Chiara Kelly

Baby Boomers & Millennials Rock ‘Family Style’ in ‘Yours, Mine & Ours’

When I first saw the original Yours, Mine & Ours (1968), I gawked in awe as Helen North cruised down the Golden Gate Bridge with her eight un-seatbelted kids climbing all over one another without so much as being pulled over for a ticket. Ironically, it also shocked me to see 4-year old Ethan Beardsley strapped to a full-harness toddler car seat in the 2005 remake. As I still have fond memories of sitting in the front seat in a booster at that age, I thought a pre-K kid strapped in like a 1-year old was a bit too coddlish and quite baffling. However, I wouldn’t have been cool with my kids climbing around without seatbelts either. Although the freedom to ride around with siblings’ arms for seatbelts brought back pleasant memories, it is fair to say that safety rules between the two Yours, Mine & Ours productions have evolved for a reason. And although I tend to favor original movies and frown on tepid remakes or sequels, I did find the 21^st century take on Yours, Mine & Ours to be not only necessary, but very relatable and entertaining. Like any remake, Yours, Mine & Ours needed to be told to a new generation in a way they understood best.

                

The original 1968 film tells the story of how widowed Navy Captain Frank Beardsley (Henry Fonda) and Navy nurse Helen North (Lucille Ball—I Love Lucy, anyone?), who also lost her husband, met, reluctantly revealed their family sizes in a moving cable car and married, blending into one supersized family of twenty. It was at that time when blended families were just beginning to become an item right in time for the incoming Brady Bunch of 1969. And although large families were more commonplace and economically feasible during the “Baby Boomer” era, and the Beardsley/North children stirred vats of oatmeal and bagged lunches like a first-rate ship’s crew, the growing pains among the new siblings, as well as the parents, were still honestly evident. I also noticed some ironic snippets of anti-child/large family sentiments throughout the film; once when Mr. Beardsley remarked that his children’s glum welcome upon his homecoming “made him review the entire question of birth control.” And on their rainy wedding night, a doctor on a house call (remember those?) also told Mr. Beardsley to call his wife and tell her thank you. When he asked what for, he deadpanned, “We don’t have any children.” He also told an aunt and uncle babysitting the two youngest Beardsley babies to “Have a heart. Drop them off on someone else’s doorstep,” when they came to deliver them home. The story seemed to caution viewers even in the 60s to be mindful of their family sizes, or even of parenthood in general, all the while showcasing the marvels, drama and heart that comes with having a large blended family. And patience ultimately wins in the end as the adoption judge asks the new Mrs. Beardsley in court how she manages to handle it all. Her answer is this: “Love, a little discipline and a husband who doesn’t criticize”—a subtle jab at the judge, who claimed to only hve two children and a full-time maid, but yet still could not manage. If that is not a landslide mom victory regardless of era, I don’t know what is.

Decades later, the 2005 remake of Yours, Mine & Ours delivers a similar story line with most parallels intact, but with several distinctions that work its way into the new millennium. Only this time, Frank Beardsley (Dennis Quaid) has been promoted to Admiral on course to run the Coast Guard Academy. Although this is a rather solid prestigious post, Admiral Beardsley still could not guarantee his eight children that this would be their last move, as he was still not finished climbing the brass ladder to Commandant of the Coast Guard. After he settles his family in New London, Connecticut (East Coast this time), some of them refuse to even unpack. Then on a blind date, he runs into the next-generation Helen North (Rene Russo), a free-spirit fashion designer, at a restaurant where she is having a dinner meeting with a potential buyer from Saks Fifth Avenue.

They later meet again on a “flashback” 25^th high school reunion cruise, where they reluctantly reveal their family sizes while happily intoxicated on the dance floor. Only this time, they elope before even telling their baffled children. Frank assures his children “It’ll be fun…having ten new brothers and sisters.” But the North kids are not too sure. As their free-range mother champions creative chaos in her mantra, “Homes are for free expression, not for good impressions,” they do not mesh well with the ship-shape clean cut Beardsley brood who prefer Boy Scouts, Capitol Hill internships, sailing and J. Crew. In fact, both camps scheme to break their parents up until they find that their partnership in crime actually did more to mend them closer together as one family instead of cleaving them back into two.

Also, the North kids, whose casting includes Disney’s Danielle Panabaker, Drake Bell and iCarly’s Miranda Cosgrove, also bring to light international and interracial adoption as Helen proudly admits during a slow dance with Frank that she adopted six of her children via foster care. I believe the diversity culture portrayed throughout the remake to be noteworthy and one of the brightest highlights of both the 20^th century and the new millennium. Being interracially married myself, I found it particularly touching when Helen told “Lau,” (Andrew Vo) her Asian son, “No one will ever doubt you’re my son,” when he presented her with his own handbag design sketch.

All in all, I found both renditions of Yours, Mine & Ours uniquely enriching as they both authentically played out their respective time periods, showing what was to be learned about family lifestyles, norms and idiosyncrasies of both the 1960s and the 2000s. Regardless of what is considered safe, normal, clean, diverse, crazy, overreaching or just plain ship-shape along different generational timelines, both films beautifully illustrate that love and family togetherness are always the ties that bind. Group hug!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

09. April 2015 by Chiara Kelly
Categories: Life, Miscellaneous | Tags: Andrew Vo, Baby Boomers, Beardsley, Chiara Kelly, Danielle Panabaker, Dennis Quaid, Drake Bell, Family, Henry Fonda, Interracial Marriage, Lucille Ball, Millennials, Miranda Cosgrove, Moms, Motherhood, North, Parenthood, Rene Russo, Yours Mine & Ours | 8 comments