The Fifties: Difference between revisions

[[File:Fifties_Family.jpg|frame|<small>The father is [[Ambiguously Gay|gay]], the mother [[Stay in Thethe Kitchen|wants a real job]], the boy on the left listens to [[Rock and Roll|rock and roll]], the boy on the right [[New Age Retro Hippie|smokes weed]], the little girl is [[Where the White Women At|dating a black man]], the baby is a [[Red Scare|communist]], and the unseen fifth child was [[Informed Deformity|institutionalized for having a birth defect]]. ''But for God's sake '''don't ''say'' anything!'''''</small> ]]

{{quote|''"[[Deliberately Monochrome|The world]] was [[Real Is Brown|beige]] and the music was crap... then "[[Elvis Presley (Music)|Heartbreak Hotel]]" came along and saved us all."''|'''[[Billy Connolly]]'''}}

Finally, there are the Historical Fifties of [[The Nineties]] and the [[Present Day]]. The Nostalgic Fifties are now starting to die out, (although they've been replaced by [[The Eighties]] in spades; ''[[Tron Legacy (Film)|Tron: Legacy]]'' is a particularly good example of this) as there are becoming fewer and fewer writers in Hollywood who remember the Fifties... and many of these writers are the ''children'' of those former "rebellious teens", and take a somewhat more jaundiced view of their parents' upbringing. Therefore, the time period, as portrayed by Hollywood, is becoming more the textbook version. Films about The Fifties today tend more to deal with the political issues of that era (civil rights, McCarthyism, etc.) and less with its teen culture. Which is not to say it is ''necessarily'' any more accurate of course, merely that the decade is now filtered more through a political/ideological lens than a nostalgic one and teenagers aren't the only people that matter.

* [[Stay in Thethe Kitchen]]

* [[Kimba the White Lion (Manga)|Kimba the White Lion]]. The Manga character first appeared in November, 1950.

* [[Hakaba Kitaro (Manga)|Hakaba Kitaro]]. Series started in 1959.

* [[Tintin (Comic Book)]]. Series started in 1929.

** ''[[Tintin (Comic Book)/Recap/Land of Black Gold|Land of Black Gold]]'' (1950).

** ''[[Tintin (Comic Book)/Recap/Destination Moon|Destination Moon]]'' (1953).

** ''[[Tintin (Comic Book)/Recap/Explorers on the Moon|Explorers on the Moon]]'' (1954).

** ''[[Tintin (Comic Book)/Recap/The Calculus Affair|The Calculus Affair]]'' (1956).

** ''[[Tintin (Comic Book)/Recap/The Red Sea Sharks|The Red Sea Sharks]]'' (1958).

* [[Piet Pienter Enen Bert Bibber]]. First appeared in 1950.

* [[Mad (Magazine)|Mad]] originally started as a comic book, with it's first issue debuting in August, 1952. It later converted to a magazine format by issue twenty-four in order to appease Harvey Kurtzman and keep him on as editor.

* [[The Beezer (Comic Book)|The Beezer]]. Magazine launched in January, 1956.

* [[Batwoman (Comic Book)|Batwoman]]/Kathy Kane. First appeared in July, 1956.

* [[Green Lantern (Comic Book)|Green Lantern]]/Hal Jordan. First appeared in October, 1959.

** ''[[The Day the Earth Stood Still (Film)|The Day the Earth Stood Still]]'' (1951), a film about the human race being punished for the foolishness of the [[Cold War]].

** ''[[Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Film)|Invasion of the Body Snatchers]]'' (1956), a horror movie (with at least one good remake in [[The Seventies]]) about [[Pod People|conformism]].

** ''[[The Wild One (Film)|The Wild One]]'' (1953)

* [[Creature From the Black Lagoon (Film)|Creature Fromfrom the Black Lagoon]] (1954)

* [[Godzilla (Franchise)|Godzilla]]. The film series started in 1954.

