The Networks and the New Wave Hollywood Faces Disaster By 1960 television had “liberated” cinema by taking over its function as mass entertainment. Without a clear idea of what its post-television role should be or how to satisfy its increasingly disparate audience, Hollywood was in limbo for much of the next decade. The old studio moguls were either dead, in retirement, or battling to maintain a tenuous control over their companies. With them had gone confidence about production. Read More The New Youth Audience Dennis Hopper, actor, director, photographer and art collector, began his film career in the mid-1950s when he started acting as a teenager with a small role in “Rebel Without a Cause,” followed by “Giant.” He has starred in more than 150 films and appeared in over 140 television shows. Read More Art Cinema and the New Wave As the major Hollywood studios began to lose their domination of the American movie industry and turn their attention to television production, the leadership was taken up by independent producers and directors, making their own films and then distributing them through the networks originally established by companies. Read More Television in the Sixties On September 23, 1961, NBC introduced its new series, "Saturday Night at the Movies," featuring Marilyn Monroe, Lauren Bacall and Betty Grable in "How to Marry a Millionaire." This broadcast was an astounding success and pointed to Hollywood's growing inclination to release its post-1948 movies to television. Seven more series representing all three networks and every night of the week appeared over the next five years. Read More Vietnam: Bringing the War Home As the Vietnam War shook the country's faith in their government, it also influenced writers, philosophers and theologians to question the metaphysical implications of these events. Vietnam, the first rock'n' roll war, was also the first television war, with combat footage on the nightly news. Read More American Television and the Wider World The very first made-for-TV movie, "See How They Run," premiered on October 17, 1964, a few months sooner than expected. This Universal production is a crime melodrama that was quickly followed six weeks later by the broadcast of Don Siegel's next excursion into the telefilm genre, "The Hanged Man." Like "The Killers" before it, Siegel's second assignment for NBC-MCA is another remake of a classic film noir, "Ride the Pink Horse." Read More