Classic 70's TV

Polly Holliday made a name for herself when she co starred with Linda Lavin and Beth Howland in the classic 70's comedy series, "Alice" that aired on CBS from 1976 to 1985.

Her character was Florence Jean Castleberry or better known to viewing audiences as Flo the sassy and man hungry waitress worked at the greasy spoon Mel's Diner. Polly's character was so popular that she was given her own spin off series, "Flo" which began airing on March 24, 1980 and finished on June 30, 1981.

The Amazing Spider-Man began it's life on CBS April 5, 1978 and lasted until May 3, 1978 and would come back to TV in the fall of 1978 with seven more episodes that were shown more as specials than an actual continuation of the series.

Nicholas Hammond brought our favorite web slinging super hero to life.

B.J. and the Bear In February of 1979, we were introduced to B. J. (Billy Joe) McKay an independent trucker who would haul most anything for a fee. While being a trucker meant he had freedom to travel the highways and byways in his red and white Kenworth, with his traveling companion, Bear, his pet chimp, it seemed he spent the bulk of his time in Georgia where he would regularly have run ins with corrupts police officials, one being Sheriff Elroy P. Lobo (Claude Akins).

In the fall of 1979, Lobo was given his own spinoff series, "The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo" which would eventually be retooled as "Lobo" . When B.J. came back around for his second season, which was delayed until 1981 because of an actor's strike, we discover he had settled down a bit and was running the Bear Enterprises trucking company which meant that his new nemesis was Rutherford T. Grant (Murray Hamilton) a corrupt politician who just happened to be the silent partner in B.J.'s biggest business rival's company. Grant made business tough for B.J. who found that no male truckers would work for him, so he resorted to hiring women drivers....pretty women drivers and wouldn't you know it, one would be Grant's daughter, Cindy (Sherlyn Wolter) and the other Stacks (Judy Landers)..

B.J. and the Bear was around for three seasons with a total of 48 episodes filmed. Greg sang the catchy theme song and this show and it's related offshoots, have yet to make it onto DVD.

Battlestar Galactica lasted for one season and was rumored to have been one of the most expensive TV shows to produce up to that time. The show was a small screen version of Star Wars and John Dykstra who had worked on the big screen movie, Star Wars did a lot of the special effects for the series.

Teen idols Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict starred as Apollo and Starbuck, fighters in the battle to save what was left of the human race after a surprise attack (aided by the evil human Count Baltar (John Colicos) by the Cylons, warrior robots created by a long dead reptilian race, nearly wiped out all humankind. Now, there is only one battlestar left to protect the small human population....the Battlestar Galactica.

A little bit of trivia; Rick Springfield play Zac, the brother of Apollo, who is killed in the premier episode of the series.

The show was cancelled after one season, and was retooled and brought back to the small screen as Galactica 1980 with Kent McCord and Barry Van Dyke.

In 1979, another comic book hero came to prime time in two TV movies that aired on CBS.

Handsome Reb Brown was Steve Rogers aka "Captain America". The first TV movie, simply titled "Captain America", aired on January 23, 1979 and was successful enough to encourage the filming of another, "Captain America II: Death too Soon" which aired on November 23, 1979.

The two TV movies were an attempt to gain enough interest to create a weekly series, but of course nothing ever came of it.

A lot of folks have probably forgotten about this 1974 TV movie (shown under the ABC Movie of the Week moniker) that stars Martin Sheen as, Michael McCord, a man out for revenge against Sheriff Roy Childress (Vic Morrow) who has a sadist way of dealing with speeders in his town... he deliberately races them in his super charged cop car only to run them off the road and to their doom, on the twisty roads that lead out of his small town. But, of course, our sheriff is really just misunderstood, it seems his wife and child were killed years before by a speeder. Anyway, McCord comes to town looking for answers to this brother's death and to eventually have a modern day show down with the sheriff.

Nick Nolte, Michelle Phillips and Stuart Margolin co star.

In March of 1974, TV audiences were treated to Cathy Lee Crosby as Wonder Woman in the ABC Movie of the Week that co starred Ricardo Montalban and Andrew Prine. I don't remember the plot line, I think it was about spies and Ricardo had a really lame name for a suave villain... Abner Smith.

