And please don’t say mad men. I want something that was actually made during the 60s that according to your recollection, accurately portrays, what life was like back then. It was before my time, so you could totally trick me, but don’t.

I think UFO nailed it.

Lost In Space. “ Danger Will Robinson, Danger!”

I was six in 1964, and it sucked.  It was hot in west central Florida, and we didn't have air conditioning.  My old man was/is an asshole, so maybe a little like Cool Hand Luke, without the eggs and camaraderie.

Partridge family

edit no that was 70's

beverly hillbillies

Then Came Bronson

General Hospital. It was on every day. Besides the cheesy storylines, it did a pretty good job of encapsulating some of the times.

I'd say the best movies about the 60s weren't made until years later when the genre was viewed in retrospect

Johnny Carson reruns.

Well, I suppose I should’ve specified 1960s.

Saturday morning Cartoons.  

You'd get up early just to be glued to the TV eating a bowl of Super Sugar Bombs watching Johnny Quest, Space Ghost, Scoobie Doo, Jetsons, Flintstones & of course Road Runner - Bugs Bunny show.

It was a Great time!

Bigger_Hammer

Adam 12

wasn't bad and it wasn't over the top for patrol car day of work

They didn't shoot some one every show like most cop shows

Leave it to Beaver. Seriously. My childhood was blessed with a blissful unawareness of all the shit going on in the world.

'66 dudes!!!

This was what the average family REALLY looked like in the 60's.

Click To View Spoiler

I'd say probably none of it.  All TV and Hollywood does is take tidbits and make an amalgam of what it THINKS is "the way things are/were".  The reality is, for 99% of people, it's all bullshit.

There wasn't one. Sorry. I can't remember one that came close. Nobody at the time wanted to go to the movies and see regular stuff.

If you go back another decade, The Life of Riley captured working class life pretty well for the '50s.

Gidget

The 60's in the midwest were like the 50=80's, california got weird.
leave it to beaver, please don't eat the daisies, my three sons
, wonder years.

eta adam 12, emergency, general hospital.

I loved this show.

I was 5 years old and cried when it was cancelled.

THIS!

In 1964 I was 17 living in Central Florida (pre Disney).  It was a great place to live.

We didn't have AC back then either.  Only the more well to do people had AC and that was usually a loud window AC unit.

The Monkees captured the youth being free and silly and cool thing down pretty well. Every kid wanted long hair and an electric guitar.
Attached File

"Targets"

The man from U.N.C.L.E.

The Banana Splits

Opie

That 70's show, oh wait never mind.

For the South, Andy Griffith seemed to capture the vibe of the early 60s.

I like to think the Monkees was what Cali was like before things went completely off the rails.

This guy nailed it.

TV entertainment and news was just as bullshitty as today.

Attached File

partridge family= the cowsills.

I was born on 1956, so the 60's were my childhood.  As a previous poster alluded to, it depends on how old you were, where you were living, and what you mean by the 60's.  But, no, I can't think of any movies or tv shows that accurately depict that time.  

The thing is for the vast majority of people, life was just about living, working, going to school, raising children, etc.  Nothing really dramatic.  The turbulence associated with that era was concentrated in specific areas and with a relatively small amount of people,   the Vietnam war, and those involved with it excepted.

Route 66

Attached File

This is partially true, in the 70's you could travel and see a help wanted sign and get a cash job for however long it lasted.
If you looked right.

I was living on Quantico for a good part of the 60s. I was a young child, but nothing on Gomer Pyle even remotely portrayed that realistically, and I don't have much other frame of reference.

For the first half of the 60s American Graffiti is pretty close, with 77 Sunset Strip, Gidget, Andy Griffith, Leave It To Beaver and Dobie Gillis pretty much rounding out the picture.  It was an innocent world of Beach Boys music about girls, cars and surfing.  I was there seeing older sisters and cousins living that life.

The second half of the 60s was reflected by Adam 12, Shingdig, Hulabaloo, Rowen & Martin's Laugh-In and That Girl with better cars and music than the first half.

Taxi Driver does a decent job portraying NYC in the early 1970's.  Many areas were really shitholes.  

Except that American Graffiti wasn't made in the 60's.  

Production date was 1973.

I couldn't think of the name but that was going to be my reply as it had a realistic 60's feel to it.

I remember the 60's but I was under age 10 so much of my memory is influenced by TV and movies and those are exaggerated and distorted views of reality.

Episode with Gary7

Wonderland 2003 movie.

The no-AC was a thing. We did have two window units in our house in Houston. One in the living room and one in our parent's room. We lived near the Buffalo Bayou. Summer nights for us kids were loud and sticky hot. Box fan in the window to move some air and listened to swamp critter noises all night. I remember waking up to turn my pillow over a few times at night to "the cooler side".

The main flavor i recall of the 60s was the freedom i had.

Soon as i had a bike, the world was my oyster to travel. A typical day had our mother waking us as my father was finishing breakfast and shoving off by 6AM. He preferred being at jobs before 7. We'd dress, gobble breakfast and walk or ride bikes to school. Soon as homework was done after getting home, Mom would run us off to play with known instructions to have our tails back for supper at 7PM. We would often pump the bikes back home at full speed to make that deadline or face a promised belt ass whipping if we did not make it on time for the family supper with Dad. We were never late. We were free between 8-9 for more outdoor play, but 9 was bath time. Five of us...Mom washed the baby first. I was eldest, so i was last through. My job was to drain and rinse the now-filthy tub. Everyone was in bed at 10.

If you watch any show or movie about "the 60s", it's usually heavy with the "Summer of Love" and hippie BS. The only real hippie i personally knew in the late 60s was an older (than me) cousin. She came to stay with us briefly. She wanted to check out Houston. She was a ho. My dad ran her off after just two weeks. Caught her burning a doob with her latest sperm provider.

Those were the heart of the VietNam war days. You saw the protest stuff on the TV, but aside from that, the fact that we were in a foreign war was not even noticed or acknowledged in suburbia. Those veterans just slipped back quietly...well, the live and healthy ones. No fanfare. My dad was a combat vet from the Korean war.  They were treated the same. I know I'd see him secretly pay lunch tabs of young service men many times. He also gave young service folk a hitch if they had a thumb out.

My 60s was more like "the 50s" i guess. Folks were more well dressed. One of my allowance chores was to polish my father's work boots. His work boots had a shine.  I wore slacks and button down shirts to school. Girls generally wore dresses. Hair was parted and combed, too. Hell, we looked church presentable to go grocery shopping. I counter those memories to what a typical Walmart circus looks like now. Seeing a tatted up, blue and green haired slag-hog, slagging buy on a Walmart scooter does not even phase me at all. My newest game on a Walmart visit is called: "Spot the first healthy looking, trim, natural haired, non-tatted, nicely dressed adult you can". I most often come up empty. Usually have to catch after church traffic on a Wednesday night to see those.