Received as an innocuous time-waster on first release, Bedtime For Bonzo later blossomed into the go-to "President Cheeto"-style resistance pseudo-witticism of the '80s. However, from your panel's point of view, this film furnishes nigh-inexhaustible avenues of inquiry into mid-20th Century American modalities and myths.

 

Join us as we delve into/debate the semantic availability of proto-animal rights discourse in 1950 (alongside the monstrous treatment of animal actors themselves), the reconstitution/invention of the nuclear family in post-World War II suburbia, the amorphous language of populist protest, the figure of the “Egghead”, the ever-present threat of eugenicide, the New Model Moguldom of MCA/Universal maestro Lew Wasserman, and the defensibility of human species exceptionalism itself.

 

Also: Romy urges the team to pin down the Gipper’s sexual persona; Gareth finds ample support for his Reagan-as-mediating-figure thesis; and Dave celebrates the career of Walter Slezak. Everyone loves Diana Lynn (some a little more passionately than others).

 

We didn’t even come close to completing our analysis of this Reaganite Rosetta Stone, so look for a sequel in 2019!    

 

 

Novel suggestion:

Peter Delacorte's Time on My Hands

Follow us at:

Facebook

Follow Romy on Twitter at @rahrahtempleton

Follow Gareth on Twitter at @helenreddymades

Follow David on Twitter at @milescoverdale

 

"Driving Reagan theme' by Gareth Hedges