Television in the United States: The 1970's part 3. Mid to Late 70's

By the middle of the decade, audiences yearned for a lighter side to television programming. Television shows such as Happy Days which followed the lives of a group of fifties-era teenagers, and Laverne and Shirley, which followed the lives of two single women living in an apartment in the fifties, gave viewers the feel of nostalgia. Little House On The Prairie was a show that was based on a set of children's books that told the life of their author, Laura Ingals Wilder. The Walton's was also a show about a close knit family; unlike Little House, which was set in the 19th century, the Walton's were about a large family living in Virginia during the Great Depression of the 1930's. The middle and later part of the 1970's also brought about new genres. A genre called Jiggle television centered around sexual gratification and bawdy humor and situations featured shows such as Charlie's Angels and Three's Company. The other was an escapist "fantasy" genre, which started in 1977 with the Love Boat and in 1978 with Fantasy Island. The variety show genre, which were popular in the 1950's and 1960's, had it's last run in the 1970''s with shows such as The Carol Burnett Show, The Flip Wilson Show, Sonny and Cher, Tony Orlando and Dawn and Donny and Marie.

Be sure to check out our selection of television shows from the 1970's here.

Television in the United States: The 1970's part 2. The Sitcoms

The face of the sitcom also changed with the end of sitcoms such as Ozzie and Harriet and the start of The Brady Bunch; which ran for five seasons. Even though the Brady Bunch was regarded as the quintessential family of the decade, a new kind of programming emerged to portray a less than perfect life of other families. Producer Norman Lear observed how American life was like in the 70s and the problems that people were facing. With his observations, Lear spearheaded a genre that called "social consciousness" programming. With his adaptation of the British television series Till Death Us Do Part, All In The Family  broke down television barriers. Showing a disclaimer when it first aired, the season premiered in 1971 and Americans heard ethnic slurs for the first time on television. All In The Family also had many controversial issues in it's plots such as race, politics, women's rights and homosexuality. Just as Archie Bunker was bigoted, ultra conservative, urban blue collar character, Maude, Archie's wife's (Edith) cousin was the exact opposite. Maude was a "flawed liberal" who was married to her fourth husband living in upstate New York with her divorced daughter. The  tall "tell-it-like-it-is", "take-no-crap-from-the system" character Maude, broke the mold of the small-and-sweet situation comedy mother and therefore brought about more controversy than her rival, Archie.  The show Good Times, was a spin off of Maude that remade the character of Maude's maid Florida Evans. Instead of the show being set in New York, it was set in a very poor Chicago inner city neighborhood. Florida and her husband, James, try raise their three kids in the midst of poverty.  Issues such as poverty, gangs, guns, bullies, busing, black on black crime and prejudice  and even the death of James (in the middle of the shows's run), were addressed in the episodes. It showed how a close, strong African American family, such as the Evans, were able to face those tough issues. The family's interaction with each other often provided the humor in the episodes. Norman Lear also produced a couple more  shows in 1975; One was a spin off of All In The Family called the Jeffersons. The Jeffersons were about Archie's African American neighbors who became a success with their business and moved to a luxury apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Another show, One Day At A Time, was about a about a divorced mother raising her two teenage daughters in Indianapolis.

Television In The United States:The 1970's (part 1)

At the start of the 1970s, television programming changed dramatically with the first airing of topics that were considered taboo in earlier decades. Mary Tyler Moore, which premiered in 1970, was a breakthrough for leading female characters in television. It's main character was a single woman that was over 30 years old who was not widowed, divorced or even looking for a man to support her. News on television showed the horrors of the war in Vietnam to American homes thus intensifying anti war sentiments. Television news also showed live broadcasts of the Senate Watergate hearings which resulted in the downfall of President Richard Nixon.

Schoolhouse Rock: An American Pop Culture Icon

If you are a child of the 70s like I am, you might remember the catchy little tunes from a set of lessons from Schoolhouse Rock. Schoolhouse Rock taught us multiplication, grammar and other lessons that helped us with our schoolwork. The segments started as an idea by David McCall who's son was struggling in math, but remembered the lyrics to a lot of rock songs. The song "Three Is A Magic Number" by Bob Dorough was the first to be recorded and a record was released after the song was a success. An animator by the name of Tom Yohe Sr. later doodled some pictures that were in relation to the songs and informed McCall about them suggesting that they would make good animation. After making their own animations of the songs and after a print version fell through, they sold them to ABC. The network worked with the producers of the children's shows to make three minutes for the shorts and later sold General Foods on the idea of sponsoring them. Schoolhouse Rock had regular segments that ran on ABC from 1973 to 1986. Other sponsors included Kenner Toys, Mc Donalds, Nabisco and Kellogg's. Even though there were some later segments of Schoolhouse Rock from the 1990s and the 2000s, they were shown infrequently.

Schoolhouse Rock became an American pop culture icon and is viewed with nostalgia by Generation X; a generation of people that were born in the U.S. between 1964 and 1979. It is also noted that the songs in Schoolhouse Rock had only a few songs in rock format. The other segments were in a pop format such as "Interjections!" or "A Noun Is a Person, Place, or Thing," or in a jazz format such as "I'm Just a Bill".

