Was the 1960's Really That Cool?

This week, two new TV shows premiere regarding two cultural icons of the 1960's which are PAN AM and THE PLAYBOY CLUB. Of course the reason these two shows are now appearing on network television are because of the tremendous critical and popular success of the MAD MEN TV series on the AMC channel which covers the ups and downs of an Madison Avenue ad agency in the decade of the sixties and which has won the Emmy Award for Best TV Dramatic series for the last four consecutive years. As the saying goes, "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" and these two series will try to ride the coast of popularity as well as the nostalgic factor of the 1960's brought upon by the success of MAD MEN.

Now the question regarding these new TV series as well as MAD MEN is was the decade of the 1960's as cool and influential as these TV series implied. Well as the famous saying goes, "If you can remember the 1960's, then you weren't really there at all!" But I sincerely digress regarding that famous saying since I do remember everything I lived and experienced in that particular famous decade of the 20th Century and in my sincere opinion, I consider the sixties the most important and influential decade of the twentieth century even more so that the 1940's in which the US was in World War II fighting against the Axis powers and the 1920s in which our country went through the Great Depression. I was only six years old back in 1960 and then I was 16 when it was 1970 and I clearly remember all the great events of that decade, the years of JFK's "Camelot" era, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Berlin Wall, the assassinations of JFK, RFK,Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, the Vietnam War, the Race Riots, the Generation Gap, the Hippie Era as well as the musical changes in that decade from Elvis Presley,Paul Anka, Frankie Avalon, Bobby Rydell, Fabian,the Beach Boys to the Beatles, the Monkees, Nancy Sinatra, the Supremes, Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass to Jim Morrison & the Doors, Steppenwolf, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Sergio Mendes & Brazil 66, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jefferson Airplane and finally such changes in Film and TV as James Bond 007, the PINK PANTHER , the MAGNIFICENT SEVEN ,the Beatles' films A HARD DAYS NIGHT & HELP, OUR MAN FLINT,THE GRADUATE, BONNIE & CLYDE, GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER,the AIP Beach Party & Edgar Allan Poe films, IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT,TO SIR WITH LOVE, 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY,PLANET OF THE APES, EASY RIDER,BUTCH CASSIDEY AND THE SUNDANCE KID, THE WILD BUNCH and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. and such TV shows as BATMAN, MAN FROM UNCLE, THE TWILIGHT ZONE, THE OUTER LIMITS, THE MOD SQUAD, LAUGH-IN,THE MUNSTERS, THE ADDAMS FAMILY, THE FLINTSTONES, JONNY QUEST, HONEY WEST, THE WILD WILD WEST, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, STAR TREK, THE MONKEES, ROUTE 66, GET SMART,CAR 54 WHERE ARE YOU,THE AVENGERS, THE PRISONER, THE INVADERS, THE FUGITIVE, HAWAII 5-O, PEYTON PLACE & DARK SHADOWS.

So since I vividly remember the 1960's of my youth, these new nostalgic TV shows have to really prove that they can do more than faithfully to recreate the clothes, cars and the style of that particularly important era. The characters and storylines must be equally interesting to watch just like the successful TV series MAD MEN has proven to do so. In a few weeks, we will all find out if these two shows have been successful in doing just that and stay on TV or they will be another unsuccessful TV fad like many others in the past.