Classic 60s and 70s TV Shows: Remembering Some Great Programs

Who can forget these hillbillies, the family who ended up with a fortune and moved to Beverly Hills? I thought this show was a clever parody and was another one with a great cast, especially Irene Ryan as Granny. The Beverly Hillbilllies was a huge success, and had some of the highest ratings ever for a sitcom. Jethro was the lovable silly guy, and Elle May wasn't much different.

The supporting cast was excellent too, with the unscrupulous banker Mr Drsysdale, and Jane Hathaway, the secretary with a crush on clueless Jethro. The Beverly Hillbillies had some of the highest ratings ever for a sitcom.

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This was my favorite show as a child. It really was a satire of monster movies, and to a certain extent of the other programs that were popular at the time. I think of this show as one of the funniest satires ever.

The Munsters were definitely a strange family, both in appearance and in how they acted, but they considered themselves to be very normal. That is a lot what made the program so hilarious. Their niece Marilyn, was considered the ugly duckling by the family, when she actually was very pretty.

They drove around in their munstermobile, with the body of the car being a hearse. Both Grandpa and Herman were often getting into trouble with their inventions and get rich quick schemes. Then they would fight and not speak to each other. It seemed that every time they got into trouble, Lily ended up saving the day. The cast included Herman's wife Lily and their son Eddie. I thought everyone was perfectly cast for their roles.

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This 60s comedy series concerned Rob Petrie, his wife Laura, and their son Ritchie. Rob was a comedy writer for the Alan Brady Show, and his writing partners were Sally, a single woman always looking for a husband, and Buddy, who always referred to his wife as Pickles. Buddy always made sarcastic remarks to their producer, Mel.

Rob and Laura had frequent misunderstandings, often with very funny results. Of course, they would always make up in the end. Dick Van Dyke was a very gifted comic, much like John Ritter became in later years. This program ran for a few seasons beginning in 1961. The cast decided to end the show while it was still popular. Ritchie was about six when the show began, in later seasons he was seldom seen.

The series made good use of flashbacks, recalling when Rob and Laura first met (she couldn't stand him), Laura giving birth to Ritchie and so on.

The Dick Van Dyke Show can be seen on MeTV (Memorable television) Monday to Friday at 8:30 PST and Sunday afternoons.

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The Andy Griffith show was a typical family program from the 60s. It centered around a widower, Andy, who was the local sherriff, and his son Opie, as well as the residents of Mayberry, NC, USA. The kindly Aunt Bea was living with them as well. I really liked Opie, as a young child at the time he was just a couple of years older than me.

This show really make Don Knotts a star as well, playing the hapless Barney Fife who was always getting into messes, and Andy or someone else helped him out. Both Andy and Don remained good friend's until Don's death.

The Andy Griffith Show even had people going to church on Sunday with the men in suits and the women wearing hats and gloves. I remember those times as well! This program was about as wholesome as it gets.

This show was on TV for many years, and lives on in reruns. One nice thing about it is Andy and Ron Howard stayed in touch and remain friendly all these years later.

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Barbara Eden was charming and wonderful as Jeannie. Yet she wasn't the first choice of series creator Sidney Sheldon. He didn't want a blonde because of the comparisons he thought would be made to Samantha on Bewitched. However after testing other brunettes he decided Barbara was right as the title character, and I think that was a wise decision. Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman had good chemistry.

One thing the producers goofed on was that although the series was supposed to take place in Florida, they taped it in California, and in some scenes you can see mountains. Of course, there are no mountains in Florida.

I Dream of Jeannie wasn't as popular as Bewitched, however, it gained an incredible following later in syndication. Barbara Eden had wanted to do a reunion movie years later but Larry Hagman declined. Barbara did, however, guest star on Dallas as a former girlfriend to Hagman's character J R Ewing.

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Although I loved Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha, the secondary characters on this show were just as entertaining, especially Agnes Moorehead as Endora, and Bernard Fox as Dr Bombay.

The series was popular for many years, and I think the variety of characters is what made it so. Endora was always scheming to break up Samantha and Darren, without any success. Also worth mentioning was the lovable but bumbling Aunt Clara. She always had good intentions, but her spells always seemed to backfire. Over the years there were many cast changes, of course, the most prominent being Dick Sargent replacing Dick York. The lady who played Aunt Clara passed away. Two different actresses played Louise Tate and Gladys Krativz. A a character named Esmerelda, appeared for awhile, who was a very shy witch. Paul Lynde also played Samantha's Uncle Arthur.

Bewitched was a fun series, particularly in the first years.

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Allen Ludden hosted the very popular Password for many years. Daytime TV in the 60s and 70s was almost entirely game shows and soap operas. Then game shows practically disappeared entirely before making a come back in the last few years.

Password was a fun show from the 60s, which featured many celebrities who were popular at the time. He was married to Betty White, who became very well known first on the Mary Tyler Moore Show, and later on Golden Girls. They were very happily married until Allens' death. I found a clip of Betty appearing on his show in 1963.

We really can't talk about classic TV shows of the 60s and 70s without mentioning the Brady Bunch. This show actually started in 1969 and ended in 1974. The Brady Bunch was one of the cheesiest shows I can think of, along with the Partridge Family, but I loved to watch them.. I always liked the Brady show better, the main reason was because all of the kids were important to the show, and had their turn at being the focus of an episode. We got to watch all the kids grow up. By the time the series ended, Greg had graduated from high school.

The Brady bunch became even more popular when it went off the air and started the endless reruns. There even were a couple of successful reunion programs, one was a Christmas special and the other was when Jan and Marcia were getting married.

