TV: CNNs The 70s Examines Television

[Frank W. Baker]

Thursday June 11, 9pm CNN  Defining Moments in 70s TV slide show

The 1970’s have always been America’s misunderstood, enabling middle child of the late 20th century, seemingly nowhere near as tumultuous or sea-changing as the ‘60’s, and or as socially and economically polarized as the 1980’s.

That perception is wrong, of course, and in recent years, we’ve come to respect that poor neglected decade of disco music, “Star Wars,” Watergate and “All in the Family.”

CNN offers a survey of the decade, subtitling its new documentary series “One Nation Under Change,” which is well put. Judging by the first episode, “The Seventies” may enlighten those who didn’t live through those years, and serve as a pleasant but unremarkable refresher course for those who did. Tom Hanks is among the producers of the eight-part series, which begins Thursday with the one-hour segment “Television Gets Real.”

The evolution of TV news and entertainment mirrored social and political events in the decade. At the end of the ‘60s, with Vietnam still raging and social upheaval in many corners of the nation, TV was a morass of escapism, with a spate of rural sitcoms such as “Green Acres” and “The Beverly Hillbillies” that had virtually nothing to do with what was going on in the real world at the time.

More here.