How many variety shows and sitcoms were on television in Fall 1969?

Looking exclusively at the numbers of shows that were on in the Fall of 1969, one might be excused for thinking that television was intended as a delivery system for sitcoms and variety show. There were fourteen variety shows on the air including four new hours featuring Andy Williams, Jimmy Durante, Jim Nabors and Leslie Uggams. There were also two sketch comedy shows. There were also twenty-five sitcoms, eight of which were new. There were seven westerns (and this is stretching the definition of "western" to include shows like Daniel Boone and Here Come The Brides), but nothing new. As for the genre that would dominate the 1970s and beyond, the cop or detective series, there were only eight of those – none of them new either. A "wheel" series – a show that rotated several unrelated dramas – included a cop series as well as a medical drama (one of three that debuted in 1969) and the only lawyer show of the year. And then there were shows that didn't really fit into any conventional genre. Predictably several of these were on the weakest of the big three networks, ABC.
To be sure there were some notable shows, and I'll get to them shortly, but as is often the case failures can be more interesting than success. And that was the case with ABC's Monday night schedule. There were four shows, the most conventional of which was the only real success, the sketch comedy Love American Style. The rest of the line-up was full of show that can best be described as before their time. Take Harold Robbins' Survivors for example. The show was an adaptation of Robbins' novel of the same name featuring the lifestyle of the rich and famous. The producers said in the TV Guide preview, "Our stories are about human beings who have the same kind of problems as you or I." That is they're the sort of problems you have if you're a woman with an illegitimate teenage son that you have to protect from your world, a philandering embezzler husband, a playboy half-brother, and a tyrannical but dying father. The show had a star-studded cast – Lana Turner, Ralph Bellamy, George Hamilton, Jan-Michael Vincent (billed by TV Guide as Michael Vincent), and Rossano Brazzi.

Sketch comedy Hee-Haw was also cancelled by CBS after its second season, but got the ultimate revenge by running for 21 more years in syndication. One show that ran only two year was The Bill Cosby Show, his first solo effort, after being teamed with Robert Culp in I Spy. Cosby played high school basketball coach Chet Kincaid. The situations on the show rotated around his work as a teacher and his dealings with his family. One rather unique feature of the show was that it didn't feature a laugh track. I was a big fan of Bill Cosby when this show came out, in part of course because of I Spy but primarily because of his records, which were everywhere, and of course from his appearances on various variety shows. In my opinion Cosby's 1969 show had a lot in common with his stand-up act, and I don't think that extensive use of a laugh track wouldn't have done a service to the show.
Besides Mr. Deeds Goes To Town, the two sitcoms that didn't last out the year were both from NBC: Debbie Reynolds Show, and My World And Welcome To It. The two shows couldn't have been more different. Debbie Reynolds's series was a standard domestic comedy with a very familiar hook to most episodes. A bored housewife desperately wants to break into her husband's line of work, a process which usually involves harebrained schemes involving the lead character and her best friend – or in this case her sister – much to the distress of both of their husbands. It sounds exactly like I Love Lucy, which is no real surprise since the show was created by Jess Openheimer who also created I Love Lucy (and before that Lucille Ball's radio show My Favourite Husband). The other show couldn't have been more different. It was My World And Welcome To It starring William Windom in a role based on James Thurber. Indeed Thurber's writings provided the plot for many of the stories on the series while his cartoons were the basis for a number of fantasy sequences. These were animated by the DePatie-Freleng animation studio, then most famous for the opening credits of the Pink Panther movies. The series was perhaps too innovative for 1969.
Of the four variety series introduced in 1969, the successes were The Jim Nabors Hour on CBS, and The Andy Williams Show on NBC.

Popular American variety shows that began in the 60s include a revival of The Jackie Gleason Show (1960-1970), The Andy Williams Show (1962-1971), The Danny Kaye Show (1963-1967), The Hollywood Palace (1964-1970), The Dean Martin Show (1965-1974), The Carol Burnett Show (1967-1978) and The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1967-1969). 1969 saw a flurry of new variety shows with rural appeal: The Johnny Cash Show (1969-1971), The Jim Nabors Hour (1969-1971), The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour (1969-1972) and Hee Haw (1969-1992).
In 1970 and 1971, the American TV networks, CBS especially, conducted the so-called "rural purge", in which shows that appealed to more rural and older audiences were cancelled as part of a greater focus on appealing to wealthier demographics. Many variety shows, including long-running ones, were cancelled as part of this "purge," with a few shows (such as Hee Haw and The Lawrence Welk Show) surviving and moving into first-run syndication. Variety shows continued to be produced in the 1970s, with most of them stripped down to only music and comedy.
Popular variety shows that ran in the 1970s include The Flip Wilson Show (1970-1974), The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour (1971-1976, in various incarnations), The Bobby Goldsboro Show (1973-1975), The Midnight Special (1973-1981), Don Kirshner's Rock Concert (1973-1981), The Mac Davis Show (1974-1976), Tony Orlando and Dawn (1974-1976), Donny & Marie (1976-1979) and Sha Na Na (1977-1981).
Entertainers with weekly variety shows that ran for one season or less in the 1970s include Captain & Tennille, The Jacksons, The Keane Brothers, Bobby Darin, Mary Tyler Moore, Julie Andrews, Dolly Parton, Shields and Yarnell, The Manhattan Transfer, Starland Vocal Band, and the cast of The Brady Bunch.

Both shows were cancelled at the mid-season mark along with a third new series, a TV version of Mr. Deeds Goes To Town starring Monte Markham and Pat Harington, and ABC venerable variety show Hollywood Palace. The other networks didn't face such obvious problems, but then again they weren't being as daring in programming. The only show that either of the other two networks cancelled at the midseason point was The Leslie Uggams Show which was the first hour long variety show to be hosted by an African-American. It only lasted ten episodes.
The networks reacted to the cancellation of these shows in a way that would surprise people today – the moved established shows. Today this sort of thing would be regarded with horror by fans. Conventional wisdom is that moving a series to a new night at any time let alone during the season is not unlike getting a kiss from a Mafia Don – you won't survive – but it was what was done in 1969. ABC moved It Takes A Thief and the Wednesday Night Movie to Monday night (the latter show got a name change of course). The only survivor of the Monday night line-up, Love American Style replaced Jimmy Durante Presents The Lennon Sisters which in turn moved to replace Hollywood Palace (which in turn followed Lawrence Welk, the show where the Lennon Sisters originally debuted). To replace the Wednesday Night Movie ABC revived a series that had run the previous summer – The Johnny Cash Show. The Flying Nun moved to replace Mr. Deeds Goes To Town, and was in turn replaced by Nanny And The Professor. I haven't been able to identify the show that followed Johnny Cash, or what went into the time slot vacated by It Takes a Thief. Over at CBS the time slot after Ed Sullivan, which had been held down by The Leslie Uggams Show became the new home of The Glenn Campbell Goodtime Hour, while Campbell's old time was taken over by a new series called Hee Haw, which everybody hated, except of course the public (or at least that part of the public that the critics disliked).
The successful dramas that debuted in 1969 seem to have one thing in common. That is a mentor-protégé relationship. In ABC's Marcus Welby M.D. the mentor was the title character, a caring general practitioner who works out of his home and actually made house calls (!

First, there were nearly a dozen variety shows at that time -- that type show had not yet begun to die out, though it would do so shortly. Alan would have been competing with, among others: Andy Williams, Steve Lawrence, Red Skelton, Danny Kaye, Dean Martin, Jimmy Dean, the King Family, the Smothers Brothers, Jackie Gleason, Lawrence Welk, and Ed Sullivan.
Sitcoms, however, were dominating the ratings, with "The Lucy Show", "The Andy Griffith Show", "Bewitched", "Gomer Pyle", "Hogan's Heroes", and "The Beverly Hillbillies" all in the top 10. Others in the top 20 included "My Three Sons", "Get Smart", "Green Acres" ---- and, of course, "The Dick Van Dyke Show" (on Wednesday nights).
Considering the fact that many of these shows can still be seen in syndicated re-runs almost 50 years later, it's safe to say that the '65-'66 season was a strong one -- and that Rob, Sally, and Buddy were doing very well if they were keeping an obsolescent program type in 7th -- or even 17th -- place.

By the late 1970s, nearly every variety show had ended production, in part because of audience burnout; the highest-rated variety show of 1975, Cher, was only the 22nd-most watched show of the year..
By the early 1980s, the few new variety shows being produced were of remarkably poor quality (see, for instance, the infamous Pink Lady and Jeff), hastening the format's demise. Since Pink Lady, only a few traditional variety shows have been attempted by major networks: these include Dolly (starring Dolly Parton), which ran for 23 episodes on the ABC during the 1987-'88 season; a revival of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour from 1988 to 1989; a revival of The Carol Burnett Show, which was broadcast by CBS for nine episodes in 1991; and the first incarnation of The Wayne Brady Show, which was telecast by ABC in August 2001.
By the 21st century, the variety show format had fallen out of fashion, due largely to changing tastes and the fracturing of media audiences (caused by the proliferation of cable and satellite television) that makes a multiple-genre variety show impractical. Even reruns of variety shows have generally not been particularly widespread; TV Land telecasted briefly some variety shows (namely The Ed Sullivan Show and The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour) upon its beginning in 1996, but within a few years, reruns of most of those shows (with the notable exception of The Flip Wilson Show) stopped. Similarly, CMT held the rights to Hee Haw but telecast very few episodes, opting mainly to hold rights to allow them to air performance videos from the show in its video blocks. The current rights holder of Hee Haw, RFD-TV, has been more prominent in its telecasts of the show; RFD-TV also airs numerous other country-style variety shows from the 1960s and 1970s up through the present day, in a rarity for modern television. Another notable exception is The Lawrence Welk Show, which has been telecast continually in reruns on the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) since 1986.

