To understand why the 50's seemed so uptight and white-bread, just look at a bit of history. After the Great Depression and World War II, having a suburban house, a wife, and just being normal sounded like heaven to the average joe.

No two Fifties are alike. Here's the nipple of one iceberg:
hula hoop, Red Scare, Mickey Mantle, doo-wop, mass religiosity
(forerunner of modern Christianityism), huge tailfins on cars, rock and roll, drive-ins, the invention of the teenager (for fun and profit, right Dick?), suburbia, Dief the Chief, "I Like Ike", the first wave of African/third world independence, fallout, "duck-and-cover", bomb shelters.