This Wonder Woman didn't have super powers or the costume we were so used to associating with Wonder Woman (the comic book character had also lost her super powers and costume for a while, too) but it was a campy movie and still fun to watch and it did show that a woman could be a strong character (without super powers) simply by using her intelligence and charm.

Amazon has a variety of Cathy Lee Crosby photos some from her Wonder Woman role!

Wonder Woman was created by William Moulton Marston, a psychologist who noticed that most of the crime fighting comic book heroes of the 1940's were men. Recognizing the potential to not only entertain, but to educate using comic books, he decided to create e new super hero that would overcome evil not by using fists or firepower, but instead using love. His wife liked the idea very much and made a request, that this new super hero would be a woman. In January of 1942, the world was introduced to Wonder Woman and promptly fell in love with the Amazon princess.

In 1975, ABC aired a Wonder Woman TV movie that was a ratings success. ABC executives were impressed with the show enough to order two more one hour special episodes and then finally 11 more to complete the first season. However, ABC still wasn't impressed enough with the show to order another season and the producers of the show quickly took it to CBS who was willing to take it on, but first with a few changes. The show would be modernized, the World War II setting was dropped in favor of bringing her into the modern age. Her costume was redesigned, Steve Trevor was now the look alike son of the original Steve Trevor and the show was given a new name, "The New Adventures of Wonder Woman.". The show would run for 2 seasons on CBS before being taken off the schedule in 1978 because CBS had decided to focus more of their attention on the sitcom aspect of their viewing lineup. Wonder Woman was never really officially canceled.

All three seasons of the show are available on DVD for your viewing pleasure.

Visit Lynda's Official Site.

CLIFFHANGERS: (1979) This show was an attempt to revive the old time movie genre of the weekly serial.

This hour long show had three stories, each about 15 minutes long. The three segments were "Stop Susan Williams" which starred Susan Anton as Susan Williams a reporter who was investigating the death of her brother and ended up discovering an international conspiracy. This segment's ending was finally revealed to those members of the viewing audience who still cared, in the TV movie "The Girl Who Saved the World".

The second was was "The Secret Empire" about a US Marshal, Jim Donner (Geoffrey Scott) who discovered an underground city that was run by space aliens.

The third and final segment was "The Curse of Dracula" starring Michael Nouri as Dracula who was living in San Francisco and working as a college professor. Out of the 10 aired episodes only the Dracula storyline concluded on the series before being cancelled.

Anyone know what Geoffrey Scott has been up too of late....and yes he did star on Dynasty as Mark Jennings .

Doc Savage; Man of Bronze Ron, who was always nice to look at, especially when he wore the Tarzan loincloth in the 60's TV series, took on another larger than life role, in "Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze". Originally released as a big screen flick, it did poorly at the box office and of course, ended up being shown on TV which to me is where it should have been shown originally since it took such a campy approach to Savage. It would have fit right in with the 70's fascination of bringing to life cartoon and cartoon like heroes.

At the end of the film there was a hint at another Doc Savage film to be made, "The Arch Enemy of Evil", but with the poor reception to the first, this film was never made.

Ellery Queen This is a 1975 TV series that starred the late Jim Hutton as intrepid sleuth Ellery Queen and wonderful character actor David Wayne as Inspector Richard Queen, his father.

The series was set in the 1940's and each episode was actually a solvable mystery as the clues were always laid out before the viewing audience, so arm chair detectives could follow along and solve the case, maybe even before Ellery did. Also, this show employed the breaking of the "fourth wall" in which Ellery would actually stop and talk directly to us, the viewing audience.

John Hillerman, who many probably best associate with the character of "Higgens" in the 80's series, Magnum, P.I." played Simon Brimmer, a radio detective who fancied himself a better detective than Ellery and actor Tom Reese who was Inspector Queen's right hand man, Sergeant Velie.

Twenty two episodes of this series were made before it was hit with the cancellation axe. But, the good news is,the complete series is available on DVD.

Martin Mull did a guest appearance on the series "Wonder Woman" as Hamlin Rule, a rock star who hypnotizes, with strange melodies on his flute, a few of his fans into robbing the box offices at his concerts in this 6th episode of season two "The Pied Piper",which aired originally on Friday October 21, 1977.