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Mimsie The Cat (1969-1988)

In the 1970's and 80's, a television production company called MTM Enterprises had an adorable little mascot that was shown shortly after the credits of their television programs.  This mascot was an orange tabby kitten by the name of Mimsie and she was used as a spoof of the MGM lion Leo.  Her first appearance was that of her standard logo that was used on the Mary Tyler Moore show. In this version, Mimsie appears in a crouched position, looks up at the camera and meows. While filming this, the camera crew couldn't get her to meow; so they have decided to use a different approach. They used the footage of her yawning, ran the film in reverse and added a meow.

Throughout the years, there were different variations of the logo with Mimsie in different costumes which corresponded to the theme and the style of the programs. A few such memorable ones include the television show The White Shadow which featured a basketball with Mimsie; Remington Steele with her wearing a Sherlock Holmes like hat along with a pipe; Hill Street blues with her wearing a painted police uniform hat on her head; St. Elsewhere had her wear a surgical mask and scrubs; and Newhart, which kept the original unadorned footage but replaced the meow with Bob Newhart's voice over of the meow in his trademark deadpan style.

Vitameatavegamin

One of the most famous episodes of the 1950s show "I Love Lucy" , perhaps one of the most famous TV episodes, is the one where Lucy does a commercial. In the episode, Ricky is given the opportunity to host the television show. He gets a phone call one day saying that he needs to find a girl to do commercial spot for one of the show sponsors. Lucy, being herself and wanting to share the spotlight with Ricky begs him to allow her to do the commercial. Ricky of course, refuses. After a failed attempt to make him reconsider, Lucy plots to get into the commercial anyway with the help of Fred. She goes to the television studio the directors explains their sales pitch regarding the health tonic called "Vitameatavegamin" to Lucy. Unknown to Lucy and the director, this tonic contained 23% alcohol making it an effect of 14 six prove liquor is not meant to be taken more than once a day. Lucy begins her first taken grimaces I she tasted tonic. The director asked Lucy to tdo more takes. After couple more takes Lucy has acquired a taste for the time as well as the alcohol content.

Cinema in the 1960's

                                  Trailer from Alfred Hitchcock's  1960 film
                                                       "Psycho"


The 1960's is often known for being very prominent spy films, historical dramas, sword and sandal also known as biblical films, comedy, spaghetti Westerns and historical dramas. It is also known as a decade of monumental changes cultural events tragedies assassinations deaths and advancements. The cinema reflected the decade of fun, fashion, rock and roll as well as cultural value changes and social changes. Along with that, the 1960s would be the decade almost most socially conscious and stylistically innovative Hollywood history.

When the 1960's began, romantic comedies such as That Touch of Mink, starring Doris Day, The Longest Day, Dr. No, Lawrence of Arabia's and Cleopatra were among the most popular films. While the decade progressed, increasing number of anti-establishment films were made that were laced with social commentary in order to fit the youth market. While the major studios ignored such a large demographic, smaller studios targeted the audience and made films such as cheaply made and campy horror movies, beach movies such as Bikini Beach and Beach Blanket Bingo as well as motorcycle gang pictures such as the 1966 film the Wild Angels.

In 1967 two films came out that made Hollywood aware of the size and influence of the younger audience. Among those films are The Graduate and Bonnie and Clyde. The Graduate is of film about a young college graduate student injecting a hypocritical society and its traditional values that his parents held. Bonnie and Clyde told the story of two bank robbers during the depression and was based on a true story.

In 1969, the first of only X-rated film the got nominated for an Oscar was Midnight Cowboy. Highly controversial film at the time, the touched on topics such as  illiteracy, rape, sexual abuse, prostitution and poverty. It told a story of a young man from Texas that left for New York to become a hustler and a male prostitute. While living out on the streets in New York, He befriends a very sickly third rate con man by the name of Ratso Rizzo.

Suburban Life In The United States: 1950s Culture

The 1950s in the United States was often seen as a time of prosperity and optimism. The end of World War II brought many servicemen home to pick up their lives again, marry their sweethearts they have left behind and to start new families. Industry and population in America boomed and Americans were able to buy goods that were not available during wartime while starting their families. Jobs became plentiful as those needs increased. It was also during this decade that many families moved out of the cities moved into certain neighborhoods called suburbs. Houses in the suburbs of identical and formed a long rows. Suburban neighborhoods were part of the American dream thanks to the federal assistance G.I. Bill which were loans to veterans for education as well as housing. The average American home in 1950 suburbia had a cost of $7990 for $60 a month with no down payment. They were one story and consisted of a 12 x 19 foot living room, a kitchen, a tiled bathroom and two bedrooms. They also Included a small backyard, a front lawn and a garage. One third of the US population lived in the suburbs by 1960.

Popular television shows in the 1950s that  depicted a family living in the suburbs were Leave It To Beaver, 1957 – 1963, The Donna Reed Show, 1958 – 1966, Father Knows Best, 1954 – 1958 and The Ozzie and Harriet show, 1952 – 1966.

Happy 2013 Everyone!!

Well, here we are at the beginning of another year. 2012 brought many challenges to me and my family in so many different ways. Even though there were so many challenges, though some good things that happened too. Not only did we moved out to the Spokane Valley, where I grew up last fall, I also had the wonderful opportunity of returning back to my birthplace; the San Francisco Bay Area California. I looking forward to what 2013 will bring. I have many goals in mind and I'm anticipating many good things.

I hope that 2013 will bring you lots of good things; love, joy, peace and prosperity. Happy new year everybody!! :-)