Watching 'The Smothers Brothers,' 'Laugh-In' and the Democratic National Convention

The year 1968, as I remember it, had the quality of lasting longer than other years, of being in no hurry to be through with you, like a predator playing with its prey before swallowing it whole. I also watched a lot of television.

There was war in Southeast Asia and a war in the streets of the United States. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. But you would not have known that from prime-time television. The 1967-68 season was full of westerns, World War II dramas, cop and lawyer shows, a little espionage. Sitcoms were even more removed from the chaos and challenges of contemporary America.