Anyone just watch American Dreams?

[whometense]

God, I'm a weepy mess. This could be the last episode ever, as they're thinking of cancelling it.

If you love this show as much as I do,

``American Dreams,'' Wednesdays at 8 on WHDH (Ch. 7).
NBC's ``American Dreams'' deserves a reprieve and a fourth season
because there is no other show like it on the air.
Sure, the stunt casting (Paris Hilton as Barbara Eden!) is
delicious. And who doesn't love seeing Third Eye Blind as the Kinks or
Usher as Marvin Gaye.
Practically every singer on the Top 40 and every ``American
Idol'' winner has stopped by ``American Dreams'' to impersonate a
musical counterpart from yesteryear.
Set against the backdrop of ``American Bandstand'' and the
tumultuous '60s, the show is a throwback to another television era - a
time when there were quality one-hour dramas that could entertain the
entire family. This season, the Pryor family deftly tackled everything
from teen romance to corrupt local politics to civil unrest.
The series may be loose with the decade's time line, blending the
era's significant events conveniently into the family's lives, but TV
needs a show that understands how important the results of a high
school essay contest are to a daughter, and a son's struggle after
returning home from the Vietnam War. This dream should live on.
E-mail NBC at [e-mail] or [e-mail]
- AMY AMATANGELO

http://theedge.bostonherald.com/tvNews/view.bg?articleid=74936&format=text

[Wickerman]

1. so, who played Country Joe tonight?

very interesting episode.

[whometense]

4. I was wondering too.

Art Alexakis (Everclear, "Wonderful") guest stars as a singer in the lair singing " I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die" (Country Joe & The Fish)

http://www.nbc.com/American_Dreams/

Helluva place to leave it, I say.

[Wickerman]

10. thanks

yeah, I am really liking the recent plots so it IS a hell of a place to leave off.

[dflprincess]

2. Are the ratings that bad

or is NBC afraid people will start drawing parallels between their Vietnam and Iraq?

I thought they really hit hard tonight - the caskets at Dover AFB and I was most pleased to hear the "Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag" being sung in the coffee shop while they flipped back and forth between Dover and the coffee shop.

I like the show for that and for the nostalgia. I would have been about Patty's age in 1966.

[snacker]

3. I've wondered that myself. n/t

[whometense]

5. Oh, me too!

I love the show because of the (obvious) then/now parallels, and because it's the only tv show I've ever seen that seems to really capture what it felt like to be a teenager back then.

The casket scene was great - and the song was perfect.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

6. I watched it and yes, I cried. I've been nuts about trying to save

this show. If you guys want to help try to save it from cancellation, here's something you can do to help:

http://www.americandreamsfanclub.com/dreamalive.htm

From the "American Dreams" fan club:

As you may have heard, Season 3 of American Dreams has been cut from a 19 episode season to 17 episodes. The show is also "on the bubble" as to whether or not NBC will renew it for a fourth season. The show has NOT been canceled, (yet,) but we as fans need to show NBC how much we love the show, and say thank you to the companies who continually support and advertise during American Dreams.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

3/27/05 - NEW UPDATE:

OK everyone- now is the time where we really need to band together!!! I received an email from Jonathan Prince and he told me there is still GREAT HOPE for American Dreams. All of our postcards have been received by NBC and by the advertisers. BUT- the decision to renew still has not been made... so here's what we need to do:

After the season finale airs this Wednesday night, we need to BOMBARD NBC with positive and pleading emails. PLEASE DO NOT EMAIL BEFORE THE END OF THE SHOW ON WEDNESDAY. What we want to accomplish is an obvious and cohesive show of support. Between Wednesday night March 30th at 9 pm, and Thursday March 31st at 5 pm, write to:

[e-mail] In the Subject Line, you MUST write: "SAVE OUR SHOW."

Remember, do not email this address before the show airs on Wednesday.

I have not always been supportive of writing emails to this address in the past, because I did not know if it was being closely monitored. But I have definite confirmation that NBC will be watching this Wednesday and Thursday. Write to this email address only!

Everyone's subject line should be the same, but in the body of your email, say whatever you would like NBC to know. BE PASSIONATE. Tell them why the world needs American Dreams.

Also, pass this on to anyone and everyone. Mr. Prince is hoping for hundreds and hundreds of emails, but I know you guys... we can get THOUSANDS. We can do this! KEEP THE DREAM ALIVE!!!

__________________________________________________

[whometense]

11. Will do, thanks!

I've got a band of people hooked on the show, so they'll email as well.

[Kool Kitty]

16. Thanks for the links, scrub.

I absolutely love this show. It really takes me back. And they cannot cancel it. I just won't allow it. I'm goona get everyone I know to write and call. Thanks. :loveya:

[Lugnut]

18. I've e-mailed

I don't want this show to go. It's been a nostalgia trip for me and one of the few shows that I still enjoy. I thought tonight's episode was one of the best of the series. The Dover AFB segment was heart wrenching and so on parallel to today.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

7. Thanks for posting the snip and email addys, whome.

:kick:

[peekaloo]

8. Very good show tonight.

I don't always get to see it but tonight was a very moving episode.

TV Guide reported that Will Estes and Rachel Boston have signed onto other shows rather than wait for cancellation. For you regular viewers are these two major characters on the show?

