Popular Culture Sails Along On a very different note, the two decades after World War II were high times for the Broadway musical. All over America people were humming tunes from South Pacific, The King and I, The Music Man, Bye Bye Birdie, West Side Story, The Sound of Music, and many other sparkling shows. Fans went crazy with Beatlemania, and families gathered every night around the electronic hearth—the television—to enjoy sitcoms like I Love Lucy andFather Knows Best, westerns like Gunsmoke and Bonanza, and the science fiction tales of The Twilight Zone.