(May 2013)|
Variety shows began to fade from popularity during the 1970s, when research began to show that variety shows appealed to an older audience that was less appealing to advertisers; over the course of the so-called "rural purge", several of the early era variety shows were canceled, though newer ones (fewer in number nonetheless, and generally stripped down to music and comedy) continued to be created and broadcast for several years after. By the late 1970s, even these generally celebrity-driven variety shows had mostly ended production, in part because of audience burnout; by the early 1980s, the few new variety shows being produced were of remarkably poor quality (see, for instance, the infamous Pink Lady and Jeff), hastening the format's demise. Since Pink Lady, only a few traditional variety shows have been attempted on television programs: Dolly (starring Dolly Parton), which ran for 23 episodes on the ABC television network during the 1987–'88 season; a revival of The Carol Burnett Show, which was broadcast by CBS for nine episodes in 1991; and the first incarnation of The Wayne Brady Show, which was telecast by ABC in August 2001.
By the 21st century, the variety show format had fallen out of fashion, due largely to changing tastes and the fracturing of media audiences (caused by the proliferation of cable and satellite television) that makes a multiple-genre variety show impractical. Even reruns of variety shows have generally not been particularly widespread; TV Land telecast briefly some variety shows (namely The Ed Sullivan Show and The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour) upon its beginning in 1996, but within a few years, those reruns stopped. Similarly, CMT held the rights to Hee Haw but telecast very few episodes. The current rights holder of Hee Haw, RFD-TV, has been more prominent in its telecasts of the show; RFD-TV also airs numerous other country-style variety shows from the 1960s and 1970s up through the present day, in a rarity for modern television. Another notable exception is The Lawrence Welk Show, which has been telecast continually in reruns on the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) since 1986.

The Nabors show, which also featured his Gomer Pyle USMC co-stars Ronny Schell and Frank Sutton, was built on Nabors's singing and comedy skills. In 1971 it was a victim of the CBS "rural purge," presumably because of Nabors's Alabama accent and the fact that he had starred on Gomer Pyle and before that The Andy Griffith Show (I'm being facetious; the reason that was cited for much of the rural purge was that the shows either weren't doing well in the overall ratings – most of the "rural purge" shows had fallen below 30th in the ratings – or the fact that they did not draw the "youth" demographic, which seems to have been the case with Nabors, whose show was 29th in the annual ratings). The Andy Williams Show was a return to TV for the extremely relaxed Mr. Williams who had headlined a weekly series for NBC from 1962 to 1967. Indeed Brooks and Marsh in their Complete Directory To Prime Time Network And Cable Shows 1946-Present don't split this show off from the older show (or from the two summer series he did for ABC and CBS in 1958 and 1959). Certainly TV Guide treated the show as a new one (not that I could tell when I saw it never having knowingly seen the original). The magazine pumped up the wide range of the guests and even stated that one episode "paired Lawrence Welk with Tiny Tim." That might have been something to see. Then again it couldn't have been much stranger than some of the things on the show, like "the Walking Suitcase," or "The Cookie Mooching Bear." The Andy Williams Show also ran from 1969-71 but in his case he seems to have jumped rather than having been pushed, preferring occasional specials (most famously at Christmas) to the weekly grind of a series. The best of the variety shows was probably the replacement series, The Johnny Cash Show simply because it was less a variety show and more a pure music show with a genuine passion for country music.
The 1969-70 season was the beginning of a transition in TV. The westerns were nearly gone – CBS would cancel Lancer at the end of the season, leaving only three in the line-up for 1970-71 when no new shows in the genre were announced.

Best TV Shows of 1986
There were a lot of great shows on TV in 1986. Here are some of our favorites. Did we miss any of your favorites? Let us know.
The show won multiple awards, including three consecutive Emmy Awards for Michael J. Fox as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. The show had been sold to the network using the pitch “hip parents, square kids.” Originally, Elyse and Steven were intended to be the main characters. However, the audience reacted so positively to Alex during the taping of the fourth episode that he became the focus on the show. Fox had received the role after Matthew Broderick turned it down.
The Cosby Show
The Cosby Show spent five consecutive seasons as the number-one rated show on television. The Cosby Show and All in the Family are the only sitcoms in the history of the Nielsen ratings to be the number-one show for five seasons. It spent all eight of its seasons in the top 20. It helped make possible a larger variety of shows with a predominantly African-American cast, from In Living Color to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
With a total of 275 episodes over eleven seasons, Cheers became one of the most popular series of all time. Nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series for all eleven of its seasons on the air, it earned 28 Primetime Emmy Awards from a record of 117 nominations. Believe it or not, it was nearly canceled during its first season when it ranked almost last in ratings for its premiere.
Murder, She Wrote
Starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The series aired for 12 seasons with 264 episodes and was followed by four TV films. It’s among the most successful and longest-running television shows in history. The title comes from Murder, She Said, which was the title of a 1961 film adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple novel 4:50 from Paddington.
The Golden Girls
In 2013, TV Guide ranked The Golden Girls number 54 on its list of the 60 Best Series of All Time. After six consecutive seasons in the top 10, and the seventh season at number 30, The Golden Girls came to an end when Bea Arthur chose to leave the series. The series finale was watched by 27.2 million viewers.

As of 2016, it was the 17th-most watched television finale.
The show featured over five cast changes within the first year. The only cast members to remain from the pilot until the finale were Harry Anderson, John Larroquette, and Richard Moll. Night Court received a number of awards and nominations. Both Selma Diamond and John Larroquette earned Golden Globe nominations. The show became part of NBC’s semi-legendary “Must See Thursday” along with The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Cheers, and later A Different World.
The ABC sitcom series Growing Pains aired from September 24, 1985 to April 25, 1992, with 166 episodes produced spanning 7 seasons. Behind-the-scenes turmoil shaped the series’ later years. ‘Leonardo Dicaprio’ was brought on in a last ditch effort to pump new life into the, but the show ratings did not improve. Dicaprio’s character was dropped and the show canceled. In 2000, the cast reunited for The Growing Pains Movie, followed by Growing Pains: Return of the Seavers in 2004.
Who’s the Boss?
In early development, the series was titled You’re the Boss. Before the fall 1984 premiere, the producers changed it to Who’s the Boss?, an open-ended title which hinted that any one of the leads could get their own way and be the “boss”. Who’s the Boss? was nominated for more than forty awards, including ten Primetime Emmy Award and five Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one of each.
ALF (an acronym for Alien Life Form) premiered in September of 1986 and ran for four seasons and produced 99 episodes, including three one-hour episodes that were divided into two parts for syndication. The Alf puppet was operated from various “trap doors” hidden within the set. This made filming the show somewhat more hazardous than a normal sitcom as the cast had to remember where each of doors was so that they could avoid them.

Variety shows, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical performances, sketch comedy, magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is normally introduced by a compère (master of ceremonies) or host. The variety format made its way from Victorian era stage to radio and then television. Variety shows were a staple of anglophone television from the late 1940s into the 1980s.
While still widespread in some parts of the world, the proliferation of multichannel television and evolving viewer tastes have affected the popularity of variety shows in the United States. Despite this, their influence has still had a major effect on late night television whose late night talk shows and NBC's variety series Saturday Night Live (which originally premiered in 1975) have remained popular fixtures of North American television.
The live entertainment style known as music hall in the United Kingdom and vaudeville in the United States can be considered a direct predecessor of the "variety show" format. Variety in the UK evolved in theatres and music halls, and later in Working Men's Clubs. Most of the early top performers on British television and radio did an apprenticeship either in stage variety, or during World War II in Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA). In the UK, the ultimate accolade for a variety artist for decades was to be asked to do the annual Royal Command Performance at the London Palladium theatre, in front of the monarch.
In the United States, former vaudeville performers such as the Marx Brothers, George Burns and Gracie Allen, W. C. Fields, and Jack Benny honed their skills in the Borscht Belt before moving to talkies, to radio shows, and then to television shows, including variety shows.
Variety shows were among the first programs to be featured on television during the experimental mechanical television era. Variety shows hosted by Helen Haynes and Harriet Lee are recorded in contemporary newspapers in 1931 and 1932; because of technical limits of the era, no recordings of either show have been preserved. The genre proliferated during the Golden Age of Television, generally considered to be roughly 1948 to 1960. Many of these Golden Age variety shows were spinoffs of previous radio variety shows.
From 1948 to 1971, The Ed Sullivan Show was one of CBS's most popular television series.

