Both are set in the 1960s. These two shows remind me of how fascinated I was with the 1960s when I was growing up in the 1980s.
There are a lot of different reasons for that too.
A matter of perspective
When I was growing up, the 1960s were not that long ago, just 20 years back. By comparison, I love the ‘80s and they are 40 years ago, twice as long as the ‘60s were when I was growing up. Interestingly, I look at 20 years ago, which makes it the 2000s, and that really does not seem so long.
When I was growing up, the 1960s were not that long ago, just 20 years back. By comparison, I love the ‘80s and they are 40 years ago, twice as long as the ‘60s were when I was growing up. Interestingly, I look at 20 years ago, which makes it the 2000s, and that really does not seem so long.
Brother and sister act
I come from a large and relatively old family. My parents were born in 1930 and 1933, which actually puts them in the same generation as my spouse’s grandparents. It also means I have siblings who are much older than I am. My brother was born in 1959 and my sister in 1961, making them 10 and nine years older than me respectively.
I come from a large and relatively old family. My parents were born in 1930 and 1933, which actually puts them in the same generation as my spouse’s grandparents. It also means I have siblings who are much older than I am. My brother was born in 1959 and my sister in 1961, making them 10 and nine years older than me respectively.
They both actually grew up in the 1960s.
It meant they saw shows such as “Star Trek”, “The Man from U*N*C*L*E”, “Gunsmoke”, “Bonanza” and others that I only heard about.
They also read comic books from the ‘60s such as “Superman”, “Superboy”, “Supergirl”, “The Legion of Super Heroes”, “Batman”, and “The Flash”, and books such as “Doc Savage”, “The Bobsey Twins”, “Encyclopedia Brown”, and novelizations of “Star Trek”, “Star Trek: The Animated Series”, “The Man from U*N*C*L*E” and more.
When they left for college in Calgary in 1977 and 1978, they left much of this behind, and I read it all.
Pop culture
Being 20 years back, there was a lot of residue from the ‘60s still lying around. In addition to the above mentioned books and comics, there was more.
Being 20 years back, there was a lot of residue from the ‘60s still lying around. In addition to the above mentioned books and comics, there was more.
If you turn the TV on now, there are reruns on a lot of channels, such as episodes of “Friends” and “Frasier”, which are 20 years old now or older. TV channels have an insatiable hunger for content, so old episodes of good TV shows are a good fit.
It was exactly the same in the 1980s. Even in the three-channel universe, there were a lot of day and evening hours to fill, and original content wasn’t enough, especially in that period from mid-afternoon until the news hour.
That meant CTV Channel 13, CFAC Channel 7, and to a lesser extent CBC Channel 9 would air reruns of shows from the 1960s. I routinely came home from school and watched “The Flintstones” on Channel 13, or “Bewitched”, “The Beverly Hillbillies”, “Gilligan’s Island”, and “Hogan’s Heroes” on Channel 7. CBC aired old shows on weekends where I saw reruns of “Star Trek”, “Bonanza”, “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea”, “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies”, “Batman” and more.
Seeing these gave me a real sense of the time. I loved the clothes and the cars and the style.
I have only watched one episode of “11/22/63”, but I saw the entire series of “Mad Men”, and it seemed to capture the mood and times of the 1960s.
Living history
I also loved the history of the 1960s, especially Canadian politics and Prime Ministers John Diefenbaker and Lester Pearson. They were archrivals, battling in three elections in the 1960s, in addition to one more in 1958.
I also loved the history of the 1960s, especially Canadian politics and Prime Ministers John Diefenbaker and Lester Pearson. They were archrivals, battling in three elections in the 1960s, in addition to one more in 1958.
My parents were big Diefenbaker supporters and, because I was interested, told me all about his career and time as prime minister and beyond.
Their knowledge of history stretched beyond the Canadian borders though.
My Mom always remembered where she was the day United States President John F. Kennedy was shot in 1963. She was baking in the kitchen. She often didn’t listen to the radio in the afternoon, but on that day she had the urge to turn on the radio – and that’s when she heard the news.
Five years later, Robert F. Kennedy was shot, and Mom told me about that too. We speculated if there was a vendetta against the Kennedys, or if the family had extreme bad luck. Maybe, when you become famous, you make a lot of enemies and discover a lot of people don’t like you.
As I got older, and into science and science fiction, my Mom told me about seeing the moon landing in 1969. She would have been a couple months pregnant with me at the time too.
Sporting news
It was the late 1970s when I got into sports, beginning to watch hockey, football and baseball on TV, hear about them on the radio, and read about them.
It was the late 1970s when I got into sports, beginning to watch hockey, football and baseball on TV, hear about them on the radio, and read about them.
The first book on football I ever read was in Grade 3. It was called “Ten Super Sundays” by Rick Smith, published by Scholastic Books in 1976. It went through how the Super Bowl came to be in the mid-1960s, and had the first 10 Super Bowls. I also read “Great Moments in Pro Football”, compiled in 1969 by Zander Hollander. Both were courtesy of the St. Joseph’s School library.
My brother had also left behind a brown grocery bag full of issues of “The Hockey News”. Many of them ware already from the 1970s, but some dated back to the ‘60s, because they talked about the Original Six teams, and the 1967 expansion to 12 teams. Plus, the ‘60s were only 10 years earlier so there were a lot of references to players and games from then.
Parting thoughts
I guess I have always been interested in the past. In the 1980s, I was fascinated by the 1960s. Now, in the 2020s I am fascinated by the 1980s.
I guess I have always been interested in the past. In the 1980s, I was fascinated by the 1960s. Now, in the 2020s I am fascinated by the 1980s.
The ‘60s just seemed like an interesting time. I re-discovered that back in 1999 when NBC aired a miniseries called “The Sixties”. It took a typical American family through the decade, from the hope of the Kennedy years through the disillusionment of the Vietnam War, and so much more.
That is just what happened in the States. There was so much going on in Canada, and I also covered that, back in 1989. I took a Canadian history course at the University of Alberta on Canada from 1945 to the present. It was taught by David Mills who also covered pop culture and entertainment as part of the history of Canada, beyond politics and government.
I was reminded again, how interesting that period was when I started watching “11/22/63”.
There is a little irony in all of this for me. I was entered in school a year early, in 1975. That was the last year of children born in the 1960s, so virtually every classmate with two exceptions, was born in 1969. I missed being born in the ‘60s by just over two months. Yet, all through school everyone thought I was born in the 1960s.
Maybe my interest in the ‘60s is a case of decade envy.
After all, I missed it by that much.
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