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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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.

'West Side Story ' Shocked Audiences When It First Came too Broadway

The Broadway show ran for 732 performances. The first film adaptation won 10 Academy Awards. And the fictional love story between a former gang member and the sister of a rival gang’s leader spawned more than a dozen revivals and tours. Now Jerome Robbins’s beloved musical, “West Side Story,” is on theater screens once again. The new film, directed by Steven Spielberg, premiered Friday. Often ranked among the best musicals of all time, “West Side Story” was much less vaunted when it debuted on Broadway in 1957. Audiences and critics were discomfited by the violence and juvenile delinquency portrayed in the show, an adaptation of “Romeo and Juliet” that trades rival families for warring street gangs — one Puerto Rican and the other White. “The radioactive fallout from ‘West Side Story’ must still be descending on Broadway this morning,” critic Walter Kerr wrote in the New York Herald Tribune . Theatergoers were flummoxed that the show not only lacked the f...

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

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