This changed with Carson's retirement, and other networks began to air their own talk show competitors, starting with Late Show with David Letterman on CBS in 1993. As of 2014, late-night talk shows vary widely on their resemblance to the original variety format, with Jimmy Fallon's incarnation of The Tonight Show putting heavy emphasis on sketches and stunts, while shows such as Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert put more emphasis on desk chat.
The Richard Bey Show combined the variety show with the tabloid talk show, not only having its guests talk about their problems but also having them participate in absurdist games, and Sally Jesse Raphael was known for occasionally having music and fashion in the show, especially drag and gender-bending performances.
Sketch comedy series such as Saturday Night Live, In Living Color, Almost Live! (and its successor Up Late NW), MADtv, and SCTV also contain variety show elements, particularly musical performances and comedy sketches. The most obvious difference between shows such as Saturday Night Live and traditional variety shows is the lack of a single lead host (or hosts) and a large ensemble cast. SNL has used different guest hosts ever since its inception.
Televised talent shows have a variety show element, in that they feature a variety of different acts. Examples of talent shows that feature entertainers from a broad variety of disciplines include Star Search, which had a run in the 1980s in syndication and a run on CBS in the early 2000s during the reality television boom; The Gong Show, which reached its peak in the 1970s but has had occasional revivals since then; and the worldwide Got Talent franchise.
The variety show format also continued in the form of the telethon, which feature variety entertainment (often music) interspersed with appeals for viewers to make donations to support a charity or cause. The Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon was one of the best known national telethons, but it too was eventually canceled after several years of shortening (originally over 21 hours, by the time of its last telecast in 2014, by which point Lewis had been gone from the telethon several years, it was down to two hours). Another popular telethon, for United Cerebral Palsy, ended its run in 1998 shortly after the death of its founder and figurehead, Dennis James. Likewise, only a handful of long-established local telethons remain.

Amidst a rough economic time, the entertainment business has taken a big hit. People are cutting back when it comes to entertainment, from downloading fewer songs on iTunes to going to the movies less often. Consequently, television has become an alternative form of entertainment for families.
Ninety-nine percent of households own at least one television set, according to the Sourcebook for Teaching Science. Therefore, TV programs have thrived more than ever. From the 1950s to the present, each decade has had its defining shows that shaped entertainment for many Americans.
1950s- In the 1950s television struggled to be a mass media source. There were three channels to choose from: NBC, CBS and ABC. "I Love Lucy" was one of the most popular shows and still has a following today. "Gunsmoke," a Western show set in Kansas, remains the longest running prime-time show to this day, with a staggering 20 seasons and 635 episodes.
1960s- Television of the 1960s was considered to reflect old-fashioned views that were safe for the whole family to watch. Controversial shows were not even considered at this time, and having a TV in the house was becoming more common. Shows like "The Andy Griffith Show" and "The Addams Family" were great examples of clean, family-oriented entertainment that defined 1960s television.
1970s- The 1970s were a lot different from previous decades of TV. It was the decline of family entertainment and the rise of socially hip sitcoms. Color TV became permanent and the term "couch potato" was coined. "All in the Family" broke through the socially acceptable barrier at the time and paved the way for future popular shows. "Happy Days" and "Three's Company" were also examples of this.
1980s- Television was revolutionized in the 1980s. It was the birth of the remote control, the invention of cable and TV's fourth network, FOX. "Dallas" was the No. 1 show in the early 80s and made things like death on TV more widespread. "The Cosby Show" was one of the few popular family-oriented shows that still existed.
1990s- TV in the 1990s might be more familiar to today's generation. ABC's "Thank God It's Friday" slogan promoted Friday nights on the couch with the family.

Some fondly remembered comedies would also leave the air: Get Smart (which had been picked up by CBS for the less than highly regarded fifth season, which saw the birth of Max and 99's twins), I Dream of Jeannie, The Flying Nun, and The Ghost & Mrs. Muir. And in truth little of substance would come out of the season. After all the show we remember most from the year is the story of a lovely lady who was bringing up three very lovely girls and a man named Brady who was busy with three boys of his own.
As a special bonus I've got a playlist set up featuring ABC's 1969 Fall Preview Show. It's probably has the best clips from The Music Scene (although it focuses on the comedy group The Committee – including Howard Hesseman and Peter Bonerz – rather than the music), The New People and the other 1969 new ABC shows that didn't last long. By the way, they're wrong about The Ghost & Mrs Muir – it debuted in the 1968 season.

- A guy who dies in the 21st century is sent back to the late 1980s to
help shape himself as a young man. Later the title was changed to
Boys will be Boys, and the show only concentrated on the
teenager. Fall of 1987 to Summer 1988? Maybe more than one season, anyone
- Matt Frewer stars as the father in this sit-com about a family. Winter
1992 to Spring 1993.
- Tom Delany leaves his position as the head writer for Jay
Leno, and becomes the head writer for Wilson Lee Show, a black variety
comedy program. He's nervous about being seen as an outsider, the black
writing staff is upset about having a white head, and Wilson who has his
own entourage of yes-men finds it all amusing. Premeired March 17, 1996.
- Half hour program that interviewed people who claimed to have had
paranormal things happen to them. Edwin Yuen says, "Each episode delt with
a certain subject which was always refered to in the title, such as
SIGHTINGS: UFOs or SIGHTINGS: GHOSTS."
- An animated sitcom of a working class family featuring jerky dad
Homer, worrying mom Marge, smart-alecky Bart, over-acheiver Lisa, and
baby Maggie. Homer works in Sprigfields nuclear power plant run by Mr.
Burns. Spun of from The Tracy Ulman Show. Began Christmas 1989.
The Sinbad Show
- Sinbad, a bachelor video-game designer, takes in two-foster children. Fall 1993 to Summer
- Quinn Mallory, a physics student opens up a gateway to alternate Earths,
and due to an accident is stuck traveling between differnt realities in an
attempt to get "home." He is joined by his friend Wade Wells, his Physics
professor Dr. Maximillian Arturo, and "Cryin' Man" Rembrandt Brown. Began
March 22, 1995.
- Drama about a black family. Began winter/spring 1994.
Space: Above and Beyond
- In the year 2063, Earth is threatened by an alien invasion.

It
became PODW when ABC picked it up for it's Saturday morning line-up in
- Fictional show about DEA officers, but carried out in a documentary
style. I remember they used to have "bleep-outs" of foul language to make
it seem more real. Fall/Winter 1990?
The Dirty Dozen
- Serialization of the famous movies. Although I think that the
characters were different, but it was the same idea. Summer/Fall 1987?
Maybe into Winter 1988.
- Saturday morning cartoon. Larry Virden says, "Henson production mix of
muppets and animation following an animator and his tv series. The catch
is the 'people' are all dogs." Half cartoon and half muppet.
Down and Out in Beverly Hills
- Series based on the movie. Winter/Spring 1987.
Down the Shore
- Sit-com about three single guys and three single gals who share a
weekend beach house in Seaside Heights, NJ. Summer 1992 to Winter/Spring
- The HBO series, now on FOX. Martin Tupper is a NY book editor who
suddenly finds himself divorced and living the single life. January 8,
1995 to April 16, 1995.
- Sitcom about a single father (Dabney Coleman) who is an elementary
school teacher. Originaly concetrated on him in school, but later shifted
focus to his family life. This show lasted less than one season, but had
three different opening credits. Fall/Winter 1991?
- Not sure how to describe this one as I didn't watch it. See also Open
House. Winter/Spring 1987 to Spring/Summer 1989? Maybe 1990, I can't
Stewart Mason says this about it:
It starred Matthew Laurence and Mary Page Keller as Ben and
Laura and followed the stages of their romance from first meeting to
marriage and children. Basically, it was the precursor to Mad About
You, right down to Laura's goofy scatterbrain sister (played by the
genuinely appealing Jodi Thelen) and their annoying married-couple friends,
played by Chris Lemmon and Alison La Placa. It just wasn't as funny as
Mad About You.

This segment of Ask Steve explains how television in the 1960's failed to reflect upon the turmoil and confusion felt during this decade of change. Television in 1968 lagged behind in social change because there were only three networks. Since only three networks existed, they represented a large variety of people and did not want to alienate themselves from the public. 1968 television mostly consisted of escapists programs, such as Bewitched, Get Smart, and I Love Lucy. However, the first interracial kiss on television took place in a 1968 episode of Star Trek. The Mod Squad also aired, appealing to young people, but with a very traditional message of solving crime. laugh-In also aired in 1968, and was one of the first shows to poke fun of the establishment. It was not until the 1970's where there were more networks, and you had a variety of shows like Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.

An unlikely emcee, the ex-newspaperman is famous for having signed both no-name acts and famous personalities for his shows, and for facilitating television debuts, such as that of The Beatles in 1963. Originally telecast as Toast of the Town, The Ed Sullivan Show became an institution in itself.
- The Ernie Kovacs Specials (1961, ABC).The comedic genius of Kovacs had many manifestations on various network shows that ran sporadically from 1951 to 1962. Comprised of satirical sketches and sight gags, often devoid of dialogue, this episode from the Collection is representative of Kovacs’ unique vision.
- The World of Jacqueline Kennedy (1961, NBC)This documentary is both a biography of the then First Lady and a comparative analysis of her predecessors. Filmed at the height of her popularity prior to the assassination of her husband, this program attests to the public’s fascination with Jackie Kennedy, whose charm and glamour made such an idelible impression. Here, she is photographed at work on her “Campaign Wife” newspaper column in the summer of 1960.
- The Lawrence Welk Show (1968, ABC).Noted for the “champagne music” which he himself dubbed, Lawrence Welk was both bandleader and host of this music variety show that ran from 1955 to 1971.
- The Phil Donahue Show (1971, Ohio : Avco Broadcasting).Focusing on a single topic and eliciting audience involvement, Donahue originated the contemporary talk-show format and won a Peabody for his work in 1980. In this show broadcast from Ohio—before the program was syndicated nationally—the host moderates a discussion on penal reform issues with inmates.
- Wide World of Sports (1973, ABC).This program was first broadcast in 1961, won a Peabody in 1966, and continued its coverage of international sporting events until 1998.
- Saturday Night Live (1977, NBC).This unconventional comedy variety show has filled the late-night spot since it debuted in 1975, and is notable for having launched the careers of several big-name comedians and writers. Featured in this photo are all the original performers, minus Chevy Chase who left the series in 1976.

