gary Marshall is very famous in television and movies. Their mother was a dance instructor and Penny was quite a dancer before her acting and then directing career.

quote:

Originally posted by Leonard A. Lucenti:
I remember Carl Reiner made an appearance at Evander Childs H.S. He said a few nice things in the auditorium.

Rob Reiner, of course, went from "Meathead" (all in the family), to a good producer of movies.

Clinton H.S. was famous for it's football team kicking the tail off Evander, and they had real rumbles after the games.

I ran into a Clinton graduate down here in Southern N.J.

He sells insurance now, and remembers those football games.

You only have to watch "West Side Story" or "Rebel without a Cause" to get a feel of what teenagers (they called them Juvenile Delinquents or J.D.'s)were like back in the day.

Today's kids got hooked on video games and the like.

Imagine if they took to the streets like we did?

You know, D.A.'s and Pompodours and Elvis look-a-likes.

You had wheels then (a car), you were king.

Today a car is an endless monthly payment with air bags to keep it from falling apart.

The good old days...COME BACK!

I was at that assembly when Carl Reiner spoke to us at Evander!! I was there from '60-'64, how about you?

Did You realize that the Dick Van Dyke Show was supposed to be about a Jewish family from the Bronx moving to Weschester and all that went with it? Carl Reiner wanted to do it that way, but the network thought it would be too ethnic. Rob Reiner became Richie.

I knew the Bronx to Westchester parts, but not that they were originally written as Jewish. Doesn't surprise me, though, that the network WASP'd it!

quote:

Originally posted by DUKE 69:
Did You realize that the Dick Van Dyke Show was supposed to be about a Jewish family from the Bronx moving to Weschester and all that went with it? Carl Reiner wanted to do it that way, but the network thought it would be too ethnic. Rob Reiner became Richie.

Do you remember the show "Brooklyn Bridge"? Although it rook place in Brooklyn in the 50's it could have been The Bronx or Chicago or Philly. The lead charaters love affair with the Dodgers could have been mine with the Yankees.

For those of you ho don't remember the show was about a multi-generational Jewish family living in Brooklyn. I believe it was on CBS. They kept moving the show about. They changed the time and the day of the week more than a few times. At one time the show was on Friday nights - a night when many Jews are at services - great programming.

When the show was cancelled I wrote a rather nasty letter. I told them that if it was a show about any other ethnic group it wouldn't have been cancelled and that they were biased against shows that have Jewish characters. I asked them why it was that they could never show a family celebating one of the Jewish holidays? Why couldn't they have a show where the family was a normal American family that happened to be Jewish? It didn't suprise me that I never got an answer.

Why is it when they portray a Jew it is often stereo-typical? Think of The Nanny and how here family was portrayed

Why couldn't one of the characters on the Golden Girls be Jewish?

When I lived in The Bronx almost all of my friends were Jewish. When I moved to LI none of my friends were and it openned me up to a world of new experiences. My family was no different then any one of my friends families except that we were Jewish.

Why couldn't one of the characters on the Golden Girls be Jewish?

Absolutely-- especially since it was in Florida, to boot!

Not that I really watched "Golden Girls", but you couldnt miss that Bea Arthur WAS Jewish if you caught a glimpse of it.......a really funny show..

Of course, I WAS a Soupy Sales fanatic, and Soupy was Jewish....real name Milton Hines.....I raced home each day from school to catch him and his double entendres...he had a few pretty racy ones too....he was thrown off the air for a few that I STILL remember!!!!

We were taking about why,on the Golden Girls, none of the CHARACTERS were Jewish.

Yes, Bea Arthur and Estelle Getty are both Jewish, but the characters they played on the show were Italian Catholics--

quote:

Originally posted by uh_da_bronx:
Of course, I WAS a Soupy Sales fanatic, and Soupy was Jewish....real name Milton Hines.....I raced home each day from school to catch him and his double entendres...he had a few pretty racy ones too....he was thrown off the air for a few that I STILL remember!!!!

That's the rub. So many of the writers and actors throughtout the entertainment industry are Jewish but Jewishness is seldom portrayed as an intregal part of the story.