If you want to look into the mind of the baby boomer you can't forget how

[jtuck004]

much television taught them. People learn a lot by example, and that is how tv teaches. As well as parents. Regardless of that people say, we learn a lot more by what they do than what they say. Change is occurring and we have no idea that it is beginning to change us.

Anyway, if you get chance, compare a few of the early episodes of Gunsmoke, and then Bonanza.

Gunsmoke seems to be far less shy about addressing racism head on. It's more a show that reflects the time, and doesn't wash out the details quite so much. Bonanza is about 3 white cowboys, their Chinese cook, and a rather creative and clean take on how life could have been.

It is a generalization (gunsmoke was a long running show, and I haven't seen all of both, but I have compared hundreds of episodes, and it seems blatant. But perhaps that's just me.

A bonus - you get to see Leonard Nimoy - and lots of others, before they became an overnight success.

(fyi -Gunsmoke: I Call Him Wonder)

[rjsquirrel]

1. Lol whut?

[Android3.14]

2. What?

[Journeyman]

3. The Twilight Zone . . .

reconcile that with your very limited weltanschaung.

[jtuck004]

8. Oh yeah. I forget the futurists. n/t

[KT2000]

4. I would suggest leave it to Beaver

and how many kids were raised once upon a time - values.

[rjsquirrel]

5. HR Puffinstuff maaaaaan

[Warren DeMontague]

12. Sid and Marty Krofft fucked MY SHIT UP MAN

Seriously. Things were WEIRD on tv, there, in the early 70s.

[Warren DeMontague]

11. "values"? The Millennials are the most tolerant, openminded generation this country has ever seen.

Marriage equality for LGBT citizens? Thank them.

So maybe it was Alf or He-Man. Who fucking knows. But the idea that "values" were only the mythical purview of the 1950s, is ridiculous. I like Jerry Mathers as much as anyone, but come on.

[KT2000]

20. who was criticizing the Millennials?

There were values taught that affected the Baby Boom generation through TV shows. Leave it to Beaver was about parental guidance to teach the values of the day. The OP said if you wanted to look into the minds of the BB generation look to their TV shows.

But now that you mention it, it would be interesting to look at current TV shows to see what values are being imparted today. I don't watch those shows so I don't know. I also don't know what TV shows have affected Millennials because I didn't watch them either.

[Warren DeMontague]

25. All I know is, things have become more tolerant and

Last edited Sun Jul 31, 2016, 12:22 AM - Edit history (1)

Less uptight.

So someone must be doing something right.

[MgtPA]

29. Someone DID do something right...

Boomers born in the 1950's, raised by WWII generation parents, birthed and raised the Millennials.

I like to think I had more impact on who my Millennial daughter became than the TV she was exposed to (mostly Sesame Street and Blues Clues). It seems those kids don't even watch TV. Last semester, one of her dorm-mates parents dropped of a wide-screen TV, and the kids never even plugged it in.

[Warren DeMontague]

30. Arguably.

Still, it'd be nice in some cases if the parents learned from the kids. For some reason Boomers have had more trouble than my generation or the millennials getting around gay marriage, for instance.

[MgtPA]

31. Oh, you're absolutely right about gay marriage.

Millennials jumped on the right side of that issue right out of the gate. My daughter (and ALL of her friends) joined GSA in 9th grade and never looked back (with no prompting from me). This was their issue for their time. Made me grin!

[Warren DeMontague]

32. it's just the way things work, I think.

Things were terribly homophobic when I was growing up, for instance. From what I know of my friends' kids who are in high school and college, now, it's a completely different world around that.

[MgtPA]

34. I remember things being pretty homophobic as late as the mid '90s, but when things started shifting,

the changes came very quickly, compared to civil rights and women's rights timelines. From my viewpoint as a parent, high school and college are completely different from my own time in those institutions.

[Warren DeMontague]

35. yeah, it was the 90s when I noticed the change, too.

