History UsefulNotes / The70s

* In addition, while {{Saturday Morning Cartoon}}s, increasingly artistically shackled by pressure from parents' groups, were practically the only choices for kids on American commercial TV, Creator/{{PBS}} had its glory years with classic kids educational shows like ''Series/SesameStreet'', ''{{Zoom}}'' and ''Series/MisterRogersNeighborhood''.

** Other manufacturers were less set in their ways and had more frrdom to innovate. Honda's CVCC engine used a special cylinder head to improve efficiency, making an engine that was so clean it could pass the 1975 emissions regulations without a catalytic converter. Volkswagen was an early advocate of Bosch's mechanical fuel injection systems.

* This is often considered the second golden age of Hollywood, with the UsefulNotes/NewHollywood gang making successful and challenging films like ''Film/TheGodfather'' series, ''Film/OneFlewOverTheCuckoosNest'', ''Film/TaxiDriver'' and ''Film/ApocalypseNow''. Unfortunately, by the end of the decade, these filmmakers' egos started getting the better of them with Creator/{{Michael Cimino|Director}}'s ''Film/HeavensGate'' becoming the signature bomb that dampened studio heads' enthusiasm for humoring these artists.
* However, the popular spectacles for the masses that defined older eras took new forms in the 1970s. The first half of the decade featured AllStarCast [[DisasterMovie disaster movies]] such as the ''Film/{{Airport}}'' series, ''Film/ThePoseidonAdventure'' and ''Film/TheToweringInferno''. The SummerBlockbuster arrived in the second half, with Creator/StevenSpielberg creating ''Film/{{Jaws}}'' while Creator/GeorgeLucas set the movie world on fire with 1977's ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars]]'' entrancing the world and reopening Hollywood's eyes to the power of family audiences, which otherwise went neglected for most of the decade.

* The later part of the decade saw the formation of two future mini-major studios: Creator/OrionPictures in 1978 and Creator/Miramax in 1979.

** This new attention to audience profiles also led to realizing how ''Series/{{Star Trek|the Original Series}}'' managed to hit a demographic sweet spot in the 1960s before they temporarily killed that golden goose. Between this and the huge success of ''Film/ANewHope'' on the big screen, it was a great decade for science fiction on American TV. ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries'' helped keep that franchise alive. Futuristic space-set shows like ''Series/{{Space 1999}}'' and ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|1978}}'' didn't work out for mass audiences, but the SuperHero genre relatively flourished when ''Series/TheSixMillionDollarMan'' and ''Series/TheBionicWoman'' were big hits. CBS commissioned several superhero properties like ''[[Series/WonderWoman The New Adventures of Wonder Woman]]'' and ''Series/{{The Incredible Hulk|1977}}'' until they got cold feet at the idea of being typed as "The Superhero Network" and cut back severely. Meanwhile, SF proved to be the backdoor that allowed that comedy genius, Creator/RobinWilliams, to hit the big time on ''Series/MorkAndMindy''.

* There was the end of UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar that had a humiliating postscript when the Americans and a few local sympathizers had to flee after the North Vietnamese took over everything in 1975. As a side effect, neighboring Cambodia went through its own Hell when the Khmer Rouge takes over and starts Film/TheKillingFields. Meanwhile, the US finds the only upside is that all the attention of that madness was that it drew attention away from their ally Indonesia invading and savagely occupying East Timor.

* The latter half of the decade brought us {{Disco}}, which quickly grew to ubiquity -- and then [[DiscoSucks died a quick death]], after there was a huge backlash against the genre. It did retain some popularity though in Europe where various regional styles of it remained popular for the first half of the 80s.

* Environmentalism also got going well with the first Earth Day in 1970 with early movements including going after commercial whaling which completely turns the public image of Cetaceans from ''Literature/MobyDick'' monsters to gentle giants of the deep who desperately need help before they are wiped out.

** At the beginning of the decade, color TV was now the norm in the US, though was still catching up on the other side of the Pond (Creator/TheBBC was still producing some programmes in black and white well into the decade!). FM radio was still in its infancy as the format of choice for rock fans, and AM radio still ruled supreme. By 1980, though, FM had made huge strides in adoption, and pop music on AM was starting to giving way to [[TalkShow talk radio]] and other niche formats.

** The 1970s saw the introduction of the first single-chip microprocessor (Intel 4004, 1971), the first microcontroller (TI's [=TMS1000=]), the first pocket calculator (TI's Datamath), the first VideoGameSystems for home use (Platform/MagnavoxOdyssey), the Platform/{{VCR}} in general (starting with Creator/{{Sony}}'s introduction of Platform/UMatic in 1971 for professional use, and culminating in the introduction of VHS in 1976 [[note]]in Japan[[/note]]/1977[[note]]in the US[[/note]]), the personal computer (1970's Datapoint 2200, a [[InsistentTerminology "smart terminal"]] whose design was ancestral to the Intel 8080, Zilog Z80, and x86; the Altair 8800 in 1975, an 8080 kit PC that sparked the "microcomputer revolution"; and the "1977 Trio" of the Platform/CommodorePET, Platform/TRS80, and Platform/AppleII), and the first computer-controlled handheld games (Creator/{{Mattel}} Pocket Sports). It also saw the introduction of the Walkman, the product that took Sony from being a well-regarded[[note]]they were already famous for their Trinitron TV sets[[/note]] but quirky TV and VCR maker to a household name.

** Display technology improved quite a bit as well. The vacuum-fluorescent display, the LED-matrix display (used to great effect on several of TI's pocket calculators) and the LCD all made their debuts in this decade.

** Ford and Chrysler both worked on systems that would try to reduce emissions as cheaply as possible (as well as control the fuel mixture, since running the engine rich will burn up the catalytic converter quickly), but they all had problems. Ford's VV carburetor had a design flaw that, when it appeared, would set the mixture so lean that the engine wouldn't run. Chrysler's system was a full analog computer that could also control spark timing, but it had reliability problems as well. Neither of these did much to help, and by model year 1980 the car makers had resorted to putting smaller engines in simply to be able to meet the mandates, performance or drivability notwithstanding.
** Other manufacturers were less set in their ways and were more willing to use better ways of doing things. Honda's CVCC engine used a special cylinder head to improve efficiency, making an engine that was so clean it could pass the 1975 emissions regulations without a catalytic converter. Volkswagen was an early advocate of Bosch's mechanical fuel injection systems.

*** A lot of that was because GM's diesel engine for cars was very poorly designed due to [[ObviousBeta being rushed into production with very little time to properly research and develop it.]]
** The light at the end of the tunnel finally appeared when Ford and GM concurrently introduced the first practical computerized emissions controls in model year 1980. Ford's "EEC III" system was only ever used on a few high-end models, but it was a step in the right direction and a precursor to the much more powerful "EEC IV" system. Ford also introduced their first fuel injection system, the CFI. GM's system, the Computer Command Control (C3), was less ambitious and used more hardwired circuitry, but was also flexible and was used in GM cars and trucks well into The80s.