Eve Plumb (remember her as "Jan" from "The Brady Bunch") plays one of the fans, who just happens to be the daughter of one of Diana Prince's (Wonder Woman) co workers. When she gets mixed up in Hamlin's schemes, it's up to Wonder Woman to rescue her.

It takes Wonder Woman talking with Hamlin to make him remember why he got into making beautiful flute music. He sees the error of his ways...awwww... somebody get me a tissue...I'm having a Kleenex moment here. heehee.

THE FANTASTIC JOURNEY: (1977) Jared Martin (who we might best remember for his role as Dusty Farlow on "Dallas") played "Varian" a pacifist scientist from the 23rd century who along with Scott Jordon (Ike Eisenmann), Dr. Fred Walters (Carl Franklin), Dr. Jonathan Willaway (Roddy McDowall) and Lianna (Katie Saylor) are trapped on an island where the past, present and future exist all at the same time. The show lasted for 10 episodes with Joan Collins appearing in episode eight and Cheryl Ladd making an appearance in the final episode.

Remember back in the 70's when topics like the Bermuda Triangle and Bigfoot were all the rage. Books, magazines, TV specials, even some of our favorite shows, like The Bionic Woman And the Six Million Dollar Man had their run ins with aliens and Bigfoot.

Farrah lost her battle with cancer. At 9:28 A.M, June 25th, 2009 at the St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California, Farrah succumbed to the cancer that ravaged her body. Ryan O'Neal and her best friend Alana Stewart were by her bedside.

It's so tough to believe she is gone. I remember as a kid, living through the "Farrah Phenomenon" and now it has come to this, having to say goodbye to her.

The red shirt pose has always been one of my favorite photos of Farrah, I remember first seeing it or one from the same photo shoot as a photo in one of my teen magazines that I used to read as a kid.

Not only did the 70's give us fun prime time and Saturday morning fare, they also had some pretty memorable commercials, too. Who can forget Life cereal with Mikey, they kid who hated everything but Life cereal.

Or how about fast food commercials with Ronald McDonald, the Grimace, and Hamburgler.

Or the Public Service Announcements particularly the "Keep America Beautiful" with the crying American Indian (who, by the way, was really an Italian actor), Calgon Water Softener , Marathon candy bars with Patrick Wayne as the Marathon Kid and his nemesis "Quick Carl". "Nobody eats a Marathon Bar quick, Carl".

Who could forget Shaun Cassidy's rise to teen idol status in the series "The Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries" that aired from January 30, 1977 to January 14, 1979.

I loved the show for the first two seasons, it was always a favorite topic of conversation on Monday morning at school with my friends; I remember we were really hyped up over the two part episode "The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Meet Dracula". I was a little disappointed when the Nancy Drew segment was merged with the Hardy Boys, but I got over it. I was really upset when Pamela Sue Martin left the series and Janet Louise Johnson (see photo below) was brought in to assume the role of Nancy, but...I got over it, kinda. :) She only lasted for four episodes I think, when the two shows were combined for a while during the second season.

The third season brought chances I didn't like or relate too. Now, it was adult oriented with Frank and Joe working for the Justice Department and Joe planning on marrying. Such a drastic (to me at least) change in behavior just didn't fit well with me and apparently other viewers as well because the show didn't make it through it's third season. It was years later that I discovered that the network was hoping to attract a wider and older audience but only managed to alienate the already established and loyal audience that made it so popular in the first place. Tinkering with a good thing usually doesn't improve it, this idea of fixing what isn't broken sorta irks me at times. The mentality seems to be "it's not broke, let's break it". Oh well, I did enjoy most of it while it lasted and have some great memories, too.

One of the fun things to do with these older series is to look for the bit parts and roles from actors and actresses who would later have very successful careers on TV and the silver screen. Joe Penny, Mark Harmon, Jamie Lee Curtis, Robert Englund and Reb Brown are just a few of the guest stars who would go on to bigger and better things.

Logan's Run the TV series was inspired by the big screen film of the same name. Beginning on September 6, 1977 and lasting until January 16, 1978 we got to watch handsome Gregory Harrison as Logan living in the City of Domes, a society where no one may live beyond the age of 30. When Logan decides to defy this mandate he is considered a criminal and is chased by a Sandman (an elite police officer). Logan's desire is to reach a utopia outside the city, called Sanctuary. Also along for the journey is Jessica (Heather Menzies) and a human like android called Rem (Donald Moffat).

