There are a lot of great things to be said for hulu.com, and I am completely in love with any legal, free service that allows me to watch television on demand. Sure, there are some problems with availability and expiration dates, but I’m choosing to blame that on networks that haven’t fully embraced online distribution. One aspect of the website that I think gets underappreciated, though, is its collection of vintage television. Despite the fact that I’ve watched an amount of TV that might be categorized with words like “excessive” or “ridiculously unhealthy,” I have a relatively limited exposure to television before 1990. Which is why it’s been a revelatory experience for me to slowly sift through hulu’s older TV catalogue. Quantum Leap, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, What’s Happening!, Miami Vice, Hill Street Blues, Remington Steele, The Facts of Life, Welcome Back Kotter – this is a wide world of the unexplored for me. So at the very least, if anyone has suggestions about what will change my worldview and what’s so awful it deserves a good laugh, please help guide me.

As I’ve tried to sort through the wide array of options for retro viewing, I did stumble across one show that I immediately snickered at and then started browsing. I’d never seen an episode of this show, but the name called to mind a whole world of feminist disgust, unrealistic Americana, Chryslers with enormous fins on the back, and the necessity of wearing pearls while baking: The Donna Reed Show. Below, I present you with my recap of a single episode of The Donna Reed Show, chosen solely for its title (“The Ideal Wife”), which seemed likely to be full of absurdities as well as personally topical. (I got a little excitable, so I’m putting the full recap after the jump). read more…