History of Popular Culture—Week 3, Assignment 2
Write a treatment for a television show that would portray the values of the “Cold War Culture”. What is the setting, story, and cast of characters?
Setting:
- 1963 Studebaker Wagonaire
- U.S. Highway 20
- Just west of Waterloo, Iowa
Cast:
The Burns family
- Father, “George”
- Mother, “Marion”
- Son, “Timmy”
- Daughter, “Violet”
Story:
The Burns are driving from their Cedar Rapids, Iowa, home to spend Thanksgiving with Aunt Betsy, George’s sister, in the family’s 1963 Studebaker Wagonaire.
The Burns family has been driving west on U.S. Highway 20 for two hours past corn, wheat and barley fields. The children are bored in the back seat, blankly staring out the window. George, agitated after yelling at the kids for their constant bickering, grimaces as he thinks of the two hours of driving left before the family reaches his sister’s house in Sioux Falls. His wife Marion sits quietly in the front passenger’s seat, knitting an afghan for Aunt Betsy and wishing that her husband was not so cross with their children.
The road stretches on before them, straight as an arrow for miles and miles. The only interruption of the horizon is a large combine slowly harvesting wheat in a distant field.
12-year-old Timmy breaks the silent monotony when he exclaims excitedly that he’s just spotted two low-flying planes. Violet, his 8-year-old sister, unbuckles and climbs across the seat to see. George, weary of the children, tries to drown them out as he reaches to turn up the radio. He hears the planes roar overhead, but doesn’t pay any attention to it because “I Walk The Line” has just come on the radio.
Suddenly, over Johnny Cash’s voice, the family hears an awful sound of metal against metal, followed by an enormous explosion only 50 yards before them, just south of the road. The combine that had been far in distance erupts into flames. As they approach, the family’s station wagon is rocked by the explosion and pelted by bits of glass and large shrapnel. A tire pops, followed by loud “clang,” as George pilots the Wagonaire through the debris on the road and cloud of smoke in the air.
George slams on the vehicle’s brakes and screeches to a halt, hearing the rear driver’s side tireless rim grating on the pavement. He hears the planes pulling up on their yokes, circling around. During the sudden stop, his glasses fell on the floor, so he cannot see well, but he knows all too well what is happening.
Seeing a bridge over a small creek, he quickly pulls the vehicle off the road and under the bridge. Marion, the mother, and 8-year-old Violet are told to “sit tight” in the car.
Worried about the determined look in his eyes, Marion urges her husband to drive back to Webster City to get help, but he cuts her complaints short. A veteran infantryman of World War II, he knows every moment could decide their fate. He tells Timmy to come with him as he hurries to the back of the car, moves a few boxes, and fishes out of his suitcase his loaded .45 caliber revolver. He crouches behind the car and watches as the two planes circle around. He hands Timmy the hatchet that is always kept in the emergency box, and tells him only to use it if he is threatened.
The two planes fly over the burning combine once more before circling once again. Seeing the planes flying directly toward the family’s car, 50 feet above the ground, George takes aim at them, waiting until they come into range.
But instead of continuing toward the parked car, the two planes lightly touch down on the road, stopping near the burning wreckage. Surprised but still determined to protect his family, George whispers to Timmy to stay where he is, then quietly runs toward the planes and the burning combine.
As he approaches, George stops when he realizes that the planes are not what he expected. Although he knew that the Soviets had used a few biplanes in the War, these were different. They were both bright red and bore no Soviet markings, as he had expected. He recognized them as Stearmans, planes used to train pilots during the War.
The pilots jumped out of the aircraft and ran over to the burning combine, apparently to render aid. Both are dressed in baggy overalls with no shirts underneath. One has a greasy ball cap backwards on his head.
Relieved, George runs, now in the open, to help the men look for a survivor of the accident. As he runs, he resets the safety on the .45 and tucks the weapon into the back of his trowsers.
Sources:
Compare the setting, story, and characters with present-day versions of these shows.
I really don’t watch much TV, but the one show I have watched that even remotely resembles this storyline is Alias. In a few episodes, Jack Bristow, a CIA agent, is suspected of being a double agent for the KGB during the Cold War era. Later in his life, he discovers that it was actually his wife was the Soviet spy.
During the Cold War era, suspicion of espionage was rampant. The first hint of something amiss was often attributed to communism—from widespread drug use to promiscuity. In the above narrative, the protagonist, George, assumes that the explosion he witnessed was an attack before accepting that it was an accident.
Hi, I'm Jon, and this is my school blog. Read more about me and why I started this blog on the