Many of the conflicts of this era were perceived
and presented as manifestations of a fundamental
and eternal struggle between the older and younger
generations. The proliferation and acceptance of
the belief in the ‘generation gap’ and popular
slogans such as ‘never trust anyone over the age
of thirty ’ helped to polarize American society in
a way that tended to obscure and break down
the more traditional loyalties based on class and
race.
The older males who ruled the political,
economic, scientific, military and industrial estab-
lishments were characterized as enemies of justice
and freedom. The resulting conflict between the
younger and older generations within American
society paralleled the class and racial struggles of
the day and was just as fierce and earnestly fought.
The sexual revolution and the peace, free speech,
civil rights and hippie movements, were as much
about forcibly transferring power from elderly
males to the younger generation as they were about
generic political and social reform. With great
prescience, the television industry recognized
the centrality of these concerns and developed
popular news and entertainment programs that
explored and exploited these anxieties.
Of all the news media, television played the
largest role in projecting frightening images into
middle-class American homes and inadvertently,
perhaps, planting the seeds of despair. At the
same time, however, television offered escapist
fare that helped alleviate tensions and restore
perceptions of social stability and prosperity.In
addition to escapist television drama and
comedy, televised coverage of the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
ventures into outer space reinforced the patently
religious belief that solutions to the world’s
problems were to be found in science and in
space exploration. As always,television stepped
in to reinforce this belief as well. The various
science fiction television series of the 1960s,
however, did not merely offer up panegyrics to
science or plant propaganda for the space
program or for the development of nuclear
power. The producers and writers of these tele-
vision programs employed the medium to explore
popular feelings and anxieties about social and
political change, and to analyze the limits of the
ability of man to control the world and the destiny
of mankind. |
In this artistic context, many questions were
raised. For instance, were detrimental conservative
political and social attitudes a natural result of
aging or were they merely the fossilized reactions
to powerful events, such as World War II and the
Great Depression, experienced by the older
generation when they were young and impression-
able? Accordingly, was it possible for the aging
male to overcome his early conditioning and
successfully adapt to novel circumstances and
conditions? Could the aging male ever exert any
positive influence over society?
These and other questions were explored in
the four most imaginative and acclaimed science
fiction television series of the 1960s: The Twilight
Zone (1959 –1965), The Outer Limits (1963 –1965),
Star Trek (1966 –1969) and Lost in Space
(1965 –1968). Both The Twilight Zone and The
Outer Limits were anthology shows, a format in
which each week’s episode is a dramatization of a
short story without any narrative connection to
any other episode. Star Trek and Lost in Space were
dramatic serials characterized by unified narrative
and thematic development that spanned 3 years in
each case. In each episode, the regular cast in these
two programs faced unexpected challenges and
experienced new crises that threatened their
survival in a hostile alien environment. The thrill of
these dramatic series lay in the suspense generated
by doubt over whether the characters would
overcome the unearthly and seemingly insur-
mountable hurdles encountered in each episode.
THE TWILIGHT ZONE
As the most popular anthology show of its
genre, The Twilight Zone owed its success to the
creative genius of producer and writer Rod Serling
(1924 –1975). Among the 152 episodes of this
science fiction show,one of the most potent
presentations of futuristic science developed and
harnessed by the aging male was ‘Uncle Simon’.
This episode explored the way that science can
magnify and make more dangerous the failings of
the elderly male1. ‘Uncle Simon’ took a particu-
larly pessimistic view of the potential for mankind
to employ technology to improve the human
condition. Instead, scientific advancement was
presented as a means for increasing the ability of
the elderly male to torment and hinder the
younger generation. |
