The decade of the 1970s was a weird, wild time in America. Vietnam was coming to a close, the movements of women's liberation and casual drug use were becoming the norm, the pain of an American president’s assassination had faded, and Nixon ushered in the era of general disrespect for the office. Baby Boomers were beginning to have families of their own, while the “Greatest Generation” began settling into retirement. America turned inward on itself, giving birth to the “Me Decade.” Everything became overdone, overheated, and exaggerated in American life: Music, fashion, and most importantly, television.

It’s hard to believe that I lived through this period, as it all seems so alien and strange today; yet it was only around 30 years ago. It’s easy to forget how odd things were until you are forced to face it in all of its garish, overly stylized glory. That is just what I did, when I took a very trippy skip down memory lane while watching The ‘70s Dimension.

The history of The ‘70s Dimension is this: A dumpster behind a Portland, Oregon television station gave birth to a treasure trove of 16mm film rolls. Filmmakers Matt McCormick and Morgan Currie fashioned this gold mine into a collection of clips that turns something that was once ubiquitous and innocuous into a time capsule of gaudy clothes, big hair, shitty consumer goods, and infantile public service announcements. Essentially, The ‘70s Dimension is like the living, television version of the most excellent book, All American Ads of the ‘70s.

The first half of The ‘70s Dimension, in the simplest sense, is a collection of 66 complete commercials and PSAs that ran on American TV during the 1970s; but in a much larger sense, it fully lives up to its chapter title, What The ‘70s Really Looked Like. It couldn’t be summed up any better. This is what everyday life looked like in America during that decade; free of today’s period piece, selective irony. The 1970s never needed spoofing, as it was fully able to be absurd without any help whatsoever.

As evidenced by the clips on this disc, advertisers of the time were both fully aware of the various sexual and technological revolutions in the air, and yet at the same time, extremely out of touch and naïve about them. Some of the un-PC approaches are surprising and amusing to today’s audiences; but at the time, they were surprising and insulting to many in the audience whose awareness of such things was just beginning to emerge. Many of the public service announcements seemed to part of a continuation of what I deem to be the infantilization of America’s adult – a propaganda art form seeded in prohibition and anti-marijuana laws, given form and structure in WWII military training films, seeing maturation and success with the Cold War’s “Duck and Cover” campaign, and taking root in every facet of American life during the televised PSA boom of the 1970s. Each and every instance seems to be part of a larger whole; where a Big Brother style watchdog saps the common sense from us and replaces it with very controlled, and in most cases very absurd, new ways of thinking, feeling, and living.

The main program can be watched in one of two ways: As a very random whole, lasting nearly an hour; or broken up under category headings including: Appearance, Appliance, Drink, Food, Military, Potpourri, PSA, and Transportation.

In Appearance, you will see everything from Farrah Fawcett demonstrating how she got her soon-to-be-famous feathered hair (Lady Schick Speed Styler); to Jack LaLanne in his ever-present and disturbing unitard giving the hard sell to some plastic crap “exercise” equipment; to Adorn Hair Spray, which allowed American women to sculpt the perfect, unmoving hair helmet; and so much more! Monvelle pantyhose was “durable,” Old Spice told me “Girls like it. Is there a better reason to wear Old Spice?” Wisk warned me in their sing-song manner of “ring around the collar,” Madge told me that I was soaking in it (Palmolive?!? That bitch!) and FDS Feminine Hygiene Spray solves some unmentioned problem with “freshness.”

In Appliance, learn why those giant, wood console TV sets from Magnavox became all the rage (hint: sexy chicks in pantsuits molesting them.) Marvel in the phrase “automated spin cookery” from the Osterizer Cyclomatic. See how ugly furniture really was in the ‘70s, all to the soothing sounds of classical Spanish guitar. AT&T wows America with their new Trimline phone, “take the dial along with you” available in a choice of “luxurious colors.” (For those who don’t remember, there was only one phone company – Ma Bell -- and you had to rent your phone from them, paying a surprisingly high monthly rate.) Discover that Hewlett Packard used to make ugly, wood console, consumer electronics long before they made crappy computers and cheap printers. But don’t leave before you get your Channelmaster Color Crossfire Antenna for all of your television and FM radio needs.

