'The Sixties'
(3-DVD / NR / 2015 / PBS)
Overview: Executive produced by Emmy® Award-winning producers Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman (HBO's John Adams and The Pacific), and Emmy® Award-winning producer Mark Herzog (History's Gettysburg), The Sixties explores the most transformative decade of the modern era in America.
DVD Verdict: The 1960's was the decade America transformed from a country of conformity to a land of political, cultural, and social liberation. The events of that tumultuous ten-year period reshaped America to such an extent that it still remains an epoch of fascination today and every step of the way, television helped frame and enable that change.
Looking through the lens of television, 'The Sixties' weaves together the events and personalities that influenced and dominated the 1960's in America, sketching a portrait of this remarkable decade that is both entertaining and illuminating. Featuring unique perspective and rare, original footage, 'The Sixties' does not just re-examine the familiar, but unearths the unknown along with it!
Overall, 'The Sixties' is a pretty interesting series, but way too much emphasis on the hard, bad, the low times of the 60's. Yet still probably educational for people who were are not familiar with the major events (at least as the "news" would see it). It covers the assassination of JFK, the civil rights movement, the Manson family horror, the Hippy scene, the war, etc.
Episodes: Television Comes of Age; The World on the Brink; The Assassination of President Kennedy; The War in Vietnam; A Long March to Freedom; The British Invasion; The Space Race; 1968: A Monumental Year; The Times They Are A-Changin'; and Sex, Drugs, and Rock n Roll.
In closing, the production quality was superb. They brought a lot of old film and TV clips to life expertly done. And the audio was great as well with the masterful use of period tunes. This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.78:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs.
www.PBS.org