Groove Tube: The Revolution As It Was Televised

Abstract

Groove Tube engagingly imparts a wealth of information about television programming and American counterculture. Concentrating on years 1966-1971, Bodroghkozy claims to trace how ... entertainment television engaged with manifestations of youth rebellion and dissent (4). She analyzes television as an institution, a body of texts, and a group of audiences that entered a crisis of authority in this period (17). During such a crisis, she explains, the ruling elites . .. can only dominate using coercive means rather than consensual methods (16). Nevertheless, in history Bodroghkozy sketches, networks ultimately cobbled together a hegemonic reframing that incorporated many aspects of youth rebellion (17). Concentrating on The Mod Squad (1968-1973), The Monkees (1966-1968), The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1967-1969), and selected episodes of crime dramas, Bodroghkozy's detailed and well-documented readings of these programs allow her to amply demonstrate how counterculture entered mainstream in a flood of traditionally liberal notions about reasoned exchange of ideas and mutual tolerance. While she sometimes writes like a gifted graduate student answering an exam question about application of Gramscian theory to 1960s television, what she has done is actually more significant: she has brought a