# What kind of program was Love American Style? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 7, 2011, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-program-was-love-american-style/595552 "2011-09-07T23:12:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-program-was-love-american-style/595552/21 "2011-09-08T14:07:46Z")
That show was in reruns during the day when I was a kid. Staying home sick meant the Price is Right, That Girl, Bewitched, and LAS. I remember it as being dirty when I was a kid, but I suspect you might be able to find more risque entertainment on the interwebs these days. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-program-was-love-american-style/595552/22 "2011-09-08T15:07:18Z")
It was a godsend for scads of show biz has-beens. “My god, is he/she still alive??” ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-program-was-love-american-style/595552/23 "2011-09-08T16:19:26Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > In a subsequent season, they added a “Love-Mate,” some scantily-clad babe with a pithy one liner in a 10-second interstitial appearance. I remember two: > > One young lady in a “sex devil” type Halloween outfit looking to the camera and saying, “I’m not bad. . . I’m not bad at all” > > Another was a bountiful bikini babe holding a couple of casavas, looking into the camera and saying, “How do you like my casavas?” I remember one standing next to a stereo setup and saying, “How do you like my tweeters?” ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-program-was-love-american-style/595552/24 "2011-09-08T16:50:38Z")
I remember a few of the stories. One was about conjoined twins who were dating conjoined twins. The only problem was that they didn’t “line up.” Another was about a man dating a woman who appeared nude in magazines. But she would never take off her gloves. That was her bit of modesty. At the end, he finally convinced her to take them off, and she felt very naughty. I sort of remember one about two people having blind dates, but they both got stood up. It turns out that they were waiting for each other. That might not have been LAS, though, it might have been a sketch by Stiller and Meara. ---
**Author:** ![Dahnlor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dahnlor/32/533_2.png) [@Dahnlor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahnlor)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-program-was-love-american-style/595552/25 "2011-09-08T17:03:32Z")
When I was a single-digit-aged elementary school student in the '70s, I would always turn on the TV for cartoons as soon as I arrived home from school, and the closing credits for whatever was aired before the cartoons were always running at the time I got home. I knew many of those closing credits before I ever watched the show (i.e. Twilight Zone, Love Boat, MASH and many others that were being re-run during the daytime), but eventually I would become familiar with those shows themselves. Love American Style was a notable exception. I only ever saw the closing credits, so often I can probably still sing the whole theme song today, but I never actually watched a single episode and never knew what it was about. I am learning much from this thread. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-program-was-love-american-style/595552/26 "2011-09-08T17:20:10Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > I sort of remember one about two people having blind dates, but they both got stood up. It turns out that they were waiting for each other. That might not have been LAS, though, it might have been a sketch by Stiller and Meara. Sounds like [The Shop Around the Corner](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033045/). Except that Jimmy Stewart caught on and was only pretending to have been stood up. ---
**Author:** ![Claire\_Beauchamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ec9cab/32.png) [@Claire\_Beauchamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claire_Beauchamp)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-program-was-love-american-style/595552/27 "2011-09-08T17:33:51Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Another was about a man dating a woman who appeared nude in magazines. But she would never take off her gloves. That was her bit of modesty. At the end, he finally convinced her to take them off, and she felt very naughty. I _always_ think of this story when I think of this show. ---
**Author:** ![zeldarae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/f14d63/32.png) [@zeldarae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zeldarae)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-program-was-love-american-style/595552/28 "2011-09-08T17:35:47Z")
I vaguely remember this show. I’m 44 if that places in perspective. The one I remember had Rich Little playing a man that was in love with a women, but he could never talk to her in his real voice so she didn’t want anything to do with him. He must have eventually used his real voice with her because the skit had to have an happy ending, didn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-program-was-love-american-style/595552/29 "2011-09-08T21:09:11Z")
I remember it best as the model for the much longer-running and more popular _Love Boat_. They figured out that an LAS-style show would work better with a common “background” cast (the crew members) and setting in which to set the vignettes. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-program-was-love-american-style/595552/30 "2011-09-08T21:15:07Z")
Well, can anyone concisely explain how the “American Style” love in the show was different from “regular” love? What exactly made it “American”? ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-program-was-love-american-style/595552/31 "2011-09-08T22:51:51Z")
Nothing really, except that it was made in America. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-program-was-love-american-style/595552/32 "2011-09-08T22:53:39Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Well, can anyone concisely explain how the “American Style” love in the show was different from “regular” love? What exactly made it “American”? Just my opinion: It was a pun of sorts. There had been a well-known movie a few years earlier “Divorce American Style,” and they were cribbing part of the title to get over (as they say in the rasslin’ business). ETA: Now, what made the divorce in the movie “American style,” I’ll leave to someone who’s actually seen it. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-program-was-love-american-style/595552/33 "2011-09-08T23:01:48Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > ETA: Now, what made the divorce in the movie “American style,” I’ll leave to someone who’s actually seen it. Well, it in turn was presumably a take-off on the earlier film, _Divorce Italian Style_. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-program-was-love-american-style/595552/34 "2011-09-08T23:10:42Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Well, can anyone concisely explain how the “American Style” love in the show was different from “regular” love? What exactly made it “American”? Because the original title of “Love Doggie Style” was felt to be too limiting a concept. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-program-was-love-american-style/595552/35 "2011-09-08T23:13:03Z")
> [@Pitter\_Patter](#): > > Originally, the theme was sung by the Cowsills, later by the “Charles Fox Singers”. Loved the Cowsills. One of the Cowsills (Barry, maybe) died during Katrina. I remember reading that and having to look up who the Cowsills were, the band name didn’t ring a bell even though I was the right age to have know about them. That they sang the theme to LAS stuck in my head somehow. ---
**Author:** ![Claire\_Beauchamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ec9cab/32.png) [@Claire\_Beauchamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claire_Beauchamp)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-program-was-love-american-style/595552/36 "2011-09-08T23:44:15Z")
The Cowsills were also the model for The Partridge Family. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-program-was-love-american-style/595552/37 "2011-09-09T00:55:23Z")
Early-'70s, staying with dad for a couple of weeks in Summer. I used to wake up at like five in the morning. I liked to watch LAS then. I remember something about a guy dating a woman who was a vegetarian (or possibly a space alien – they could have been two different vignettes). She kept refusing everything he offered – including water. If she drank the water, what would the poor fish swim in? I don’t remember how it ended. And I vaguely remember one about an Eskimo visiting a friend in New York. I can’t listen to _Day-O_ without thinking of the _Wait 'Til Your Father Gets Home_ take on it. And I remember the way the neighbour with the unibrow talked. ‘Huh? Huh? Huh?’ ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-program-was-love-american-style/595552/38 "2011-09-09T01:01:10Z")
_Loooove American sty-Y-yle. That’s me and you!_ That has been playing in my head since I read this thread. Interspersed with _Wait 'til you farther gets-- unTIL your father gets-- wait 'til your father gets home!_ But only those two lines. I don’t remember any other words to either song. I need help! ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-program-was-love-american-style/595552/39 "2011-09-09T01:04:57Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > But only those two lines. I don’t remember any other words to either song. I need help! [Dad’s not so bad, and he _seldom_ gets mad…](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbsEYoKm9X8) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-program-was-love-american-style/595552/40 "2011-09-09T01:05:23Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > \*But only those two lines. I don’t remember any other words to either song. I need help! [WTYFGH](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbsEYoKm9X8) [LAS](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3DpTs-iV7U) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-program-was-love-american-style/595552.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-program-was-love-american-style/595552.md?page=3)