Barry Williams Autographed Signed The Brady Bunch Photo

Peyon Place was a popular night time soap opera in the 60s. Many young actors got their start on this series, including Ryan O'Neil. Mariette Hartley, Mia Farrow and others.

When it began in 1964, night time soaps were a novelty in the US. Peyton Place became a huge success. It started out twice weekly, but was increased to three times a week, due to its popularity. It was after the departure of Mia Farrow, however, that the show started to decine in ratings.

The program had storylines that were considered risque at the time. Because of this, Peyton Place would not air before 9:30. When the evening program was cancelled in 1969, it was later revived as a daytime soap in 1972, but ended its run in 1974.

Many of the soap operas that were on in the 60s and 70s are long gone now. Daytime TV included such shows as Edge of Night, Search for Tomorrow, The Doctors, Another World, and Somerset.

Some of the shows that were on in that era continue to be broadcast today, including Young and Restless, which started in 1973, and has been the #1 rated soap for many years now. Soap operas are certainly declining in popularity. ABC cancelled the long running All My Children and One Life to Live. Previously, Guiding Light and As the World Turns ended on CBS after decades of being on TV.

Dark Shadows was a gothic soap opera that ran from 1966 to 1971, and was hugely popular. This show featured ghosts, witches, time travel, and monsters. Dark Shadows was unlike any soap opera before it, or since. It certainly is one of the most well remembered series and it still has many fans. It used to air in the late afternoon, so many young people watched it after school. In May 2012 a movie version of Dark Shadows opened with Johnny Depp as Barnabas.

Many future stars got their start on daytime TV including Meg Ryan, Demi Moore, Ricky Martin, Teri Hatcher, David Hasselhoff, Kathleen Turner, and many more.

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When it comes to classic TV shows of the 70s, I think All in the Family has to rate one of the highest. I thought this was one of the best shows ever when the whole original cast was there. After Mike and Gloria left, it just wasn't the same. Part of what made the program so funny was the arguing between Archie and Mike. Archie and Edith were the funniest tv characters of all time in my opinion.

Off camera they were friendly, and of course, nothing like the characters they played. That is real credit to Caroll OConnor and Jean Stapleton, who was hilarious as Edith. They played their roles very convincingly.

Sally Struthers actually had her own short lived program called Gloria. She played a single mom and worked for a vet. I liked the show, although it only lasted a short time.

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When Charlie's Angels premiered in 1976, it made instant stars of Farrah Fawcett, Jaclyn Smith and Kate Jackson. The three women were police officers on the show, tired of doing menial jobs, so they were hired by a mysterious man named Charlie who never appeared on screen, and who hired them as private investigators. Of course, every week at least one of the characters would end up in a perilous situation, and the stories were all cheesy, but it was fun to watch.

Farrah left the show after one season and was replaced by Cheryl Ladd. Kate Jackson left later and Shelley Hack was on for one season, followed by Tonya Roberts the last year. Jaclyn Smith was the only original angel who stayed for the entire series, and she still speaks fondly of the show.

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After starring in the highly rated Dick Van Dyke show in the 60s, Mary Tyler Moore followed it up the next decade with her own popular show, that was near the top of the Neilson ratings for its entire run.

This was one of the first shows ever to have a single successful woman as the lead character. Mary had lots of boyfriends, but didn't seem in a hurry to get married. This was not the case for her friend and neighbor Rhoda. As different as they were, they were really good friends.

Personally, I enjoyed the first few seasons more where Rhoda appeared. Valerie Harper got her own show called Rhoda which was a big hit, but i didn't find Mary Tyler Moore's show quite the same without her.

The supporting cast really helped make this show, especially "Mr Grant" whom Mary never did call by first name, the funny Ted Baxter and others. After several years Mary decided she wanted the program to end while it was still well liked and had high ratings, which was probably a good thing to do.

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The Waltons was wholesome TV drama about a family during the Great Depression. It was created by Earl Hammer and based on his book Spencer's Mountain. The stories were mostly seen through the eyes of John boy Walton, who was a journalist. It made an instant star of Richard Thomas, who played John boy. As the series lasted 9 years, it was fun to see the children grow up, and several of them married and started families of their own.

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The drama Fantasy Island, was a Saturday night staple which followed The Love Boat. Saturdays had highly rated shows, including Mary Tyler Moore and All in the Family.
Fantasy Island centered around Mr Roarke, always dressed in a while suit, and overseer of the mysterious island in which people would come from around the world to have their fantasies fulfilled for a price. He had a popular sidekick named Tatoo. As with the Love Boat, Fantasy Island regularly had guests who were very well known at the time.

As people arrived on the island Roake would describe to Tatoo the reason each person was arriving, and often suggested the fantasy would not turn out as the person had expected.

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This great show was a successful spin off from Happy Days. Laverne and Shirley were roommates who lived in Milwaukee for most of the series run, but were in California for the remaining couple of seasons.

The series was so successful it passed Happy Days in the ratings, and Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams were one of the highest paid TV actresses at the time. Laverne and Shirley reminded me in some ways of Lucy and Ethel in I Love Lucy. They always seemed to be getting into predicaments, and they were very funny. The supporting characters were also good, like Lenny and Squiggy.

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I loved watching this show in the 70s, and Michael Douglas was part of the reason why. Karl Malden played veteran Detective Mike Stone, and Michael was Inspector Steve Keller. He had a lot to learn about police work, and Stone and Keller worked well together. Mike Stone was a mentor and a friend to the young detective. The series featured a lot of very well known guest stars every week, and I loved the opening, with many San Francisco scenes. This was one program I never missed in the 70s.

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