** ''[[Rebel Without a Cause (Film)|Rebel Without a Cause]]'' (1955)

** ''[[Attack of the Crab Monsters (Film)|Attack of the Crab Monsters]]'' (1957)

*** ''[[Attack of the Eye Creatures (Film)|Attack of the Eye Creatures]]'' (1965) is a remake of the above.

** ''[[Plan 9 From Outer Space (Film)|Plan 9 Fromfrom Outer Space]]'' (1959)

* ''[[Pleasantville (Film)|Pleasantville]]'' (1998) is a [[Deconstruction]].

* ''[[My FathersFather's Dragon (Literature)|My Fathers Dragon]]'' series by Ruth Stiles Gannett.

* ''[[A Murder Is Announced]]'' (1950) by [[Agatha Christie (Creator)|Agatha Christie]].

* ''[[The Old Man and The Sea (Literature)|The Old Man and Thethe Sea]]'' (1952) by [[Ernest Hemingway (Creator)|Ernest Hemingway]].

* ''[[Wise Blood (Literature)|Wise Blood]]'' (1952) by [[Flannery O 'Connor]].

* ''[[James Bond (Literaturenovel)|James Bond]]''. The novel series started in 1953.

** [[Live and Let Die (Literaturenovel)|Live and Let Die]] (April, 1954).

** ''[[Moonraker (Literaturenovel)|Moonraker]]'' (April, 1955).

* ''[[Pnin]]'' (1957) by [[Vladimir Nabokov (Creator)|Vladimir Nabokov]].

* ''[[Naked Lunch]]'' (1959) by [[William S. Burroughs]].

* ''[[The Tin Drum (Literature)|The Tin Drum]]'' (1959) by Günter Grass. The frame story is set in the 1950s.

* ''[[The Adventures of Superman (TV)|The Adventures of Superman]]''

* ''[[Alfred Hitchcock Presents (TV)|Alfred Hitchcock Presents]]''

* ''[[The Burns and Allen Show (Radio)|The Burns and Allen Show]]''

* ''[[Colgate Comedy Hour (TV)|Colgate Comedy Hour]]''

* ''[[Father Knows Best (TV)|Father Knows Best]]''

* ''[[I Love Lucy (TV)|I Love Lucy]]''

* ''[[The Jack Benny Program (Radio)|The Jack Benny Program]]''

* ''[[Lassie (TV series)|Lassie]]''

* ''[[Leave It to Beaver (TV)|Leave It to Beaver]]''

* ''[[The Lone Ranger (Radio)|The Lone Ranger]]''

* ''[[Peter Gunn (TV)|Peter Gunn]]''

* ''[[The Twilight Zone (TV)|The Twilight Zone]]'' (Though often with a lot of [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|none-too-subtle]] political commentary disguised as [[Sci Fi]].)

* [[Chuck Berry (Music)|Chuck Berry]]. First recording in 1955.

* [[James Brown (Music)|James Brown]]. Debuted in 1955, first hit single in 1956.

* [[Johnny Cash (Music)|Johnny Cash]]. Debuted in 1955.

* [[Ray Charles (Music)|Ray Charles]]. Career started in the 1940s. First chart hit in 1953.

* [[Bobby Darin (Music)|Bobby Darin]]. First recording in 1956.

* [[Bo Diddley (Music)|Bo Diddley]]. First recording in 1955.

* [[Aretha Franklin (Music)|Aretha Franklin]]. Debuted in 1956 with the album ''Songs of Faith''.

* [[Buddy Holly (Music)|Buddy Holly]]. Had his first recording in 1956, first studio album in 1957.

* [[George Jones (Music)|George Jones]]. Debuted in 1954, first chart hit in 1955.

* [[Jerry Lee Lewis (Music)|Jerry Lee Lewis]]. First recording in 1956.

* [[Little Richard (Music)|Little Richard]]. First recording in 1951, first chart hit in 1955.

* [[Roy Orbison (Music)|Roy Orbison]]. Released a number of singles, starting in 1956.

* [[Elvis Presley (Music)|Elvis Presley]]. Had his first recording in 1953, signed a professional contract in 1954.

