Plot Synopsis

Using archival newsreel footage, personal movies, and interviews with eyewitnesses to history, THE SIXTIES is a 10-part documentary series that covers major events from the 1960s, an era of extraordinary cultural and global change. CNN showed a sneak peek of this series with a two-hour episode, "The Assassination of JFK," on November 17, 2013 at 9pm ET/6pm PT, to coincide with the observance of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. This preview episode explored the key conclusions of the controversial Warren Commission, as well as the shocking impact of the assassination. CNN then broadcast a second sneak-peek episode, "The Sixties: British Invasion," on Thursday, January 30, 2014 at 9pm ET/6pm PT to celebrate the breakthrough performance of The Beatles on THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW 50 years earlier on February 9, 1964. During this special, Smokey Robinson, Graham Nash, Questlove, David Wild, Micky Dolenz, and many more legends of music provide insights into how the British Invasion was actually a reciprocal flow of influences back and forth with American artists. When the series returns in May 2014 for its official series premiere, THE SIXTIES highlighted everything from war protests and human rights movements to innovative technologies and politics. THE SIXTIES is executive produced by Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman, and Mark Herzog. On Thursday, May 29, 2014 at 9pm ET/6pm PT, CNN broadcast "Television Comes of Age (1960-1969)," the official series premiere of THE SIXTIES. In this premiere -- which highlighted THE TWILIGHT ZONE, THE FUGITIVE, I DREAM OF JEANNIE, ROWAN & MARTIN'S LAUGH-IN, and more -- Tom Hanks, Sally Field, Dick and Tom Smothers, Carol Burnett, Dick Cavett, Diahann Carroll, Carl Reiner, Vince Gilligan, Petula Clark and others described how the ground-breaking, rule-breaking, norm-bending dramas, historical events, and sitcoms reflected and influenced who we were. CNN pre-empted the episode scheduled for July 17, because the cable channel covered the Malaysian Airlines MH17 story in Ukraine. That episode -- and all subsequent episodes -- aired one week later than originally scheduled.
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THE SIXTIES came to an end on Thursday, August 14, 2014 at 9pm ET/6pm PT when CNN aired the finale, "Sex, Drugs, and Rock N' Roll," which reveals the truth about hippies, Hell's Angels and Haight-Ashbury, while documenting how the Baby Boom generation redefined the tastes, morals, and politics of a country during an era of unrelenting change, with commentary by Grace Slick, Tom Wolfe, Jann Wenner, and Tom Hanks. Nine days before its television debut, The Paley Center in NYC screened the finale with appearances by Questlove, Graham Nash, and moderator Carl Bernstein.