The Sixties poster

TV series

The Sixties

2014TV-PG1 season7.5 / 10

The decade that changed the world.

The space race, the cold war, "free love," civil rights and more: The decade of the 1960s shaped our history -- and changed the world. In collaboration with Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman and Mark Herzog, CNN explores perhaps the most transformative decade of the modern era in a 10-part documentary series and brings new insights into how those events shaped today.

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Where to watch in United States

Checked Sep 4, 2026

The Sixties is available to stream on HBO (Via Hulu), HBO Max, HBO Max (Via Amazon Prime), The Roku Channel, and Plex in United States. You can also buy it from Amazon, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home. Use the direct links below to open the provider.

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Synopsis

The space race, the cold war, "free love," civil rights and more: The decade of the 1960s shaped our history -- and changed the world. In collaboration with Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman and Mark Herzog, CNN explores perhaps the most transformative decade of the modern era in a 10-part documentary series and brings new insights into how those events shaped today.

Season 1 episodes

Choose an episode, then use the watch options above for the show.

Episode 1

Television Comes of Age (1960 - 1969)

May 29, 20141h

Americans gathered around “the tube,” to be informed and entertained by the news, The Twilight Zone, The Fugitive, I Dream of Jeannie, Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, and more. Tom Hanks, Sally Field, Dick and Tom Smothers, Carol Burnett, Dick Cavett, Diahann Carroll, Carl Reiner, Vince Gilligan, Petula Clark and others describe how the ground-breaking, rule-breaking, norm-bending dramas, historical events, and sitcoms reflected and influenced who we were.

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Episode 2

The World on the Brink (1960 – 1963)

Jun 5, 20141h

The heady days of Camelot were clouded by the political and military tensions between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. Marvin Kalb, Richard Reeves, Robert Dallek, Sergei Khrushchev and more explain how close the Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis brought us all to World War III – and how two nuclear superpowers moved from near confrontation to the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

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Episode 3

The Assassination of Kennedy (1963 - 1969)

Jun 12, 20141h

A documentary examining the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963. Included: a look at the conclusions drawn from the Warren Report; and eyewitness testimony. Remarks by: historians Robert Dallek and Robert Caro; journalists Robert MacNeil and Dan Rather; and Alexandra Zapruder, whose grandfather captured the assassination on film.

Episode credits

Guest stars John F. Kennedy, Jack Ruby

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Episode 4

The War in Vietnam (1961 – 1968)

Jun 19, 20141h

From just several hundred advisors at the start of the decade, to more than 550,000 American troops by the end of it, the escalation of the war in Vietnam – and the fighting and the dying – brought social and political polarization back home. It was also televised – and, the more Americans saw of the war, the more unpopular the conflict became. Tim O’Brien, Frederik Logeval, Karl Marlantes, Neil Sheehan, Andrew Bacevich, George Herring, Tom Hayden, and Philip Caputo discuss the Gulf of Tonkin, and LBJ, for this most complex of American stories.

Episode credits

Guest stars Neil Sheehan, Tim O'Brien, Ngô Đình Diệm

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Episode 5

A Long March to Freedom (1960 – 1968)

Jun 26, 20141h

Selma, Birmingham, and the March on Washington are reexamined by eyewitnesses to history. Diane Nash, U.S. Rep. John Lewis, U.S. Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, Rev. C.T. Vivian, Bob Moses, Diane McWhorter, Taylor Branch, David Garrow, and Isabel Wilkerson give critical context to the lunch counter sit-ins, Freedom Rides, Freedom Summer, integration, and the Children’s Crusade for the moral mission of the Civil Rights Movement.

Episode credits

Guest stars Strom Thurmond, Marlon Brando, Walter Cronkite, Sammy Davis Jr., Merriman Smith, Richard Reeves

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Episode 6

The British Invasion (1964 - 1967)

Jul 10, 20141h

Clips of performances by British bands of the 1960s, including Manfred Mann, the Animals, Peter and Gordon, Joe Cocker, Traffic, Procol Harum, the Troggs, the Kinks, the Yardbirds, the Hollies, and Gerry and the Pacemakers. Host: Casey Kasem.

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Episode 7

The Space Race (1960 – 1969)

Jul 17, 20141h

Astronaut and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Mike Massimino and Dave Scott, and Walter Issacson, Douglas Brinkley, Tom Wolfe, Andy Chaikin, and Tom Hanks describe the greatest adventure story of all time. The “giant leap” pushed the boundaries of exploration to an unprecedented frontier, inspiring inventions and imaginations around the world for generations.

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Episode 8

1968 (1968)

Jul 24, 20141h

Tom Hayden, Gloria Steinem, Lance Morrow, Evan Thomas, Dan Rather, Morley Safer, Tim Naftali, and Mark Kurlansky discuss how one of the most dramatic years in American history was punctuated by a Soviet incursion into Czechoslovakia, devastating assassinations, turning points in the wars in Southeast Asia, a decisive and televised end to the Johnson Administration, violence at the Democratic National Convention, and the election of President Nixon.

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Episode 9

The Times, They Are A-Changin’ (1960 – 1969)

Jul 31, 20141h

Gloria Steinem, Robert Kennedy, Jr., former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, Cecile Richards, Marlo Thomas, Douglas Brinkley, and Gail Collins discuss how feminism, civil rights, environmentalism, conservatism, and the gay rights movements were fueled by deep yearnings for freedom by a generation unwilling to wait.

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Episode 10

Sex, Drugs, and Rock N’ Roll (1960 – 1969)

Aug 7, 20141hfinale

American culture changed fundamentally from the beginning to the end of the 1960s as the tastes, morals, and politics of the Baby Boomer generation came to define America. Jann Wenner, Grace Slick, David Wild, Leonard Steinhorn, Tom Wolfe, Douglas Brinkley, Tom Hanks, and more describe how beatniks, Haight-Ashbury, Andy Warhol, Timothy Leary, hippies, and Hell’s Angels became counter-cultural touchstones that still resonate today.

Where to watch The Sixties

Episode information updated Sep 13, 2026

More about The Sixties

Watch trailerThe Sixties: 1968 Trailer

Cast

Tom HanksSelf

David BrinkleySelf (archive footage)

Dan RatherSelf (archive footage)

Shirley ChisholmSelf (archive footage)

Walter CronkiteSelf (archive footage)

Neil SheehanSelf

Tim O'BrienSelf

John F. KennedySelf (archive footage)

Production details

Status: Ended
Series type: Miniseries
Episodes: 10
Original language: English

Networks & production

CNNUnited States
PlaytoneUnited States
CNN FilmsUnited States

Themes

1960snostalgia

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