Friday, October 30, 2009
Where Were You in 1979?
Since 1979, Kitchen Magic has provided quality kitchen refacing and remodeling to our customers at an affordable price. You've helped us become the largest kitchen refacer in the U.S. We will celebrate its 30th anniversary in November of this year, and to celebrate, we'll look back at some of what made 1979 special.
Earlier we looked back and reminisced about the top music hits for 1979. We also had a look at the top movies of that year.
In 1979, there were just over 76 million households with televisions, but viewers were pretty much confined to the three broadcast networks, ABC, NBC, and CBS (Fox was many years in the future) or a few local channels. Just one out of every five homes had access to cable TV, and Time magazine marveled that cable viewers might be able to see as many as 36 channels on it some day.
Let's count down the thirty most popular shows in 1979. Last week we looked at shows #6 through #10. The week before that #11 through #20, and before that, #21 through #30.
Here are shows #1 through #5. How many of these do you recall? Congratulations to reader Cynthia Dennis in the Philadelphia area, who guessed the number one show for that year.
1) 60 Minutes
2) Three's Company
3) That's Incredible
This blog hosted/created by Kitchen Magic.

- Karen (1964-1965) – Girl “Leave It To Beaver”
- Tammy (1965-1966) – Loosely based on the movies
- Gidget (1965-1966) – Sally Field: Surfer girl
- My Mother The Car (1965-1966) – Freudian nightmare number 146
- Captain Nice (1967) – Proto Greatest American Hero.
- The Pruitts Of Southampton (1966-1967) – Riches to rags
- The Ugliest Girl In Town (1968-1969) – Cross dressing love story.
- Occasional Wife (1966-1967) – It featured a fire escape!
- Love On A Rooftop (1968-1969) – Newlywed wackiness
- He & She (1967-1968)- Writer, actor, & wife make comedy!
- Good Morning World (1967-1968)- Proto WKRP
You can see full episodes of a lot of these on You Tube and all 30 episodes of “My Mother The Car” can be watched on Hulu. TV Guide voted it the second worst show ever made so every self respecting MSTie should tune in!
On a personal note, even though these are almost all before my time, I actually watched and liked both “Captain Nice” and “Gidget” in reruns. Also, I was watching the theme song video on my phone at work and two friends popped into the break room while it was playing. We formed a theme song singing lounge act that would put the Mandrell sisters to shame! Twas nice to finally check “shaming Mandrells” off my bucket list!

Aired
June 3, 1996 to July 8, 1996.
The Late Show
- I think that this was the talk show originally hosted by Joan Rivers,
and then by Arsenio Hall. It ran from 1987 to something like 1989?
- Brian Bosworth is Jon Lawless, an ex-CIA agent whose now a PI in
Miami. His partner is Reggie Hayes, an ex-military pilot who saved his
life during a mission. The two use extremely high-tech gadgetry to
solve cases. Aired March 22, 1997, and was promptly cancelled.
Life with Louie
- Cartoon based on Louie Anderson's experiences growing
up in the Mid-West. A Few prime-time specials during 1994 - 95 season.
Saturday mornings since September of 1995.
- Saturday morning cartoon. Based on the musical and movie The
Little Shop of Horrors about a man eating plant that talks.
- Sit-com about three young black women living together. Fall 1993 to Jan 1, 1998.
- The exploits of four twenty-something guys in Pittsburgh trying to
avoid adulthood by maintaining there High School ways. Stosh is
currently a cab driver, Jake is the pretty-boy ex-quarterback, Eddie
lives in his mother's basement, and Mert has to marry his high school
sweetheart Bonny when they get $10,000 saved up. Premeired March 17,
- Ratzenberg from Cheers is the narrator of this show set in
a small Port Ellen, Rake Capital of the World. His sister marries a NYC
cab driver whose first experience outside NY is moving here. In the pilot,
his new brother-in-law tried to accept and be accepted by the town. Pilot
June 23, 1994.
Love & Marriage
- Parents Jack, the owner of a parking garage, and April Nardini, a
waitress at a gourmet restaurant,
have a mere 15 minutes a day together in which to get their household
in order, make sure their three street-savvy kids are still breathing
and maintain their still-passionate relationship. Their children are 12
year old son Christopher, alterna-chick teenager Gemmy, whose life dream
is pierce for a living, and Michael, who attends junior collge and has
five part time jobs.

|Look up variety show in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.|
A variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts (hence the name), especially musical performances and sketch comedy, and is normally introduced by a compère (master of ceremonies) or host. Other types of acts include magic, animal and circus acts, acrobatics, juggling and ventriloquism. The variety format made its way from Victorian era stage to radio to television. Variety shows were a staple of anglophone television from its early days (late 1940s) into the 1980s.
While still widespread in some parts of the world, the proliferation of multichannel television and evolving viewer tastes affected the popularity of variety shows in the United States. Despite this, their influence has still had a major effect on late night television—where late night talk shows and NBC's comedy series Saturday Night Live (which originally premiered in 1975) have remained popular fixtures of North American television.
The format is basically that of music hall in the United Kingdom or vaudeville in the United States. Variety in the UK evolved in theatres and music halls, and later in Working Men's Clubs. Most of the early top performers on British television and radio did an apprenticeship either in stage variety, or during World War II in Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA). In the UK, the ultimate accolade for a variety artist for decades was to be asked to do the annual Royal Command Performance at the London Palladium theatre, in front of the monarch.
In the United States, former vaudeville performers such as the Marx Brothers, George Burns and Gracie Allen, W. C. Fields, and Jack Benny honed their skills in the Borscht Belt before moving to talkies, to radio shows, and then to television shows, including variety shows. In the 1960s, even a popular rock band such as The Beatles undertook this ritual of appearing on variety shows on TV. In the United States, shows featuring Perry Como, Milton Berle, Jackie Gleason, Bob Hope, and Dean Martin also helped to make the Golden Age of Television successful.
From 1948 to 1971, The Ed Sullivan Show was one of CBS's most popular television series.

(l to r) Top Doris Day in The Doris Day Show; Andrew Duggan, Wayne Maunder, and James Stacy in Lancer;
Middle: Diahann Carroll and Marc Copage in Julia; Phyllis Diller in The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show;
Bottom: Robert Morse in That’s Life; Otis Young and Don Murray in The Outcast
Hirschfeld captioned this work “Some of the new shows scheduled (between commercials) for this fall on your groan box.” In the era before cable television, the new television season on the three networks were subjects of great anticipation. The television mirrored the theater season in that it ran from September to the end of May, only the networks would then repeat the shows (commonly referred to as “reruns”) over the summer.
These shows represent their time. The Outcasts was a story of two cowboys, one Black, and one White, who work together even if they aren’t friends, reminiscent of The Defiant Ones. Julia was a groundbreaking series, the first to star a Black woman in a non-stereotypical role, but at the time, some critics thought the show was too apolitical. Gil Scott-Heron’s classic “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised) name checks the series as something you won’t see when the uprising comes. Robert Morse starred in a innovative series that charted the ups and downs of a young couple, in the form of a Broadway-style musical. It was filmed before a live audience and featured new songs, standards, and even pop hits of the day. Despite an Emmy nomination and guest stars that ranged from Liza Minnelli to Sid Caesar it ran only one season. Like the theater, many of these shows had very short runs.
While it only ran for two seasons, Lancer has continued to play role in American culture. The 2019 movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood incorporates a fictionalized account of the filming of Lancer's pilot episode, with Leonardo DiCaprio appearing as a villain in the episode. Additional scenes are featured in the film’s novelization.

For the most part when newspapers or magazines reported the Nielsen ratings in decades past only the Top Twenty or Top Forty programs were listed. Whether this was due to restrictions enforced by Nielsen (these days the company is very protective of its data) or an editorial decision is beside the point. What is important is that on October 12th, 1965 The New York Times reported both the Top Forty and the Bottom 15 programs for the first two weeks of the 1965-1966 season. The period in question ran from Monday, September 13th through Sunday, September 26th. All the way at the bottom with a 4.8 Nielsen rating was CBS Reports. Topping the chart was NBC’s Bonanza with a 31.1 rating.
One reason for the poor performance of these shows was their time slot. Killer competition on the other two networks would result in low ratings regardless of quality. ABC’s The Donna Reed Show, for example, was up against Gilligan’s Island (14, 22.3) on CBS and Daniel Boone (37th, 19.3) on NBC. The combined rating for the three programs was a 52.5, meaning more than half of all television households in the country were watching the networks (the share of the audience, or the number of televisions in use at the time, was likely close to 90%).
Here’s the complete list of the Bottom 15 programs. New shows are marked:
|83.||The Steve Lawrence Show (New)||CBS||12.6|
|86.||The Trials of O’Brien (New)||CBS||11.9|
|The King Family||ABC||11.9|
|88.||Ozzie and Harriet||ABC||11.4|
|89.||Camp Runamuck (New)||NBC||10.9|
|The Donna Reed Show||ABC||10.9|
|94.||Shindig II (New)||ABC||9.6|

