VH1 and the Sundance Channel are broadcasting a new four-part documentary this month entitled “The Drug Years”. Produced and directed by Dana Heinz Perry and Hart Perry, the wife and husband team behind such documentary series as “And You Don’t Stop: 30 Years of Hip Hop” and “VH1 Presents the 70s”, it will have its first run from 12 – 15 June on VH1, followed by an encore presentation on the Sundance Channel from 16 – 17 June.

The series, co-executive produced by the two channels, will cover the period from the 50s until the present and is said to focus on the effects drugs have had on popular culture and politics. It will include archival footage of bad fashion, as well as interviews with various actors
(Peter Coyote, Tommy Chong), members of the music industry (Jackson Browne, Ice-T, Chuck D., Russell Simmons, John Mellencamp), funny men (Richard Belzer, Richard Lewis), Journalists (Anthony DeCurtis of Rolling
Stone, John Leland of the New York Times and Time Magazine) and all of the above (Henry Rollins).

The episodes line-up roughly as follows:

Episode 1: Break on Through (1950s-1967) – The Beats, Hippies and others strike back at mainstream America / marijuana / psychedelics / Turn on, tune in, drop out

Episode 2: Feed Your Head (1967-1971) – Rebellion, Vietnam, sex / Pot and LSD on the big and small screen / Woodstock / Richard Nixon

Episode 3: Teenage Wasteland (1972-1979) – Nixon hits out at drugs and his enemies / Pot power / High Times / Cheech & Chong / Cocaine / Studio 54

Episode 4: Just Say No (1980-present) – Ronald Reagan / crack and rap / Ecstasy, Oxycontin and Meth

Technorati Tags: drugs, documentaries