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tv   The Sixties  CNN  May 31, 2014 5:00pm-6:01pm PDT

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man. oh, man, i'm -- son of a [ bleep ]. >> i didn't expect that. for seth macfarlane, always expect the unexpected. stand by. here we go. >> take one. >> dear, watch the tv. >> the average time spent watching television is five to six hours per day. >> residual. >> there's a reason for calling it the boob tube and idiot box. >> let's change the channel. >> you want to rap about our singing? >> yeah. >> here is new york. >> the kind of television that both desire and deserve. >> let's see how it comes out this time. >> television has grown faster than a teenager.
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now it is time to grow up. ♪
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>> the tv was the center of the house. i don't remember a time without tv. >> by 1960, essentially every household in america had a television. it was a new way of bringing the world to you. >> when something big happened on television, it really did happen to the entire country. and impacted the entire country at the same time. >> keep an awakened eye on the world. >> suddenly, television was the main event. everything else changed, even the way in which you went about the business of getting someone elected president. >> sold out. >> david, will you hit the one-minute button please? the 30 seconds and the cut, please. >> in 1960, the nixon/kennedy debate was the first in television. a lot of people were watching that night. and it introduced a lot of people to kennedy.
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>> let me see the mike shot on camera one, please. >> can you hear me now speaking? is that about the right tone of voice? >> good evening, the television and radio stations of the united states and their affiliated stations are proud to provide -- >> when the networks offered a debate, kennedy immediately said yes. because he was sure he could do better than nixon. >> i think mr. nixon is an effective leader of his party. i hope he would grant me the same. the question before us is, which point of view and which party do we want to lead the united states? >> mr. nixon, would you like to comment on that statement? >> i have no comment. >> if you're live on television and there's a camera right here, there's really no place to hide. once you see a guy sweating when asked the question are you sure he is a leader for you? >> that is the question before the american people and only you can decide what you want, what you want this country to be, what you want to do with the future.
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i think we're ready to move. >> if you saw it on television, clearly kennedy had won that debate. >> gentlemen, thank you very much for permitting us to present the next president of the united states on this unique program. >> it was the beginning of a new front of political craftsmanship. you could structure a message appropriately for the tv camera, you could have a huge impact. and if you couldn't, you were toast. >> i would like to give a real "tonight" welcome to the senator from massachusetts, mr. john kennedy. may i ask you, so i don't look too naive, a tough question off the bat? >> whether i'm a democrat or republican? >> people recognized television was now the medium that mattered. it wasn't before 1960 and it was every day after 1960 in those presidential debates. >> oh, honey, don't watch that. try to find a western. >> all right.
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>> once everyone had a tv set in their living room and advertisers had fully gotten a grip on how effective this was a way to sell products, the very definition of what you were doing was to create the entertainment that would appeal to as many people as possible. >> beaver, eat your brussel sprouts. >> gee, mom, i can't. my stomach is glued to my throat. >> now, no excuses. >> "leave it to beaver" was something that a lot of families understood. it was the first show that was ever shot from the perspective of a child. >> beaver! >> most people had a lot of experiences like the beaver and wally had, and everybody has an eddie haskell. >> hi, eddie. some dumb kid fell. oh, good evening, mr. cleaver, some poor, unfortunate child is trapped up there.
