A Disturbing Trend

I saw some movies this weekend. As is the custom, they showed some previews before. And I saw something that disturbed me. But first, some history…

In 1969, a tv show emerged called “The Brady Bunch” in which a single parent with three kids meets a single parent with three kids of their own. Quick math tells us that’s six kids. There’s a certain novelty to having such a large household. Oh the scrapes they’ll get into!

Then in 1977, they one upped the Brady’s. Or rather, two upped them. With “Eight Is Enough”. That’s right, they went from a show with six kids to eight. (By the way, there was also in 1972, “The Waltons” but this also was six kids.)

Until ten years later, in 1988, when eight was no longer enough. “Just The Ten Of Us” continued the one upping to a solid ten kids with the Growing Pains spin-off.

Five years later, it seemed preposterous but a family flickered on the silver screen with an even dozen of kids in Steve Martin’s “Cheaper By The Dozen”.

You’ll note at this point that the kids keep getting bigger by two in every instance. This seems like a heightening that increases the stakes but is also believable. Until now. 2005.

Which is when I saw a preview for “Yours, Mine, and Ours” the new movie starring Rene Russo and Dennis Quaid. Where as IMDB describes it, “A widowed Coast Guard Admiral and a widow handbag designer fall in love and marry, much to the dismay of her 10 and his 8 children”. Yes, that’s right. EIGHTEEN CHILDREN!!

That’s just ridiculous. And stupid. And dumb. Pull out any word to degrade and demean this movie and it’s deserved. I am almost certain there are Shakespeare plays with less cast characters. Think about it Lear had four daughters. And this was in a time where having as many kids as possible was encouraged!

Also, think about these actors. Eighteen kids? I mean, that’s waaaay too many. I’m sure William, Christina, Harry, Michael, Kelly, and Ely all have fully drawn characters and character arcs. But what about Otter? And Ethan? Not to mention Phoebe, Dylan, Naoko, Mick, Jimi, Joni, Lao, Bina, Marisa, and Aldo.

See the joke in there too? Dylan, Jimi, Joni, Mick? Rockstars. But what about Phoebe and Bina and Marisa? See, they are slighted. Not even let in on the joke. They are simply the filler characters.

I eagerly await a new movie in 2008 to be called something like “My Family Is Big Enough To Field A Professional Football Team”. Or maybe a movie about some rock groupie who had sex with all of these rockstars to have a huge family band of 40 some kids. Actually, that’s not a bad idea. Must go write now.