* [[Cliff Richard (Music)|Cliff Richard]]. First hit single in 1958, debut album in 1959.

* [[Simon and Garfunkel (Music)|Simon and Garfunkel]]. Duo formed in 1957.

* [[Frank Sinatra (Music)|Frank Sinatra]]. Recording career started in 1939. Sinatra continued to enjoy mainstream popularity through this decade.

* [[Dean Martin (Music)|Dean Martin]]. Made two recordings in the 40s but didn't become a major success until the following decade.

* German comic ''[[Nick Knatterton (Comic Strip)|Nick Knatterton]]''. First appeared in 1950.

* ''[[Beetle Bailey (Comic Strip)|Beetle Bailey]]''. Started in September, 1950.

* ''[[Peanuts (Comic Strip)|Peanuts]]''. Started in October, 1950.

* ''[[Dennis the Menace US (Comic Strip)|Dennis the Menace US]]''. Started in March, 1951.

* ''[[Marmaduke (Comiccomic Stripstrip)|Marmaduke]]''. Started in 1954.

* ''[[Andy Capp (Comic Strip)|Andy Capp]]''. Started in August, 1957.

* ''[[The Mousetrap (Theatre)|The Mousetrap]]''. Premiered in October, 1952.

* ''[[The Crucible (Theatre)|The Crucible]]''. Premiered in January, 1953.

* ''[[A View From the Bridge (Theatre)|A View Fromfrom the Bridge]]''. Premiered in September, 1955.

* ''[[The Music Man (Theatre)|The Music Man]]''. Premiered in December, 1957.

* [[WWE (Wrestling)|WWE]]. Established in 1952/1953.

* ''[[OXO (Video Game)|OXO]]''. Created in 1952.

* ''[[Tennis for Two (Video Game)|Tennis for Two]]''. Created in 1958.

** ''[[Mr. Magoo (Animation)|Mr. Magoo]]''

** ''[[Gerald McBoing-Boing (Animation)|Gerald McBoing-Boing]]''

** ''[[The Unicorn in Thethe Garden]]'' (1953)

* ''[[Popeye (Comiccomic Stripstrip)|Popeye]]'' and other animated shorts still appeared in theatres, [[Calvin and Hobbes|the only place you could]] [[Deliberately Monochrome|see in color]].

* Despite that most cartoon studios were in decline during this decade, ''[[Looney Tunes (Animation)|Looney Tunes]]'' reached its heyday under the direction of [[Chuck Jones]], as their most acclaimed shorts came out in the Fifties (though only 3 years into the next decade and the studio would be shut down).

** [[Looney Tunes in Thethe Fifties]]

*** ''[[Duck Dodgers in Thethe Twenty Fourth And A Half24½th Century (Film)|Duck Dodgers in The Twenty Fourth And A Half Century]]'' (1953)

*** ''[[What's Opera, Doc? (Film)|What's Opera Doc]]'' (1957)

* MGM was another cartoon studio that was still going strong through most of the Fifties, though they began to cut more corners and use more [[Limited Animation]] as time went on, to the point where the later ''[[Tom and Jerry (Animation)|Tom and Jerry]]'' shorts look a lot like Hanna-Barbera's 60's television work (they were both done by the same people).

* [[Baby Huey (Animation)|Baby Huey]] debuted in 1950.

* [[Chilly Willy (Animation)|Chilly Willy]] debuted in December, 1953.

* [[Tom Terrific (Animation)|Tom Terrific]] debuted in 1957.

* [[Sidney the Elephant (Animation)|Sidney the Elephant]] debuted in 1958.

* [[Hashimotosan (Animation)|HashimotosanHashimoto-san]] debuted in 1959.

** ''[[The Ruff and Reddy Show (Animation)|The Ruff and Reddy Show]]'' (the first animated series made specifically for television)

** ''[[The Huckleberry Hound Show (Animation)|The Huckleberry Hound Show]]''

** ''[[Yogi Bear (Animation)|Yogi Bear]]''

** ''[[Quick Draw McGraw (Animation)|Quick Draw McGraw]]''

* The version of 1955 seen in the ''[[Back to Thethe Future (Filmfilm)|Back to The Future]]'' films has elements of both the Nostalgic Fifties and the Historical Fifties, but seems to generally lean more in the direction of the Nostalgic Fifties.

