Sandbox

There are lots of things to miss about the ’60s—Elvis, the Beatles and a young Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music, to name a few—but there’s plenty to leave in the past. And yet this fall, new shows “Pan Am” and “The Playboy Club” are attempting to mimic the success of “Mad Men,” taking us back to those not-so-good old ways of the ’60s era.

Claiming to tackle issues such as sexism, homophobia, and racism, both shows fall well short of historical accuracy. The general impression is more that of melodramas set in the period-du-jour for the sole purpose of keeping the costume and music departments in vogue (and Emmy worthy).

“The Playboy Club” barely made it to air this year due to criticism from The Parents Television Council. What’s more concerning, though, isn’t the show’s explicit content (have you seen “True Blood”?), but its passively misogynistic portrayal of gender relations. “Mad Men,” a superior television program in almost every regard, has faced a similar struggle to strike a reasonable balance of accurate period detail and preservation of political correctness.

By contrast, the more conservatively dressed characters of “Pan Am” strive to expose the beginnings of the feminist movement of the ’60s. In this regard, the show may be too successful: the message of female empowerment is conveyed to the point of exhaustion. Unlike “The Club,” some historically accurate elements surface in an espionage plot—but only in lieu of any mention of race and LGBT issues.

Perhaps it’s too much to ask for a show both to provide an accurate period portrayal and to capture our intrigue. At the very least, the almost fetishistic wave of ’60s-set television allows us to contemplate the way sexism and a lopsided gender balance of power shaped the careers of women of that decade—and to what extent those conditions still apply today.