In a Slice of the 60's, Hold the
Nostalgia
By KATE AURTHUR
Published: March 9, 2005
NY Times
Jonathan Prince, the creator of "American
Dreams," the family drama that takes place
during the 1960's, recently recounted how he
pitched the show to NBC: "I said, 'This is
about 10 years in our country's history, from
Camelot to Watergate.' "
The pitch continued, "What did we lose and
what did we learn in those 10 years?"
That was in the summer of 2001. Now, after
a five-week hiatus, the show resumes its
third season but in a new time period: tonight
at 8 , Eastern and Pacific times; 7, Central
time. Mr. Prince, in a telephone interview
from Los Angeles, said he had always
imagined that "American Dreams" would be
a topical show. Its plots would dramatize the
whiplash-inducing changes of the
1960's before a nostalgic backdrop of the
music of "American Bandstand," on which
two teenage characters are dancers. He
planned to end the pilot episode with
the main characters - a Philadelphia family -
hearing the news that President John F.
Kennedy had been assassinated.
After Sept. 11, 2001, Mr. Prince said, he
realized that the show would no longer be
rooted in nostalgia: that in the series's fall
2002 debut, the mourning in the aftermath of
Kennedy's death would remind viewers
of the days following the terrorist attacks the
previous year. "After 9/11, suddenly there
were people saying, 'I know what it's like to
have that sense of loss in our country,' " he
said. With this new idea of making "American
Dreams" reflect today's political landscape,
Mr. Prince went forward. " 'A nation
grieves' became the first parallel," he said.
But not the last. In its two and a half years on
television, "American Dreams" has illustrated
the struggles of the 1960's - over roiling
issues like civil rights, women in the
workplace and abortion - through their effect
on the show's characters. Throughout, the
central character, Meg Pryor (Brittany
Snow), has continued to dance on "American
Bandstand," which, on the series, stands
apart from the political turbulence she's
witnessing.
Kevin Reilly, the president of NBC
Entertainment, said
that narrative touchstone had allowed
"American Dreams" to achieve a tonal
balance between comfort and
cultural disarray. "It started in a relatively
benign place and has had to evolve with the
chronology of history," he said in a recent
telephone interview. "It's true to the tumult of
the era, but it still leaves you with a warm
feeling."
The show was moved from the Sunday slot it
had occupied since its debut because after
two years of decent ratings, it lost a chunk of
its audience last fall to ABC's "Extreme
Makeover: Home Edition."
Mr. Reilly said he was committed to giving
"American Dreams" a chance, having paired
it with another topical drama, "The West
Wing." "Anytime you have a show of quality
that is also advertising-friendly - and there
are several significant advertisers that
have really backed the show - that's a
business we can live with even if it's not a
major hit by the numbers," he said.
In the last year, the show has focused on the
Vietnam War, both overseas and on the
home front, as the conflict expanded in 1965
and 1966. Meg's brother, J. J. (Will Estes),
became a marine and viewers watched
his experience in Vietnam. In turn, worried
about his enlistment, the high school student
Meg was swept up in the burgeoning antiwar
movement.
In telling this 40-year-old story, Mr. Prince
said, the series "became the most
contemporary show on the network." He
listed the analogous threads between then
and now, as he has written them into the
show: "This nasty little war we're fighting in
'63 and '64, like the war in Iraq, starts to feel
like this isn't going to be a quickie. You have
a country that's divided. And if you don't agree
with the Texas president, you're
un-American."
To chronicle a realistic story about a soldier's
experience in Vietnam, as well as how that
reflected on Iraq, Mr. Prince said, he had to
send J. J. away for a length of time that made
him uncomfortable as a producer. But when
it became clear that the United States military
was not leaving Iraq anytime soon, he
decided it was safe to put J. J. in combat for a
year to show "the grunt's-eye view," he said.
In episodes that began last January, J. J.
was in Saigon and the Cambodian jungle,
held captive, wounded and eventually sent
home.
Sgt. Maj. James Dever, the show's military
consultant and a retired marine who served
in Vietnam, said in a telephone interview
from California that he brought in as extras
marines who had served in Iraq, to make the
action scenes realistic. "Nobody has really
shown the earlier version of Vietnam,"
Sergeant Major Dever said of "American
Dreams." A lot of the Vietnam veterans
I've talked to love that it shows how things
were changing at home."
Through the series's family prism, what was
changing at home was Meg's political
awareness. In the finale of the second
season, she was arrested at a protest.
Last fall, she directed a school play, "Henry
V," and turned it into an antiwar parable. Mr.
Prince chose Meg as the activist character
because "when Meg is screaming about the
war, it comes from her body and her heart
because of her brother," he said.
"It's not an intellectual treatise about Abbie
Hoffman and the boys at Brandeis," he
added. "We've seen that a million times."
Mr. Prince described his political bent without
hedging: "I'm a staunch left-leaning liberal
Democrat." But he said the show wasn't
meant to
reflect those views. "The red states think that
this is their show, because it's about family
values," he said. "And the blue states think
it's their show because it's about a sister
protesting an unjust war that her brother's
fighting in. I'm content to live on both sides of
the aisle."