The Spanish language variety show Sabado Gigante, which began in 1962, and then moved from Chile to the United States in 1986, will continue to produce and broadcast new episodes on Univision until its pending cancellation in September 2015.
However, though the format had faded in popularity in prime time, it thrived in late night. The variety shows of this daypart eventually evolved into late-night talk shows, which combine variety entertainment (primarily comedy and live music) with the aspects of a talk show (such as interviews with celebrities). The Emmy Awards organization considers the two genres to be related closely enough that it awards the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series to any of these types of show. Although only one network (NBC, with its The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and later Late Night with David Letterman) had a successful late-night talk show until 1992, the field greatly expanded beginning with Carson's retirement and the controversial selection of Jay Leno as Tonight’s new host. Within ten years, all of the "Big Three" networks, along with several cable outlets, had late night variety talk shows being shown nightly. After ceding his hosting role on The Tonight Show to Conan O'Brien in 2009, Leno began hosting The Jay Leno Show, a late-night styled program broadcast by NBC in the final hour of primetime. In early 2010, after poor viewership and a dispute with Conan O'Brien surrounding a plan to move The Jay Leno Show into late night and push back the remainder of NBC's late-night lineup, the series was cancelled and Leno returned to The Tonight Show (with Conan leaving NBC entirely to host a new self-titled late night show on the cable channel TBS). As of 2014, late-night talk shows vary widely on their resemblance to the original variety format, with Jimmy Fallon's incarnation of The Tonight Show putting heavy emphasis on sketches and stunts, while shows such as Late Night with Seth Meyers focus more heavily on the talk aspects.
Sketch comedy series such as Saturday Night Live, In Living Color, Almost Live!, MADtv and SCTV also contain variety show elements, particularly musical performances and comedy sketches (though only the first of these remains telecast as of 2010). The most obvious difference between shows such as Saturday Night Live and traditional variety shows is the lack of a single lead host (or hosts) and a large ensemble cast.

|ABC||Life Goes On||Free Spirit||Homeroom||The ABC Sunday Night Movie|
|CBS||60 Minutes||Murder, She Wrote||The CBS Sunday Night Movies|
|FOX||Booker||America's Most Wanted||Totally Hidden Video||Married... with Children||Open House||The Tracey Ullman Show||It's Garry Shandling's Show|
|NBC||The Magical World of Disney||Sister Kate||My Two Dads||NBC Sunday Night Movie|
Note: On ABC,America's Funniest Home Videos premiered as a series at 8:00 on January 14, 1990.
On FOX, The Simpsons premiered as a series at 8:30 on January 14, 1990 after airing its Christmas special on December 17, 1989 in the same timeslot.
|ABC||MacGyver||Monday Night Football|
|CBS||Major Dad||The People Next Door||Murphy Brown||The Famous Teddy Z||Designing Women||Newhart|
|FOX||21 Jump Street||Alien Nation||Local|
|NBC||ALF||The Hogan Family||NBC Monday Night at the Movies|
|ABC||Who's the Boss?||The Wonder Years||Roseanne||Chicken Soup||thirtysomething|
|CBS||Rescue 911||Wolf||Island Son|
|NBC||Matlock||In the Heat of the Night||Midnight Caller|
Note: On ABC, Coach aired its second season at 9:30 beginning November 21, 1989, as a replacement for Chicken Soup, which declined in audience numbers each week and lost much of the lead-in audience of the #1 hit, Roseanne.
|ABC||Growing Pains||Head of the Class||Anything but Love||Doogie Howser, M.D.||China Beach|
|CBS||A Peaceable Kingdom||Jake and the Fatman||Wiseguy|
|NBC||Unsolved Mysteries||Night Court||Nutt House / Dear John Jan.)||Quantum Leap|
Note: On NBC, the sitcom Dear John moved to 9:30 on January 17, 1990.
|ABC||Mission: Impossible||The Young Riders||Primetime Live|
|CBS||48 Hours||Top of the Hill||Knots Landing|
|NBC||The Cosby Show||A Different World||Cheers||Dear John / Grand (Jan)||L.A.

Using his no-nonsense approach, Ed Sullivan allowed many acts from several different mediums to get their "fifteen minutes of fame". Sullivan was also partially responsible for bringing Elvis Presley and The Beatles to prominence in the United States.
In the UK, The Good Old Days—which ran from 1953 to 1983—featured modern artists performing dressed in late Victorian/Early Edwardian costume, either doing their own act or performing as a music hall artist of that period. The audience was also encouraged to dress in period costume in a similar fashion.
On television, variety reached its peak during the period of the 1960s and 1970s. With a turn of the television dial, viewers around the globe could variously have seen shows and occasional specials featuring Dinah Shore, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Andy Williams, Julie Andrews, The Carpenters, Olivia Newton-John, John Denver, John Davidson, Mac Davis, Bobby Goldsboro, Lynda Carter, Johnny Cash, Sonny and Cher, Bob Monkhouse, Carol Burnett, Rod Hull and Emu, Flip Wilson, Lawrence Welk, Glen Campbell, Donny & Marie Osmond, Barbara Mandrell, Judy Garland, The Captain & Tennille, The Jacksons, The Keane Brothers, Bobby Darin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Mary Tyler Moore, Dean Martin, Tony Orlando and Dawn, The Smothers Brothers, Danny Kaye, Des O'Connor, Buck and Roy, Roy Hudd, Billy Dainty, Max Wall. Manhattan Transfer, Starland Vocal Band, or The Muppet Show. Even "The Brady Bunch" had a variety show. Variety shows were once as common on television as Westerns, courtroom dramas, suspense thrillers, sitcoms, or (in more modern times) reality TV shows.
During the 1960s and 1970s, there were also numerous one-time variety specials featuring stars such as Shirley MacLaine, Frank Sinatra, Diana Ross, and Mitzi Gaynor, none of whom ever had a regular television series.
Modern U.S. variety shows
|This article needs additional citations for verification.

Whatever happened to the variety/comedy shows? You know, the ones where they played before a live audience, mixing comedy skits with singers, guest stars, dancers and an hour of laughter. The best ever, in my humble opinion, was the Carol Burnett Show. She had it all. Harvey Korman, Tim Conway, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner and the best; herself. Every show began with a monologue, questions from the audience with ad lib quips, that Tarzan sreech, and the washer woman character that no one could imitate.
As the saying goes, they don’t make like they used to. The younger folks don’t know what they missed without seeing these wonderful shows. Yes, I’m glad I was around when they were big hits, but they also sadden me when I watch the poor excuses we have today for comedy in comparison.
No canned laughter for these folks. But it wasn’t needed. Just watch any episode of “Burnett” or “Jackie Gleason” and you’ll find plenty of that authentic laughter coming from the people in the studio. Something about fake laughter that I resent. It’s as though the producers of these shows don’t trust us to know what’s funny.
Anyway, here’s my top ten for the greatest variety shows of all time. (With a few links to spice it up)
The Carol Burnett Show
The Dean Martin Show
Sonny And Cher
The Smothers Brothers
The Colgate Comedy Hour
The Show Of Shows
The Ed Sullivan Show
Red Skelton Show
Milton Berle Show
What say you…my fellow senior citizens?

|Art by Ted and Pat Michener. The Toronto Star, September 11, 1976.|
None of the shows spotlighted on Star Week's cover had staying power. Clockwise from top left:
Bill Cosby - Cos. Sketch comedy/variety show. Cancelled November 1976.
Tony Randall - The Tony Randall Show. Sitcom about a widowed judge. Only show featured on this cover to last more than one season, surviving until March 1978.
Nancy Walker - The Nancy Walker Show. Sitcom about L.A.-based talent agent. Cancelled December 1976. Walker quickly resurfaced as the star of Blansky's Beauties in February 1977.
Jim Bouton - Ball Four. Sitcom inspired by Bouton's controversial best-selling book about life as a pro baseball player. Cancelled October 1976.
David Birney - Serpico. Drama inspired by the Al Pacino movie. Cancelled January 1977.
John Schuck and Richard B. Shull - Holmes and Yoyo. Sitcom about a cop and his robot partner. Cancelled December 1976.
Dick Van Dyke - Van Dyke and Company. Sketch comedy/variety show whose cast included Andy Kaufman. Cancelled December 1976.
Robert Stack - Most Wanted. Crime drama. A Quinn Martin production. Last wanted in August 1977.
Here's the full Saturday preview page.
Doctor Who wasn't the only British import TVO added discussion points to. As shown here, the 1968-70 ITV drama Tom Grattan's War was supplemented with bonus material featuring Andrea Martin, then appearing on another show which debuted in September 1976: SCTV. I'd love to see how Martin illustrated particular points about a young Londoner's adventures set against the backdrop of the First World War. I'm guessing Edith Prickley didn't make an appearance.
What aired against the Time Lord's TVO debut? For Toronto viewers, music, music, music. Hee Haw (channel 2) featured Tammy Wynette, Waltons star Will Geer, and Kenny Price. CFTO (channel 9) ran Canadian Stage Band Festival, featuring big bands from schools and post-secondary institutions across the country. Dolly Parton's short-lived Dolly!