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>> everybody has that moment when they were so embarrassed and they thought they would never get over it. but they did. >> a special report. the scene of the 1961 emmys. >> whether it is a western or whether it is a drama. i think it is the quality of the show itself that is important. >> "the andy griffith show," mayberry, a kinder, gentler place, it would be hard not to want to live in mayberry. >> the core of "the andy griffith show" was this rock and at the center of it calm wisdom. >> i have taken the best parts of myself and people that i have known all of my life and put them into the tape. >> there comes a time when you have to stop the play acting and tell the truth. >> don't you believe me, pa? don't you, pa? >> people appreciated the emotional honesty and appreciate it more than laughs. it is great if you can achieve both simultaneously. and "the andy griffith show" did that very often. for a sitcom it showed
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unexpected depths. >> the second dance number should come before the big sketch. >> gee, i don't know. >> i like it. >> now i like it. >> i like it, too. >> what do you know, look at that tie you're wearing. >> i only wrote what i knew about which was my life. if you're writing about that nobody can say that is not true. it is true. i'm living it. >> on "the dick van dyke show" we could believe the actions of the characters because we could relate to them. this was not a genie in a bikini in someoa bottle on someone's m. >> women are more, more -- >> honest and direct? >> no, they're more -- >> courageous? >> we all have the same needs and feelings and relationships with husbands and wives. that was the common element. the problems of living. >> honey, how much do you like
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that baby? >> oh, rob, don't tell me you're jealous already. >> the season opening episode for the 1963 season was seared into my head. >> our wife had a baby on the same day, in the same hospital and the hospital was very busy, mr. peters. what am i getting at? >> they thought they got the wrong baby from the hospital. so he calls the parents of the other kid and thinks you know, we may have your kid, you may have our kid. >> hi, we're mr. and mrs. peters. >> uh, come in. >> mrs. peters, won't you come in? >> it was beautiful. absolutely beautiful. here they're tackling a subject without tackling it. >> why didn't you tell me on the
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phone? >> and miss the expression on your face? >> the network worried about the fact that the african-americans might be upset by it. the network was always a little behind. there is always somebody back there who doesn't have b-a-l-l-s, balls. >> carl reiner, the winner, dick van dyke. >> i wish somebody had told me. i would have worn my hair. honestly, the off-season isn't i've got a lot to do. that's why i got my surface. it's great for watching game film and drawing up plays. it's got onenote, so i can stay on top of my to-do list, which has been absolutely absurd since the big game. with skype, it's just really easy to stay in touch with the kids i work with. alright, russell you are good to go!
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i have got to tell you this one. you know those knock, knock jokes? >> yeah, but they're old now. >> i have got a real good one, a real funny one.
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>> go ahead, start. >> i say it? >> yeah. >> knock, knock. >> who's there? >> there was only three networks, there was only one late night show, really, jack parr -- >> we just keep talking with no script. >> i know. it's agony. >> jack parr invented the late night television talk show. >> you feel confident? >> there is not a man in the world that can beat me. i'm as good as liberace. >> jack had, in his corner, his personality. >> his fabulously, complex, frighteningly neurotic, but in other cases, enthusiastic, informed personality. it made for great television. >> how much time have i done? >> i don't have a watch either. >> has it been charming?
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i'll quit now. >> here's johnny! >> johnny carson inherited "the tonight show" but he made it his own. >> it is going to be wild tonight, i can always tell. >> he hosted a nightly party. >> are you married? >> oh. >> and if his buddies came, and they started playing together, you felt like what it must have felt like to go to las vegas at 3:00 a.m. and have the rat pack come out. >> no, but where is the guy you talk to? >> it was a beautiful thing to watch a guy working at his best. >> okay. let's go. ♪
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[ laughter ] >> if you watch it closely, he is gauging how much longer he can wait to let the laugh die before what he says will be irrelevant to what happened. and he gets it just on the nose. it's beautiful to watch. >> i didn't even know you were jewish! >> johnny was the best audience in the world. and he loved comedy. >> the woman is watching him from the corner of her eye and says to him what are you looking at? the guy says i'm looking at that ugly baby. that's a bad looking baby right there. >> johnny was there listening for you. he wanted you to score. and when you scored, he scored. >> i said now calm down. he said madam, the pennsylvania
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railroad will go to any length to avoid having differences between the passengers. perhaps it would be more to your convenience if we rearranged your seating. and as a small compensation from the railroad, if you come with me to the dining car, we'll give you a free meal. maybe we'll find a banana for your monkey. >> i'm dick cavitt, funnier than chet hutley, taller than mickey rooney and as pure and honest as new jersey. >> you could get people like norman mailer and woody allen. >> my only new year's resolution this year, i think i'm going to try to sleep through the nixon administration. >> you have authors on there. you would have heavyweight boxers. there were conversations. >> when you mentioned the national anthem and talk about playing it in any unorthodox way, you immediately get a
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percentage of hate mail. >> that is not unorthodox? >> it isn't unorthodox? >> no, no, i thought it was beautiful. there you go. >> i just thought anything that is interesting ought to have a place on a talk show rather than young pretty actresses who use the word excited in every sentence. >> you're not frequently seen on television. is that by choice? >> it is the most impressive medium of all. it's the medium that will either save america or send it down into demise, there's no question in my mind. >> i'm getting out of it myself. >> really? we'll be right back after this. >> what you do is book the best possible guests from different kinds of businesses, maybe not everybody in show businesses, some politics, some newspaper people. get them all on the stage together and hope something works. but it is a great show, a great platform from people who have something to say. >> the point is they take these scripts out of the drawers. they change the things around.
