Not that I’m a big fan of hippies, but in the late 60’s/early 70’s, there was a plethora of mainstream media pathetic attempts to portray them in dramas and comedies. Which was the worst?
My vote goes to The Lucy Show. If I remember correctly, Lucy and Viv had to go undercover at the local Haight and Asbury for some reason and dressed up as (ahem) hippies to do so. This consisted solely of wearing bell bottoms and putting beads and flowers into their Jiffy Pop hairdos. The show seemed to believe that hippies communicate via dancing much the way bumblebees do. Anyway Lucy nearly starts a riot by leaning on a police motorcycle. Unfortunately, I forget what happens after that.
I remember an episode of “The Brady Bunch” where Greg wanted to be cool with the older high school kids so he turned into a hippie by wearing a fringed vest and some tiny little John Lennon glasses, and maybe a headband.
The Dragnet episode with Blue Boy. I hesitate to even bring it up, lest a certain poster show up and start debating that this is a 100% accurate portrayal of LSD usage.
Well, Dick Shawn was good for a few laughs, but the character of LSD in “The Producers” could only have been created by someone who had no clue at all what a hippie was supposed to be.
I can not resist noting that one of the hippies in that episode (Adam) (the one whose line “I’m going to clap my hands and jump for joy - I got a clean bill of health from Dr. McCoy” will forever be remembered and the one who is sitting furthest from Spock in this picture The Way to Eden - Wikipedia (behind the bald guy)) grew up to grew up to play the “hard-charging general” type in many movies (including Austin Powers). Weird.
There were other Dragnet episodes that did the same. I recall one where Joe Friday spent the entire time debating the evils of marijuana with a hippie. The hippies I knew loved Dragnet because it was so over the top.
The Mod Squad was pretty silly, even at the time. What was ridiculous to me was when someone said, “Can you dig it?” with utmost seriousness; hippies used the phrase ironically.
For some reason, this thread reminded me of the movie Billy Jack. It had to have been one of the worst/most successful movies ever. The wannabe hippies bought into it. It was so full of hypocrisy and false platitudes that it would make you puke worse than a keg of skunked beer. The whole stupid movie was entirely clueless.
I hated it when I first saw it and I was a lot more naive at the time. Meanwhile, people that I thought had a clue were raving about it.
Cousin Serena on Bewitched may have been “hip” and not a “hippie,” but her interpretation showed me that Elizabeth Montgomery spent too much time with non-Hollywood people her own age.
I get the impression that San Franciscan Hippies saw themselvs as purists, and resented ridicule, while in LA they embraced the inherent humor in Hippie-dom; so why not put the squares on and get paid for it?