Law|
Note: On NBC, the sitcom Grand premiered at 9:30 on January 18, 1990.Friday
|ABC||Full House||Family Matters||Perfect Strangers||Just the Ten of Us||20/20|
|ABC||Mr. Belvedere||Living Dolls||The ABC Saturday Mystery: B.L. Stryker, Columbo, Kojak, Christine Cromwell|
|CBS||Paradise||Tour of Duty||Saturday Night with Connie Chung|
|FOX||COPS||The Reporters||Beyond Tomorrow||Local|
|NBC||227||Amen||The Golden Girls||Empty Nest||Hunter|

There you go, now you know as much as I do. Except that I also know the show had Dwight Schultz in it.
- "Good Grief": This one made it into the list simply because watching the intro gave no information about the show. My best guess was that it was about a pro golfer who befriends the angel of death. I was kind of close: it's about the wacky employees of a funeral home. Not recommended.
- "Q.E.D." (1982): I'm just gonna quote the IMDB user summary: "The tales of Quentin E. Deverill, an eccentric expatriate American professor who uses his unique skills to solve mysteries in Edwardian London." Starring Sam Waterston. AWESOME.
- "No Soap, Radio" (1982): Another intro that gives no information about the show premise (they just put the camera on a roller coaster and showed that footage). However, it does give you enough information to stay away: "Starring Steve Guttenberg." IMDB says this five-episode wonder is about "The third-generation owner of a seedy hotel in Atlantic City." It took guts to name the show after a joke that's funny because it's not funny.
- "Bring 'Em Back Alive" (1982): Bruce Boxleitner is 1930s Steve Irwin! Not as awesome as it sounds.
- "Square Pegs" (1982): Sarah Jessica Parker's first TV show, a kind of proto-"Freaks and Geeks". The introduction is extremely well done.
- "The Devlin Connection" (1982): Someday I'll find it, the Devlin Connection. I did not expect to see a crime show starring Rock Hudson, but IMDB says this wasn't even the first crime show starring Rock Hudson. Not that interesting; we put it down because an extended Apple II sequence in the intro made us think Rock Hudson's character might have a sideline in computer programming, but no such luck.
- The New People (1969): All the excitement of "Lost", in the 1960s.
- We saw promos for the fall of 1969, and they were already using the moon footprint video as shorthand for "important news".
- Also in 1969, sketch comedy group The Committee had a TV show that doesn't show up on IMDB; maybe it never really aired.

— Some sources list 13 seasons for “All in the Family” and 12 for “Make Room for Daddy” and for “The Lucy Show.” However, that involves including four seasons of “Archie Bunker’s Place” or one of “Make Room for Granddaddy” or six of “Here’s Lucy.”
— Coming close with 11 seasons were “Cheers,” “Frasier,” “Happy Days,” “The Jeffersons,” “Married With Children” and (counting its one-year revival) “Murphy Brown.”
— Still in the running is “Will & Grace,” which has done 10 seasons so far.
— “Friends” also had 10 seasons and many others had nine — “Seinfeld,” “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “Coach,” “Alice,” “Drew Carey,” “Family Matters,” “The Facts of Life,” “The King of Queens,” “Night Court” and the original “One Day at a Time.”
— If you counted sitcoms not taped before an audience, “Ozzie & Harriet” would win with 14. If you included animation, it’s “The Simpsons” with 30. And if you go with comedy-themed variety shows, there’s Red Skelton in primetime (20) and “Saturday Night Live” overall (44).
(Sources: “The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows” (Ballantine Books) and www.imdb.com.)
Trivia break II (name game)
— “Sheldon” and “Leonard” are no accident. Sheldon Leonard – who started as an actor in tough-guy roles – produced many top comedies (with Dick Van Dyke, Andy Griffith and Danny Thomas) and a pioneering drama, “I Spy.” Chuck Lorre, the “Big Bang” co-creator, called the names “a little hero worship.”
— Then there’s “Howard Wolowitz,” the friend of Sheldon and Leonard. Before becoming a comedy writer, “Big Bang” co-creator Bill Prady had a computer job, working on a system developed by Howard Wolowitz.
— The show’s title is a bit of a play on words, as both a science and sexual term, but Prady adds one more: “The third thing, besides the physics reference and the sexual reference, is a coming together of forces.” In this case, it’s the opposite forces of Penny and the guys across the hall.

It was the half-hour drama Room 222 starring Lloyd Haynes, Denise Nicholas, Michael Constantine and Karen Valentine as teachers at a Los Angeles high school. Haynes played history teacher Pete Dixon, while Nicholls played his girlfriend Liz McIntyre, the school's guidance counsellor. Constantine played the school's well liked if long-suffering principal Seymour Kaufman, and Valentine played Alice, a young English teacher. There were a number of recurring student characters as well as a number of actors who made guest appearances on the show and would later go on to fame, including Bruno Kirby, Cindy Williams, Teri Garr, Rob Reiner, Anthony Geary, Richard Dreyfuss, Chuck Norris, Kurt Russell, and Mark Hamill. The show lasted for five seasons, despite nearly being cancelled after its first – apparently ABC relented when the show was nominated for five Emmy Awards and won three including Emmys for Constantine and Valentine as Supporting Actor and Actress in a Comedy and the now vanished category of Outstanding New Series. In the Fall Preview issue TV Guide raved about the show saying, "...in this half hour comedy-drama the life he leads has the feel of reality despite scripts that are shrewdly calculated to entertain. It shows up in things like the refreshingly natural man-woman relationship of Pete and Liz McIntyre."
Of course comedy, and in particular situation comedy, was the life blood of TV in the late 1960s. In all honesty 1969 was not a good year for sitcoms. Of eight introduced, only two ran for more than two season. These were The Courtship Of Eddie's Father which ran three seasons and appears to have ended primarily because of a dispute between star Bill Bixby and director and co-star James Komack about the direction the series was taking (this seems to be a running theme with Komack; both Gabe Kaplan and Marcia Strassman have spoken of a difficult relationship with Komack on Welcome Back Kotter where he apparently played the actors off against each other), and The Brady Bunch which ran for five, and of course lives on in perpetual reruns. Sketch comedy Love American Style ran for four and a half season and was the only show from ABC's Monday line-up to not only survive for more than half a season but to thrive. ABC's mid-season replacement Nanny And The Professor managed 54 episodes, being cancelled halfway through its second season.

So, with less time to program each night, the networks knew they would eventually have to drop shows and cut their own expenses, all the while (hopefully) maximizing profits. This meant, first and foremost, nixing old stars and pricey properties to make room for product that could be more cheaply offered. That’s when rural shows like Green Acres and The Beverly Hillbillies – now both out of the Top 30 – were axed at the end of ’70-‘71, along with un-winning corn like Family Affair and To Rome With Love (both also off the good charts) – in the second and biggest wave of the so-called “Purge.”
Whether this had a lot to do with the emerging successes of cheaper, newer, more modern programs like The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-1977, CBS) and All In The Family (1971-1979, CBS), which indeed aimed to be socially present and urban-friendly, cannot be assured. However, it’s my conclusion that demo-targeting was not yet the proven science most now claim when CBS crafted the ’71-’72 schedule. In the fall of ’70, the initial wave of “relevant” programming for which CBS’ new network president Bob Wood advocated (and, to be fair, he did intentionally move CBS in this direction for ’70-’71) seemed less commercially desirable than expected. To wit, the ’71-’72 season saw a return to old forms — prior stars, updated Westerns, goofy comedies (including one with a chimp) — before each of the aforementioned classics began to assert their superiority in both ratings and gold, making sure that by ’72, all three networks had a new cultural mandate. That is, when the cancellation decisions were being made, between the two November ’70 and February ’71 Sweeps periods, the “new order” was not strong enough to be an order. (Les Brown’s book on this history concludes at the end of 1970 and reveals that many CBS execs, including Mike Dann’s replacement, Fred Silverman, then believed the ’70 schedule was not the new normal.) This may all seem like a tangent, but ’69-’70 is key, because it put in motion changes that led to what we saw in the 1970s.

I was really a club comedian with a limited ... so I didn't have the depth of experience in my matrix to call on ... I was writing superficially ... and it was thin ... I hated doing these variety shows ... I got other ones. I got the Perry Como Special in Hawaii. I got Jimmy Rodgers. I did Roger Miller's variety show."
Carlin finally followed in the footsteps of Jack Burns and entered the world of sitcoms. He appeared on That Girl as the agent of aspiring actress Ann Marie played by star Marlo Thomas. Marlo was the daughter of famed comedian and television producer Danny Thomas, a cigar toting nightclub comic that belonged fully to the type of show business that Carlin would eventually reject. He was also the executive producer of Burns' late employer The Andy Griffith Show. The Griffith sitcom was in reality a spin-off of Thomas' comedy The Danny Thomas Show (also known as Make Room for Daddy). Carlin in later years said of the episode "My acting really sucked."
The Hollywood Palace was a bizarre variety show that tried to please everyone by combining Lawrence Welk style acts and Catskill comedians with unwashed psych and garage bands. Carlin appeared on the show at least four times, and he was straddling both of these worlds. Palace was essentially created to bring some of Ed Sullivan's audience to a different network and the format featured many of the same kinds of acts you'd see on Ed's show (but nowhere else) such as plate spinners, acrobats, tumblers with Italian names and other throw backs to vaudeville. One appearance had George introduced by Jimmy Durante, another was with host Van Johnson and another spot introduced by Martha Raye in which he performed for an audience of servicemen about to go die in Vietnam.
1967 was an incredibly busy year. Carlin scored another full time television job as a staff writer and regular performer on a summer replacement program. CBS' Away We Go was named for one of Jackie Gleason's catchphrases as it was filling the time slot of The Jackie Gleason Show. The title had no bearing on the show itself and could just as easily have been called To The Moon or One of These Days, Alice. The job set Carlin up nicely for two stand-up appearances on the great one's program later that year.

