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In the two decades following the end of the Second World War, the culture gods declared that families should be nuclear, which is not to say atomic, and that women, who had joined the work force in record numbers with men away in the military should get back into the kitchen. On television it was, therefore, an age of mothers — wise domestic goddesses whose energies were turned largely toward the raising of children. Barbara Billingsley (June Cleaver in “Leave It to Beaver”), Jane Wyatt (Margaret Anderson on “Father Knows Best,” but did he, really?), Donna Reed (Donna Stone on “The Donna Reed Show”), Harriet Nelson (as … Harriet Nelson on “The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet”)

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