What are the great pop culture touchstones since 1950?

[Bossy Monkey]

I'd appreciate everybody's help. Improbable as it may sound, this is a serious question about a frivolous project. I'm pondering what have been the most dominant pop culture influences since the advent of tv, mostly centering on tv's influence itself. So more along the lines of Davy Crockett, the nostalgia craze, and Survivor, rather than the Kennedy assassination or 9/11, although the latter two affected popular culture mainly through tv. It might help to think in terms of decades; if this gets out of hand, I might break it up into separate posts for each decade. Thanks! If I turn it into a book, you all get into the acknowledgments.

[GOPisEvil]

1. Beatles hit the USA

[BOSSHOG]

2. THE TV DINNER

the remote control; COLOR TV (extremely expensive when first introduced); seat belts, then shoulder straps - the list should be long.

[MrBenchley]

3. Beatles on Ed Sullivan

happened in 1964, but "the sixties" began that day...

[noonwitch]

17. The day the right lost the culture war

They still haven't gotten over it.

[GCP]

4. Sitcoms?

"I Love Lucy" in the 50's - little stay at home wife and her dreams of getting out of the house
"Mary tyler Moore" 70's - feminism
"Cheers" -80's strong intellectual woman and doofus boss
Then there's "Dallas", "Dynasty" to show us how our betters live {/sarcasm}

[Burma Jones]

5. All in the Family - Serious Subjects in a Sitcom

Monday Night Football - Took the NFL up several notches
60 Minutes - News as highly rated Entertainment
Sesame Street - Diversity for the Very Young, for the first time


That's a few I can think of.

[AngryYoungMan]

6. Off the top of my head:

(in no order at all)

Beatles on Ed Sullivan
Star Wars (1st movie)
Nirvana Nevermind
The Naked and the Dead (Norman Mailer)
The Simpsons
Peanuts (comic strip)
Wait, you said "last 50 years." okay, Doonesbury
The Godfather (film more than book)
MTV
Apple Macintosh
Pulp Fiction
Stephen King

if anyone mentions "Less Than Zero" or its ilk I'll strangle them :)

more as I think of them...

on edit: Saturday Night Live
Google

[BurtWorm]

7. Mid sixties, late boomer touchstones:

Captain Kangaroo, Walter Cronkite, Beatles, Stones, Batman (Adam West), Mad magazine, Don Martin, Dave Berg, Spy vs. Spy, Munsters, Addams Family, Gilligan's Island, Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, rat finks, Deputy Dawg, Thunderball XL5, Banana Splits, Atomic Fireballs, Barbie, Ken, Midge, banana-seat bicycles, Atom Ant, Secret Squirrel, Cool McCool, Jell-O, Kool-Aid, Cool Whip, Spaghetti-O's, Maypo, Ovaltine, X-Ray Specs, Sea Monkeys...

I could go on and on and on and on...

[Sandpiper]

8. Elvis shocks 1950s America

Shaking his hips on TV. *gasp*

[Hand]

14. No doubt...

The bluenoses said that he'd corrupt an entire generation--and damned if he didn't!

To The King!

:toast:

[BOSSHOG]

9. The advancement of recording devices

I have MADMAN ACROSS THE WATER (one of the greatest musical compilations ever, by the way) on

eight track
LP
Cassette and
CD
and if I have to, it will be purchased on the next evolution of recording devices

Tangible proof of the evolution of culture and technology from the sixties to the present.

[Loonman]

10. Beatles, Star Trek, MTV(old MTV), Woodstock

John Hughes movies, baby Jessica, Keiko the Killer Whale, Live Aid, Hot Pockets, microwave ovens, Farrah, Scarface, Taxi Driver, Amy Fischer, Lorena Bobbit, Pam Smart, Nancy Kerrigan, Tonya Harding, hostages in Iran, VH1, Yoplait yogurt, wine coolers, Purple Rain, Jacko's hair catches on fire, The Lost Boys, Lollapalooza, Nirvana, Britney, Christina, Debra (nee Debbie) Gibson, Tiffany, Tiffany nude in Playboy, Superbowl Shuffle, Steinbrenner, Sex Pistols, Madonna, Fantasy Island, Toys R Us, McDLT, PCs, VCRs, Fox TV Channel.

[Zomby Woof]

11. M*A*S*H*

Not only highly rated for 11 years, but the finale is still the highest rated show of all time on TV, more than half of America was tuned in. Audiences today are much more diffuse.