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maybe it doesn't work with "green acres," but on many of these shows and that's why night after night you turn on these serials and it almost seems as if they came out of the bread box. >> back then, you had lots and oughts of copycats. you had "the addams family" and then "the munsters," you have "bewitched." and you have "i dream of jeannie." if one person is doing this fantastic hit we're going to do that. >> now, is that considered a crime? >> i'm afraid not. there are not laws to protect us against bad tv shows yet. so you're safe. >> well, thank you. >> what i'm surprised by are some of the shows i can't even imagine the pitch meetings for. like "hogans heros." >> it is a story about american prisoners of war in a nazi concentration camp, which doesn't sound funny.
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>> why don't they trust us? >> that shows you how weird the '60s was right there. >> there is another one of our fine shows this year. pit stop! moving story of an effeminate race car driver, who was really an astronaut for the mafia. >> 9:30 eastern time, 8:30 central time, quarter after 2:00 pacific time. e. and now for the next advancement. introducing verizon xlte. with 2x the 4g lte bandwidth and faster peak speeds in cities coast-to-coast, there's more space for everyone to stream and share more. this is xlte. for best results, use verizon. now bring in the whole family and get four lines for $160.
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cbs presents this program in color. >> i didn't have color
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television until i was 16 years old. yes, i lived like an animal. >> the following program is being brought to you in living color on nbc. >> getting the color tv was huge because suddenly we could watch walt disney's wonderful world of color on sunday nights, which was just an acid trip of a show. we just could not believe it. tinker bell going bing, bing, bing, and it was like special effects, par excellence. ♪ >> it also happened just coincidently at the time when what we think of as the mod '60s came in, colors were all over the place just as tv could start to take advantage of them. >> hi. >> well, glad you could make it. >> i remember saying stay tuned for "gidget" next, in color.
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>> wednesday nights in color on abc. >> it was a big marketing thing. >> color tv was a huge step forward as far as the technology went. and yet, i think of "lost in space." it started off as a black and white show and went to color. it didn't get any better when it went to color. >> dr. smith, you're alive. >> of course i'm alive. do i look like a corpse? >> the period has a reputation for being tv candy. sometimes there was this innocent aggressiveness to it. >> you're only to blow that in an emergency. >> this is an emergency, you're standing on my foot! >> "gilligan's island" made no sense, how was the professor able to build all of this stuff but not build a damn raft? >> a stick of dynamite that i made. >> it makes no sense if you pull any single thread on it but it was just the kind of show designed to live forever in
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syndication. >> who are you looking for? >> a nunn. who else? >> are you kidding? >> "flying nun" is the most -- it's a crazy show. like, what is that about? >> look, it is very simple. you see i only weigh 90 pounds and the combination of my cornet and the wind lifts me. >> which was just complete nonsense. let's face it. it was the height of the '60s, and everybody was eating granola and dropping out and doing god knows what else, and i wasn't. >> hello, central? i'm switching to my eyeglasses. put a hold on my wallet but keep my shoe open. >> television more than ever in the '60s was a place to escape to. >> let's go. ♪ >> seemed like it was sort of almost a willful respite from
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the stuff that was going on out in the world and in real life. >> here is a bulletin on cbs news. there has been an attempt, perhaps you know now, on the life of president kennedy. he was wounded. in an automobile driving -- >> in the early '60s, television was by and large seen as something as a back water to print journalism. and even to radio. but the kennedy assassination was the moment that television journalism came of age. >> continue full-day coverage of the presidential funeral and procession. >> more and more people were depending on television to give them the headline news of the day. >> 330 americans were killed in combat last week in vietnam. but the number of wounded, 3886 was the highest of any week in the war. >> most of the contrast to what you saw in entertainment, to what you saw on the news, was planetary.
