Episódios
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“This Government... has maintained the closest surveillance of the Soviet Military buildup on the island of Cuba,” John F. Kennedy informed his fellow citizens during an October 22, 1962, primetime address.
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The CBS network’s Saturday night lineup during the 1973 season featured a veritable Mount Rushmore of American television: All in the Family, MASH, Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, and The Carol Burnett Show. Perhaps the greatest single evening ever assembled in TV history.
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“To all who come to this happy place: Welcome. Disneyland is your land.” With this greeting Walt Disney opened America’s first theme park on July 17, 1955.
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By 1964, when the US population stood at nearly 192 million, four out of every 10 Americans were under 20 years old. More people were 17 than any other age. And there were more children under 14 than the nation’s entire population in 1881. Our country had gotten literally younger because of a mammoth post-World War II surge in procreation: a baby boom that dramatically transformed our demographic landscape.
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“Even those people who were against the Vietnam War could identify with us being held captive,” former Prisoner of War Jack Ensch once observed. “The torture and the mistreatment – nobody could argue that wasn’t wrong.” Vietnam indeed divided our country as it had not been divided since the Civil War, but whether you supported the war or opposed it, the POW-MIA bracelet phenomenon allowed Americans a means of separating feelings toward the conflict, from feelings toward soldiers.
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“Respect children because they’re human beings and they deserve respect, and they’ll grow up to be better people,” Dr. Benjamin Spock advised Americans in his Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care. “Without freedom of choice, there is no creativity. Without creativity, there is no life.”
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July 26 is National Disability Independence Day, the culmination of a month-long annual commemoration celebrating the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This milestone was a watershed toward equality and accessibility, transforming both lives and attitudes.
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“You’re condemning this whole planet to a war that may never end,” Dr. Leonard McCoy chastised Captain James T. Kirk, in the 1968 Star Trek episode “A Private Little War.” “It could go on for year after year, massacre after massacre.” Broadcast twice in the science-fiction series’ second season, “A Private Little War” is one of Star Trek’s four explicit allegories on the Cold War logic driving American involvement in the Vietnam War.
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“If anyone asks you what kind of music you play, tell him ‘pop.’ Buddy Holly warned a fellow musician. “Don’t tell him ‘rock ‘n’ roll’ or they won’t even let you in the hotel."
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Whether shake, shake, shaking your booty in satin hot pants or physically spelling out YMCA in a double-knit polyester leisure suit, Americans in the 1970s feverishly danced away countless Saturday nights under a dazzling mirrored ball. A veritable disco inferno.
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“With a Ranger’s hat and shovel and a pair of dungarees, you will find him in the forest always sniffin’ at the breeze.” He’s Smokey Bear. Celebrated in song and story for 80 years now, Smokey Bear is the anthropomorphic face of the United States Forest Service, and the agency’s educational crusade against accidental wildfires; the longest-running public service advertising campaign in our history.
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“Remember what to do friends, now tell me right out loud, what are you supposed to do when you see the flash? Duck and Cover.” For Cold War youth, these sobering instructions from a cautious cartoon turtle named Bert were the cornerstone of the Federal Civil Defense Administration’s initiatives to prepare children for, and survive, a pending nuclear war.
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Raised largely on garden hose water and limited parental supervision, there is a generation of Americans tucked rather indifferently between baby boomers and millennials. Demographers call this cohort of 60 million born between 1965-1980, Generation X. Educators referred to millions of Gen X as latchkey kids, students returning to an empty house with a key to let themselves in. Working parents indeed mostly left us alone – afterschool, weekends, and summers – so we fended for ourselves, self-reliant, and let's be honest, kind of feral.
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“I’m not trying to be a hero,” Sheriff Will Kane stoically resolved,” If you think I like this, you’re crazy…. I’ve got to, that’s the whole thing.” Thus, Gary Cooper’s character set out for a gunfight, facing down outlaws in the classic 1952 western High Noon.
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“Pressure is a privilege,” tennis legend Billie Jean King observed. And now that the University of Iowa Hawkeyes’ generational superstar Caitlin Clark has become the NCAA Division-I all-time leading scorer in basketball – male or female – it’s fitting to highlight the transformative impact of Title IX on America’s sporting landscape; a landmark law opening doors for untold young female athletes to experience that unique privilege of athletic pressure.
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“Someday I’m gonna be, exactly like you,” a wispy little voice sang out in Barbie’s first television commercial in 1959. “Till then… I’ll make believe that I am you.”
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Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street? Well, as an historian, I’m glad you asked. First, go back to the 1960s until you see President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s Great Society, then turn left at his Project Head Start, past the Public Broadcasting Service, until you come to the Children’s Television Workshop... that’s how we get to Sesame Street.
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“Is this your beach ball? Hey, yeah, thank you very much!” From this innocent seaside exchange an important friendship was born – an interracial friendship – between one of America’s most lovable losers – Charlie Brown and an African American classmate – Franklin Armstrong.
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The H-Bomb’s significantly larger blast and fallout – covering several hundred miles – required the coordinated evacuation of all major US cities with rapid cross-country military deployment. These mock nuclear attacks served as a report card, and our country’s inadequate patchwork of outdated highways, unpaved roads, dangerous tunnels, and narrow bridges failed miserably.
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“It’s got a good beat, and you can dance to it.” Magic Words that once upon time transformed boys from Philadelphia’s Italian neighborhoods into Fabian or Frankie Avalon, Teen Idols; transported modest tunes like “At the Hop” all the way to #1 on Billboard’s Top 40, hit records; and conjured up rhythmic rituals whereby seemingly ordinary adolescents flailed about like a Mashed Potato, dance crazes.
