S01:E14 Country Dean

[AgentRXS]

Quote

The family spends spring break with Lillian’s parents in the countryside, and Dean lies to his cousins about city life in Montgomery to impress them. Meanwhile, Lillian helps to settle a land dispute between her parents and their neighbors to impress her difficult-to-please mother.

Original Air Date: Feb. 23, 2022

[brokenwing29]

"It's been a minute since..." No, no, no. People didn't even say that 20 years ago, so I really doubt they did in the 60s.

Dean's forgetting to put the car in park was pretty funny, though.

[Roaster]

The Lawrence Welk reference was straight out of my life.  When I was a kid, whenever we went to visit my grandparents, we wanted to watch something on the TV which always seemed to conflict with The Lawrence Welk Show, which was grandma's and grandpa's favorite.
 

[chitowngirl]

Wonder what Kim was up to the whole visit?

[possibilities]

I never noticed how TALL Kim is, before.

[Sarah 103]

I'm glad Bill has a good relationship with his father-in-law. I was expecting it be more along the lines of "you took my little girl away from me and I resent you for that." Instead, they bond over the fact that they are two laid back men who have married smart, determined, stubborn women. 

Kim's grandmother absolutely should have made a comment about Kim's hair. Especially something directed to Lillian like "Can't you get your daughter to do something nice with her hair?" I loved Bill pointing out to Kim that she is like her mother in more ways than she cares to admit. I think that dinner scene was only reason to have Kim there for the weekend.

[tennisgurl]

I really wish we knew what Kim was up to this whole visit, did she find anything cool about being on the farm like Dean did? I really like that Bill and his father in law get along really well, I was expecting some drama between them or bitterness about Bill being a city fellow, but they both seem totally cool with each other. 

I like this show, but I cant help but wish it was just a bit more...something. I wish they had explored of the city vs country and how those experiences differed, the stuff they had was interesting but I wanted them to dig into it even more.

Edited February 24, 2022 by tennisgurl

[andromeda331]

6 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

I really wish we knew what Kim was up to this whole visit, did she find anything cool about being on the farm like Dean did? I really like that Bill and his father in law get along really well, I was expecting some drama between them or bitterness about Bill being a city fellow, but they both seem totally cool with each other. 

I like this show, but I cant help but wish it was just a bit more...something. I wish they had explored of the city vs country and how those experiences differed, the stuff they had was interesting but I wanted them to dig into it even more.

So do I. I like the show too but I wish there was more.

[Empress1]

"He gon' be eating Melvin in two years" had me rolling.

On 2/24/2022 at 12:25 PM, Sarah 103 said:

Kim's grandmother absolutely should have made a comment about Kim's hair. Especially something directed to Lillian like "Can't you get your daughter to do something nice with her hair?" 

Yeah, my mom's mom used to tell my mother that about my hair. Not natural vs. straightened - my mom hasn't straightened her hair since she went to college and my grandmother wore hers natural too for much of my life. Natural and very short. But my mother hates doing hair and because she hated it, it was a chore for both of us. My grandmother actually liked doing hair so she would be like "why isn't her hair done?" and then make me sit with her while she did it. (I liked the quality time but did not like getting my hair done. I've never really liked it.) But at that time, natural vs. Afro would have been a much bigger fight from someone from Lillian's mother's generation. "You let her go out looking like that?"

[Sarah 103]

Just now, Empress1 said:

But at that time, natural vs. Afro would have been a much bigger fight from someone from Lillian's mother's generation. "You let her go out looking like that?"

That's exactly what I was thinking of. For someone from the generation of Lillian's mother, Afros looked unkempt/untidy. It was a sign that you didn't care about your appearance or had let yourself go. Hair became a major political issue. I like the Lillian has never mentioned it. Either Lillian thinks it's better to pick her battles or she supports her daughter's activism in most of its forms. Kim's grandmother would probably not have been so understanding. 

I had a thought on what Kim might have been doing. It isn't exciting and doesn't make for a good story like Dean's interactions with his cousins. I'm not sure if the timing works out, but is it possible Kim was working on college applications? I can picture Lillian telling Kim something like "You're spending the week at your grandparent's house. You won't be able to call your friends and you won't have TV to distract you. This is the perfect time to finish all of your college applications." 

[Empress1]

I said “natural vs. Afro” but I meant “straightened vs. Afro.” My bad!

[Raja]

16 hours ago, Sarah 103 said:

That's exactly what I was thinking of. For someone from the generation of Lillian's mother, Afros looked unkempt/untidy. It was a sign that you didn't care about your appearance or had let yourself go. Hair became a major political issue. I like the Lillian has never mentioned it. Either Lillian thinks it's better to pick her battles or she supports her daughter's activism in most of its forms. Kim's grandmother would probably not have been so understanding. 

