Wednesday, June 25, 2008

'Swingtown:' Who Knew the 'Burbs Were So Much Fun?


I've been watching CBS' controversial new show Swingtown, set in the summer of 1976 in a Chicago suburb, featuring a married couple with two kids (The Millers) who've just moved into a house across the street from married swanky swingers (The Deckers), and married parents from the Millers' old neighborhood (The Thompsons) who find the swingers morally reprehensible.

Though the show gets a lot of mileage out of promoting the spouse swapping aspect -- and gets plenty of people up in arms over its portrayal of 70s sex and drugs -- I find the examination of marriage and monogamy fascinating . . . that is when I'm not blinded by my own nostalgia about the era's clothing, music and "technology" (i.e. -- eight-track tapes). I was, after all, a 70s kid. (Shaun Cassidy and The Partridge Family rocked my world.)

For my Mommy Track'd column this week, I compared the portrayal of suburban women circa 1976, when the phrase "women's lib" was bandied about, to now, when media folks are still debating whether sexism played a roll in the coverage of Senator Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Dust off your Cat Stevens and Carly Simon vinyls, break out your Dr. Scholl's. And get a load of actor Grant Show's 'stache.

Image credit: CBS.

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