The Seventies: TV Gets Real

D'Snowth

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So last year, Tom Hanks and some other guy executive produced a documentary mini-series about the 1960s that aired on CNN (uh, isn't CNN supposed to be for news?).

This year, they've executive produced another documentary mini-series about the 1970s, and the debut episode deals with the television throughout that decade. No surprised, SST gets a mention.

Specifically, there's discussion about how public television and educational television really matured in the 70s, mostly thanks to Mister Rogers making it feel like it's okay to talk to children as if they're real human beings and not just talk down to them. And of course, SST was noted for being a who's-who cavalcade for all kinds of celebrities who wanted to hang out with the Muppets.

Before READING RAINBOW's time, obviously, but LeVar Burton is among the commentators on the program (remember, the mini-series his starred in, ROOTS, was from this decade).

I will admit, watching the program, I can tell you that there's really not much mentioned about PBS or SST in general (at least not compared to other topics, such as ground-breaking shows like ALL IN THE FAMILY, and the slew of spin-offs that shows were doing during that decade, for example), but if you're still interested in checking this out, look for THE SEVENTIES: TV GETS REAL on CNN.
 

Muppet fan 123

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I saw some ads for this in the past few weeks. It looks really well produced. I'll try to check this out.
 

D'Snowth

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They're doing a good job with these mini-series. I watched last year when they talked about the 60s, I especially loved how they talked about color TV coming into vogue in the mid-60s. Heh, another thing I found amusing was Tom Hanks talking about the reboot of DRAGNET in the 60s where Joe Friday was a little behind the times in terms of drug crimes and hippies and such, considering Hanks himself played opposite Dan Aykroyd's namesake of Joe Friday in the 1987 movie remake of DRAGNET.
 

Cookie Chris

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As a history bookworm, I watched The Sixties last summer, and thoroughly enjoyed it. That and the binge-watching of Mad Men really torn down the illusion for me that the 1960s were a happier, simpler time that some people make it out to be. I am really appreciating the follow-up, The Seventies, and was glad they included a minute or two of how children's television really broke new ground.
 
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