Television & Social Consciousness

• The Beverly Hillbillies


  TV show cancelled by CBS
• All in the Family


  TV show that replaced The Beverly Hillbillies, focused on social issues like abortion, sexuality, Vietnam War, racism, women's liberation
• Archie Bunker


  • Central character, WW2 veteran and blue-collar worker who ranted at black people, feminists, homosexuals and hippies
• Maude


  TV show with a feminist central character
• The Mary Tyler Moore Show


  TV show about a 30 year old, single, intelligent working woman facing sexist men in the workplace
• Gay Activist Alliance forced TV networks


  Into more sympathetic portrayal of homosexuals
• A Question of Love


  TV movie about a lesbian mother's child custody case
• Roots


  ABC mini series exploring the origins of America's racial tensions, based on the story of the enslavement of Alex Haley's ancestors
• 100 million viewers turned in for the last episode of Roots, nearly half America's population