Mrs. Jackson and I were discussing wards, as in Dick Greyson or Spinner, noting how wards used to be much more popular than they are now.
I tried to google some more, but the name Ward is so much more popular than the understudy I threw in the towel.
I thought I’d see if anyone here could remember any.
I was thinking Patty Dukes “twin” cousin might be one but it seems her Father was alive, just overseas.
Dating back to the 1940s in DC continuity, Roy Harper is orphaned as a baby and raised by a Native American before Green Arrow formally adopts him and he becomes Speedy. As the obligatory costumed teen sidekick, Speedy is perhaps the first such character to shoot smack:
“He was the subject of the award-winning 1971 comic book story “Snowbirds Don’t Fly”, which was celebrated for its gritty depiction of Roy’s battle with drug addiction; the story is considered a key moment in comic book history as it represented the emergence of mature themes in comics.” - Roy Harper (character) - Wikipedia
The 1940s Human Torch had Toro, a flame-resistant orphan boy who became his ward and half-naked crime-fighting partner. Adding to the creepiness is that the ’40s Torch was an android, not a human being (IIRC, he also had a human girlfriend). Seems like there’s potential for a great mini-series here or maybe an even more interesting hybrid comic book/rom-com film….
The character Ernie in “My Three Sons” might count.
As I recall, he was adopted by Steve Douglas (Fred MacMurray) to fill out the “three sons” requirement, after the oldest brother got married and left the show.
Well, The Bradys and the Partridges added kids too.
To increase declining ratings.
Killed both series.
Not TV, (although it has been televised) but in Pirates of Penzance, the Major-General’s ‘daughters’ are actually wards in Chancery.
see 1m 44s
Dickens, Bleakhouse has been televised.
Esther is John Jarndyces ward.
If I remember he does marry her in the novel.
Jarndyce proposes to her but, in a creepiness-avoiding plot twist, she ultimately marries Allan Woodcourt.
Wards in Chancery are a recurring theme for Gilbert and Sullivan. In Iolanthe, the widowed and incurably horny Lord Chancellor is . . .
“The constitutional guardian I
Of pretty young Wards in Chancery,
All very agreeable girls — and none
Are over the age of twenty-one.
A pleasant occupation for
A rather susceptible Chancellor!”
But this is frustrating:
“It nevertheless can’t be denied
That it has its inconvenient side.
For I’m not so old, and not so plain,
And I’m quite prepared to marry again,
But there’d be the deuce to pay in the Lords
If I fell in love with one of my Wards!
Which rather tries my temper, for
I’m such a susceptible Chancellor!”
This has the result that . . .
“And every one who’d marry a Ward
Must come to me for my accord,
And in my court I sit all day,
Giving agreeable girls away,
With one for him — and one for he —
And one for you — and one for ye —
And one for thou — and one for thee —
But never, oh, never a one for me!”
However his problem is resolved when it turns out that his wife is not dead after all, and he is reunited with her at the end of Act II.
The concept of Wards dates back to the days when the welfare state barely existed and caring for minors without parents was the responsibility of their nearest male relative, with the King as the guardian of last resort if no-one else could be found, or could be trusted. Farming out Royal Wards was a money-spinner for the Crown as people would pay large sums up front for the post, on the prospect of milking/bilking money from the ward’s inheritance that they were (mis)managing for him/her.
Later on the job was handed over to a court of equity - the Chancery court acquired a reputation for delay and legal costs, partly because it wasnt adequately staffed or funded.
When I was a kid I was confused by the concept of “Guardian”. I saw the 1960 movie Dinosaurus because it had – you know – dinosaurs. The little boy Julio who befriends the brontosaurus and the cave man apparently was orphaned and had a “guardian” , Mike Hacker, who’s unscrupulous and abusive (he crushes Julio’s toy dinosaurs in his hand, fer cryin’ out loud!). If I had a guardian like him, I’d be happier in an orphanage, except I think the island was too small for one.
Then a few years later I was confused when Dpmino Derval in Thunderball says Largo is her “Guardian” ("It sounds better than – what ). It’s clearly a transparent euphemism, but I never heard of another man claiming to be Guardian to his mistress.
As opposed to the traditional research assistant / niece / secretary?
As a kid my family watched Family Affair - with Brian Keith and Sebastian Cabot [not the navigator, some other fat guy]. Keith looked after his three orphaned nieces and nephew. That must qualify three times - wards, TV, old.
It’s an interesting day when the narrator of the first Winnie the Pooh films has to be identified as “not the navigator”
For a few episodes, Cabot was ill, and his place taken by his brother, Niles French (John Williams – not the composer, some other British guy)
I thought that the early days of TV was filled with “family” shows with wards of one type or another. E.g., Bachelor Father. But checking the TVTropes page on “Nephewism” (which includes cousins and such) doesn’t show many. (I don’t know what their term is for unrelated wards.)
OTOH it lists a niece being taken in by the Cunninghams on Happy Days. Something I did not know since I had already given up on the show.
I think it was because back in those days, there was essentially no such thing as single parent adoption. I can’t think of a single TV show or movie that refers to a kid as the “ward” of a married couple or a married couple as the “guardians” of the kid(s). Either the arrangements are unspecified , or the parents are alive or adoption is specified.
Well, in a TV movie, Benjamin Barker’s daughter, Johanna, was made a ward of Judge Turpin after he sent Barker to Botany Bay and Lucy drank poison. This is part of the pre-story to Sweeney Todd. And Judge Turpin saw no problem with forcibly marrying his ward.
In looking around I stumbled across another example: Urkel from Family Matters. In the latter part of the run, his never seen problematic parents move to Russia and Urkel moves in with the Winslows.
Is Jethro Bodine Jed Clampett’s ward?
On The Mickey Mouse Club, there was a segment called Walt Disney Presents: Annette during the 1957/ 58 season, where teenage actresse Annette Funicello played Annette McCleod, a poor orphan from the country who gets sent to her well-off aunt and uncle. At first, the uncle is reluctant to take her in and means to send her to a boarding school, but under pressure from the aunt and their housekeeper, agrees to let her stay with them.
Nah. They from the Ozarks. You just acquire family when you strike Texas tea!
Thanks for linking to that. There was a time when I was deeply into comics but somehow I missed that one. Very interesting.