America looked to Hollywood to strike back with a patriotic blockbuster. The studio chose America’s greatest celluloid hero to lead a gallant group of fighting men in defense of Old Glory. The Duke even co-directed The Green Berets to emphasize the importance of our noble cause in Vietnam. John Wayne convinced an American journalist (David Janssen) in fantasyland on the big screen of our good intentions, but after the show, audiences returned home to watch the real war on the small screen news. They saw no heroes, only blood and violence, with no end in sight (Vietnam recently won the dubious distinction as the longest running war in American history). Hollywood had conditioned fans to expect the Duke to wipe out the Japs and Krauts in ninety minutes. Olive drab Berets became one of the biggest bombs of the decade.
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Television is, was and will be forever more, be the problem when America tries to get a good war rolling. Vietnam was the first war to receive live coverage, and the images that the public saw weren’t pretty. Support during times of great conflict always depended on the glorification of heroes, the creation of legends and an optimistic appraisal of the last battle, but horrible visuals on TV killed all those romantic notions about war. Television news gave us the eyes of the child who saw through the Emperor’s new wardrobe. There are no winners or heroes in war… at best, only survivors.
With their own news programs working against them, TV networks struggled to win back the audience in primetime. The good guys always won in “Adam 12”, Hawaii Five-0”, “Mannix”, “The Avengers”, “It Takes a Thief” and the “Mod Squad”. The last two of these tube law enforcement organizations offered amnesty to ex-outlaws. The heroes of these shows had been caught red-handed committing a crime, and in lieu of serving time, agreed to help police arrest their peers. There are names for people like that… rat, fink, stool-Pidegon or squealer. Their methods included illegal entrapment, but the end justified the means in the minds of Middle America. Thirty-something Julie, Pete and Linc, as undercover spies in high school, busted troublesome hippies every week on “Mod Squad” without a trace of regret. The show flopped with its intended audience, due to all the recent bad publicity about narcs, CIA and FBI agents, using dirty tricks to infiltrate student groups on campus. The dream machine (TV) refused to compromise. The “Mod Squad” preceded “It Takes a Thief”, followed by “NYPD” on ABC on Tuesdays. The only possible conclusion at 9:30: “That’s Life”.
The television networks took heed when Phil Ochs proclaimed “The War Is Over” in 1967 (Yes, two years before John Lennon), and they cancelled “Combat”, “Twelve O’Clock High”, “F-Troop”, “Rat Patrol” and “Garrison’s Gorillas” during the 1967-68 season. The fate of our nation now lay in the hands of our only new noble warrior, “Gomer Pyle”.
The ignorance-is-bliss philosophy spread throughout the networks’ schedule. Yippies and the counterculture didn’t exist. A pair of Jacks (Lord on “Hawaii Five-0” and Webb on “Dragnet”) trumped any longhairs who wandered into primetime. In television land, clean-cut young people found the meaning of life, as couples revealed intimate secrets on “The Dating Game”, and then graduated to “The Newlywed Game”. “Here Come the Brides” joined the celebration and they brought along “The Mothers In Law”.
Ghetto riots? You’ve got to be kidding. African Americans were happy in primetime. Diahann Carroll became the first Black woman to star in her own series since “Beulah”, 16 years prior. She played a respected professional, rather than the normal domestic servant role that African American actors usually had to settle for. And, if that wasn’t enough to calm racial tensions, corporate America offered a special bonus: Barbie received a token Black friend (Christie) in 1968.
So what if the hippies owned the pop charts? TV offered “Dean Martin Presents the Golddiggers” and “The Doris Day Show”, and even gave Lucy a new program.
The Smothers Brothers tried to penetrate the video soma, but CBS prescreened each show with editing scissors in hand. In 1968 they cut out a skit on film censorship, an interview with Dr. Spock, a Mothers’ Day message that ended with the words, “Please talk peace” and a segment in which Harry Belafonte sang, “Lord, please stop the Carnival”, superimposed over a montage of the Democratic Convention riots. The boys did finally get to play Pete Seeger’s “Waist Deep in Muddy Water”, which had been cut from their premiere show in 1967. But, the brothers fought a losing battle. “Hidden Faces” loomed as an appropriate reflection of the state of television in 1968, and was also the title of a new soap opera.
“One Live to Live”, another new soap, tried to cash in on the hippie attitude of Live for Today, but, of course, never moved past the title. Meanwhile, Teens pondered blacklight posters that read, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life”, while listening to the Rascals sing, “It’s a Beautiful Morning” and “People Got to be Free”. The kids lived in the “Dawning of the Age of Aquarius” and hoped everyone would “Open up your heart and let the sun shine in”.