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

9. Will Estes plays JJ Pryor (main character) and Rachel Boston plays

Beth, his wife.



Country Joe McDonald w/ Sen. Barbara Boxer

[whometense]

13. Yes - MAJOR

Will Estes especially is a major part of the soul of the show, though they're both wonderful.

[Huckebein the Raven]

12. Damn I missed it tonight

can someone give me a summary ?

[whometense]

14. Let's see.

Meg made a tv commercial for her father's store.

JJ's new company got a NASA contract.

Beth's father offered to pay for her college tuition if she goes back to school, but with JJ's new job she may not be able to go in the fall.

And Meg ran off to Berkeley to go underground with her bad boy boyfriend who's been drafted.

[Huckebein the Raven]

15. I still wish Meg and her friend would have gotten together

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

17. I watched it tonight

I CRIED SO DAMN MUCH!

This is my favourite show and I will be outraged if it's canceled.

PS- Was that The Vines playing the rolling stones tonight? that's pure casting genius <33

[whometense]

19. I swear I've wept

through every single episode.

American Dreams: It's cheaper than psychotherapy. :-)

[Rainbowreflect]

20. American Dreams is my favorite show these days.

With so much crap on TV, I do not understand why they would cancel such a great show. I sobbed at the part where the mother was meeting her son's casket at Dover.
Thanks for links!

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

21. Some freeper (he has to be!) on this American Dreams

message board posted the following:

... I really didn't like how that guy in the Lair sang that song about Vietnam. Something like "Mothers, send your boys to 'Nam and they'll come home in a box." I didn't think that it was approriate when it was played during the scene where the Mother met her son's coffin in Delaware. But other than that, the episode was amazing.

TO WHICH I RESPONDED:

I found the lyrics and the timing of the song with the scene in which the mother and Mrs. Pryor were greeting the coffin completely appropriate. That was the point. Death is a reality of war. A lot of people died in Vietnam.

Here's a history of the song from Country Joe McDonald's website:

I wrote "Fixin’ To Die Rag" in summer of 1965 after I had been discharged from the US Navy for several years. It just popped into my head one day and I finished it in about 30 minutes. I did not have a conscious purpose in mind although I had been working on another song about the Vietnam War called "Who Am I?" for several days so I had the war on my mind. The "Who Am I?" song was part of a play I was writing songs for titled Change Over, written by Fred Hayden and directed by Nina Serrano. It was performed twice, once on the University of California Berkeley campus and once on the San Francisco State College campus. 1965 was the year that the Vietnam War became big news and a big protest issue with students.

I was raised in a family of American Communists and so I knew a lot about Capitalism and Communism. The song attempts to put blame for the war upon the politicians and leaders of the US military and upon the industry that makes its money from war but not upon those who had to fight the war ... the soldiers. It expresses the thoughts of a person trapped in the military system and forced to go to war by something called "conscription". Conscription or the "draft" as it was called then was a system which picked young people and forced them into the military and into the war with the only other choice being jail or an attempt to "dodge the draft" for religious reasons or physical or mental reasons. It was very hard to get out of the draft because so many people were being killed in the war that they would take just about any one. The song attempts to address the horror of going to war with a dark sarcastic form of humor called "GI humor". GI humor is a way people have of complaining about their situation so it will not get them in trouble and keep them from going insane in an insane environment: war.

Today we have a volunteer military but during the Vietnam War many people joined because they thought it was the right thing to do. It was patriotic. Lots of people were drafted. Also lots of people were given the choice of volunteering for the military or going to jail on charges of getting into trouble with the police for one thing or the other. It was a kind of government black mail. During the war people were even forced into the US Marines which was always considered to be a volunteer group because so many Marines were killed in the Vietnam War. The casualty rate for Marines was higher in the Vietnam War than in World War II.

TO WHICH "I-CAN'T-GET-ENOUGH-OF-THE-KOOLAID" FREEPER RETORTED:

Join Date: Nov 08, 2004
Posts: 55

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I completely agree with you that death is a reality of war. However, when a fallen soldier comes home from a horrible war in a coffin, I think everyone should show respect to him/her and their family. I do not think that the song played during that particular scene was respectful. I felt that because of the lyrics and the fast tempo, it was making a mockery of the Military and all they do for our country.

"...Come on mothers throughout the land
pack your boys off to Viet Nam
come on fathers don't hesitate
send your sons off before it's too late
and you can be the first ones on your block
to have your boy come home in a box"

Would YOU want this song played if your family member was a casuality of the Iraq war, or any war for that matter??
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MY ANSWER?

That was the reality of THAT WAR. The song was played as written and recorded. Again, I think the song was completely appropriate, given the times. The song was not mocking the dead; you apparently did not read what I posted from Country Joe McDonald, the songwriter.

Regarding, "Would YOU want this song played if your family member was a casuality of the Iraq war, or any war for that matter??", I'm not going to get into a political discussion about the Iraq War (this is not the forum, this board's rules specifically say not to.

I will say this: How dare you assume I don't have any family members who haven't served in Vietnam (a cousin, by marriage, died in that war) and/or Iraq (one cousin is a recent Iraq Vet (USMC) who ran for Congress, and one is actively serving in the Air Force), or who G-d forbid, hasn't paid "the ultimate sacrifice"?
________________________________________________________