What’s the deal with Naked City? I understand it has been tied up a lawsuit, or court ruling for forty years, and nobody will show the reruns. It's a shame, because that has to be one of the best series ever.
Once I was in Frankfurt, Germany on business and saw "The Naked City" on an English channel station there. Good episode. Raw gritty. It was about a mobster who is fighting in court for custody of his son. He corrupts the boy's teacher, a lonely old man, with a beautiful young girl as literally a gift-wrapped present. It ends in ruin for all.
The thing about the 60's that characterized the time, that people forget was its prosperity, its security, its wealth. It was a time when the developed economies soared past 1929 levels with nothing but blue sky in sight. Government had tons of money to spend and thought they could do anything. The salaries of unionized blue collar workers approached those of college graduates. It was a world so rich and secure that young people believed that things like aggression, competition, deferred gratification, the values of conflict over limited resources, were as archaic as duelling and courtly romance. People thought they could "drop out" of the beaten path to "find themselves" and drop back in whenever they liked. Since there is plenty for everyone, we can all smoke dope, play frisbee, and be friends.
Check on Amazon. "Naked City" is being released on DVD.