Progressive’s “Maid for Us” Commercial…
Back in the 1960’s, sitcoms ruled television, and many of them were poorly connected with actual life…heck, we even watched Gilligan’s Island! A show called Hazel which ran from the early to mid-60’s even featured a household maid as the title character. Drawing upon this television tradition, a recent Progressive commercial features their iconic spokesperson Flo unwillingly cast into the role of new maid by the generic middle class family moving into a house that Flo is merely trying to inspect, but at each turn she’s perceived as being “the wacky new maid” who just pops up unexpectedly everywhere while they are performing such activities as carrying a large decorative fish into the bathroom.
The Progressive commercial even includes a theme soundtrack written just for the ad that has a 60’s sound and sitcom feel, and includes the lyrics, “she’s not the maid we wanted, but she’s the maid we’ve got.” Actress/comedian Stephanie Courtney as Flo shouting her disclaimer at the family in their front yard seems to do little to sway the neighborhood impression of her, however, in this retro sitcom parody…
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FOXSYLVANIA 
April 11, 2019 at 5:10 pm
If memory serves, the classic Shirley booth series was (much like THE ADDAMS FAMILY) based on a series of one-panel newspaper comic strips. i even recall an animated version that was done for some kind of bubble bath or laundry detergent commercial during the Sixties!*
*She was trying to get hold of her employer’s Pigpen-like son…who practically had to be mugged into his parents’ master bathtub.
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April 11, 2019 at 5:12 pm
Talk about grossly exaggerated stereotypes!
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April 13, 2019 at 10:57 am
When you get right down to it, how many middle class families could actually afford a maid, wacky or not?
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April 13, 2019 at 11:05 am
To revive the stereotype, perhaps I could play the wacky new maid on some sitcom, in drag of course, kind of like Mrs. Doubtfire. When a visiting neighbor would comment to my employer that the new maid was awfully hairy, I’d respond “Well I’m a fox, you ninny!” Hilarity would ensue…
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April 13, 2019 at 10:35 pm
Of course, Don Defore and Whitney Blake (as Dorothy Baxter) left the series before the final season. The script-reason being that George had been to sent to Saudi Arabia to oversee some kind of complicated business deal.
Which must mean that’s he a pretty (ahem!) foxy negotiator. 😉
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April 13, 2019 at 10:31 pm
Well, to be fair, George Baxter (played by Don Defore in the live-action series) was a corporate attorney. So, I’d say he was very, very upper middle-class!
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April 13, 2019 at 10:36 pm
Whoa! How’d my first reply wind up beneath my second?
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April 13, 2019 at 10:39 pm
Me no know, Kemo sabe…
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April 14, 2019 at 9:05 pm
Shirley Eujeste! 😆
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May 5, 2019 at 11:32 am
I’ve got a new slogan…”He’s not the fox you wanted, but he’s the fox you got!”
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