People who had been sort of default homophobic all of a sudden became much more tolerant.

[MgtPA]

36. In 60's parlance, they had their "consciousness raised"

[Warren DeMontague]

40. I went through that process myself

on several levels, during those years and the preceding decade.

It was, shall we say, "I" opening.

[jtuck004]

38. The boomers were learning, it looks like,until something dragged them

back as a group a year or so ago. That's a big damn drop off from that trend, I think.

[charlyvi]

6. As a 65 year old baby boomer myself,

Our music is more likely to give you a path for looking in our minds than TV would. And still, you would not have the complete picture. By the way, I hated Gunsmoke (liked Miss Kitty, though), and Bonanza, meh. Twilight Zone, though, was FANTASTIC! And if you mean to say that these TV shows were racist, and sexist too by the way, then yes of course they were. But what do you think helped cause all the feminist and civil rights upheavals of the 60's and 70's? Notice how much has changed!

[jtuck004]

9. The country is racist and sexist, so one cannot leave it behind. I find interesting how much

has not changed.

Same ol' folks...

[charlyvi]

13. Sorry you are so pessimistic

I find a great deal has changed. Not everything, true enough. But I'm hopeful!

[jtuck004]

15. "The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it."

--George Bernard Shaw, Irish Dramatist & Socialist

I don't find it negative at all, so nothing to be sorry for. I find the mists of optimism throttling.

Each to their own , eh?

[charlyvi]

18. I think my observations are quite accurate

But, whatever.

[unapatriciated]

7. When I think of Baby Boomers and TV ( I am one)

It always makes me think of the Vandals and Too Much Drama.

[jtuck004]

14. I'm one too. So I have been able to watch the cohort for a long time.

I listened to a bit of this, but I have never been able to listen to punk bands - not that they are bad, it's just the volume.

But the lyrics. What you said.

If he could Xerox a home from the talking picture box - He wouldn't have to hurt so bad - So he turns to TV for help and for guidance - A lot of his virtues he picked up from Linus - Fonzie taught him what it means to be cool - From Doogie he learned that he must go to school - Three's Company taught him that just acting gay - Could lower the actual rent he would pay - Cops showed beating your wife and your neighbor - Could immortalize you and your double wide trailer

Read more: The Vandals - Too Much Drama Lyrics | MetroLyrics

That's the 70s version of what we saw in the 50s and 60s, but that's just details.

That babysitter worked for a lot of parents.

[CBGLuthier]

10. Bonanza was a family show. Gunsmoke was anything but.

Gunsmoke was very gritty.

[canetoad]

16. As a five year old

I spent hours squinting and trying to talk out of the side of my mouth like Rowdy Yates. Too bad he went to the dark side.

[safeinOhio]

17. Never wanted to be sick at home

Before cable, daytime was Soap Operas only. Rather be sick at school.

[prarie deem]

19. Ok - just gotta say

not all Boomers are racists. Though God knows the world we grew up in was and sadly the world we live in still is.

And I understand your frustration with us now. I look at my contemporaries - people I marched for Peace and end to the War with - people who supported civil rights and cried with me when MLK and RFK were murdered and hoped naively for a world ruled with peace and love and I think - What happened? You didn't used to be like this.

I have trouble recognizing the long haired peacenik friends with the old angry white people many have become.

[jtuck004]

23. I didn't mean to imply that. Not all the people in the show were racist either. Most

were basically decent, though perhaps, like now, most don't see the harm in doing "for" people instead of "like" them. And that can cause as much harm as anything else.

There are lots who were fair, as much as they could be expected to. Leonard Nimoy was a bad guy in that episode though. lol.

I'm not frustrated, just remarking and observing. I don't have much in the way of illusions about people any longer, watched too many do what they do. I think we basically start out neutral, and lots of things mold us.

But people have changed. We were on a different trajectory, and we got derailed. There are and have been people who have ripped and ripped at the idea of cooperation, the one that really built this country, (along with slavery and stolen labor and genocide, but you have to focus). We have been retrained as individuals, and are thus much weaker. So everyone is afraid.

