I Love the Sixties

As a huge fan of the "I Love" series on VH-1 (I Love the Eighties, I Love the Nineties, I Love Toys, I Love Obscure Elvis Covers of Gospel Standards) it has always pained me that there has not been an installment addressing that most marvelous and controversial of decades, the Sixties.

The 1960's of course.  The 1860's were dreadful.  Nothing but civil war in America and Victorian England.  I can't imagine hipster comedians riffing on the strained relationship between Prince Albert and his oldest son, Edward.  ("Yeah, Albert and Edward were like the Biggie and Tupac of the 1860's, except, instead of getting shot, one got consumption and the other got syphilis.")

So, to fill the gap until VH-1 comes to its senses and creates "I Love the Sixties" (and brings back "The Best Day Ever With Paul F. Tompkins") here are some of the reasons I love the sixties, a decade which, technically, ended years before I was born:

1. Disney Feature Films.  The sixties were prime time for the Disney feature.  For animation, not so much; only three animated films were released in this decade (101 Dalmatians, The Sword in the Stone, and The Jungle Book) but a vast array of true classics starring actual people (and Hayley Mills) were produced in this decade:

• Pollyanna (1960)
• Swiss Family Robinson (1960)
• The Parent Trap (1961)
• Babes in Toyland (1961)
• Mary Poppins (1964)
• The Three Lives of Thomasina (1964)
• That Darn Cat! (1965)
• The Love Bug (1968)
• The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969

(I have only listed my personal favorites, obviously.)  Each of these films is an indelible classic, taking us to times and places that really only existed in our imagination, but seemed real.  More importantly, these films set the stage for the all-important films of the 1970's, in which Jodie Foster wreaked havoc on the English countryside and Sandy Duncan was believable as an astrophysicist.

2. The Monkees.

That's really all I have.  Truthfully, I intensely dislike the sixties.  I will admit there were some good things: The Beatles, Camelot, Julie Andrews, etc.  Unfortunately, for me and many people my age, the sixties were ruined by the "sixties revival" of the eighties.  Suddenly, around 1987, all anyone could talk about was how nothing was good anymore, and how everything in the sixties was better.   Sixties TV was on all the time in reruns, music and music videos were going retro, even hippie fashion came back.  I was so sick of it all that I embraced the hair metal trend and slid right down into sort-of-goth, as evidenced by high school photos you will never see.

I suppose VH-1 knows what they are doing, keeping "I Love the Sixties" out of their "I Love" series.  After all, these are the geniuses who brought us Celebrity Fit Club, Celebrity Rehab, Flavor of Love, I Love New York, New York Goes to Hollywood, Rock of Love, Daisy of Love, I Love Money, For the Love of Ray J, Fantasia For Real, The Surreal Life, and The T.O Show.

They obviously know what they're doing.