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>> never has this descent been as emotional. as intense. >> in the '60s, it was one thing after another. each year it was filled with multiple events. >> governor wallace has ordered 500 alabama national guardsmen into tuscaloosa. under the moment they are under his control. >> whether it was the civil rights movement or it was the kennedy assassination or the space race, when there was a huge thing that happened, it happened on tv. >> the witness to the violence seemed to be unprovoked on the part of the demonstrators. >> television became the fire in which the whole tribe gathered around to listen to the elders telling them what was going on. >> police reinforcements moving down the street now. [ chanting "the whole world's watching" ] : whoa narrator: that got torture tested by teenagers
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and cried out for help. from the surprised designers. who came to the rescue with a brilliant fix male designer: i love it narrator: which created thousands of new customers for the tennis shoes that got torture tested by teenagers. the internet of everything is changing manufacturing. is your network ready? i live in a luxury penthouse overlooking central park. when the guests arrive, they're greeted by my butler, larry. my helipad is being re-surfaced so tonight we travel by more humble means. at my country club, we play parlor games with members of the royal family. yes i am rich. that's why i drink the champagne of beers.
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good evening, ladies and gentlemen, tonight, live from new york. >> from hollywood. >> from beautiful downtown burbank. >> here is the star of our show, bob hope! >> variety was the backbone of television back then.
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one year, there were like 18 different variety shows. everybody had a variety show. ♪ >> every one was different because of who was filming the show. ♪ love somebody some time >> dean martin was just so loose he acted as though he was doing the whole show drunk without a rehearsal. >> this is a real international show, now, where else could you see a smooth italian and a slippery pole? >> he was funny. he was really, really funny. >> he always looked as if he was a bit lost. people thought that it was because he was tiddly.
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but that was part of the charm. >> here he is, ed sullivan! >> no matter who controlled the tv set the other nights of the week, on sunday night 8:00, you were going to watch ed sullivan. >> ed sullivan was a phenomenon. he was a powerful force. >> the beauty of the sullivan kind of variety show is that if you didn't like something, something else would be around in four minutes. >> no, no, it is very difficult. >> advertisers wanted everybody. and so they got everybody. a little kid and his grandparents to watch the same show. >> they would have an elephant on, and then the next thing somebody doing shakespeare, and the next thing, a comic. there would be an acrobat then an opera singer, which was true
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variety. ♪ go downtown things will be great when you're downtown ♪ >> anything that was current was on "the ed sullivan show." >> rodney dangerfield. >> everyone would say, did you watch "the ed sullivan show?" >> my whole life i don't get no respect, no respect from anyone. >> as a performer, you couldn't get a better place to sell your product. >> when i started out, they would say variety is a man's game. it's dean, milton berle, jackie gleason. it's the guys. but variety is what i know. i felt it was in my genes to do this. >> she had been so good on the
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garry moore show, she always knew she could sing and dance and be funny. >> on my show, i would do prat falls and jump out of windows and get pies in the face, and it was heaven. >> i think it is -- >> you know, i still see a rerun of carroll burnett show, and i say goddamn, they're funny. there has never been a better sketch show ever. >> she was great in bed, too, dick. >> stop. you never went to bed with -- >> well -- >> you're not supposed to curtsy. you're supposed to bow. well, i get dizzy when i bend over. >> when tim conway came on his goal in life was to destroy harvey. >> here is harvey korman. we used to have a pool back stage, not as to whether harvey was going to break up, but as to
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how far he could get along in the sketch before he broke up. >> take a firm hold of the hypodermic needle. >> right. >> they never knew what he was going to do. but they knew it was not going to be what they expected. >> when they did the dentist sketch, none of that was rehearsed. >> yeah, be right with you. >> poor harvey was helpless, tears coming down. and tim swears that harvey wet his pants during that sketch. >> i don't know why that worked so well. watching two actors break character and just crack each other up should not be as entertaining. but somehow when it is tim conway and harvey korman doing it, i could just watch that stuff forever.
