A Date with Your Family

... this one was way out there in left field.

One can only imagine the 1950s classrooms in which this film was shown ... full of glazed-eyed, snoring students. It conforms to the worst stereotypes of the era, one in which the menfolk engage in such manly, worthy pursuits as playing baseball, working as a professional and studying for college, while the womenfolk have no better raison d'etre than to look pretty and pleasant and pick flowers for the dinner table.

Beyond the stereotypes, though, consider that there was a production company out there which seriously thought -- and presumably justifiably so -- that there was a market for a ten minute educational film pushing no more important a message than making dinner time nice for the family. In the Pleasantville-land of the Fifties, that's a telling point.

2/10.

This short does have some redeeming value. Getting the family to sit around the dinner table is a noble gesture. Still, I would rather have the family eating TV dinners on the couch than have to put up with the gender roles portrayed here. I really enjoy these kinds of movies because they give a great insight into the thinking of the time, but I doubt that there were many families who lived up to the ideal set forth in this film. If it appeared that they did, it was because father ruled with an iron fist. I've got two kids myself, and while they aren't always the best behaved, I refuse to rule my house through fear. Too bad they didn't have black neighbors, then we could have really seen how far we've come.

Sit down to dinner with the Whitebreads and learn how taking a meal together is done. No arguing, no unpleasant talk. Mother and Father even greet each other with a handshake so as to keep the emotions in the house on an even keel (and, considering the age gap between Junior and the other two kids in the family, to prevent any more accidents).

This short was probably created to combat the trend of family meals eaten in front of that wonderful new machine, television. Just try to picture Father in his undershirt, his plate on a TV tray and the fights on the tube. You can't, can you? Nor should you try. Get that out of your head at once and get back to the dinner table.

For the gentler sex, the narrator delivers a fantastically vintage line: "The women of this family seem to feel that they owe it to the men of the family to look relaxed, rested, and attractive at dinnertime." Uh...yeah.

I'm all for family dinners and time spent together, but pedantry typically has the effect of pushing people in the opposite direction. Much like warnings about the evils of rock n' roll only make me want to listen to more Black Sabbath, this short just makes me want to eat in front of my laptop so I can watch MST3k shorts on YouTube.

For a quick double feature, pair this short (the MST3k version, natch) with the "Don't hit the hair!" dinner scene from "Saturday Night Fever".

Stupid, boring short about how you should show no emotion or individuality at the dinner table. I'm glad I wasn't around in Fifties after seeing this flick. ;) MST3K rightfully tore this one up and spit it out. Eleven stars for that. The short itself gets zero.

The title might imply that "A Date with Your Family" is about a family going to a movie or restaurant or something, but it actually shows a family having dinner at home. The idea is that the movie shows the proper way to act at dinner. It's probably more recognizable now that "Mystery Science Theater 3000" heckled it. One of the things that the movie reminds us - according to the Satellite of Love Crew - is that emotions are for ethnic people (this IS a wholesome WASP family, remember). It's the sort of movie that'll make anyone want to eat dinner like the Simpsons. Seriously, are there ANY families who willingly act like the one in this short?