The Fifties - S1 E1

2. Selling the American Way

Television makes its popular debut. TV is a great selling tool, manufacturing demand for everything from automobiles to zany inventions. Business and governments all begin to learn (and wield) the power of the new media.

3. Let's Play House

Conforming to the idealized visions of family as depicted on their new televisions, Americans settle into enjoying their American Dreams but discordant voices are beginning to be heard. Grace Metallious's Peyton Place, Sloan Wilson's The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, and the opinions of feminists like Betty Friedan begin to make Americans question the idealized nuclear family.

4. A Burning Desire

During an otherwise repressed time, Americans again question their ideas of "normal" when the Kinsey report is published, Marilyn Monroe debuts as the centerfold in Hugh Heffner's Playboy, and Margaret Sanger and "Goody" Pincus begin to make noise about "The Pill."

5. The Beat

Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Elvis. Conformity is questioned and homogenized America begins to differentiate. The teenager as a class is born. Popular music is forever changed by the advent of Rock n Roll. Beat poets push our boundaries and America begins to question everything.

6. The Rage Within

From Emmet Till to Willie Mays, Americans begin to seriously reconsider how they confront issues of race in America.

7. The Road to the Sixties

Fast food and fast cars occupy Americans' thoughts until the Soviets launch Sputnik and the space race begins.