Sure, the alliteration displayed in the title of this documentary is both intentional, and a bit passé. It’s an easy title that hardly says anything, so you would be forgiven to not glance twice at something called The Sensational 70s, which has its name displayed over a backlit disco ball. But I think that you should take another look because, inside, there are ten hours of goodness that definitely display what was sensational, and what was not, about the 1970s.

I went to high school in the late ‘90s and I had nearly all credits necessary to graduate when I was a junior. With English requiring a full four years’ worth of credits, my senior year was literally one class. Since I couldn’t yet afford a car, I had to kill two hours at school until the next bus pick up. So, since I had already taken the electives I was interested in, I took an hour as the A/V aide, and I took a study hall. And that’s when I had had my first experience with a laserdisc player - my high school owned one, and seemed to have had a great deal of history and encyclopedia discs. I don’t remember any of them ever being checked out, and for an hour each day, I would watch these discs before catching the bus. It was during this time that I really gained my love and knowledge of history, politics, pop culture and whatever other tidbits were on those laserdiscs.

I bring this up because it seems that The Sensational 70s was originally intended or designed to be used in classrooms. It’s perfectly fit for that type of application. The series is ten episodes long (spread here across four discs), each running at about an hour, and each representing a different year from 1970 to 1979. It isn’t difficult for me to imagine these spread across 20 CAV laserdiscs, perfect for pausing and then discussing with high school students in the mid-80s – and this set leaves quite a bit for discussion. I really wish I was watching this with someone else that I could converse with following each “year”. Whether or not the 1970s were sensational is up for debate, but the happenings of the decade were certainly interesting.

The pacing of the program is quite a breeze. Rare is there a topic that is covered for more than five minutes. This may make some of the more integral stories of the decade seem more like footnotes - Watergate, for example, is surprisingly glossed over. But for what The Sensational 70s lacks in depth, it makes up for with diversity. Take 1979 (selected at random), for example. The DVD case sums up the 1979 chapter (erroneously) like this:

1979: Jonestown Massacre (which actually happened in 1978), RVs soar in popularity, Panama Canal turned over (which technically started in 1977, and ended in 1999)

But don’t think for a second that the makers of The Sensational 70s remember nothing of the year. In less than an hour, you will learn about Playboy Magazine’s 25th anniversary, escalated cocaine use, the rising value of gold, the King Tut exhibition touring America, John Wayne’s death, the grounding of the DC-10 planes, the repairing of relations between the U.S. and China, Ted Kennedy entering the presidential race, Margaret Thatcher becoming Prime Minister of the U.K., the Jim Thorpe scandal, kiddie porn’s easy availability, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s return to Iran, the following overtaking of the American embassy, the first real resurgence in popularity of The Rocky Horror Picture Show… and then there is the pigeon raising…

I don’t think I covered half of that episode’s content, and every chapter is just as packed with topics.

There is an unseen narrator who isn’t entirely objective, but that’s really the only fault in this set, and if you follow my thoughts that this was made primarily for the youth of the ‘80s, that can be forgiven. The real benefit of this set is owning the footage. The political pieces help set the time and place; the interviews and situational stories help provide an insight to how people thought at the time. The pop culture segments, from Star Wars to fashionable bullet belts to the Sex Pistols and Saturday Night Live, these truly put a face on the decade’s society, and it shows the good times and common interests that were had amidst a president known for pratfalls, rising gas prices, an increased turbulence in the Middle East and an unpopular war…

…I hope you appreciate my holding back a very easy joke here.

Ten hours is quite an investment to ask of anyone’s time, but if you have the slightest interest in the decade, nostalgia for it, or just simply love history, you will find The Sensational 70s to be ten hours well spent.

The DVD Presentation
The entire series is made up of clips. Film clips, news clips, music clips, etc. Naturally, original footage from the 1970s won’t look as good as what you’ll find on television today. This footage hasn’t been touched up in any way, and I couldn’t be happier about it. It really captures a sense of “being there” by viewing this footage the same way it was broadcast. The sound suffers a little bit, though. There is a steady “hissing” to the recording. Probably evident of the source material, I still feel that this could have been cleaned up a bit. It’s a nice surprise, though, that English subtitles are included. One point of contention that I do have with this set is the lack of chapter stops. It would have been a nicer experience to be able to skip to certain segments, and I’m sure that schools and other educational institutions thinking about purchasing this for their classrooms would have found that convenient as well. That said, the content easily overweighs any problems The Sensational 70s may have on DVD.

And the Extras Are?
There isn’t anything extra included. Now, I am not saying that The Sensational 70s necessarily needs extra content, especially given the feature’s length, but a production featurette about this series or the faceless team behind it would have been nice. Hell, even some liner notes could have accomplished that. Sadly, we get nothing.

The Bottom Line
It might not be as polished as a modern day documentary, and it might not be as silly or entertaining as programs like VH1’s I Love The 70s. But for what it is – a time capsule of a decade, year by year, made right as the decade ended – The Sensational 70s is a fantastic collection. Anyone with interest in history is sure to find interest here. People who lived through it can be reminded of the big and small events that made up the decade, and people who never lived in the 70s will learn a great many things other than what is taught in schools. As someone who falls in the latter category, and someone who loves history, I strongly recommend The Sensational 70s to anyone remotely interested. It’s awesome, it’s comprehensive, and it covers material others would consider unimportant. Get it, and marvel at how ten years gets smooshed into ten hours.

If I ever have kids, this will one day be required viewing for them. I hope MPI has similar programs in store for other decades.