The Thread of Life

Dr. Frank C. Baxter teaches us about genetics and heredity in this vintage TV documentary combining live-action and animation! The good doctor not only explains how DNA works, he also talks frankly about "the birds and the bees" -- or as much as he could on 1960s television. He even good-naturedly makes fun of his own lack of hair to illustrate the recessive baldness gene. Reflecting the nuclear paranoia of the era, there is disturbing footage of insects deformed by radiation (this segment was criticized by The New York Times for being too gruesome.) Thread of Life was the third of the Bell Laboratory Science Series made under the auspices of Warner Brothers. Each of the Warners entries featured animated sequences created by a different director from their legendary animation department, "Termite Terrace". In Thread of Life's case, it is Robert McKimson, the creator of Foghorn Leghorn and the Tasmanian Devil. The script was written by Rowland Barber, best known for his novel The Night They Raided Minsky's. Don Grady appears as a little boy who asks Dr. Baxter about the left-handed gene. He will be instantly recognizable to generations of TV viewers as not only a Mouseketeer, but as one of Fred McMurray's titular offspring on My Three Sons (1960-1972). Thread of Life originally aired on December 9, 1960 on NBC, and is graced with an opening narration by Chet Huntley.