The Seventies

It was in the 1970s that television matured into the medium we know today. There was a new candor to network programming as reflected in shows like MASH, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and the half-hour comedies of Norman Lear – All in the Family, Maude and The Jeffersons. New formats that would become television on staples – the made-for-TV movie (Brian’s Song, Duel, That Certain Summer) the mini-series (Rich Man Poor Man, Roots, I, Caudius) emerged. And two of the most successful franchises in television history, Monday Night Football and Saturday Night Live, were born in the Seventies. In addition, PBS as well as the cable networks, ESPN, HBO and Showtime were all launched.

Although it began in the 1960s, many of the most dramatic and controversial events of the war in Vietnam occurred in the 1970s. The incursion into Cambodia, the shooting death of four students at Kent State University, the My Lai massacre court martial, the Paris peace talks, the release of the Pentagon Papers, the “Christmas bombing,” the final peace agreement with the North Vietnamese and the release of hundreds of American P.O.W.s, all occurred in the first few years of the decade. But the trauma didn’t end with the withdrawal of American forces. The fall of Saigon and the rest of South Vietnam, graphically illustrated by unforgettable images of panicked evacuation, represents one of the low points of American history. This episode poignantly completes the story begun in The War in Vietnam episode in The Sixties.

The 1970s experienced an unprecedented wave of violent, sometimes spectacular crimes. Beginning with the Manson Family trial, America remained on edge throughout the decade as homicide rates soared and Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy and the Son of Sam made gruesome headlines. Children were kidnapped collectively (the Chowchilla school bus hijacking) and because of their celebrity (Patty Heart and John Paul Getty lll). Jimmy Hoffa disappeared and the mayor of San Francisco and Supervisor Harvey Milk were gunned down by a disgruntled colleague. Through it all Americans sought comfort in vigilante films like Death Wish and Dirty Harry. But nothing could shield the nation from the unimaginable horror of Jonestown.

The second half of the 1970s began with much hope and promise. The “long national nightmare” of Watergate was over and after a brief transition under President Ford, the country put a relatively unknown former Georgia governor, Jimmy Carter, in the White House. But things began to unravel almost immediately. Stagflation smothered the economy and the energy crisis caused long lines and short tempers at the gas station. Three Mile Island and Love Canal heightened environmental anxieties. There was a divisive fight over the Panama Canal and the world held it’s breath as the Ayatollah Khomeini supplanted the Shah in Iran and the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. But there was also a genuine diplomatic miracle at Camp David as the Egyptians and Israelis signed a historic peace treaty. And waiting in the wings was another former governor, Ronald Reagan, who was on the verge of launching a revolution of his own.

Sex was everywhere in the 1970s. No decade has witnessed such a seismic shift in sexual mores and customs. Premarital sex became socially acceptable while an increasing number of married couples experimented with swinging and other once taboo activities. Pornography emerged from the shadows and gay men and women began to "come out" in increasingly public fashion. This new sexual freedom also had a significant impact on the redefinition of traditional gender roles. But many viewed the sexual revolution as nothing less than the destruction of America's moral foundation as religiously based conservative groups began to organize and push back politically.