* The John Waters movie ''[[Cry-Baby (Film)|Cry-Baby]]'' is more like an [[Affectionate Parody]] of the fifties and juvenile delinquent movies, but it still counts.

* ''[[Grease (Film)|Grease]]''

* ''The Last Picture Show'' is bit more complicated than some on this list, in that it is both a rather bittersweet version of the period and one set unusually early (in 1951) which means it predates a lot of the standard decade tropes like [[The New Rock and Roll|rock 'n' roll]] or B-Movies. It's also set in a [[Dying Town|dying town]] in rural Texas, placing it at some remove from the middle-class "mainstream" of the era. (The teen characters listen to country and western songs and watch cowboy flicks!)

** It's a very troperrific rendition, complete with the protagonist's bratty younger brother who is obsessed with [[The Lone Ranger (Radio)|The Lone Ranger]] and carries around die-cast pistols everywhere, "the love interest in poodle skirt" who his best friend is afraid to ask out to the dance, and the love interest's "abusive greaser ex-boyfriend".

* ''[[Stand Byby Me]]'' (set in 1959 and featuring an all-star soundtrack) attempts to do the same thing (mark the transition from The Fifties to the Sixties, from Innocence to Experience) on a smaller scale, reflecting the coming of age of four <s>Maine</s> Oregon youths ([[Write What You Know|and the youths of]] director [[Rob Reiner]] and author [[Stephen King (Creator)|Stephen King]]).

* ''[[Happy Days (TV)|Happy Days]]'': home of Fonzie, America's favorite greaser!

** And, of course, memorializing [[Buddy Holly (Music)|Buddy Holly]]'s plane crash in "[[The Day the Music Died]]".

* ''[[Blacksad (Comic Book)|Blacksad]]''. A [[Furry Comic]] about a feline private detective. The series features a [[Film Noir]]-influenced version of the 1950s. But the storylines feature interracial violence, racial discrimination (based on fur color), the [[Red Scare]], and McCarthy-style persecution of leftist intellectuals.

* ''[[Justice League: theThe New Frontier|DC: The New Frontier]]''. The classic superheroes of DC set in an era of McCarthyism, [[Super Registration Act|Super Registration Acts]], and [[Cold War]] tensions.

* ''[[Good Night and Good Luck]]'' - a true story about Edward R. Murrow, the [[Intrepid Reporter|intrepid TV journalist]] out to expose the hypocrisy of [[Acceptable Political Targets|Senator Joe McCarthy]] ([[Character Asas Himself|as himself]]), who preyed upon Americans' [[Red Scare|fears of Communist infiltration]] for his own political gain.

* ''[[Clue (Filmfilm)|Clue]]'' - Earlier than most examples, as it was made in the mid-eighties, but the Fifties of the movie revolves around the post-WWII/early [[Cold War]] politics of that decade, which it plays for laughs.

* ''[[LAL.A. Confidential]]''

* ''[[Quiz Show (Filmfilm)|Quiz Show]]'' - [[Based on a True Story]] about the rigging of the game show '"[[Twenty One]]''

* ''[[M*A*S*H (TV)|Mash]]'' - the show either takes places in the Historical Fifties or else in a [[Present Day Past]]

* ''[[Death of a Salesman (Theatre)|Death of a Salesman]]'', though released in 1949, is the archetypal play about the aforementioned ''Man in a Grey Flannel Suit'' who suffers a nervous breakdown. <small>'''''"[[He Had a Name|Attention must be paid]]!!"'''''</small>

* [[The Silver Age of Comic Books]] began in this period, following the red-baiting and obscenity hysteria fueled by the publication of Dr. Frederick Wertham's book ''Seduction of the Innocent'', which helped end the E.C. Horror Comics catalog that had supplanted superhero comics through most of the 1950s with grotesque and ''[[Weird Tales]]'' ''[[Tales Fromfrom the Crypt|from the Crypt]]''. The only E.C. comic to survive was...