Want to add that "The Godfather" novel by Mario Puzo should also be included along with the movie, because from its release in 1969, until James Waller's "Bridges of Madison County" was released in 1994, it was the best-selling novel of all time, and still ranks #2.

Let's also add:

Bob Dylan
Alex Haley's "Roots"
Woodstock

[MissMillie]

12. The Simpsons

and M*A*S*H

[GOPisEvil]

13. The internet.

[OneBlueSky]

15. here's a few resources that might be of interest . . .

http://www.octanecreative.com/boomerbaby/

http://www.sixtiescity.com/

http://web.archive.org/web/20030204024217/www.yesterdayland.com/popopedia/shows/categories/toys/

[CO Liberal]

16. Here Are a Few Off the Top Of My Head

The Hula Hoop
Frisbee
Superball
Barbie and Ken
Cabbage Patch Kids
MTV
People Magazine
The Original VW Beetle
The New VW Beetle
Pickup Trucks
SUVs

[PVnRT]

18. Nirvana's "Nevermind"

Transformed rock music overnight. Literally. Hair bands couldn't play for free after that came out.

[buckeye1]

19. Lets see.

I love Lucy. ,The twilite zone,meet the press (when it was honest) Disney wonderful world of color, mickey mouse club,Perry Mason,Bonanza,saturday nite at the movies, laugh in,the smothers brothers,mission impossible,hogan's heros,all in the family, sanford&son,Barnie miller,WKRP, the flintstones,60 minutes,the honeymooners,Truth or consequences,many more. but I have to go.

[Bossy Monkey]

20. Kicky! Thanks everybody! Keep 'em comin' n/t

[lpbk2713]

21. Micro-electronics

The "chip" and digital electronics. Caused a quiet revolution.

[Papa]

22. KISS in the 1970's

They were huge, the Beatles of my generation.

[TheMightyFavog]

23. Kraftwerk's Trans-Europe Express

Ended up influencing urban American culture, especailly Afrika Bambatta's Planet Rock, the techniques deveolped from Bambatta playing with Trans-Europe Express infulenced urban culture and later mainstream culture.

[PrestoChango]

24. Hmm... MTV?

First thing that popped into my head with regard to my generation...
Cool topic! Don't know if I am answering the question properly though.

On edit: Should have read all the replies first.
Additions:
Cable tv in general & HBO
E.T.
Wheaties
Mary Lou Retton
Michael Jordan
Nike
Adidas
The GoGo's
Prince
Michael Jackson
The Outsiders

[fudge stripe cookays]

25. Disco...

Rubiks' Cube
parachute pants
jelly shoes
Prince
Care Bears
thirtysomething
line dancing
Martha Stewart
hair bands
80s big hair
Spuds MacKenzie
California Raisins
Teddy Ruxpin


hmmmm....more later....

[Whitacre D_WI]

26. I'm sorry. I have no choice.

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnny Ray, South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio, Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, Television, North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe, Rosenbergs, H Bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom, Brando, The King And I, and The Catcher In The Rye, Eisenhower, Vaccine, England's got a new queen, Maciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye, Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev, Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc, Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dacron, Dien Bien Phu Falls, Rock Around the Clock, Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team, Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland, Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev, Princess Grace, Peyton Place, Trouble in the Suez, Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac, Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, Bridge On The River Kwai, Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball, Starkwether, Homicide, Children of Thalidomide, Buddy Holly, Ben Hur, Space Monkey, Mafia, Hula Hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go, U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy, Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo, Hemingway, Eichman, Stranger in a Strange Land, Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion, Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatlemania, Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson, Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British Politician sex, J.F.K. blown away, what else do I have to say? Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again, Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock, Begin, Reagan, Palestine, Terror on the airline, Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan, Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide, Foreign debts, homeless Vets, AIDS, Crack, Bernie Goetz, Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law, Rock and Roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore


I feel so dirty now.

[Insider]

27. Roots...Soul Train...Bill Cosby

bill cosby thru fat albert, i spy, then the cosby show. he influenced tv forever for african-american images.

roots had incredible influence, and boosted the "mini-series"

don cornelius was comparable to dick clark for black performers, and he was great businessman, behind the scenes for more years after being in front of the camera.

[Kat45]

28. Sadly, the whole OJ thing, from the chase through the trial

Then, if that in and of itself wasn't enough, it led to the popularity of trials being on TV, Court TV, etc.

[Must_B_Free]

29. Sesame Street