Bianca Bartz
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If you were a TV producer launching a new show about 1970s swingers, would you admit the plot was based on the lives of your parents? Mike Kelley, the creator of Swingtown, which airs on June 5 on CBS, didn’t have a problem with the attribution. Bored of traditional comedies and the flooding of crime shows, the shows producers thought they’d bring back the swinging 70s. They describe it as Boogie Nights meets “the sweetness of ‘The Wonder Years.’” The New York Times says in the first episode alone we can expect, “A ménage à trois; a high school junior smoking pot and later flirting with her English teacher; the flagrant enjoyment of quaaludes and cocaine; and the sight of the neighborhood scold unwittingly stumbling upon a groaning and slithering orgy. ‘Why don’t you kick your shoes off, Mom, and join the party?’ is how a middle-aged participant, clad only in mutton chops, says hello.” Wow. Check out the trailer. This one takes That 70s Show up more than a few notches. It’s an ideal time for the retro revival considering the recent emphasis on all things 70s, whether it’s in fashion, interior design, music or other entertainment. The first three photos are screen shots from the show, the fourth photo in the gallery is of his parents and their friends.  “I remembered one summer where the kids all hung out, and some of the parents in the neighborhood kind of switched partners,” he said in a recent interview. “It felt like they all just moved one house to the left. Eventually most of those marriages broke up.”
In a later conversation Mr. Kelley’s mother, Marcia Arnold, speaking with her son at her side, said that particular recollection was “embellished a bit.” “Mike saw it through young eyes,” she said, adding that she had no frame of reference, for example, for anything remotely like the basement orgy depicted in the series pilot.
(nytimes)References: nytimes Filed In: |
