The Great American Dream Machine

This, like entirely too many early PBS shows, not only was underfunded initially (and certainly too willing to mock Nixon's America to be tolerated for long in the immediately pre-Watergate period), but has fallen into a ditch in terms of who owns the rights at this late date (you can't get a legit home copy of, say, the Kurt Vonnegut adaptation BETWEEN TIME AND TIMBUKTU for similar reasons). Those who've seen it, now more than three decades ago, tend to remember bits and pieces; the closest thing it had to a unifying on screen presence was Marshall Efron, who went onto his PAINLESS Sunday SCHOOL program after this one's defunding, but the innovative sketches, animation, and even wry reportage make it even more a predecessor of what was best in the early Saturday NIGHT LIVE than Albert Brooks and Chevy Chase's participation. As a child, I loved it, even when I found it very strange.

(Note to editors--you have an extraneous listing for BETWEEN TIME AND TIMBUKTU--it's listed once as a film, once as a TV series. It was a film for PBS.)

Few people I know remember Marshall Efron's Great American Dream Machine on Public Television originally broadcast during the Winter of '71 - '72. At the time I thought it was one of the best things on TV, and tried not to miss an episode (even in re-runs on West Virginia Public TV out of Morgantown). My fondest memory is of Carly Simon performing a song. I would very much like to find a source for tapes of the show. I was originally motivated to watch it because of Chevy Chase. I was introduced to his talent at "Channel One", a closed circuit TV theater in NYC around '69. It was really brilliant stuff, too. Was it all in B&W, or is my memory faulty?

I was in my early teens, just barely aware of political issues. This show was a graspable take on current events that allowed a young mind to achieve a degree of healthy skepticism of 'mainstream' news.

That flavor has served me well with today's similarly insane political climate. Unfortunately, there is no Great American Dream Machine to turn to for perspective.

Many of the bits were clearly anti establishment and it was those that caused the show to have such a short run. I suspect these days it would never even make it out of the PBS boardroom presentation. It throws today's news entertainment in sharp relief.

At very least, this show is an historically important slice of the early '70s when freedom of speech could, for a time, exist even if it was unpopular with the mainstream power structure.

I, too, was a young teen who became much more politically aware thanks to this wonderful program's focus on current events through a counter-culture perspective.

My more vivid memories, however, are of Chevy Chase and Ken Shapiro (I think) in mime's white face, with Ken playing Chevy's head like a bongo to the rhythm of classical music selections.

There was also a semi-regular cooking-show segment with disastrous instructions for such culinary misfires as the Fourth of July "Freedom Loaf."

How I would love to re-experience the series on DVD.

Not surprisingly, the best two series that were ever on TV began their runs in the early 1970s when the counter-culture was at its zenith and the powerful had not yet organized their own powerful counterattack to limit the boundaries of acceptable discourse. The ending of the GADM was essentially the beginning of this counterattack. There would never be another radical (i.e., going to the roots) TV series on PBS. In other words, public TV would again revert to being contained by corporate interests.

For those of you naive enough to think that the US does not limit free speech, the history of the ending of this show is the perfect eye-opener for you. Of course, we currently have the response of the corporate media to OWS to show us how dissent is treated when it expresses the wishes and desires of the majority. Polls show that the majority favors reductions in military spending -- including ending wars and pulling back from overseas bases (perhaps 200 military bases overseas would be enough!), increases in taxes on the wealthy, securing Social Security, expanding and improving Medicare to include all citizens, etc. These majority opinions are labeled as outside the mainstream by the talking heads of corporate TV (and of course, corporate TV includes PBS nowadays).

The GADM consisted of two complementary thrusts. One was a hilarious send-up of the corporatized culture of the USA. Here you would be treated to skits such as Marshall Efron's hilarious affirmation of the trash compactor's ability to turn 50 pounds of trash into a smaller 50 pounds of trash or his presentation on the manufacturing of "food" that had the immediate consequence of my spouse and I eating at least somewhat healthier.

The other component was equally entertaining and more directly thought-provoking. Studs Terkel led discussions of American life with actual Americans who the majority of us could empathize with. Real Americans who make commentators on corporate TV like George Will seem like a visitor from an effete planet. Another segment featured the commentary of Andy Rooney. This Andy Rooney was more in his stride than the later version popularized on 60 Minutes. Interestingly but not surprisingly, this Andy Rooney was never mentioned in the encomiums after his recent death.

Once killed by Nixon this show was never repeated. The other series from this period can still be seen however. "All in the Family" while not comparable to the GADM for its direct challenges to the corporatization of American life is still unsurpassed for its humor while maintaining a challenging compassion for those struggling with trying to understand what the Great American Dream really is.