You can do a pre order for the complete series which is scheduled for release onto DVD April 10, 2012!

Granted, Hee Haw began it's long TV career in 1969, but it was a staple in my family's viewing schedule for the entire decade of the 70's. It was fun visiting Kornfield Kounty every week and seeing hosts Roy Clark and Buck Owens singing and hamming it up. Charlie Farquharson, keeping us up to date on the happenings in the kounty. Stringbean reading to us the letters he received from home. And, who could resist singing along with "Gloom, Despair and Agony On Me". Oh, and the cool guest stars was a factor in watching, too. Getting to see folks like George Jones, Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter, Charlie Pride, Dolly Parton, Eddie Rabbitt, Charlie Rich and more was a treat.

As far as I know, the entire series has never been released onto DVD, which is a shame, as it would be wonderful to see again, the classic performances by artists of the 60's and 70's. RFD TV (Rural Free Delivery TV) does show, on Sunday nights, old Hee Haw episodes, so if you can get that on your cable or satellite you might want to check it out.

THE INVISIBLE MAN: (1975) David McCallum played Dr. Daniel Westin a scientist who renders himself invisible with a serum he developed. Before being able to turn himself visible again, he discovers the government wants his formula for war purposes. He destroys the formula and then spends his time fighting crime and working on trying to find a cure for his invisibility. When he has to go out in public appearances, he wears a realistic mask and hands. This show lasted for 12 episodes.

Heads up folks! This classic series will be available on DVD in May of 2012.

Lance was a teen idol, at least for a while. He is probably best remembered for his role as "James Hunter" on the series, "James At 15" that started in 1977. The show was about a teenager having to adjust to his life in Oregon after his family moves there from Boston. Basically, it was a "coming of age" type program, we got to watch the trials and tribulations of this teen who is trying to fit into his new surroundings. The show was critically acclaimed because of it's "realism" and how it treated the story lines with care and sensitivity. Personally, I only remember watching one or two episodes of the show and really wouldn't call myself a fan.

The show changed it's title to "James At 16" and had a very controversial episode in which James gets a girl pregnant. I'm not sure of the logic behind the name change, I guess it was easier for him to get a girl pregnant at 16 than at 15? :)

The show lasted for only a season, with 20 episodes filmed. Lance went on to work in some other shows, but in the mid 1990's he turned his back on acting and became a born again Christian as well as a pastor. Lance and his wife and children now reside in Hawaii.

Kate Jackson and her then hubby, Andrew Stevens, remade the classic 1937 film "Topper". Marian and George Kirby (as played by Kate and Andrew) are a wealthy carefree couple who have one problem... they are newly dead and can't get into heaven until they do one good deed. They decide that they are going to help their uptight lawyer "Cosmo Topper" (Jack Warden) brighten up his life whether he wants them too or not.

Remember when it seemed like it was such a big deal to some folks that Kate married Andrew who was seven years younger than she..why that was just scandalous.... what a cradle robber Kate was....goodness! :)

Killdozer In 1974 handsome and sexy Clint Walker (of TV western Cheyenne fame) would star in this campy cult classic TV movie that was based on the short story by Theodore Sturgeon.

Clint is Lloyd Kelly, the foreman on a job site on an island off the coast of Africa . He and his crew are trying to build an airstrip but end up fighting for their lives when a bluish energy emitted from a crashed meteor causes their bulldozer to come to life. The bulldozer is now a Killdozer and it begins to run amok on the job site. Can Clint destroy the Killdozer before it destroys him?

Robert Urich, Carl Bertz, James Wainwright, Neville Brand co star.

In 1974, Marvel Comics released a comic book tie in to this story in their Worlds Unknown Series. It's issue #6, "The Thing Called Killdozer"

Abner Devereaux (Anthony Zerbe) is the head engineer at the "Magic Mountain Amusement Park" who develops the lifelike cybernetic creatures for the park. When his boss, the parks owner, decides to cut funding for his projects and channel it into putting on a KISS concert in an attempt to help the financially struggling park, Devereaux doesn't take too well to the news and decides upon revenge. He kidnaps, KISS, and makes robotic replacements of them...can our heroes stop Devereaux before he can carry out his fiendish plan to start a destructive riot during KISS's concert in order to destroy the park?

