When anti-vaccine folks mention measles and the Brady Bunch, remind them how polio was depicted on TV and in the movies...

Measles is highly contagious, which is likely why ALL of the Brady kids got sick.

Or how measles was depicted in non-sitcom type shows for that matter...

Polio on TV and the Movies

But let's start with polio.

"With the subject of poliomyelitis very much in the news these days and with the public thus extra-mindful of the prevalence and the terrors of the disease, the Music Hall has a timely picture, as well as a tender and moving one, in M-G-M's "Interrupted Melody.""

Screen: The Defeat of Polio as Personal Drama; ' Interrupted Melody' Tells Singer's Story

In the pre-vaccine era, polio was known as "the Crippler" because of the way it often left kids, at least those who survived, in leg braces and with crutches.

This was polio in the movies - a young girl in leg braces.

In the 1950s classic, The Giant Gila Monster, the hero spends all of his money to buy braces for his sister with polio.

Polio wasn't depicted as a mild disease in any of these movies or TV shows, including:

I'll Cry Tomorrow - the story of Lillian Roth. Includes Eddie Albert who suffered the crippling effects of childhood polio.
Interrupted Melody - the story of opera star Marjorie Lawrence and her battle with polio.
The Five Pennies - the story of bandleader who has to leave the music business and move after his daughter gets sick with polio
Time Table - a doctor and a fake patient who supposedly had polio steal the payroll from a train
Jungle Jim - Jungle Jim finds what could be a cure for polio in the jungles of Africa
Never Fear - a young dancer is crippled by polio
The Fireball - a roller-skating champion but gets sick with polio
The Passionate Stranger - the husband of the main character is immobile because of polio
A Man to Remember - a 1938 movie about a local doctor who saves his town, which becomes the only one in the area to avoid a polio epidemic
As Men Love - a 1917 movie in which polio sweeps through a city and a couple need to call on a doctor for help after he had been banished from their home.

Polio was depicted as "the Crippler" as everyone knew it to be.

This was polio in the movies - people in wheelchairs.

Never Fear featured wheelchair dancers from the Kabat-Kaiser Institute / rehab center for polio patients.

Not that measles was always depicted as a mild disease either though!

Measles on TV and the Movies

Anti-vaccine folks like to bring up the Brady Bunch episode, but they conveniently leave out other shows that depicted a much more serious side to measles infections.

Measles was still killing American kids when the Brady Bunch episode aired though.

By 1969, when the Brady Bunch kids had measles, measles deaths were down to 41 in the United States, from a recent high of 683 just before the first measles vaccine was introduced. Maybe that's why they felt comfortable depicting measles as a less than serious disease. Measles was still killing American kids when the episode aired though.

For example, in The Doris Day Show in 1970, “Today’s World Catches the Measles,” one of the characters is described as being listless, develops a fever, and is eventually diagnosed with measles.

What happens next?

His contacts are put under quarantine.

This was measles on TV - a father carrying his sick child.

Timmy: I changed my mind about wanting the measles if it makes you feel like this.

And in a 1958 episode of Lassie: “The Crisis” – Ruth finds out that Timmy has been exposed to measles at school after he and Paul leave on a long drive to buy a calf. Several of his classmates has just been diagnosed with measles and his doctor came to his house to check on him, fearing that he might be sick too.

Did you ever read or watch Gone with the Wind?

Scarlett O'Hara marries Rhett Butler, but he wasn't her first husband.

Her first husband was Charles Hamilton and he died just before their son was born. He died after developing pneumonia and having measles.

Anti-vaccine pediatricians will go down in history as a punch line.

Anti-vaccine pediatricians will be remembered as a punch line when measles is finally eradicated.

So much for measles being a punch line...

Polio on TV and the Movies

Polio on TV and the Movies

Measles on TV and the Movies

More on Vaccine Preventable Diseases on TV and in the Movies