* ''[[Mad (Magazine)|MAD Magazine]]'', which defied the image of '50s conformity by satiring and skewering pop culture with a countercultural [[Yiddish Asas a Second Language|Manhattanite wit]].

* ''[[Indiana Jones (Franchise)|Indiana Jones]] [[Indiana Jones and Thethe Kingdom of Thethe Crystal Skull (Film)|and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull]]'' could easily fall in several of the above categories.

** ''[[An Affair to Remember]]''. Yes, that's right: a Fifties Hollywood blockbuster and critically acclaimed romantic film about [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|an affair]] on a cruise ship with a woman on the way to her wedding. [[Spiritual Successor|Inspiration]] for [[The Nineties]] film ''[[Sleepless in Seattle]]''.

** ''[[The Ten Commandments]]'' with Charlton Heston, possibly the [[Epic Movie|biggest film]] of the 1950s, aside from the similar ''[[Ben -Hur]]''.

** ''[[The Searchers (Film)|The Searchers]]'', the original [[Deconstruction|revisionist Western]]

** ''[[A Streetcar Named Desire (Theatre)|A Streetcar Named Desire]]'', a film ''about'' a play set in the 1930s-1940s in steamy depression-era [[The Big Easy|New Orleans]], where he plays the [[Trope Codifier|archetypal]] sexually-threatening working class schmuck in a wife-beater shirt. <small>[[Skyward Scream|"STELLLAAAAAA!"]]</small>

** ''[[Singin' in Thethe Rain (Film)|Singin in The Rain]]'', the classic musical [[Most Writers Are Writers|about musicals]].

* ''[[The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T (Film)|The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T]]'' (1953) the only live-action film by [[Dr. Seuss]], possibly the most [[What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made Onon Drugs?|bizarre film made]] in the Fifties itself. Its child star, Tommy Rettig, went on to star in ''[[Lassie (TV series)|Lassie]]'' (see above). Think ''[[Return to Oz]]'' meets ''[[Leave It to Beaver]]'' meets ''[[Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory]]'' meets ''[[Rocky Horror Picture Show]]'' (you know... for kids!)

* ''[[Little Shop of Horrors (Theatre)|Little Shop of Horrors]]'' is set on [[Skid Row]] in an indefinable period between the early 50s and the Motown era. Elevated trains rumble overhead and working-class men stumble to work in grey flannel suits. The hero and heroine dream of escaping to the pastel suburbs.

* ''[[The Godfather (Film)|The Godfather]]'' (set 1945 to 1955) and ''The Godfather Part II'' (mostly set 1958 to 1959) are set in the Fifties and are rich with period detail, but the focus is so removed from conventional depictions of the decade that is difficult to pigeonhole them.

* ''[[Cool and Thethe Crazy]]'', produced for [[Showtime]]'s ''Rebel Highway'' series.

* ''[[Lolita (Literature)|Lolita]]'' was not only written in the 1950s, it was set in [[Vladimir Nabokov (Creator)|Nabokov]]'s idea of a typical American community and helped inspire the later concept of "dark pathology hidden behind a facade of '50s conformity".

* ''[[The Honeymooners (TV)|The Honeymooners]]'' was made in the fifties, but it's far from "suburban paradise": it features a married couple, who live in a crappy, cold-water walk-up apartment, can't afford a TV or a vacuum cleaner, and fight all the time. This was, of course, [[Reality Is Unrealistic|typical for many Americans]] at the time.

* ''[[Dragnet (Radio)|Dragnet]]'' was a [[Police Procedural]] that ran from the late Forties through the [[The Sixties|Sixties]]. While there is Fifties conformity scattered throughout the series, the show is not completely clean, showing the ugly side of society as they solve each week's crime. Was somewhat made in response to the negative view of the police force during the time period.