As late as the 70s we still had the trappings of the investments we made in helping people - work programs, peace corps, nearly free universities and tons of smart people pouring out - mostly without debt. Mental health still had funding, humanities were still in many schools where it is just a memory today. Much of that is gone, and some of the things that are truly harmful to our long-term survival are making a comeback. Can't do that without help to keep the ideas alive.

I do see what you mentioned in that last line.

[texanwitch]

21. Not all of us.

I was raised in a very liberal democratic family.

I could talk about nephews born in 1970 who are very conservative and racist. I will not talk to them.

It isn't the age group but the person.

I worked for President Kennedy when he was running for office. I was six years old. I went door to door with my Father passing out bags of campaign material.

I filled up the bags.

I got to meet President Kennedy later. He talked to me for a few minutes.

I could tell you about Barbara Jordan, Mickey Leland. I could go on but i will stop here.

When my father passed away Rep. Shelia Jackson Lee came to his funeral and wake. We talked in the chapel for a long time. My father was a very respected man.

I am my father's daughter.

Do not lump all people together.

[awoke_in_2003]

22. I have been watching three Star Trek series on Hulu

the original series (ToS), The Next Generation, and Enterprise. ToS seems to have done a much better job of tackling social issues. The other two seem to be more dazzle and flash. Granted, I am only about 1 season into Enterprise and TNG.

[jtuck004]

24. I noticed that as well. n/t

[MichiganVote]

26. Ok let me get this straight. You assert that a select demographic in the country,

the so called baby boomer generation, are or were influenced by TV programs of 40 years ago such as Gunsmoke????

And that this accounts for what???

Way to distill down the lives of people with scores more experience and knowledge of millions.

[jtuck004]

27. You bored? I said we are influenced by tv programs.Your Dramamatic must have made

up the rest.

You got it all wrong, but I will leave you with a better mind than mine...

“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.”
-William James

Oh, I hope it's worth something to you...

[MichiganVote]

28. To answer your question, no, not bored. Thanks for edifying quote.

Since information seems to be important to you, for your research, I didn't watch either show. Neither did my older family members who grew up w/o TV and were racist as hell.

Oh well, better luck next time with your um...research and reasonsing.

[radical noodle]

33. Ding Dong School and Captain Kangaroo shaped me

Gunsmoke first aired in 1955, but by the time I was old enough to stay up late enough to watch it I was 10 and most of my values had formed. Bonanza first aired when I was 12. My most vivid memories of tv when I was a kid was Captain Kangaroo and I Love Lucy. I realize that I was a very early boomer, though.

I don't think boomer kids I knew were as interested in Gunsmoke and Bonanza as in The Lone Ranger and Buffalo Bob and Howdy Doody.

[jtuck004]

37. Yup. Mr Green Jeans.

I never said both shows captured the experience of man for all time, though some seem to take it that way. I do think tv not only teaches us, but reflects us at the same time, however.

I just threw them out as a couple of many examples. But as you noted Gunsmoke came first, Bonanza years later. The difference in the treatment or even acknowledgement of racism in the first as opposed to the second is interesting.

And as Bonanza played through into the 70s it got the new theme song, and became the cleaner, more modern western. And more palatable to the emerging corporate world, I think. More inconvenient (to white folk) social issues were replaced by modern ones, easier to watch.

But I could be just seeing things. old eyes...

[radical noodle]

39. I have always thought one of the shows that did the most good

in showing people how stupid their prejudices were was All In The Family. Many people thought exactly like Archie Bunker but that show helped them see themselves for what they were. I wish there was a TV show today to exemplify the crazy right wing of today, to let them see themselves as others see them. Leave It To Beaver and Father Knows Best had a moral message much of the time but didn't deal much with social issues. All were middle class white Christians.

I think you're right in saying TV shows affect people, though.