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>> i just thought, if we have fun, the audience will, too. we're just going to go out there and do what we do best. and it worked. >> you can plan it and write it and rehearse it. you hoped for magic. it was carol, carol, the magic of carol burnett. that's a man interviewino.for a job. not that one. that one. the one who seems like he's already got the job 'cause he studied all the right courses from the get-go. and that's an accountant, a mom, a university of phoenix scholarship recipient, who used our unique --scratch that-- awesome career-planning tool. and that's a student, working late, with a day job,
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i'll keep asking. what's in your wallet? i'll keep asking. honestly, the off-season isn't i've got a lot to do. that's why i got my surface. it's great for watching game film and drawing up plays. it's got onenote, so i can stay on top of my to-do list, which has been absolutely absurd since the big game. with skype, it's just really easy to stay in touch with the kids i work with. alright, russell you are good to go! alright, fellas. alright, russ. back to work!
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are you saying he is a tv addict? >> well, perhaps he has been staring at this electronic blessing, the television set, for so long that his life has become his. and he has reach aid stage of confusion where he no longer knows whether he's watching the action or participating in it. you unlock this door with the key of imagination. beyond it is another dimension. >> there was desire on the part of writers and producers to push the envelope and stretch the medium. you certainly saw that with "the twilight zone." it was a very cinematic show. >> this is not a new world, it has patterned itself >> rod serling who created "the twilight zone" realized he could tell stories about racism and fascism.
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>> tonight, i shall talk to you about glorious conformity. >> it was a way to deal with a lot of the issues that america was starting to go through at that time, but in a fantastic setting so there was some divide between you and the show. >> they sent four people, a mother and a father and two kids, who look just like humans. but they weren't. >> "the twilight zone" had these little oh, henry like twists and wasn't allowed to have happy endings. >> they picked the most dangerous enemies they could find and it is themselves. now six months, "the fugitive," this is richard kimball with a new identity. and as long as he is safe, a new name. beware the eyes of strangers, keep moving. >> everybody wanted to see what happens to "the fugitive."
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>> the natural question is, how long is it going to go on? will we ever find her? >> i'm about ready to give up. i'm tired. >> when it ended, it broke the viewership records set by the beatles on ed sullivan. it was one of the first tv shows that actually went somewhere. >> you know, youngstown is not exactly on our course. >> in a lot of ways, television was showing slices of the world that people never saw before. route 66 was an innovative show because it was actually filmed on location. so the audience was exposed to things that were not their exact orbit. >> space, the final frontier. >> you know, there is a little bit of the mayberry aspect to the world of star trek. that will sound like an odd analogy. but follow me here. people want to believe that such a place can exist. the idea of a future in which a lot of the biases and the fears of the past has evolved out of us.
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>> where i come from, size, shape or color makes no difference. >> there is one episode where some of the members of the crew were taken over by these mental giants. >> this psychokinetic power of yours, how long have you had it? >> they forced captain kirk and lieutenant ohura to kiss. it was the first interracial kiss on television. >> nbc asked me if i would do my own special. i had always adored harry belafonte. we had already decided to do one called the path of glory. it is an anti-war song and we both felt very strongly about it. and i just touched his arm.