Who can forgot this fun series (that started out as an ABC movie of the week) that was the inspiration, years later, for Chris Carter's "The X-Files? Darrin McGavin was Carl Kolchak an investigative reporter at a newspaper. His specialty wasn't covering the latest bank robbery or murder, unless of course it was done in some highly mysterious way that involved some supernatural power. Carl didn't get much respect from his boss, his co workers or the police, but that didn't stop him from getting involved in some pretty fun and scary situations. My favorite episodes were "Chopper" about a headless motorcycle rider who is killing former members of a motorcycle gang and "The Zombie". This was was a fun episode and I loved it when Kolchak was attempting to destroy the zombie at the end of the episode.

The 1974 movie starring Dan Haggerty inspired the 1977 TV series.

James Adams is accused of a crime he didn't commit. He escapes into the mountains and begins his life anew. Two friends, an old prospector named "Mad Jack" (Denver Plye) and Native American "Nakoma" (Don Shanks) are two of his trusted human friends and a bear cub he raised into adulthood named Ben rounds out the cast.

The Paul Lynde Halloween Special aired once during 1976 and hasn't been seen on TV since and if you remember watching it, you probably understand why it was never shown again in reruns.

Margaret Hamilton (The Wicked Witch of the West from the classic film "The Wizard of Oz") and her sister "Witchiepoo" ( Billie Hayes from "H.R.Pufnstuf") give Paul three wishes. The first he uses to become a trucker who competes with guest Tim Conway for the affections of a waitress played by guest Roz Kelly. The second wish he is a sheik who tries to woo guest Florence Henderson and is again interrupted by Tim Conway and finally his third wish takes him to a disco where Florence Henderson sings a disco version of "That Old Black Magic". What makes this special stand out (aside from the camp aspect) is that the rock group KISS makes an appearance and perform three songs, "Beth", "Detroit Rock City" and "King of the Night Time World". Other guests were Billy Barty, Betty White and Donnie and Marie Osmond.

I'm not certain as to why Paul got his own Halloween special, I know he gained a lot of popularity for his work on the game show, "Hollywood Squares" so maybe that was it, just a way to cash in on his popularity.

Before he caught our attention as "Bobby Ewing" on the night time soap, "Dallas", Patrick was making waves as Mark Harris, the last surviving citizen of Atlantis in the classic show "The Man From Atlantis". Before becoming a weekly series, there were several TV movies that let us swim along with Mark as he worked for the "Foundation for Oceanic Research" along side of Dr. Elizabeth Merrill (Belinda Montgomery). Eventually, the movies proved so successful that a 13 episode series ran from September of 1977 to June of 1978. Mark was something of an underwater superhero as he was able to withstand depth pressure and had super human strength. Oh yes it's true, Mark had a arch villain to contend with in the guise of mad scientist "Dr. Schubert" played by the wonderful character actor Victor Buono.

Get your own copy of the entire series on DVD and or all of the telefilms shown prior to the series by using the links below.

Probably one of the busiest character actors in the entertainment industry was (and still is) Monte Markham. I always thought he was one of the most handsome actors around. You might not be able to put a face with the name, that's the beauty of a character actor, even though they have been in countless TV shows and movies, sometimes the name just escapes us, but once we see their photo, we seem to have almost instant recognition.

Monte also guest starred in the first Nancy Drew episode from the series, "The Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries". He played "Jack Wall" a professor who takes an interest in the old haunted light house near River Heights in the episode "The Mystery of Pirate's Cove". But, the one classic 70's series that you might best remember him from is "The Six Million Dollar Man"...that's right, you are looking at the seven million dollar man, Barney Miller (some sources say "Hiller" as the characters last name). Monte did two guest stints as this character; "The Seven Million Dollar Man" in 1974 (season 2 episode 5) and again in 1975 (season 3 episode 9) in "The Bionic Criminal". There... now do you remember Monte?

This was one of my favorite Disney TV movies that originally aired January 7, 1973.

The story involves two brothers (Johnny Whitaker and Scott Kolden) who are amateur film makers. They decide their latest "epic" is going to be about Dracula and the perfect setting is the spooky old lighthouse in their small town as the backdrop for their film. But, as it turns out two jewel thieves (Mills Watson and Clu Gulager) have decided to hid their stolen loot there. When the boys' dog digs up their hidden treasure, it's up to the two men to get the jewels back without arousing too much suspicion.

