American Dreams

I thoroughly enjoy this show. Britney Snow is phenomenal as 16 year old Meg Pryor. I love how everything she is going through in the 60's I myself have or am going through right now. Vanessa Lengies as sassy Roxanne is Amazing. Will Estes...Gorgeous, as the Older brother J.J. Tom Verica is the best father figure on television. Patty and Will are great too. And I love how Helen (Gail O.Grady) is finally doing things without consulting her husband first. Showing that women can make up there own minds in the 60's. The story lines are great. But the best thing about it is how they bring the music from the 60's to life by having artists of today portray the artists of yesterday. Every week you can tune in and see someone new, artists such as: Usher, Vanessa Carlton, Michelle Branch, Leanne Rymes, Brad Paisly, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Monica, Macy Grey, Alisha Keyes, Nick Carter, Kelly Rolland, and many many more. Its great. I hope this show stays on the air for a long long time. Great for family's to watch together!

The show takes me back to my own senior year, 1963. It is very accurate even to the clothing styles and amazingly, the name of a long since closed amusement park called "Willow Grove Park" was mentioned once. I won't dwell on this, but I was one of the kids back in 1962 on American Bandstand myself. I have a highly treasured snapshot I took one day on the set of Dick Clark interviewing Sandra Dee. The show isn't all carefree of course, but then life has never been without problems. Despite this, it depicts an era of a certain innocence we no longer enjoy.

I am a fan of character development, great acting and history. This lovely show has all three. My favorite character is Jack because he represents the people who think they have life figured out. But, life keeps changing; he is classy enough to change with it. And Meg is so much like him and he does not realize it.

The American Bandstand angle is a pleasant way to remind us of a simplier time in the music world. The show faces hard issues like racism, police brutality, Viet Nam, polio, politics, homosexuality, the riot, life changes and pregnancy outside of marriage realistically. These issues are a part of life and I appreciate the "non over-the-top" way they have been handled.

You can even watch this with your family and not cringe because of cursing and explicit sexual encounters. This is a fine way to spend one hour on Sunday evenings.

This is a great show. It is about a hard-working American family during Vietnam. It is also interesting because there are many other conflicts within the plot. Very well done AS A RESPONSE TO THE FIRST POST For number 1 I can't stand it when people bad mouth the USA the MAIN THING is that you aren't even American. So shut your trap. My father was in Vietnam and fought for this country. and when our vets. came home they were treated like..well never mind. Yes, America is proud of what it does right or wrong. we have to stay together and support our country. Just because I dislike our president doesn't mean i dislike my country.USA

I have to disagree strongly with one parsimonious reviewer who stated there was no reason to watch this show. There are at least two good reasons...

First, if you were a teenager in the early 1960s, like I was, and looked forward to watching American Bandstand, this weekly TV series is a marvelous, nostalgic reminder of those times. Whether your memories were good or bad, this is the closest we will ever get to "being there" one more time. The film clips from the original Bandstand show add to the realism.

Second, if you are too young to remember the 1960s, and are curious, the styles of dress, the dialog, the boy-girl infatuations, the racial tension, the religious conflicts over birth control, the "transistor radios" that everyone carried around, the round-screen black and white TVs, all those are very authentic in this TV series.

"American Dreams" - overall a very fine show, one we've dreamed about for years!