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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