The 1950s was the dawn of the television age. Look online, on sites like YouTube (Links to an external site.), and find an episode of a popular television show from this time period (post World War II through the end of the 1950s).
Watch the episode, then create a PowerPoint presentation about it. This presentation should be about 10 slides long. Remember: every slide needs a citation for the information/images on it! Citations can be listed on the last slid of presentation in Chicago Style format.
You should include a link to the show you watched, a visual image about the show, and a brief description of what the show was about. Include the name of show or series, when it ran, who starred in it, and who, if anyone, sponsored the show.
Note: Your assignment will be checked for originality via the Turnitin plagiarism tool. For more information on how to view the Turnitin report, click here (Links to an external site.).
Then, think like a historian! (Because yes: historians who study pop culture are absolutely a thing.) You should tell me what the radio show you chose can reveal about American society at the time. Please do not just say it was not in HD or in color, or only used one camera. You need to think about what it says about society in America. Remember: these shows were created so that people would like them. Their goal is to appeal to people. Therefore, the writers/producers/etc. of radio shows created something they thought people would like, and if the show was popular, that means they succeeded! A TV show (or, for that matter, a novel or movie or radio show or podcast or blog or whatever else it might be) can tell historians what people liked, what people felt comfortable with, and what people’s assumptions were.
For example, think about questions like these (not every question will be relevant to every show, but this should give you an idea of the sorts of things you should be thinking about):
How does it portray life?
Do you think that was reality, or what the creators of the show wanted reality to be?
What kinds of things were portrayed that would never be portrayed today?
What kinds of things were not portrayed, that are commonly portrayed today?
Based on these shows, what was the ideal 1950s life like?
