Anyone watch CNN The 70's: Crimes & Cults?

[wiseguy182]

The 60's were a decade riddled by numerous catastrophic events, including the assassination of multiple top political figures, wars, and what have you.

The 70's continued the trend of depressing news events, and a skyrocketing domestic crime rate, as profiled on CNN's recent, multi-part series on the decade.

Among those profiled were some cases featured on UM, such as the Zodiac Killer and Son of Sam. Also profiled were some of the most (in)famous and prolific murderers of the time period, such as John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, Charles Manson and the like.

I wish they would have done a piece on Etan Patz for the special, as that had kicked off the public becoming aware of child abductions and missing children on milk cartons.

As with UM, they also have episodes devoted to lighter fare, such as popular music and t.v. shows of the era. There's currently an ongoing series of specials devoted to the awesome 80's. Haven't seen them yet, but UM and AMW should totally get a mention.

[SheRaaa]

Wow, that looks interesting....will watch out for it!

I always wonder why the mid-70s through the mid-90s seemed to be such a crime-addled stretch in the U.S....

[wiseguy182]

The Hillside Stranglers, Jim Jones and Dean Corll, aka "The Candyman" also had pieces done on them. There were a few others, including the 2 women who tried to assassinate President Ford.

I didn't see anything on Wayne Williams, aka the Atlanta Child Murderer, although I think that's for 2 reasons: 1) his crimes dipped into the 80's, and 2) CNN did do a Special Report episode on him previously.

[MegtheEgg86]

Originally Posted by SheRaaa

I always wonder why the mid-70s through the mid-90s seemed to be such a crime-addled stretch in the U.S....

I've read about some extremely interesting possible explanations for why the crime rate has been drastically reduced since that period of time, including the reduction of lead in the environment and the legalization of abortion (a controversial position). More often, I've seen it linked to tougher, longer prison sentences for violent offenses, although I'm personally skeptical of that being a singular explanation.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...-rate-plunging

If he's hanging out over here at the moment, justin has a formal education in this kind of stuff and could probably offer some good insight.

[James T]

Originally Posted by MegtheEgg86

I've read about some extremely interesting possible explanations for why the crime rate has been drastically reduced since that period of time, including the reduction of lead in the environment and the legalization of abortion (a controversial position). More often, I've seen it linked to tougher, longer prison sentences for violent offenses, although I'm personally skeptical of that being a singular explanation.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...-rate-plunging

If he's hanging out over here at the moment, justin has a formal education in this kind of stuff and could probably offer some good insight.

Could be the war on drugs getting a lot of them off the streets.

[Awsi Dooger]

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

There's currently an ongoing series of specials devoted to the awesome 80's. Haven't seen them yet, but UM and AMW should totally get a mention.

You've got to be kidding. More evidence that pig farmers believe the world revolves around pig farming.

Those series have an incredible burden of summarizing an entire decade in only a handful of episodes. I've watched every one. CNN started with the Sixties two summers ago and the Seventies at about this time last year. Very interesting and well done. But it's incredible how many huge stories and trends don't even bite a mention. By necessity and logic it's a fraction of a fraction of one percent. I've seen comments from producers that they agonized over decisions and had to leave out entire episodes that were initially planned, largely because those episodes dealt with their biases and preferred topics before being replaced by episodes that more properly summarized an important aspect of the decade.

America's Most Wanted seemingly would have a small chance at a mention if CNN had delayed a crime-focused episode until the Eighties series, or even the Nineties episodes, which presumably will air a year from now. But since CNN, as mentioned, chose to devote a full hour to Crime and Cults in the Seventies series, long before America's Most Wanted debuted, it's extremely doubtful.

Unsolved Mysteries was never significant enough to warrant a mention in a series like that, a series that will be replayed decades if not centuries from now. Future generations are going to be fascinated by video accounts of past eras, especially when people who were alive at the time are recounting the events as opposed to historians alone. Frankly it is unfortunate that CNN waited so long to debut this series. The Fifties would have been a proper and easily available starting point if undertaken 10 or 15 years ago when so many more mainstays from that era were still alive and vital. The Forties have been covered exhaustively and effectively, for obvious reasons.

On this forum we may view Unsolved Mysteries for the serious cases, and crimes that were later solved. But mention the program to outsiders and the impressions are wildly different. I've tried it many times, online and in person. The goofy segments are mentioned, at least in equal weight to true crime. CNN and its producers like Tom Hanks are huge favorites to hold that view. America's Most Wanted held exponentially more gravitas, if not the curiosity.

BTW, I appreciate that CNN chose to spell out the names of the decades...Sixties, Seventies. If they had relied on abbreviations you would inevitably get the butchered abbreviation, with 60's instead of proper '60s. In fact, I have seen the ghastly versions occasionally in reference to the CNN series. It's unbelievable how often that apostrophe is placed in front of a lower case s when it doesn't belong there, in numerical usage and everyday writing.