GamerTab
That was an excellent one.
MamaGravity
good back-story, and good acting
Konterr
Brilliant and touching
Bob
This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
mrb1980
Back in the 1970s Aaron Spelling brought us such execrable TV shows as "Charlie's Angels", "Starsky and Hutch", "Fantasy Island", "The Love Boat", and others. Spelling didn't attempt to promote the shows as great dramatic art, preferring to produce (as he called it) "candy for the mind". These were shows that had cardboard characters, childish plots, stupid dialogue, and no real value. Spelling was very perceptive, since he realized that when people came home from work, they wanted something simple and unchallenging, with no real plot or substance."American Dreams" ran from 2002 to 2005 and had intelligent plots, great acting, good cinematography, and complex characters. I guess that's what its problem was—people had to actually think while they were watching, instead of drooling over Farrah Fawcett and Jaclyn Smith or watching David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser screeching around town in a hot red car while acting out insultingly sophomoric scripts every week."American Dreams" told the story of a middle-class Catholic family in Philadelphia during the mid-1960s. The show was basically a soap opera, with many intertwining plot elements every week. The show's story began in 1963 and featured such subjects as the Kennedy assassination, the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, the Beatles, sexual orientation, the U.S. space program, and many others. The intelligent scripts were enacted by a dynamite cast of virtual unknowns, all portrayed against the backdrop of Dick Clark's "American Bandstand". Viewers didn't have to tolerate great quantities of snickering, suggestive dialogue, car chases, or constant gunplay.The show lasted three seasons and unfortunately never achieved top ratings. The cast members were uniformly excellent and included Brittany Snow, Tom Verica, Will Estes, Gail O'Grady, Vanessa Lengies, Jonathan Adams, and many others. The younger members of the cast were surprisingly professional and believable, but everyone performed at a very high level.It's a shame that "American Dreams" was canceled after only three seasons. I suppose people would rather watch John Ritter fall down and Suzanne Somers jiggle in "Three's Company", because that idiotic show lasted a lot longer. That's unfortunate, but it does indicate why American prime time television is so bad and why our expectations are so low.
Virginie Mikaelian
No show has made me cry more over little things… the death of Kennedy, all the times Meg says that "she's doing it for JJ", the many scenes with the whole Pryor family worrying about JJ even though you know he's okay… even a hug between father and daughter, or two friends reuniting after being in a fight have made me cry… why? Because the characters don't just overcome things, they push the boundaries and make the world a better place one day at a time. They set the path for what would be the world I live in today: and as a child of the 2000 era (I was born in 1983), it shows me that this world – our world - is a better place because of the fight that was led on by the courageous minds of the 60's and 70's. Honestly, I could watch this show over and over again, because it gives me hope that what we do makes a difference… maybe not on the short run but on the long run, absolutely. It keeps me from becoming jaded. I too want to keep pushing the boundaries, so that 40 years from now, our children can look back and see the work we've done… and the work that's left to do.
kurtmatthew
Of course, it's all about ratings and dollars. For 3 years, every Sunday night I watched "American Dreams" -- it was by far the best show on TV. I am afraid quality like this doesn't come around very often. I wish NBC had stuck with this show. Instead we get more banal sitcoms with stereotypes and insipid reality shows. Like "The Wonder Years", "American Dreams" focused on an American family during a very turbulent time in this nation's history. As Americans go through another war, (Iraq) -- one would think that this would have hit a chord with the American public. Apparently, it did not. "American Dreams" had quality acting, writing and production values. It was a show that the entire family could sit down and enjoy. Sunday nights are definitely not the same. When the show's cancellation was announced last Spring -- I was hoping another network would pick it up. But, unfortunately no.
Kimmieskids
I really enjoy watching American Dreams. I was born in the late 60's (67) and I've always heard stories about things that happened and now I can have see how things went along. I like seeing the old black & white TV's in Mr. Pryors store, I remember having those old TV's and the way the flipped and rolled but we loved watching it, now days you turn on the TV and get mad because they changed shows, it's nice to remember how it used to be and to see how far we have come. I hope every American can try to live their American Dream. I had heard that they were going to take it off the air but I'm hoping it is just here say. Let's all keep telling them how much we enjoy the show to keep it alive!