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the sponsor went crazy. my star doesn't touch a black man's arm. >> petula clark said, i'm not doing it over, and it is my show and it is going out that way. >> we weren't having any of that nonsense, no way. so it went out the way we wanted it to go out. i didn't really have any other problems with sponsors but that sort of gave me a taste of what could happen. ♪ >> in the tv business, the '60s was probably about the last decade during which the sponsors had a really iron grip on content. >> brought to you by dash. >> even if they tried to keep tv this white homogenous whole milk product, the world found its way in. it just had to. >> don't you ever remember to
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bring a silencer? >> it ruins the liner in my suit. >> with "i spy," robert culp and bill cosby were equals. cosby is this pioneer in terms of a black male lead in a drama. he made race a nonissue because he is undenial. >> the winner is bill cosby in "i spy." >> bobby and i tried to put forth an example of the way it should be, racially, in this country. we need more people in this industry to put forth that message and let it be known that the bigots and the racists, that they don't count. thank you. >> as television changed, it was helping all americans to
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understand that this is what america looks like. >> frankly, you're not exactly what i expected. >> no? >> no, not from what i read yet. >> did you expect me to be older or younger? >> julia was going to be the first time a black woman starred in her own television show. >> has mr. colton told you? >> told me what? >> i'm colored. >> what color? >> she was a black woman raising her son on her own. it was just something new. and you'll keep out of mischief? >> i'll just watch the old tv. >> good. >> in the '60s, america was exploding in a way that needed to be reflected on tv. >> stand still! >> "dragnet" came back in the late '60s and friday was now in a very different world than he had been in in the black and white days. and suddenly there were the dirty hippies.
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>> jack webb would lecture you about the dangers of marijuana smoking and crazy drug culture. >> they're trying to deal with the counter culture but they don't understand it. so it is basically the stereotypes of what the hippies were like. and it plays exactly like that. >> keep your nose out of my purse. >> keep yours out of the acid. next time i will. featuring your all time favorite creamy chicken alfredo and seductive shrimp mezzaluna. it's our most inspired 2 for $25 ever. at olive garden. take it on the way you always have. live healthy and take one a day women's 50+. a complete multivitamin with 7 antioxidants to support cell health. age? who cares.
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safely through the 1960s. >> reporter:. >> there was tremendous anxiety and fear. >> 25 navy ships are on route to cuba on what may be a collision course. >> jfk said to his brother, what if there is a nuclear war and our children die. who is going to blink first.
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♪ stop, children, what's that sound, everybody look what's going down ♪ >> whatever the president does, he risks nuclear war. >> nbc presents, rowan and martin's laugh in. >> our country would be much better off with a strong leader. >> i know but sinatra can't do everything. >> when laugh-in came along, we never seen anything that was kind of like grown-ups acting goofy and hip that way, you know. they had girls dancing in bikinis and the joke wall. >> who's in there with you? >> cool hand luke. >> and it was nothing but jokes. >> i was at the hospital. >> anything serious? >> a black widow bit me. >> well, it never would have happened if you had been a gentleman. >> we took it to the network and the network said, what the hell is this? this makes no sense. i said, right.