He will need viewers of all party affiliations to
watch "American Dreams" for the rest of the
season if it is to be renewed. He said he was
hopeful. "I've produced a lot of shows, and
I've had a lot of failures," he said. "And I know
how and when to give up. With this one, I
can't give up."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/09/arts/televi
sion/09drea.html
Nostalgia
By KATE AURTHUR
Published: March 9, 2005
NY Times
Jonathan Prince, the creator of "American
Dreams," the family drama that takes place
during the 1960's, recently recounted how he
pitched the show to NBC: "I said, 'This is
about 10 years in our country's history, from
Camelot to Watergate.' "
The pitch continued, "What did we lose and
what did we learn in those 10 years?"
That was in the summer of 2001. Now, after
a five-week hiatus, the show resumes its
third season but in a new time period: tonight
at 8 , Eastern and Pacific times; 7, Central
time. Mr. Prince, in a telephone interview
from Los Angeles, said he had always
imagined that "American Dreams" would be
a topical show. Its plots would dramatize the
whiplash-inducing changes of the
1960's before a nostalgic backdrop of the
music of "American Bandstand," on which
two teenage characters are dancers. He
planned to end the pilot episode with
the main characters - a Philadelphia family -
hearing the news that President John F.
Kennedy had been assassinated.
After Sept. 11, 2001, Mr. Prince said, he
realized that the show would no longer be
rooted in nostalgia: that in the series's fall
2002 debut, the mourning in the aftermath of
Kennedy's death would remind viewers
of the days following the terrorist attacks the
previous year. "After 9/11, suddenly there
were people saying, 'I know what it's like to
have that sense of loss in our country,' " he
said. With this new idea of making "American
Dreams" reflect today's political landscape,
Mr. Prince went forward. " 'A nation
grieves' became the first parallel," he said.
But not the last. In its two and a half years on
television, "American Dreams" has illustrated
the struggles of the 1960's - over roiling
issues like civil rights, women in the
workplace and abortion - through their effect
on the show's characters. Throughout, the
central character, Meg Pryor (Brittany
Snow), has continued to dance on "American
Bandstand," which, on the series, stands
apart from the political turbulence she's
witnessing.
Kevin Reilly, the president of NBC
Entertainment, said
that narrative touchstone had allowed
"American Dreams" to achieve a tonal
balance between comfort and
cultural disarray. "It started in a relatively
benign place and has had to evolve with the
chronology of history," he said in a recent
telephone interview. "It's true to the tumult of
the era, but it still leaves you with a warm
feeling."
The show was moved from the Sunday slot it
had occupied since its debut because after
two years of decent ratings, it lost a chunk of
its audience last fall to ABC's "Extreme
Makeover: Home Edition."
Mr. Reilly said he was committed to giving
"American Dreams" a chance, having paired
it with another topical drama, "The West
Wing." "Anytime you have a show of quality
that is also advertising-friendly - and there
are several significant advertisers that
have really backed the show - that's a
business we can live with even if it's not a
major hit by the numbers," he said.
In the last year, the show has focused on the
Vietnam War, both overseas and on the
home front, as the conflict expanded in 1965
and 1966. Meg's brother, J. J. (Will Estes),
became a marine and viewers watched
his experience in Vietnam. In turn, worried
about his enlistment, the high school student
Meg was swept up in the burgeoning antiwar
movement.
In telling this 40-year-old story, Mr. Prince
said, the series "became the most
contemporary show on the network." He
listed the analogous threads between then
and now, as he has written them into the
show: "This nasty little war we're fighting in
'63 and '64, like the war in Iraq, starts to feel
like this isn't going to be a quickie. You have
a country that's divided. And if you don't agree
with the Texas president, you're
un-American."
To chronicle a realistic story about a soldier's
experience in Vietnam, as well as how that
reflected on Iraq, Mr. Prince said, he had to
send J. J. away for a length of time that made
him uncomfortable as a producer. But when
it became clear that the United States military
was not leaving Iraq anytime soon, he
decided it was safe to put J. J. in combat for a
year to show "the grunt's-eye view," he said.
In episodes that began last January, J. J.
was in Saigon and the Cambodian jungle,
held captive, wounded and eventually sent
home.
Sgt. Maj. James Dever, the show's military
consultant and a retired marine who served
in Vietnam, said in a telephone interview
from California that he brought in as extras
marines who had served in Iraq, to make the
action scenes realistic. "Nobody has really
shown the earlier version of Vietnam,"
Sergeant Major Dever said of "American
Dreams." A lot of the Vietnam veterans
I've talked to love that it shows how things
were changing at home."
Through the series's family prism, what was
changing at home was Meg's political
awareness. In the finale of the second
season, she was arrested at a protest.
Last fall, she directed a school play, "Henry
V," and turned it into an antiwar parable. Mr.
Prince chose Meg as the activist character
because "when Meg is screaming about the
war, it comes from her body and her heart
because of her brother," he said.
"It's not an intellectual treatise about Abbie
Hoffman and the boys at Brandeis," he
added. "We've seen that a million times."
Mr. Prince described his political bent without
hedging: "I'm a staunch left-leaning liberal
Democrat." But he said the show wasn't
meant to
reflect those views. "The red states think that
this is their show, because it's about family
values," he said. "And the blue states think
it's their show because it's about a sister
protesting an unjust war that her brother's
fighting in. I'm content to live on both sides of
the aisle."
He will need viewers of all party affiliations to
watch "American Dreams" for the rest of the
season if it is to be renewed. He said he was
hopeful. "I've produced a lot of shows, and
I've had a lot of failures," he said. "And I know
how and when to give up. With this one, I
can't give up."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/09/arts/televi
sion/09drea.html