This summer marks the 50th anniversary of the break-in at the Watergate Hotel that eventually

led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Watergate not only had profound

impacts on how Americans see the government and the press, but it has influenced decades

of movies, TV, and books. I'm Linda Holmes and today we're talking about Watergate

in pop culture on pop culture happy hour from NPR.

Joining me today is NPR Senior Editor Barry Hardiman. Welcome back Barry. Hi! And also

here with us is our pal Vulture TV critic Roxana Hadadi. Welcome back Roxana. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. So time, as you can imagine, does not really permit a full retelling

of the history of Watergate, but a refresher would go as follows. The break-in at the National

Headquarters of the Democratic National Committee on June 17, 1972 was part of an operation

to bug those offices. The burglars were caught and over a long period of time reporting

from journalists including Bob Woodward and Karl Bernstein at the Washington Post uncovered

connections between the burglary and the White House. There was also evidence of other

operations to sabotage and interfere with political enemies. Congressional hearings followed

and during those hearings it came out that Nixon was in the habit of secretly recording

conversations in his own offices. Those tapes were eventually made public and when Nixon's

knowledge of efforts to cover up the whole thing came to light, he resigned in August

of 1974. And a number of his associates and staffers faced criminal convictions. Bob Woodward

and Karl Bernstein wrote a blockbuster book called All the Presidents Men and then there

was a film of the same name in 1976. It was directed by Alan J. Pacula and starred Robert

Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Woodward and Bernstein. Other projects about Watergate

have continued to come out right up to Gaslett, a star's series from this year starring Julia

...