I had a thought on what Kim might have been doing. It isn't exciting and doesn't make for a good story like Dean's interactions with his cousins. I'm not sure if the timing works out, but is it possible Kim was working on college applications? I can picture Lillian telling Kim something like "You're spending the week at your grandparent's house. You won't be able to call your friends and you won't have TV to distract you. This is the perfect time to finish all of your college applications." 

Lilian and her mother might have been from a "good hair" generation but she is also among the trailblazers in having college and grad school. The elder leadership in the movement when Black is Beautiful was really taking off.

Unlike Dean I think Kim very well might have grown up some before the family got television. And those a few years younger than Dean would see multiple TV screen homes, maybe in their own rooms. Being in that class myself I can't remember missing TV and the 3 networks as we didn't expect to see everything when I went back to my grandmother's in small town Louisiana. I do remember my uncles going across the street to our aunt's to watch a game, drink some beer and play cards.

[Sarah 103]

3 hours ago, Raja said:

Unlike Dean I think Kim very well might have grown up some before the family got television. And those a few years younger than Dean would see multiple TV screen homes, maybe in their own rooms. Being in that class myself I can't remember missing TV and the 3 networks as we didn't expect to see everything when I went back to my grandmother's in small town Louisiana. I do remember my uncles going across the street to our aunt's to watch a game, drink some beer and play cards.

That's a really good point. No TV may not be a big deal to Kim. I can totally believe that Kim remembers when the family bought thier first set and had experienced some of her childhood before TV arrived. It wouldn't surprise me if they family already had a TV by the time Dean was born so he doesn't remember a word without TV. 

[bybrandy]

My grandparents had a place in town and a piece of land out in the country and they didn't have tv in the country.  And quite frankly in town you watched what they watched when they watched it.  If my grandfather was in the house before dinner there was news and after dinner my grandmother got control of the TV and she had a set of programs she watched that weren't up for debate.   In the country there was no tv but the raido was on all day and that was novel for me and at night when she would have been watching tv in town my grandma played cards with me and told me all about when she was little.  I loved the property so much more than I loved the city... and I may well have complained about the tv situation when I was little (I don't remember) but by the time I was Dean's age it just was how things were and my being grumpy about it wasn't going to change anything.   Plus I learned all sorts of family secrets about my grandma that nobody else knew because I used that time to grill her.    And this wasn't the 60s.  My grandma turned me on both Northern Exposure and Seinfeld.   

Edited March 6, 2022 by bybrandy

[PRgal]

On 2/27/2022 at 10:33 AM, Raja said:

Lilian and her mother might have been from a "good hair" generation but she is also among the trailblazers in having college and grad school. The elder leadership in the movement when Black is Beautiful was really taking off.

Unlike Dean I think Kim very well might have grown up some before the family got television. And those a few years younger than Dean would see multiple TV screen homes, maybe in their own rooms. Being in that class myself I can't remember missing TV and the 3 networks as we didn't expect to see everything when I went back to my grandmother's in small town Louisiana. I do remember my uncles going across the street to our aunt's to watch a game, drink some beer and play cards.

In their bedrooms?  A few years younger?  Maybe Dean’s kids…if they’re lucky.  

[Raja]

48 minutes ago, PRgal said:

In their bedrooms?  A few years younger?  Maybe Dean’s kids…if they’re lucky.  

I would say around 75 a small black + white became our third TV after the main one and one in the parent's room. Thinking back since it was normally summer when we went down south the networks were in reruns too. TV was basically cartoons before we went out to play.

[PRgal]

39 minutes ago, Raja said:

I would say around 75 a small black + white became our third TV after the main one and one in the parent's room. Thinking back since it was normally summer when we went down south the networks were in reruns too. TV was basically cartoons before we went out to play.

I didn't have a TV in my room until I went away to university.  In the late 90s.  My parents had a second TV in their room and the third one went into the basement.  That was technically "my" TV, but it most certainly wasn't in MY ROOM.  

[jah1986]

I got my own tv in my room when I was 9 but my aunt got married the same year and didn't have her own tv so my dad confiscated my tv from my room in the middle of the night to give to the newly married couple because they "needed it" more than me. (can you tell I was a bit bitter?) I was promised my own color tv, but did not receive it until I graduated from high school.

I really enjoyed this episode, especially seeing Regina Taylor on my screen again! Figures she would give Lillian a hard time but brag about her when she wasn't around. 

I really like Bill and Lillian's relationship as portrayed on the show.

[Scarlett45]

I loved the convo Lillian and Bessie had. I was not surprised to hear from the neighbors that Bessie was continuously bragging about Lillian. That’s how parents  can be!