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>> they acknowledged the hippie generation, yet the hosts were in tuxedos smoking cigarettes. they were still your parents. but other people let loose on the show were this kind of young vaudeville. >> it must be sock it to me time. >> hey. she socked it to herself. >> we knew that sock it to me didn't mean sock it to me. right? so we thought, oh. >> sock it to me. >> sock it to me. >> sock it to me. >> it wasn't as subversive as it sounds. yes it was. no, it was fun. >> sock it to me? >> it was the first time a presidential candidate had ever appeared on a comedy show. and that may have got him elected. and i've had to live with that. anyway -- >> the family that watched laugh-in together really needs
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to pray together. >> seems like it's happening right now and it's about right now that was the greatest thing ever. it was a fusion of politics and comedy and everything else into one television show. >> when we take over, i'm going to look out for you. >> the subjects that were verboten, we don't talk about these things, were starting to come up in tv. because it was well executed, it changed everything. >> this is the smothers brothers comedy hour. take one. >> good evening and welcome to the smothers brothers show. >> if rowan and martin and the smothers brothers are the new stars of tv comedy, it is the comedy itself rather than the comedians which is more often in the spotlight. these two programs have consciously tried to influence people with comedy and skit routines and by subject matter that is often on the cutting edge of what is new. >> our government is asking us
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as good citizens to refrain from traveling to foreign lands. >> okay. all you guys in vietnam, come on home! >> the times were changing so quickly in the '60s. and we didn't change them. >> we just reflected them. >> what are you doing? >> getting ready to go to college. >> cbs gave the smothers brothers that show because they were clean-cut folk satirists. they wore blazers. they could sing well. they were funny. >> mom liked you best! >> you lower your voice. >> mom liked you best. >> they told us what they thought we could do and what we should do and it was totally wrong. and tommy came in saying, i would like to do a show where we're relevant. ♪ if you can do a war that is relevant i'll be the first to go but until then mr. mcnamara ♪ ♪ i'm just 18 and i always carry a purse ♪
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>> if you were in counter culture started making these shows and they don't want to play by the rules that other people did before then but who would expect the smothers brothers of all people to be the ones raising this much of a fuss. >> good script. >> i would hold my breath every time they did their show. i knew the network people were befelling their trousers with fear. >> nothing funny in this. yeah, boys, we're through censoring your show. >> they said that the social subjects we touched on were not appropriate for the 9:00 family viewing hour. they came up with any excuse to make it difficult. >> and i came up with any excuse to push it. >> yeah. ♪ cbs would like to give us notice and some of you don't like the things we say but we're still here oh, yeah ♪ ♪ we're still here >> they were going to speak the truth to power. and they were not compromising.
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>> you have something important? >> something very important to say on american television. >> you know, a lot of times we can't -- we don't have the opportunity to say anything important because it's american television. every time you try to say something important, they, uh -- >> well, whether you can say it or not, keep trying to say it. that's what's important. you get that? >> there's no way in the world if anything is meaningful and truthful that you're not going to offend someone. you've got to be able to say what it is. say how it is. and take the consequence. >> cbs announced today that the smothers brothers comedy hour will not return to the cbs television network next season. network president robert woods said it became evident that brothers, quote, were unwilling to accept the criteria of taste established by cbs. cbs news efforts to reach the brothers for comment have been unsuccessful. >> i was angry. but we never regretted it.
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we never did regret it. >> what do you think television, honestly, do you think it's good? >> yes, i do. i think particularly for what it is, for the amount of hours that it gives you for enjoyment, either an education or for pure entertainment. it's remarkably good. >> what television did in the '60s was to show the american people to the american people. until then, we did not truly know much about each other. we knew only what we had seen, which was very little. and what we had read, which was even less. >> a few years ago i thought it was the end of the world. >> no, it's just the beginning. >> i think people looked at television for answers, maybe. that world is just confusing. maybe something on here will help. >> there was no denying the shift and attitudes towards sex, towards race relations, towards politics. it was all televised. >> that you will faithfully
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execute the office. >> that i will faithfully execute the office. >> when it works, television conveys impression and evokes memories. when it works well, television makes us feel. >> good morning. t minus 1:29:53 and counting. >> television create d a sense of national unity around cultural events. >> okay, neil. we can see you coming down the ladder now. >> you can turn on the machine and be somewhere else. >> looking good. >> television changed absolutely everything. >> beautiful view. isn't that something?
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♪ beautiful, right? we can already indulge ourselves into something special, such a beautiful day. >> pony ride. >> absolutely. now we are coming to your most beautiful fascination side of russian legacy. the birches. >> ah. the forest of birch. >> ah, what a place. ♪ >> all hail, the maximum leader. now let's dance.

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