The first show that I watched was Little House on the Prairie. Its important to remember that even though Little House originally aired in 1974, the series portrayed a family that lived over a hundred years prior. In this episode, the Ingalls family consisted of Ma and Pa Ingalls and their three daughters; Mary, Laura and Carrie. The eldest daughter Mary, has become so ill that she is not only blinded, but now bedridden in the hospital. Pa Ingalls has to go off with a family friend to work on the new railroad in order to earn money so that the family can pay for Mary's medical bills. Mary is very saddened when she hears the news that her father has gone away because of her, and that her mother now has to work as a laundress at the hospital in order to make ends meet. Mary is overcome with guilt and prays that she will just die so that her family doesn't have to be inconvienanced because of her. While Ma and Pa Ingalls are off working, Laura the middle daughter is left at home in charge of taking care of the homestead and the youngest daughter, Carrie. This woul dbe absolutely unthinkable now, but at the time that the show portrayed it was considered perfectly normal. I think that the theme of Ma working in the hospital speaks a lot to the time that the show was airing - more women were going into the workplace than ever before.
The second show that I watched was The Brady Bunch. This series originally aired in the last 60's - this is most evident in the clothing and hairstyles that the characters have. The episode that I watched was quite a funny one. Peter and Bobby (the two youngest boys) meet an astronaut who claims to have seen a UFO when he was on a space voyage. From there they get UFO fever!! Bobby is sleeping one night when he hears an eerie whistling sound. When he looks out the window he sees a red UFO flying in the night sky. Bobby immediately wakes Peter up and they share in the excitement. The next morning they are itching to...