My Son Reuben (1975) User Reviews

Mother versus son

[ShadeGrenade · 6/10 · 20 January 2021]

'My Son Reuben' was another Vince Powell sitcom which followed in the footsteps of his earlier shows such as 'Never Mind The Quality Feel The Width'. Bernard Spear played 'Reuben Greenberg', a middle-aged, Jewish laundry worker, who dreamt of escaping the clutches of his domineering mother 'Faye' ( Lila Kaye ). It owned a great debt to the B. B. C.'s 'Steptoe And Son'.

Despite some good work by the leads ( as well as Jo Rowbottom, Stella Tanner, and Christopher Benjamin ), the show refused to gel. Powell's scripts appeared to be the main source of the problem. One season and it was gone.

I have no idea why Spear and Kaye were cast despite a slight discrepancy in their ages. Probably for the same reason Lionel Jeffries played Dick Van Dyke's father in 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' ( Van Dyke was born the year before Jeffries ). Viewers do not usually check actors' ages before settling down to watch a film or television show.

So '70's sitcoms were unfunny', were they? Well, they included 'Porridge', 'Rising Damp', 'Fawlty Towers', 'Get Some In!', 'The Good Life' and 'The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin'. Not a bad bunch in my view.

Very odd casting

[whynotgoglobal · 2/10 · 7 May 2017]

I can't criticise this show too much for being unfunny because most mid-70s sitcoms were unfunny. I do have to comment on the casting, though. This was a sitcom about a bachelor living at home with his over-protective mother. Both actors were doing their best with poor material but the mother didn't look particularly old and the son didn't look particularly young, and the interaction between them seemed strange (even to me, and I was ten years old at the time). After the show had been on for a couple of weeks I remember reading a feature about the two stars, and it turned out that the actor playing the son was ten years older than his screen mother. "My Son Reuben" sank without trace and judging by the response to it on this site I may be the only person who remembers it at all, but if there's anyone out there who can shed light on the casting choices I'd appreciate it.