There were a lot of WWII veterans in the US during the 60's. Our fathers (and some of our mothers) who served in the war were now in their 30's and 40's. They were likely the single biggest demographic group out there, and the TV networks wanted their business.
WWII was a long, horrible, bloody, tragic blot on history. But the fact is that the US and its allies kicked the butts of those who would take over the world by force and rule with an iron hand.
Thus, our parents felt proud of what was accomplished, and the war was greatly romanticized in the eyes of the media. That meant that it was great fodder for TV.
Many a WWII drama was aired on the one-eyed monster during the 60's. And we kids watched them along with our parents. Our fathers knew that the action had been greatly bowdlerized, but that didn't stop them from tuning in anyway. And the success of the shows ensured that many a slightly cheesy half-hour episode would be churned out while the viewers continued to tune in.
Combat! was the most successful of the WWII dramas. It debuted in 1962 and ran for five seasons. It took an approach that was the most realistic of the bunch. War wasn't glamorized. Instead, the characters were depicted as weary, shell-shocked individuals who felt an obligation to put the interests of army and country ahead of their own. They were disillusioned, to be sure, but felt compelled to keep plugging along anyway.
The show was a hit, and may have lasted deeper into the Vietnam era had ABC not cheaped out on stars Vic Morrow and Rick Jason. They had signed five-year contracts, while other actors had opted for seven. Rather than renegotiating with the two, ABC chose to rewrite the series as Garrison's Guerrillas, minus the characters of Saunders and Hanley. As you would expect from such cheapskate techniques, the replacement series was quite pale in comparison, and was gone after a single season.
You can read the autobiography of Rick Jason in its entirety at http://www.scrapbooksofmymind.com/. Pretty interesting stuff.
Two other WWII shows that populated 1960's prime time were Twelve O'clock High and The Rat Patrol.
Twelve O'clock High was based on a successful 1949 movie starring Gregory Peck. The series debuted in fall 1964 and lasted three years. It started out in B&W, and was known for featuring actual combat footage. In 1967, it began to be broadcast in color, but only lasted halfway through the season.
What was impressive about the show was that a real B-17 was flown for many of the scenes! That wasn't a cheap thing, and one of the signs that the show was heading downhill was the conspicuous reduced air time of the bomber during the last season, replaced with "patrols" of a P-51 Mustang, which was much cheaper to fly.
The Rat Patrol debuted in 1966. It started out in color, and featured the single most instantly recognizable jeep in the eyes of a 1960's kid. It had this incredibly bonzer 50 caliber machine gun mounted in the back. The characters patrolled north Africa, making General Rommel's life as miserable as possible, and sending many a clueless German soldier to the promised land.
The show lasted two years. 1968 marked a changed perception of war in general for the country, as kids were being shipped home in boxes from Vietnam in ever-increasing numbers, and Dan Rather's reports were gritty in their depiction of the misery going on over there. The spreads in the various pictorial weeklies showed little girls getting burned with napalm, Buddhist monks going up in flames, and executions carried out with a bullet to the head.
People stopped tuning into war dramas, and the genre went away for a while.
Interest in WWII was rekindled in 1998 with the success of Saving Private Ryan, which led into HBO's Band of Brothers a couple of years later. The movie and TV series depicted war in all its gritty realism, with grisly death shown uncompromisingly.
That was impossible for network TV series during the 60's, of course. But the nightly news and weekly magazines of the era demonstrated that when war is shown in a largely uncensored state while it's actually going on, it's compelling. But what it's not is good advertising for heroic war dramas on television.
One last observation: possibly, my mom harbored at least a little resentment to Germany and Japan over the war. While I was swiftly and decidedly punished for using ethnic terms that were still common in the 1960's, she never seemed to have a problem with me referring to "Krauts" and "Japs" when I was playing army. Perhaps the free usage of the words by the patriotic press of the 40's put them in a different category.
Comments (4)
I never liked the WW2 dramas but sitcoms? Hogan’s Heroes and McHale’s Navy were favorites.
The gritty realism was noticeably missing, and replaced with not so suspenseful close calls threatening to sabotage the protagonist’s intrigue – I mean “scams” as Hogan and McHale always outwitted the “enemy” (in fact the only way Werner Klemperer would play the role of Colonel Klink was if the writers portrayed him and the Germans as bungling stooges who would always lose any contest.) For McHale the “enemy” to be scammed was Captain Binghamton rather than the “Nips.”
I don’t recall scenes portraying the killing of anyone. Trains and munitions dumps were blown up and ships were fired upon but the graphic violence while implied never was shown.
The last observation regarding the “patriotic press” headlines using less than PC sobriquets to demonize the “enemy” was homegrown propaganda calculated to keep the general public supporting the “righteous” war, which was in part engineered by Churchill and Roosevelt.
For some historical perspective – check out Human Smoke by Nicholson Baker and for some propaganda cartoons drawn by an artist familiar to practically all boomers see: http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/dspolitic/
Posted by Burt | March 30, 2009 5:16 PM
Posted on March 30, 2009 17:16
You forgot one that was fairly popular. The Gallant Men.
Posted by Rusty | March 31, 2009 12:39 PM
Posted on March 31, 2009 12:39
By far our favorite recent series on World War II history is "Foyle's War." We cannot recall any television or movie program more entertaining and informative. The Imperial War Museum (England) provided research so the material is authentic. Consider this a must-view recommendation from both historians and movie-lovers.
Posted by Susan LEVINE | March 31, 2009 4:06 PM
Posted on March 31, 2009 16:06
War was well promoted in movies and on TV. Hollywood has always been a good means by which to mold or even change public attitudes and thinking. I do not fear someone trying to suggest another way of thinking about something and believe in the freedom to do it. Of course, I would hope that I would have the same freedom to offer my views as well but those in power, while wanting freedom for themselves, do not like to grant it to others.
So as you watch TV and movies and think about the "programming" of yesteryear, just keep in mind that someone is trying to affect your thinking and it could be for better or worse. You can figure it out but only if you try and make an effort to think.
the old TV and movies can teach us a lot as any experience can. But if we just sit back passively and not think about things, we do great harm to ourselves and others, too, for we all owe something to each other as well as ourselves.
And we should be ware that there are people who want to change us and influence us and many of us have, indeed, been changed from what we were in the 60s to what we are nearly 50 years later.
Let the buyer beware.
Posted by Scott Irv | November 5, 2009 12:18 AM
Posted on November 5, 2009 00:18