How Muhammad Ali's Influence Spanned Generations

How you react to the four-part documentary "Muhammad Ali," by Ken Burns, Sarah Burns and David McMahon, premiering Sunday September 19 on PBS (8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT) might hinge on your age.

If you're under 50, you might see it as akin to Ken Burns' past epics such as "The Civil War," "Baseball" and "Jazz" — a superbly crafted history lesson, but a bit distant. If, however, you are (like me) a boomer, it will be like your favorite classic rock albums.

As the tumultuous life of the most famous athlete of the 20th century unspools, each bout in and out of the ring may well remind you of where you were when the event was taking place. All the greatest hits, the jabs and the jabbering ("I am the greatest!"), will be like Proust's Madeleine.

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Classic Rock Tale of Music and Marijuana

Ever since the dawn of man, humans have been looking for ways to make themselves feel better. Going beyond food, shelter and clothing…humans enjoy feeling good. Music, perhaps beating on a log with a stick, has long been one of the methods of soothing the savage beast. Another soothing method, of course, has been drugs in their many forms. Hundreds of songs about alcohol and marijuana, “hootch” and “grass,” respectively, have been written. The song “Feelin’ Good,” recorded by Ry Cooder, has the lyric “Feelin’ good, feelin’ good…all the money in the world spent on feeling good.” That about sums it up, no? To keep reading this article, click here.

Norman Lear Looks Back at 'All in the Family'

It would seem unthinkable by today's standards: the most popular character on television was a blue-collar bigot from Queens, New York — who, despite his prejudices, was often considered lovable at the same time. But that was the case for much of the 1970s with the character Archie Bunker on All in the Family , which debuted in 1971. For five years, it was the most-watched show on television. The show was groundbreaking for openly talking about serious issues of the day. While other shows featured surface-level plots, All in the Family 's storylines often involved deeper discussions of racism, women's rights, the Vietnam War, homosexuality, rape and more. To keep reading this article, click here.

Arthur Ashe: Tennis Great, Social Activist

Arthur Ashe Jr. always wanted to make a profound change. Before he stepped on a tennis court, he perused encyclopedias and absorbed everything he could about London, France and Australia as a child. His plan was to play in Wimbledon, the French Open and Australian Open, so he needed to be well-versed on not only the tournaments but also the host countries. Johnnie Ashe understood his older brother’s desire better than anyone, but even he found himself blown away by Arthur’s focus when they were younger. After Johnnie cold-clocked a third-grade classmate who called Arthur a sissy for playing tennis, Johnnie asked his brother, “Why tennis?” After all, they were playground kids, so there were other options out there. “Because I want to be the Jackie Robinson of tennis,” a 12-year-old Arthur told Johnnie. To keep reading this article, click here.

Talking 'Bout My Generation: Pop Goes the Culture (1945 to 1985) -

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