In Drink, I was amused to find that there was a West Coast beer called Blitz. One can only imagine the easy jokes to be had at the expense of the name. In a spot for Tab diet soda, I was shocked how they pushed women into drinking it by giving them dire warning to stay hot or tell your man goodbye: “Be a mind sticker.” It seems that Fresca once had a budget on par with Dr. Pepper, putting forth a complex and totally asinine ad for their forgettable drink. I totally remembered Folger’s pitchwoman, Mrs. Olsen and her slight, faux Norwegian accent as she saved the marriages of women who seemingly couldn’t make a good cup of coffee. Even better, Seventh Heaven’s Stephen Collins was the dissatisfied husband in the spot.

Food gave me my first look of what was actually inside the appealing, paper-covered can of Underwood Deviled Ham. High-end cat food looks tastier. I think the people at Underwood learned their lesson that day: NEVER show your product to the people. Stick with the cool can. Planters Nuts told me it was “the today way,” Blue Bonnet had “five kinds of flavor,” and Wonder Bread used the term “rich and fabulous” four different times. The good people at Oscar Meyer disguised their ad as a PSA, desperately trying to reassure the people at home that there was an army of men in hard hats and lab coats working diligently to ensure that hot dogs were not filled with cockroaches and rat tails… nothing but lips and assholes made it through their rigorous process. The fine folks at the Turkey Council made a push to sell turkeys to Americans in the summertime by suggesting they barbecue them… whole… covered in BBQ sauce. I wait for the day that footage is seen again in The Day Salmonella Was Born.

In Military, it seemed very clear that if I were to join the United States Marine Corps Reserve, I can cavort on the beach with a beautiful bikini girl and drive a sweet Corvette Stingray. The voiceover was saying something completely different, something about duty, honor and hard work; but I just couldn’t concentrate on anything but the girl and the Stingray. Strange. In addition, it seems that the United States Air Force was in need of some good women of their own, and this disc had two such spots aimed at the gal who has no better options in life. According to the Air Force, it was “the now place to be,” and that there were “exciting, glamorous jobs available to a girl.” Glamorous, huh? Where do I sign up?.

Potpourri was their catchall, but it sure did have a lot of cigarette ads. Cigarette ads are always fascinating to me, since I have no memory of such a thing existing on television. I think if the cigarette manufacturers knew that their time on TV was waning, they would’ve made ads that were a lot more fun. Sadly, they did not. Essentially, their spots look like the print ads of the time… and the print ads of today. Marlboro trots out the Marlboro Man, running around doing manly cowboy stuff while the theme to The Magnificent Seven plays in the background. An ad for Old Gold cigarettes had a dude snowmobiling in the pristine, snow-covered forests, being manly and virile. L&M encourages their smokers to “let go.” And we wonder why people today view smoking as an escape and a way to relax. In addition to the smokes, it seems that the magical television station dumpster was an ABC affiliate. We get a sneak peak at the hot new show for the season, Starsky and Hutch. There is a promo for ABC Sunday Sports, leading off with “football great” OJ Simpson, running around for the Bills. There is also a spot for Beau Bridges’ After School Special on divorce, the hilariously titled My Dad Lives In A Downtown Hotel.