* ''[[Waiting for Godot (Theatre)|Waiting for Godot]]'', the classic [[Absurdism|absurdist]] masterpiece about [[Those Two Guys]] in a [[World Gone Mad]], waiting interminably for a man (friend? employer? supervisor?) who never comes.

* ''[[Destroy All Humans!]]''

* The ''[[Fallout (Video Game)|Fallout]]'' series not only is a throwback to 1950's sci-fi, it also have many parodies of that time period - such as a virtual reality 50's simulator with kids and adults repeating those same phrases at the beginning of the page.

* ''[[The Iron Giant (Animation)|The Iron Giant]]'' is mainly a deconstruction of Fifties alien invasion movies, but it also has large dollops of nostalgia (the director was born in 1957, the year the movie was set) and delves into some of the issues of the day, particularly [[Cold War]] paranoia, as personified by Kent Mansley.

* ''[[Moral Orel (Animation)|Moral Orel]]'' has no set time period, but its characters are blatant 50's stereotypes, a lot of 50's architecture and technology is present, and there's an omnipresent theme of hiding away your sins and mistakes.

* [[Astro Boy (Mangamanga)|Astro Boy]]. First appeared in April, 1951. Set in the [[Turn of the Millennium]].

* [[Princess Knight (Manga)|Princess Knight]]. First appeared in January, 1953. Set in a [[Medieval European Fantasy]] world.

* Tetsujin 28-go. Manga started in July, 1965. Set in the aftermath of World War II. Later adapted into [[Gigantor (Anime)|Gigantor]].

* [[The Smurfs (Comic Bookcomics)|The Smurfs]]. First appeared in October, 1958. Set in [[The Middle Ages]].

* [[Asterix (Comic Book)|Asterix]]. First appeared in October, 1959. Set during [[The Roman Republic]].

* [[Barbe Rouge (Comic Book)|Barbe Rouge]]. First appeared in October, 1959. Set during [[The Cavalier Years]] and [[Wooden Ships and Iron Men|The Age of Sail]].

* [[The Astronauts (Literature)|The Astronauts]]

* [[Atlas Shrugged (Literature)|Atlas Shrugged]]

* [[Breakfast Atat Tiffany's]]

* [[The Catcher in The Rye (Literature)|The Catcher in The Rye]]

* [[The Caves of Steel (Literature)|The Caves of Steel]]

* [[The Eagle of the Ninth (Literature)|The Eagle of the Ninth]]

* [[Fahrenheit 451 (Literature)|Fahrenheit 451]]

* [[Felse Investigates (Literature)|Felse Investigates]]. The series started in 1951, but the setting of the first novel is in 1949.

* [[Have Space Suit - Will Travel]]

* [[Invisible Man (Literaturenovel)|Invisible Man]]

* [[I Robot (Literature)|I, Robot]]

* [[Lolita (Literature)|Lolita]]

* [[The Lord of the Rings (Literature)|The Lord of the Rings]]

* [[The Naked Sun (Literature)|The Naked Sun]]

* [[The Stars My Destination (Literature)|The Stars My Destination]]

* ''[[The Adventures of Robin Hood (TV series)|The Adventures of Robin Hood]]''

* [[Amahl and The Night Visitors (Theatre)|Amahl and Thethe Night Visitors]]

* [[Cinderella (Disney film)|Cinderella]] (1950). Set in the nineteenth century.

* [[Alice in Wonderland (Disney film)|Alice in Wonderland]] (1951). Set in the Victorian era in which the book was written.

* [[Peter Pan (Disney film)|Peter Pan]] (1953). Set in [[The Edwardian Era]] (although Never-Never Land appears to be stuck in some time [[Older Than Steam|Before Steam]]).

* [[Lady and The Tramp (Disney)|Lady and Thethe Tramp]] (1955). Set in [[The Edwardian Era]] (if you're willing to ignore those [[Anachronism Stew|jazz-singing pound dogs]], of course).

* [[Sleeping Beauty (Disney film)|Sleeping Beauty]] (1959). Set, as one character admits, in "the fourteenth century."