Although it has, over the years, attained an almost cult status, only 39 episodes were ever broadcast. The program ended after one season, but lived on via syndication.
1957 – U.S. B-52 bombers in the Strategic Air Command went on 24-hour alert status because of the perceived threat of an attack from the Soviet Union.
1961 – New York Yankee Roger Maris became the first major-league baseball player to hit more than 60 home runs in a single season. Babe Ruth had set the record of 60 in 1927. Maris and his teammate Mickey Mantle spent 1961 trying to break it.
After hitting 54 homers, Mantle injured his hip in September, leaving Maris to chase the record by himself. Finally, in the last game of the regular season, Maris hit his 61st home run off Tracy Stallard of the Boston Red Sox.
1962 – Johnny Carson replaced Jack Paar as host of the late-night talk program The Tonight Show. Carson went on to host The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for three decades, becoming one of the biggest figures in entertainment in the 20th century.
1962 – The Lucy Show – Lucille Ball’s follow-up to I Love Lucy – premiered on CBS. It lasted six years.
1970 – Scores of people were crushed or battered to death in Cairo as millions of people crowded onto the streets for Egyptian President Abdel Nasser’s funeral.
Soldiers protecting the cortege were overwhelmed when a mass of men and women swarmed around the entourage. Soldiers used rifle butts and batons to repel the crowd in the ensuing pandemonium.
1975 – The “Thrilla in Manila” – the third and final boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier – was fought at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines. The bout is consistently ranked as one of the best in the sport’s history and proved to be the culmination of the bitter rivalry between Ali and Frazier.
Eddie Futch, Frazier’s trainer, decided to stop the fight before the start of the 15th round. Frazier, who by then could barely see, protested stopping the fight, shouting “I want him, boss,” and trying to get Futch to change his mind. Futch replied, “It’s all over.

When television syndicators reminisce about the good old days, their minds naturally wander to the heady 1980s when the situation comedy “The Cosby Show” sold on average for more than $ 4 million an episode.
That, of course, was the high-water mark for the ever-changing syndication business. Since then, prices for off-network sitcoms in the re-run market have dropped considerably. And no one can forsee a time when programs of the genre will command those kinds of dollars again.
But those same exex are optimistic about the future prospects for sitcoms in syndication. The market may not be as robust as it once was, but in a business where the failure of new programs is almost as common as power lunches, sitcoms offer the best chances for TV success, year-after-year.
“The most successful genre in television is the sitcom,” declared Bob Jacquemin, president of Buena Vista Television, pointing out that since 1987, the highest-rated new shows in syndication every year have been sitcoms. This season, for example, “Roseanne” reigned as the No. 1 new strip in syndication.
“A great sitcom is still the end of the rainbow for a producer/distributor,” said Greg Meidel, president of Twentieth Television domestic TV.
But the market is getting crowded. One source estimated that by fall 1996, there may be as many as 25 half-hour sitcoms competing for space in the syndication marketplace.
Making their national sales debuts at the recently concluded 30th annual conference of the National Association of Television Program Executives in San Francisco were a line-up of off-net sitcoms from the major studios.
Buena Vista was hawking “Blossom,””Empty Nest,””Dinosaurs” and “Home Improvement”; MCA, “Coach” and the hour-long “Northern Exposure”; Twentieth Television, “The Simpsons” and “Doogie Howser, M.D.,” and Warner Bros., “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” and “Family Matters.”
Although the advertising recession is lifting, and with it the improved outlook prospects of TV stations, few observers expect all these shows to easily find a home on the TV dial. That’s particularly so in light of the slew of firstrun talk shows competing for early-fringe time periods.
Business patterns altered
Some television syndication industry exex believe that patterns of the business may have permanently changed.

The Spanish-language variety show known as Sábados Gigantes (forerunner of the U.S. Sábado Gigante) began in 1962 with Don Francisco and lasted into the 1990s. His daughter, Vivianne Kreutzberger, currently hosts the program under the title Gigantes con Vivi, while Don Francisco has hosted the U.S. version since 1986.
Many television special continue to resemble the variety show format to this day.
- Variety Artists Club of New Zealand, a club for variety performers and entertainers
- Variety, the Children's Charity, widely known as the Variety Club, a charity operated by variety performers
- Japanese variety show
- "Television in the United States". Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 2011. Web. 06 Jun. 2011.
- "Sid Caesar." Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 2011. Web. 06 Jun. 2011.
- Carter, Bill (May 12, 2014). Overextended, Music TV Shows Fade. The New York Times. Retrieved May 12, 2014.
- "Maya Rudolph is reviving the variety show – but is there still a place for it?". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
- "Forget Donny & Marie. Maya Rudolph, NBC Bid To Revive TV’s Variety Show" from Variety (May 17, 2014)
- "TV Ratings Monday: 'Bones' & 'Mike & Molly' Dip for Finales, 'The Voice' Rises + '24: Live Another Day' Slides & 'The Bachelorette' Ties Premiere Low" from TV By The Numbers/Zap2It (May 20, 2014)
- Gerow, Aaron (2010), "Kind Participation: Postmodern Consumption and Capital with Japan's Telop TV", in Yoshimoto, Mitsuhiro, Television, Japan, and Globalization, Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, pp. 117–150

The premise of the single working woman’s life, alternating during the program between work and home, became a television staple.
After six years of ratings in the top 20, the show slipped to number 39 during season seven. Producers argued for its cancellation because of falling ratings, afraid that the show’s legacy might be damaged if it were renewed for another season. To the surprise of the entire cast including Mary Tyler Moore herself, it was announced that they would soon be filming their final episode. After the announcement, the series had a strong finish and the final show was the seventh most watched show during the week it aired. The 1977 season would go on to win an Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series, to add to the awards it had won in 1975 and 1976. All in all, during its seven seasons, the program held the record for winning the most Emmys – 29.] That record remained unbroken until 2002 when the NBC sitcom Frasier won its 30th Emmy. The Mary Tyler Moore Show became a touchpoint of the Women’s Movement because it was one of the first to show, in a serious way, an independent working woman.
During season six of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Moore appeared in a musical/variety special for CBS titled Mary’s Incredible Dream, which featured Ben Vereen. In 1978, she starred in a second CBS special, How to Survive the ’70s and Maybe Even Bump Into Happiness. This time, she received significant support from a strong lineup of guest stars: Bill Bixby, John Ritter, Harvey Korman and Dick Van Dyke. In the 1978–79 season, Moore attempted to try the musical-variety genre by starring in two unsuccessful CBS variety series in a row: Mary, which featured David Letterman, Michael Keaton, Swoosie Kurtz and Dick Shawn in the supporting cast. CBS canceled the series. In March 1979, the network brought Moore back in a new, retooled show, The Mary Tyler Moore Hour, which was described as a “sit-var” (part situation comedy/part variety series) with Moore portraying a TV star putting on a variety show. Michael Keaton was the only cast member of Mary who remained with Moore as a supporting regular in this revised format. Dick Van Dyke appeared as her guest for one episode. The program was canceled within three months.

The Top...Um...4 (?) NBC Sitcoms of the 1970s
It's hard to imagine it now, with the relentless success and excellence consistently delivered from the National Broadcasting Network when it comes to sitcoms -- from The Cosby Show to Seinfeld to The Office, but there was a time when NBC's comedic television offerings were as unbelievably piss poor as they were limited in number. That era would be the 1970s, a decade when NBC was clearly not that interested in funny, 30-minute vehicles.
Two of the very few bright spots for '70s NBC comedy: Eddie Albert (left) and Freddie Prinze.
While I, admittedly, was too young to enjoy shows prior to 1975, I watched nearly every show on this list either during its run or in syndication, something that allowed many kids to grow up with shows that were on TV when their parents were young. But even with all the TV watching I did as a kid, I was hard pressed to find a list of 10 sitcoms from NBC during the '70s, so I gave up after four. I guess it's possible that The McLean Stevenson Show, a two-year bit for the guy who walked off M*A*S*H (he managed to make the list anyway), or a weak attempt at putting one of the greatest American actors of any era on TV with The Jimmy Stewart Show might make the list, but when you consider that NBC didn't deliver a successful comedy that lasted more than six seasons, what's the point.
Note that to qualify for the list, shows had to have spent the bulk of their lifespan in the decade of the '70s, but given the paltry list of shows to choose from, that wasn't a difficult task.
4. Hello, Larry (1979-1980)
Premise: One Day at at Time with a single dad.
After McLean Stevenson left the hyper successful M*A*S*H because he wanted a more prominent role in a show, it was natural that other networks would court him. His turn on the wartime comedy was brilliant. Unfortunately, he was never able to come close to his role as Henry Blake. In this, probably his most notable failure, he plays a dad/radio talk show host who moves to Portland from LA with his daughters after a divorce. Unlike One Day at a Time, he didn't have powerhouse creator Norman Lear backing him and the show died after two seasons.

