I'm on the road (Philadelphia) and flipped on the TV in my hotel room. To my amazement, there was some type of home "fix-it" type show, and it showed a woman going about some small chores in her bare feet . This made me think about how rare it is to see someone barefoot on TV. For that matter, it's rare to see someone in their socks or even wearing sandals or fuzzy house shoes. That's not reality. If I visit someone's home, typically I find the people dressed somewhat casually - shorts, sweats, t-shirts, and yes, bare feet, socks, or house shoes. Unfortunately that's not reflected in the media. How often does a TV program show people "dressed-down"? It seems that's the way most people I know live. Anyhow, it made me think that if more people were shown on TV programs in socks, sandals, fuzzy house shoes, or the "taboo of being barefoot," the practice of not wearing "proper shoes" or going barefoot would have a greater acceptance. That's my soapbox speech for today. Thanks for letting me vent!!
Hey, people got into bed so quickly, both on TV dramas and in the movies, that you could never even tell that they HAD feet, let alone bare ones. Of course, amatory scenes were somewhat (and only somewhat ) different. I think women had breasts...I'm STILL not sure. I don't know what men made love (or babies) with...I'm fairly convinced it had something to do with a REALLY FIRM handshake.......Ya can't beat a sincere handshake!
Ever notice when people get into bed on TV that they first pull up the sheets and then swing their legs in? At times I notice actors will put on their slippers just to go accross the room or answer the door.
tv parents and kids wake up and then like 5 seconds later they're in slacks, polo shirts and dress shoes to eat breakfast. @pjuer - yeah you're right, no barefeet or even socked feet in most shows. for the first season of Malcom in the Middle the kids went barefoot, then they stopped for the second season and the rest.
I was watching "Weeds" recently and noticed the main characters often walk around barefoot at home. It struck me, too, that you don't see bare feet very often on TV.
In the show The Waltons from the 70s, most of the 100 or so kids they had were usually barefoot, even in stores! I heard that it offended people so by the later seasons, the characters wore shoes more. I was always upset that the kids from the Brady Bunch never went barefoot--why wouldn't they in the early 70s in that big comfy house? I remember seeing the characters barefoot a lot in Mad About You reruns.
I remember watching the Walton's, and yes the children and the young adults were barefoot in many of the early episodes. This is the way life was during the 1930's and 40's in rural america. Money was tight for many of these families growing up in that era, often the children went barefoot to prolong the life of their shoes. I guess it was too much realiity for television back then. Really sad. Both Helen Hunt and Paul Riser were often both prancing around barefoot in their apartment on the TV series " Mad about You". Don't most people? I'm really surprised the producers showed them walking around barefoot, but that's the way it ought to be.
Isn't it a shame they never showed Maryann barefoot on "Gilligan's Island"? Back then they had to keep her belly button covered as well. What a perfect setting for both - stranded on a tropical deserted island.
In the early episodes of Gilligan's Island, they did show the Skipper and Gilligan barefoot when sleeping on their hammocks. Later shows they were always shod even when sleeping. Strange, really strange. Oh how I would have loved seeing both Many Ann and Ginger barefoot.
It's not unusual to see people barefoot in tv ads in the UK. There is a furniture company that regularly advertises its sofas and the people demonstrating them are almost always barefooted.
in the early days of tv, women always wore some sort of stocking if they weren't wearing shoes, by early i mean 60's or 70's, but even today barefeet are rarely shown, very strange, most people don't wear shoes around the house, it's the first thing i do when i get home take off my shoes.
My father had this experience growing up in the South. He said that all the parents in his neighborhood put away all the kids' shoes as soon as school was out in the spring and gave them back out when school started in the fall. The only exception was church on Sunday morning, which required dress shoes. He did not recall any of his friends or neighbors having any serious foot injuries or other problems from this lifestyle. Later in life, it became important to him to never be seen without shoes, because he equated it with poverty, which he had left behind. This kind of thinking may have a lot to do with current mainstream attitudes about shoes.
