Amazon.com: The 2002 first season of American Dreams introduced one of the more ambitious new dramas on a major television network since the debut of The West Wing. Deceptively nostalgic, American Dreams looks, at first blush, like a bone tossed to baby boomers who remember black and white TV, American Bandstand, and what class they were in when word spread of JFK's assassination. But the more one watches the show, the more apparent it becomes that American Dreams is not about memories but about bringing a pivotal chapter in 20th century U.S. history to life--sometimes electrifyingly so.
The series pilot, set just before and on the day of Kennedy's murder, introduces Philadelphia family the Pryors, white, middle-class Catholics whose stern but not undiscerning patriarch, Jack (Tom Verica), gets an earful one night over dinner. Eldest son J.J. (Will Estes), a star running back at high school and candidate for a Notre Dame football scholarship, announces he's leaving the sport, feeling unappreciated for his mind and inspired by Kennedy's outreach to young people. Teenage daughter Meg (Brittany Snow) allows that she'll be dancing on Dick Clark's American Bandstand. Jack's wife, Helen (Gail O'Grady), later lets fly that she's moving on from her boring book club to spend time with a new friend, a feminist academic (Virginia Madsen), and strongly hints that she's done with adding more babies to their brood of four. The times are indeed a-changin' for the Pryors--who have chugged along on WWII vet Jack's fiercely protected vision of picket fences, cooperative kids, and a wife who doesn't upset his equilibrium with needs of her own. But the rest of the country is changing, too, and American Dreams captures--with subtle precision--the erosion of comfortable assumptions at the onset of the Vietnam war, the escalation of the civil rights movement, the British Invasion, reproductive rights for women, and much else.
The series flows, often with stylish splendor, between the Pryors' home, the Bandstand studio set, and Jack's retail television and radio shop, where Jack's sole employee, an African American father, Henry (Jonathan Adams), wonders silently about the options a racist society will offer his talented son, Sam (Arlen Escarpeta). Wordlessness is a hallmark of American Dreams: An exchanged look between Meg and Sam is shattering testimony to the confusion of racial prohibitions among well-meaning kids. Part of every show finds historical reenactments of '60s musical acts appearing on Bandstand, and sometimes these artists are played by contemporary musicians such as Nick Carter (as Jay of Jay and the Americans) and Third Eye Blind (as the Kinks). This boxed set includes real Bandstand clips that are contemporaneous with the series' timeline. --Tom Keogh
The Way It Definitely Was! This was a spectacularly superior show. Superb casting, writing, and direction: Watching it was reliving my childhood days in the tumultous '60s exactly all over again. OK, they took a few liberties with some of the music, chronological datewise, but they were very close. But the pervasive atmosphere, social mores, and superb use of cameo TV show spots and pop songs (a surprising number the actual hit versions rather than redos) make this as close to how it really was back then as you'll ever get. With 80% of today's public feeling that America is on the wrong track, this show provides a refreshing glimpse at a time when a troubled America was on the RIGHT track! I would highly recommend this DVD. WHERE ARE SEASONS 2 AND 3 ON DVD???
Reliving the 1960's with GOOD Clean TV~Great Set I loved this show when it aired. Like all good clean family TV it was short lived. This set is great with all the extras. The quality it way better than it first aired. The surround sound is fantastic.
This is a great set for families. It teaches good moral values. The family is real and in they are not perfect and the kids disobey and do things they shouldn't. It is reality.
I love this show and cannot wait for season 2 to be released.
Perfect for everyone in the family What a great show. An amazing time when everything was changing and breaking ground for the way I was eventually raised-in the 70's when the world was a different place. It helped me understand better how my parents were raised and how hard it must have been to let go of so many absolutes you were raised with and change with the times. Everytime I put in a sidc to watch one episode, I found myself 4-5 hours later finishing the entire disc, missing my regular shows on live TV.
I'm sorry I missed it when it aired - I finally bought it because of the ratings being so good and I am so glad. I loved every episode but wa heartbroken to find that the last disc(when I thought I had 4 or so episodes left) was only one episode. Now I find there are no more seasons available. I gave my parents the first two dvd's to watch and they immediately asked for thier own set because they grew up in that time and really enjoyed the show so I bought another one. It's time for a set for my nieces and nephew - being a family show, they are old enough to watch it and see what life used to be like, long long before thier time.
I'll never understand why shows that can be seen on every channel on TV are rapidly reproduced on DVD (when I can see them anytime) but shows that would only be seen on DVD are given one or two seasons and then cut short. I'm sure it's partly money but since there are so many shows requested widely on dvd but not produced - it can't all be about money.
I REALLY WANT MORE AMERICAN DREAMS for everyone in the family...Please release the rest!!!!
What a wonderful series this was! I bought this for my sister as a gift ... She's the one whose favorite time in life was the 60s and 70s ... but I'm the one who saw the series, so I'm sharing it with her. I know she will love it!
Cool Show!!! I haven't seen this show in television, because I live in Europe. But a few weeks ago I purchased the DVD Box because it has this raving reviews... and they are right!!!
Almost from the first minute I was hooked to the lifes of the Pryor family as well as Henry, Sam, Roxanne and all the other well played characters.
In Wikipedia I read that the timeline is not always accurate but in my opinion it doesn't matter if a song was released a year earlier or later because obviously the songs are chosen because they fit in the concept of the story and not because they were played exactly this or that week in the real American Bandstand.
About the music: there is this wonderful concept of covers with stars of today. And there is also this beautiful sad music when there are more quiet, toughtful moments.
Only in the end I found out that there are a lot of extras on every DVD, some written historcial information ("Time Capsula") and little American Bandstand scenes on every episode. Because I was quite hooked and took the "Play all" button I didn't find this extra features in the first place. There is also a documentation in the end as well as a fun extra video with Meg and Roxanne being background singers. Some of the extra I haven't checked out yet, because I only watched the last episode yesterday. I also want to add that I appreciate that you can skip the warnings in the beginning quite easily because as a purchaser of a lot of DVDs it always annoys me if I HAVE to go to a lot of extra clips and pirate warnings even if I'm a paying customer!!
To sum it up: I liked the show a lot because of the funny moments but even more for the serious background, the character development and the interest it sparks in historical events. But I also think the Box is remarkable. So I hope very much that the other two seasons will be released very soon.
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