In PSA, we get to see what all the special interest groups and government agencies do with their free airtime… besides BRAINWASHING AMERICANS! An auto safety PSA reminds us to “always take your keys out of the car.” The spot helpfully illustrates this by showing a woman’s child starting her car as she walks away. The car then motors down the road, with her hanging on to it, and careens into traffic. In another, we some jive-talkin’, ‘70s black folk talking about drinking and driving. As one afroed gentleman overacts in his drunkenness, his compatriot must resort to knockin’ a brutha out in order to keep him from driving. The Christian Reformed Church reminds me that “you’re not just a number with God. He knows your name.” All that does is make me paranoid. In the two included spots, they seem to be really freaked out by technology. In a spot for VD, we see a distraught young lady, walking down a rainy street on a grey, fall day. A stern voiceover reminds us all that “VD DOESN’T go away by itself!!!” John Forsythe learns how a father needs to communicate to “today’s” generation, and we at home all learn along with him. Robert Lamm from the rock group Chicago warns us all to not “shoot dope,” and Collette Daiute, Miss Teen-Age America says “only a real square would try to start a car without fastening his seatbelt.” Meanwhile, Henry Fonda extols the virtues of the US Department of the Treasury and their fight to stop drugs. For the best advice of the night, the National Alliance of Businessmen encourages us to hire ex-cons in order to stop rising crime. Easily the most disturbing of all the spots was one for the Bahá'í Faith. I know nothing about these people, but the ad was easily the most Socialist, frightening thing to ever air on American television. Among their pronouncements were that they wanted to “abolish extreme wealth” and that the “Earth is but one country.”

Finally, we have Transportation. Some of it was very industrial, like the odd piece on new highway crash guards. Nevertheless, it provided some great car crash footage. Another piece had Caesar Romero extolling the virtues of… airports? Another told how civil engineers were here to solve all of our problems, and that the next big urban solution in the works was… the monorail. Yeah, that went over like the metric system. There were also ads for the Winnebago and the Chevy Camero (in all of its post-muscle car, rust-prone glory.)

For all the rambling and lame attempts at humor above, I still didn’t come close to listing every spot you’ll see in the first half of The ‘70s Dimension. There is so much more to behold: Inbred, unfortunate looking Midwesterners for Crisco; an old man belting back brandy, while shooting off bon mots like “if you want to be a serious drinker, you’ve got to stay in training,” and “an old pro can drink those rum rookies under the table any old day;” Underwriters Laboratories warning us to “unplug your toaster before getting your toast out;” Muhammad Ali seeming more unhinged than usual promoting the “Gorilla in Manila” event (essentially Ali and Frazier training for their third fight;) and the king of all public service announcements: Iron Eyes Cody and his “Keep America Beautiful” crying Indian.

Presentation
The '70s Dimension is a collection of vintage clips and commercials from the 1970s ... which means the material on this disc looks and sounds like vintage 70s footage. The quality various based on the source material, but all of it shows its age. Which is, of course, the point in a lot of ways. This stuff isn't restored (or if it is, not very dramatically), and you won't be showing off your surround sound and HDTV with it, but that's not really the reason for a collection like this. It all looks and sounds good enough to give you a true taste of the 70s, and that's all that matters.

Extras
Now if you think those 66 spots are all you get on this disc, then you are so very wrong. The second half, titled 70s Remix, consists of a number of experimental films all based around this sort of footage (clips not found in the first half) and utilizing a collage style of filmmaking to create their art. Some were funny, some were a little pretentious, yet still very interesting, some would be better in an “altered state,” and some included Sage Stallone. While these all have their merits, and some are highly recommended, I would avoid trying to watch them after slogging through the first hour of the disc. I did, and I doubt I appreciated them as much as I could have. (Subsequent viewings after-the-fact proved the fact that these shorts are better when not following an hour of vintage commercials.)

The only other feature on this disc are trailers for two of Other Cinema’s releases: The Subject Is Sex and Tribulation 99.

The Bottom Line
Is this an exhausting hour and a half of DVD viewing? It sure is. I didn’t even watch the first half in the nice, organized groups option. I gutted it out and went for the whole mess in its pre-packaged, utterly random order. Would I recommend watching it all at once? It really depends on your tolerance for such things. If you can sit through an entire DVD of movie trailers, than you can probably do this. If not, I would recommend getting it in nice little doses. For me, this was a great ride, providing an opportunity to remember things in some cases, and seeing some totally new things in other cases. If you don’t have the same sort of masochistic tendencies as I do, this disc would be absolutely perfect as something played in the background of a party. Whether all at once, or in very short sittings, there is everything to recommend about this if you want to bravely dip your toe into the 1970s.