CNN First Ladies - General Discussion

[Sarah 103]

I know it is wrong to judge a series before it airs, but I am dissapointed about some of the aspects of the new CNN series on First Ladies. It's hard to believe that Nancy Reagan is the only Post World War II Republican First Lady interesting enough to be the subject of an episode. There are six episodes, and she is the only Republican First Lady. (There are episodes on Michelle Obama, Jackie Kennedy, Nancy Reagan, Eleanor Roosevelt, Lady Bird Johnson, and Hillary Rodham Clinton). I think going with the old A&E Biography approach is kind of a boring way to approach the topic. If CNN insisted on this approach, I would have swapped out Lady Bird Johnson for Betty Ford.  

If I had been in charge, I would have done the 6 episodes thematically. This would allow them to include a larger number of First Ladies. Each episode would deal with a different topic. Here are some ideas:

1. Wives and Mothers (The First Lady as wife and mother)

2. Diplomats (How First Ladies used thier role to help further international relations)

3. Issues and Activism (the different causes First Ladies chose to support)

4. Personal Challenges (things in thier personal life they had to overcome/deal with)

5. The Media (How the First Ladies dealt with/handled/interacted with the media) 

6. Post-Presidency (What they did after thier husband left office)

 

 

Edited September 26, 2020 by Sarah 103

[StaceyNotStacie]

The Smithsonian Channel did a series about the First Ladies about a year or two ago that was interesting, and they also featured a few First Ladies that were prior to the 1900s. 

[Spartan Girl]

Did anyone watch the Michelle Obama one last night? It was pretty good. But all the crap she got still makes my blood boil.

[DanaK]

On 10/5/2020 at 8:03 PM, Spartan Girl said:

Did anyone watch the Michelle Obama one last night? It was pretty good. But all the crap she got still makes my blood boil.

It was disheartening; I remember most of it when it happened. That she managed to be a success and come out of it intact is a real testament to her strength

I'm actually surprised they showed it Sunday night given everything news-wise that's going on

[Robert Lynch]

On 10/7/2020 at 2:07 PM, DanaK said:

It was disheartening; I remember most of it when it happened. That she managed to be a success and come out of it intact is a real testament to her strength

I'm actually surprised they showed it Sunday night given everything news-wise that's going on

The look the Republican senators gave her was telling. 

[DanaK]

And of course, the right-wing went ballistic over Hillary Clinton as well. And I think Eleanor Roosevelt got some guff too. And Nancy Reagan got criticized for spending a lot on decorating the White House. I think it's just as much gender as race, it's the patriarchy saying the wives have to act a certain way and if they get out of their lane, the hammer falls

I do find it interesting when the First Lady ends up being more popular than and outshines the President. Michelle Obama managed it (and Barack was pretty popular himself), as did Jackie Kennedy and maybe some others

Edited October 9, 2020 by DanaK

[Robert Lynch]

2 hours ago, DanaK said:

And of course, the right-wing went ballistic over Hillary Clinton as well. And I think Eleanor Roosevelt got some guff too. And Nancy Reagan got criticized for spending a lot on decorating the White House. I think it's just as much gender as race, it's the patriarchy saying the wives have to act a certain way and if they get out of their lane, the hammer falls

I do find it interesting when the First Lady ends up being more popular than and outshines the President. Michelle Obama managed it (and Barack was pretty popular himself), as did Jackie Kennedy and maybe some others

The thing is that I recognized some of the mean tweets shown and one of them was Scott Baio, who was very vocal about Michelle around that time. It makes me shake my head that people paint that stupid stereotype and get away with it. I had no dislike of Michelle. She achieved more than what she had to and she was a classy lady all around. People going crazy over a fistbump and thinking it was some kind of terrorized calling card. Get out of here. So stupid.

[Spartan Girl]

Jackie Kennedy! She was iconic...and yet the crap she had to deal with long before the assassination: her in-laws treated her like a political prop -- she didn't even get to pick out her own wedding dress, Jack's dad did! -- and her husband of course banged everything that moved. I didn't know they literally gave her speed to get through the inauguration ball because she gave birth to John Jr. Yikes. Not to mention the stillbirtth and losing baby Patrick..

Love is complicated. I will concede that Jack did love and respect her in a messed up way, but the "look the other way and keep smiling" way of life had to have have worn her out. I hate that her friends told her that a divorce would ruin his career. Or, you know, he could have STOPPED WOMANIZING. I know it was the 60s but geez!

She didn't have much luck with Aristotle O either.

Edited October 12, 2020 by Spartan Girl

[Wavy]

I keep forgetting to watch .  Have to catch up.  Last one I saw was Jacqueline Kennedy.  Cute that Khrushchev had a crush on her!

[DanaK]

2 hours ago, Wavy said:

I keep forgetting to watch .  Have to catch up.  Last one I saw was Jacqueline Kennedy.  Cute that Khrushchev had a crush on her!

You aren't too far behind. After 4 episodes, they took a break for a couple of weeks and will return with the final two episodes starting Nov 15

[Wavy]

3 hours ago, DanaK said:

You aren't too far behind. After 4 episodes, they took a break for a couple of weeks and will return with the final two episodes starting Nov 15

Thank you!

[DanaK]

If you missed the 5th episode Lady Bird Johnson due to CNN news coverage, check your local listings. In my area, a repeat is playing right after the final episode on Sunday

[GHScorpiosRule]

On 10/11/2020 at 10:27 PM, Spartan Girl said:

Jackie Kennedy! She was iconic...and yet the crap she had to deal with long before the assassination: her in-laws treated her like a political prop -- she didn't even get to pick out her own wedding dress, Jack's dad did! -- and her husband of course banged everything that moved. I didn't know they literally gave her speed to get through the inauguration ball because she gave birth to John Jr. Yikes. Not to mention the stillbirtth and losing baby Patrick..

