EXPERIMENT IN TELEVISION: YOUTH '68 -- EVERYTHING'S CHANGING. . .OR MAYBE IT ISN'T (TV)
Summary
One in this series of documentaries dedicated to the belief that "experimentation in television is vital to its future." In this program, producer Jim Henson blends film montages, interviews, and contemporary music to create a portrait of American youth in the year 1968. Interviews with members of popular rock groups and other young people with diverse backgrounds from across the nation are contrasted with the responses of members of the older generation, many of whom express disapproval and confusion over the youth movement. To convey a sense of the rapid changes taking place in society, superimposed images and special effects are combined with the words of the world's great poets, philosophers and social commentators such as William Blake, the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and others. Included throughout are psychedelic images and the contemporary music of groups such as the Jefferson Airplane and the Mamas and the Papas, which gave birth to the counterculture era. Topics addressed include the following: the generation gap and the values of the new generation; the lifestyle of "hippies," including long hair, hygiene, and drug use; the role of music in the drug culture; education; the draft and the anti-war protest movement; increasingly complex technology; and the new generation's changing attitudes about patriotism, sex, love, and morality. Those interviewed include Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, and Jack Casady of the rock group the Jefferson Airplane; Jim DeMarco and Jim Pitman of the Happy Apples; Tim Bogert, Mark Stein, and Vinnie Martell of Vanilla Fudge; "Mama" Cass Elliot, John Phillips, and Denny Dougherty of the Mamas and the Papas; psychologist Edward Sampson and sociologist Robert Somers; and many others. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: NBC
- DATE: April 21, 1968 Sunday 4:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:52:20
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T79:0344
- GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: Avant-garde films; Drugs and youth; Hippies; Rock music; Subculture; Military service, compulsory - Resistance; U S - Social life and customs; Vietnam War; Youth movement
- SERIES RUN: NBC - TV series, 1967-1971
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Jim Henson … Producer, Writer
- Barry Clark … Associate Producer
- Jon Stone … Director
- Jerry Juhl … Writer
- Gordon Hunt … Reader
- Michael Keene … Reader
- Donald Billett … Reader
- Edwin Cooper … Reader
- Marc Chinoy … Music (Misc. Credits), Music supervision by
- Anne Henry … Music (Misc. Credits), Music supervision by
- Marie Lake … Choreographer
- Merrill Sindler … Production Design, Scenic Designer
- John Boxer … Production Design, Costume Designer
- Tim Bogert
- Jack Casady
- Jim DeMarco
- Denny Dougherty
- Cass Elliot
- Happy Apples, The (music group)
- Jefferson Airplane, The (music group)
- Paul Kantner
- Mamas and the Papas, The
- Vince Martell
- John Phillips
- Jim Pitman
- Edward Sampson
- Grace Slick
- Robert Somers
- Mark Stein
- Vanilla Fudge (music group)