I don't think this has ever been released onto DVD or even VHS tape when that was all the rage. It sure would be nice if Disney would start to release their TV movies onto DVD. It would be great to see this fun film, again.

Of course, there were other Disney made for TV movies that aired during the 70's too and if you are interested you can check out a fairly comprehensive listing at 1970's Disney TV Movies Page.

This 1974 series ran for 4 years and starred Angie Dickinson as Sgt. Suzanne 'Pepper' Anderson and Earl Holliman as "Lt. Bill Crowley" her boss. The pilot episode for this series aired on the anthology series, Police Story in 1973 and starred the late Bert Convy in the roll taken over by Earl.

Pepper was an undercover police officer who worked for the LAPD. Pepper was always going under cover as a teacher, dancer, prostitute etc in order to get close to suspects and gain information.

This show opened doors for more dramas that featured women in lead roles such as The Bionic Woman and Charlie's Angels.

The poster industry got a new lease on life with the popularity of Farrah's famous pose. Her red bathing suit pose was the biggest selling poster of all time and she started a trend.

Just about anyone who had a prime time show got a chance to be immortalized on those giant pictures; Lynda Carter, Shaun Cassidy, Cheryl Ladd, Lindsay Wagner, Parker Stevenson, and more!

Follow the link below to see other classic personality posters of the 70's.

Anyone remember watching this 1977 TV movie starring Robert Culp? It was a Gene Roddenberry production and a failed pilot for a potential series. Robert played "William Sebastian" a world renowned criminologist whose work delved into the supernatural aspect. Gig Young played his trusted friend, "Dr. Ham Hamilton". The plot of the movie was that a British woman believed that her brother, a very successful businessman, was dabbling in the black arts and she wanted Sebastian to prove it, so he and his friend travel to England to begin their investigation and they have supernatural occurrences to contend with throughout the film.

I always thought it was a really great movie and enjoyed it when I first saw it all those years ago. It made enough of an impression on me for me to remember it all through the years.. If it had been turned into a series, I would have watched it for sure...how about you?

In this ABC Movie of the Week....it's 2133 and the world has been devastated by nuclear war. Out of the ruins comes two factions, a dominate Amazon like culture that is at war with the male faction, PAX. John Saxon is Dylan Hunt, a man who awakens from a 180 years suspended animation sleep only to become a slave in the female society.. he escapes, though and takes up with the PAX.

Planet Earth is actually based on a CBS movie called "Genesis II" which was shown in 1973 with Alex Cord in the male lead. CBS decided to not pick up the show as a series, so Roddenberry took it to ABC that liked the premise of the movie and wanted a new cast and in 1974, John Saxon got the lead. Of course, this movie didn't make it into a series, either.

Click the link for a closer look at some of the other ABC Movies of The Week

Remember this 1979 mini series based on Stephen Kings book, that starred David Soul and Lance Kerwin?

Ben Mears played by David Soul, decides to return to his childhood home of Salem's Lot. He has a fascination with the old Marsten House, a spooky old mansion that over looks the town and hopes to rent it. He is disappointed to discover that someone has beaten him to it...the mysterious "Richard Straker (James Mason), who has opened an antique shop in the small town.

What folks of this small town aren't aware of is that Straker is merely setting the stage for the arrival of his "boss", Kurt Barlow, who is an ancient vampire set on turning the good folks of Salem's Lot into vampires.

Mears eventually discovers what's happening and with the help of Mark Petrie (Lance Kerwin) they manage to save the day...well,sort of.

Visit David's Official Site and check out what he has been up too!

Bobby Sherman, handsome teen idol, singer and actor was given a 30 minute special on ABC TV June 4, 1971.

Aside from his music, you might remember him best as "Jeremy Bolt" in the TV series, "Here Comes the Brides". The show ran from 1968-70 with a total of 52 episodes.

Of course, Bobby wasn't the only celebrity to be given their own special during the 70's,Olivia Newton-John, Lindsay Wagner, Lynda Carter, Paul Lynde were just a few that got a chance to host a variety show with singing, dancing and skits.

