My favorite line in the show right now is about how you can't have eggnog in jeans. I'm pretty sure the only thing this means is that my character, Cleo, wants an excuse to change into sexytime clothes in front of prospective multiple love experience partner, Wally. I mean, has anyone ever heard of an Eggnogg Dress Code? If you have please share it with us, but I personally have not heard anything of the sort.
I've wanted to write a blog before now, but the WHAT & WHY of this show has been a bit elusive these past couple of weeks so I had no idea where to start. (Not that I have NOTHING to say, I just mean I'm really having trouble wrapping my brain around this show and my part in it - how to portray Cleo in a realistic way and represent her point of view appropriately.)
I was born in 1972, so my memories of that time really only exist in the pictures from grade school. The 80's are HYPERCOLOR CLEAR, but the 70's...are a blur.
In trying to understand this period in our nation's history (both socially & entertainment-style-wise) I've watched a couple of movies and TV shows: Inside Deep Throat (the documentary on the multi-million dollar early porn flick), Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (a 70's movie with a similar-but-not-exact storyline to "Wife"), another BAD documentary called "Sex With Strangers" and got some Mary Tyler Moore on Netflix.
I can definitely say Inside Deep Throat gave a great perspective on where America was at with the sexual revolution at the time it came out. EVERYONE wanted to see that movie: young, old, gay, straight, moms, dads, businessmen, movie stars...even Jackie O. was photographed coming out of the theatre in NYC. ...I KNOW, Jackie O! After the repressed 50's and early 60's, America was very thirsty to burst out of it's conservative past and be...SOMETHING ELSE.
Mary Tyler Moore is a great way to explore the acting style of the era and to see how different themes regarding women were dealt with (Mary being single, living in her own apartment in the big city, being a career gal, dating someone she'd just met that day who was good looking but had nothing else to offer, going to jail for not revealing her sources as a journalist...) Very interesting & bold ideas/topics to have been covered on network TV in the 1970's.
We've had several discussions about what people were seeking in this "love revolution" time - was it sexual expression mixed in with women's lib? was it was it to connect on a deeper level with people and...KEY PARTIES were all we could come up with? Was it just another another advertising trend? When did shorts get THAT short? When did we go from Spaghetti straps to strapless? It's hard to tell which came first here...
I also had a little guilty pleasure moment in watching a Biography special on "The Facts of Life" show/cast. That show's pilot season found about 9 young ladies at a fictitious girls school - WHO WERE DRESSED in VERY SHORT SHORTS, considering the cast ranged in age from 9 years (Kim Fields) to 15 (a couple of the older gals). Sex was still selling a LOT at the end of the 70's. They went on to say how they did a total switcheroo of things for the 2nd season, including changing the wardrobes to VERY conservative private school clothes. (Shirts buttoned all the way up, ties, vests, modest-length skirts and KNEE SOCKS.) I mean - I know it's a silly little sitcom, but it was a HIT sitcom that lasted for 9 years. Clearly the public wanted to identify with it.
I then began to wonder how it was that the 80s took such an abrupt turn back to being pretty conservative? How exactly did DISCO die? Reagan? Aids? Drug overdoses?
ALSO: how did Linda Lovelace only make $1200 for Deep Throat (AND DIED PENNILESS) when it -to date- has grossed over $300 million?
In my quest for answers, I only have more questions. Feel free to educate me if you have thoughts to contribute!!
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