Love is complicated. I will concede that Jack did love and respect her in a messed up way, but the "look the other way and keep smiling" way of life had to have have worn her out. I hate that her friends told her that a divorce would ruin his career. Or, you know, he could have STOPPED WOMANIZING. I know it was the 60s but geez!

She didn't have much luck with Aristotle O either.

I watched this last night. Out of all the ones that have aired thus far; Michelle Obama, Eleanor Roosevelt, Nancy Reagan, and Jackie-Jackie’s is the ONLY one whose focus is on President Kennedy, than Jackie! Everything was about her husband, except for a few things about her speaking with DeGaulle, Khrushchev, and redecorating the White House.

I’ve said this before about CNN’s other shows, and they’ve done it with this one as well, but I’m NOT a fan of the “dramatization” that they do, when you have historians, people who were there, footage to fill in the gaps! It’s so sleazy.

On 11/21/2020 at 12:25 AM, DanaK said:

If you missed the 5th episode Lady Bird Johnson due to CNN news coverage, check your local listings. In my area, a repeat is playing right after the final episode on Sunday

And all four to date are available on demand.

Watching Michelle Obama’s episode had me 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬 at the utter disrespect and I’ll say it-racism on full display.

Watching Nancy Reagan, you’d think SHE was the president and “Ronny” was the puppet. I was shocked to learn that after Reagan’s “mea culpa” on television about Iran Contra, his ratings shot up. I remember that time, and how he was draaaged in the media over it. That they glossed over Oliver North’s part in saving him. I was shocked to learn she had an astrologist on call after the assassination attempt.

My favorite so far is the one about Eleanor Roosevelt. See? This one focused on her and what she did-and this was in the early days, unless it’s this series agenda to portray Jackie as nothing but a cheated on and beautiful wife only?

My second favorite is the one about Michelle Obama.

Hillary is on tonight and I’ve dvr’d so I can fast forward through commercials.

Edited November 22, 2020 by GHScorpiosRule

[Spartan Girl]

The Hillary one is great, but it's hard to watch for reasons I can't get into. 

[GHScorpiosRule]

12 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

The Hillary one is great, but it's hard to watch for reasons I can't get into. 

Agree. There was nothing in it that I hadn't already seen except for her commencement speech. Her voice has really changed over the years. It was higher pitched back then.

But boy, did Bill Clinton look fugly in that one picture of him and Hillary where he's got that hair and scruffy beard!

Watching this was like Déjà vu, because I lived through those years, and remembered every single thing/sound byte/coverage of Hillary as First Lady, and even during the campaigns.

I did have a 'ooh! it's George Stephanopoulos!' when they showed that cabinet meeting where Clinton announced that Hillary would be on the task force for Universal Healthcare. Just as with Michelle Obama's episode, the expressions on everyone's faces was telling.

I'm surprised they didn't mention her book It Takes a Village, and what inspired her to write it, as I believe she did that while she was First Lady.

While there are parallels between Hillary and Jackie (the cheating husbands), I noticed how Jackie comes out the...lesser in this series. So far, I still don't know what she did as First Lady, other than dressing fashionably. Just from this series, mind you, because I know that she wasn't just famous or well known as the young wife whose husband cheated on her all the time.

[Spartan Girl]

30 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

While there are parallels between Hillary and Jackie (the cheating husbands), I noticed how Jackie comes out the...lesser in this series. So far, I still don't know what she did as First Lady, other than dressing fashionably. Just from this series, mind you, because I know that she wasn't just famous or well known as the young wife whose husband cheated on her all the time.

To be fair, she didn't really break out professionally until after she was single and was living her own life, but I wish the show had gone into more detail about that. 

[DanaK]

The thing that's really interesting to me is that we as a nation don't really know what to do with First Ladies, even to this day. They are an appendage of their husbands and are expected to do...something during their husband's presidency, as long as it's nice and womanly. If they try to break out of that, they are slapped down and yelled at. Even though it's 2020, we still haven't figured out what we're comfortable with. With that said, I kind of think Clinton went too far with getting into her husband's policies and chairing various policy initiatives, including the health care overhaul. It probably would have still failed if someone else was in charge given how hard it was for Obama to get it done, but there was so much hate against her from the right wing, it didn't help to have her in charge (but she clearly knew the policy so it wasn't lip service). Be that as it may, she was clearly one of the more accomplished presidential spouses post-presidency that we've ever had. It's especially brave that given all the right wing hate against her over the last 30 years or so, she still forges ahead with stuff, including running for President

I hope they do a second season and get into earlier first ladies, especially from the early years

[RealHousewife]

I haven't watched any of them, but I meant to catch the one on Michelle. Maybe it's good I missed it because the racism and hate this incredibly lovely, intelligent classy woman received makes my blood boil. 

[Bridget]

On 3/15/2021 at 12:57 AM, RealHousewife said:

I haven't watched any of them, but I meant to catch the one on Michelle. Maybe it's good I missed it because the racism and hate this incredibly lovely, intelligent classy woman received makes my blood boil. 

If it's still available On Demand in your area, you have to check it out. TRUST ME. :)

I freely admit that I bawled my eyes out (AGAIN!) when they showed her "Being your First Lady has been the greatest honor of my life" speech at the very end. 

Happy viewing!