Visit Bobby's Official Site and check out what he has been up too!

Lynda Carter, Leif Garrett, Kristy and Jimmy McNichol, John Travolta...and more of our favorite 70's stars made music and some of it was pretty good. OK, I admit it, David Soul's "Don't Give Up On Us Baby" was a favorite of mine way back when... and I still like it today.

Obviously, not a complete listing and only pertains to the US charts. Some of our favorites had much better luck musically in other countries.

Cheryl Ladd; "Think It Over" #38 on US Pop charts in 1978 .

Leif Garrett: "Surfin' USA" #20 in 1977, "Runaround Sue" #13 in 1978, "I Was Made For Dancing" #10 in 1979.

Shaun Cassidy: ""Da Doo Ron Ron" #1 in 1977, "That's Rock 'n' Roll" #3 and "Hey Deanie" #7 in 1978.

David Soul: "Don't Give Up On Us Baby" #1 in 1976.

John Travolta: "Let Her In" #10 in 1976, "Whenever I'm Away From You" #38 in 1976, "All Strung Out On You #34 in 1977 and "You're The One That I Want" with Olivia Newton-John #1 in 1978 from the movie Grease.

Visit The Robert Urich Tribute Site

Robert was born on December 19, 1946 and grew up in Toronto Ohio. He graduated from the Florida State University in 1968 with a B.A. in Radio and Television Communications and would further his education at Michigan State University graduating with a Masters in Broadcasting Research and Management.

In 1968 he married actress Barbara Rucker and they divorced in 1974 and then he married for a second time to Heather Menzies in 1975. They would remain married until his death on April 16, 2000 of synovial cell sarcoma, a rare cancer that attacks the joints.

His acting break came in 1972 playing Burt Reynolds younger brother in a stage production of "The Rainmaker". Burt thought Robert was talented enough to make it as an actor and encouraged him to come to California, even allowing Robert to stay with him until he got his big acting break.

During the 1970's, Robert starred in these TV Series:"Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice "(1973), "S.W.A.T."(1975), "Soap" (1977),"Tabitha" (1977) and "Vegas" (1978)

Remember Vince from the 70's doing guest appearances on popular shows like "Wonder Woman" (as a space alien who assumes human form and discovers the true identity of Wonder Woman--ohhhh nooooo!), "Barnaby Jones", "Love American Style" to just name a few.

Vince also starred in a short lived TV series called "Three For The Road", with another teen idol, Leif Garrett (who also did a guest appearance on Wonder Woman). He was closely associated with the late Farrah Fawcett, because both of them shared a passion for tennis. In fact, Vince is a former professional tennis player and was rated #41, in the world rank in 1981.

Something else that might be of interest is that Vince did a guest appearance in the 4th season of "The Six Million Dollar Man" playing Andy Sheffield, the Bionic Boy. There was talk of him getting a spin off from the show, but nothing ever came of it.

My favorite actress of the 70's was Lindsay Wagner. I was so taken with her in the role of the Bionic Woman that I faithfully watched as many of her movies and TV appearances as possible. One of my very favorite Lindsay movies was one done in 1979 titled, "The Two Worlds of Jennie Logan". In this movie, Lindsay plays a woman trying to get beyond the fact that she found out her husband was having an affair. Trying to repair their marriage, they buy a beautiful old house and set about remodeling it. When Lindsay investigates the attic, she finds a gown that has a tear on the arm which prompts her to have it repaired. She then tries it on and discovers that it transports her back in time to when a handsome young artist lived in the house. When she returns to her time, she learns he died under mysterious circumstances years ago. She meets the artist in the past and they fall in love...can she prevent his death and change history?

A bit of trivia for you...Linda Gray (Sue Ellen of Dallas fame), who co stars with Lindsay in this movie, was at one time married to Lindsay's uncle in real life.... so Lindsay was Linda's niece, by marriage, for a short while.

Visit Lindsay's Official Site and check out what she has been up too!

In 1977, Lindsay would star in her very own TV special called "Another Side of Me". This wasn't your typical celebrity special, sure she sang and danced, but she opened up and talked about her life. One of the segments, has Lindsay and her then hubby, actor Michael Brandon, taking a walk through the snow, planning their home and their family.

Paul Anka, Avery Schreiber, and Vincent Price guest star.