TV From There
It's the fall season, a time when television networks prove their freshness and creativity. Fox offers That '70s Show, a drug-laced, coming-of-age story set in suburban Wisconsin. The WB network gives us Felicity, a coming-of-age story set in New York City. ABC, in a bit of contrarian programming, invites us to watch Malcolm McDowell age gracelessly on Fantasy Island.
Here in South Florida, we are blessed with our very own network. WAMI-TV (Channel 69) is the first of what mogul Barry Diller hopes will be a national chain of locally programmed stations. It was launched in June with a promise of eight hours per day of "network-quality" local shows. Four months later WAMI showcases only two-and-a-half hours of new local production each weekday. Prominent original shows died off. The dance program Barcode lasted a week. The gabfest Out Loud folded last month. And two advertised series never materialized: the evening cabaret Lincoln Lounge and the true-crime tales of Edna Buchanan.
Instead, WAMI's roster is filling up with such fresh and creative fare as Charlie's Angels, Baretta, and T.J. Hooker. As of last week, WAMI officials were using their self-described "state-of-the-art Lincoln Road studios" to broadcast M*A*S*H as often as four times a day.
If ever a station needed to make a splash in the fall, it's WAMI. So what are its new shows?
The Munsters and AQue Pasa USA?
The Munsters ain't set in the subtropics. AQue Pasa USA? is local, all right, but production took place more than 15 years ago, and the show is already seen regularly on Galavision and WPBT-TV (Channel 2). Thanks to WAMI, cable viewers can now spend Sunday night watching Steven Bauer on two channels at the same time.
As network officials consider expanding the WAMI concept into Los Angeles and New York, Diller and company might want to ready a defense against criticism that the bulk of their programming isn't really "TV from here." As the following digest shows, WAMI is local. One just needs to look a bit below the surface.
The Six Million Dollar Man
Saturday 8 p.m.

49. Late Show with David Letterman (1993– )
60 min | Comedy, Music, Talk-Show | Active
The Late Show with David Letterman is an hour-long weeknight comedy and talk-show broadcast by CBS from the Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway in New York City.
50. Providence (1999–2002)
60 min | Drama
Dr. Sydney Hansen, a successful plastic surgeon in Hollywood, California, quits her private practice and returns to her hometown in Providence, Rhode Island after the sudden death of her ... See full summary »

By the time they left their luxury high rise in 1985 after 11 seasons, they had quietly achieved something special: They had made black faces at home—and familiar—on TV.
Loni Anderson (right) was one smart cookie in a cheesecake body, Howard Heseman (seated), who went to the Head of the Class, was a pattermad deejay, and WKRP in Cincinnati zanily jounced in and out of 12 time slots in four years.
Herve Villechaize got his feathers ruffled on Fantasy Island, a Love Boat dream-alike, but viewers were tickled by the dramatic values: wish fulfillment, bikinis, guest stars up the creek and suave Ricardo Montalban as a surefire magic-maker.
Robert Blake's Baretta was one of the new kind of cop: weird, really weird. He had wit, chic ethnicity, a seedy pal (Tom Ewell), a cheap hotel room, a cockatoo named Fred and a bundle of tattered disguises. Fred, repeat this: Original.
Maude (Bea Arthur, middle, with Bill Macy, Conrad Bain and future co-Golden Girl Rue McClanahan) began as Edith Bunker's unzippable cousin and quickly got her own show. Loud, biting and the proud owner of a facelift, she helped TV's middle-aged women grow up.
The Six Million Dollar Man smooches The Bionic Woman! Lee Majors was an astronaut who was reassembled after his spacecraft crashed, his love goddess was Lindsay Wagner, and they created one of TV's shortest-lived genres.
The notoriously raunchy sitcom Three's Company starred John Ritter as a faux gay living with busty Suzanne Somers (right) and cute Joyce DeWitt. Also starring were leers and scanty costumes. It was roundly condemned and wildly popular.
Bonnie Franklin (right) was a divorcée with two pesky daughters (Valerie Bertinelli is shown) and a super (Pat Harrington Jr.) who figured himself for Cary Grant, but, taking things One Day at a Time in Indiana, they had eight good years.
As alien Mork, Robin Williams one-upped writers with his Mork & Mindy ad-libs.

The movies, not counting 1971's And Now for Something Completely Different (a compilation of older TV sketches re-shot on film for the American market, who had yet to see the original series) were released in 1975, 1979, and 1983 respectively.
- The Wallace & Gromit series has been active since 1989. In those twenty plus years, there have been a grand total of six full-length instalments, Only one of which was a film (though there have also been a number of >5min shorts).
- The iconic '70s post-apocalypse drama series Survivors had three series of 13, 13 and 12 episodes – a middling example of this trope, but outdone by its 2008-10 Remake, which consisted of two six-episode series.
- ITV 1's detective show Vera has thus far had two series of four episodes.
- BBC 2's police show Vexed had a debut series consisting of three episodes, though a second series of six episodes followed.
- The Fades had one season of six episodes.
- Cuckoo the BBC Three comedy whose first series consists of only five episodes.
- Sirens the Channel Four comedy focused around a group of ambulance-men lasted a total of 6 episodes.had
- KYTV had three seasons, each with six episodes, making for a total of eighteen episodes plus pilot. Its radio predecessor, Radio Active, clocked in at an impressive 54 episodes, over seven seasons, including a pilot and a later one-shot special.
- BBC 2 standup/sketch variety series Victoria Wood As Seen On TV ran for two series of six episodes each in 1985 and 1986 and a Christmas special in 1987 for a total of 13 episodes.
- Victoria Wood's 1998-2000 BBC 1 sitcom dinnerladies (sic) featured many of the same performers and the same producer as As Seen On TV. It ran for two series, one of six episodes and one of ten episodes (the second one deliberately designed to wrap up the plot rather than lead into a third series), for a total of 16 episodes.
- Wire in the Blood has five seasons and a total of 19 episodes (3 in the first season, 4 in the rest), each 90 minutes long.
- Jonathan Creek has four seasons of 5-7 episodes, and a couple of specials.

Where Everybody Knows Your Name
Warren: I arrived at NBC in December 1979, hired by Brandon Tartikoff to work in the comedy department. I was manager of comedy development, the junior member of the department. Brandon was a newly minted vice president of development at the network, which was mired in last place. I was twenty-seven years old, and though I had watched a lot of it, I knew next to nothing about network television. Brandon, my boss, was all of thirty.
In what was just a three-way race for audience (there’d be no Fox Broadcasting until 1987), NBC was jokingly derided as number four. CBS had ten comedies on its schedule, including M*A*S*H, WKRP in Cincinnati, The Jeffersons, Alice, and One Day at a Time. ABC could boast fourteen sitcoms, among them Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Barney Miller, Soap, Taxi, and Three’s Company. At NBC, we had Diff’rent Strokes and Hello, Larry.
In terms of general viewership, CBS led the way with about sixteen million households. ABC was a close second with fifteen million. NBC lagged well behind at twelve million. For the 1980 season, Little House on the Prairie was our top-rated show at sixteenth. We placed only four shows in the top thirty. There was nowhere to go but up.
Worse still, NBC’s head of programming at the time was a man named Paul Klein. He had a background in audience research and had come up with the strategy of LOP, which stood for Least Objectionable Programming (I’m not kidding). The object was to piss off as few viewers as possible. The network product line was largely geared toward big events, so we became the Big Event network.
A TV critic once asked Paul Klein, “How do you know when you’ve got a big event?”
Klein said, “We sit around a table, and people throw out ideas, and somebody says, ‘That’s a big event,’ and that’s when we know.”
It was an insane form of programming, expensive and not in the least bit habit--forming. NBC had essentially abandoned weekly series as the spine of the network. As a remedy, the legendary Fred Silverman had been brought over from ABC to turn things around.

Cultural highlights of 1949
• The Aldrich Family (NBC, from 2 October). Soap, transferred from radio.
• Arthur Godfrey & His Friends (CBS, from 12 January). Runs for next seven years.
• Cavalcade of Stars (DuMont, from 4 June). Variety.
• Colgate Theatre (NBC, from 3 January). Drama.
• The Goldbergs (CBS, from 17 January). Sitcom, transferred from radio; runs for four years (to 25 June 1951).
• Hopalong Cassidy (NBC network, from 26 June). Cowboy adventures, starring William Boyd.
• Kukla, Fran and Ollie (networked from 12 January, see 1947). Children's.
• The Lone Ranger (ABC, from 15 September). Western, first of 169 episodes specially made for television.
• Red Barber's Clubhouse (CBS, from 2 July). Sports, later transfers to NBC.
• Suspense (CBS, from 1 March). Thriller; runs for five years (to 17 August 1954).
• These Are My Children (NBC Chicago, from 31 January). First daytime soap.
• They Stand Accused (CBS, from 18 January). Legal drama, later transfers to DuMont.
• The Voice of Firestone (from 5 September). Classical and light classical music (on radio since 24 December 1928).
• Blue Hills (ABC). For rural dwellers, runs until September 1976.
• The Billy Cotton Band Show (BBC Light Programme, from 6 March).
• A Book at Bedtime (BBC, weeknights at 23:00 from 31 January). Readings. Still running in 2005.
• Dragnet (NBC's KFI in Los Angeles, from 7 July). Crime.
• Yours Truly Johnny Dollar (CBS). Drama series about insurance investigation. It runs until 1962.
• Arthur Miller: Death of a Salesman (on Broadway from 9 February)

New Series 1973
Barnaby Jones (1973-1980). Starring veteran actor Buddy Epson after a break from his long run as Jed Clampet on the Beverly Hillbillies. The role of Barnaby Jones was that of an aging private detective and his Daugher-in-law assistant played by Lee Meriwether. The series was a spin off of a character from the Cannon series. It has since come to be know as "THE old peoples show".
The Tomorrow Show (1973-1982). Hosted by strangely straight Tom Snyder. Following the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson at 1am, it consisted of one one one interviews with cigarettes and no audience. Snyder would book some of the most over the top and controversial celebrities (Charlie Manson, Iggy Pop, Plasmatics) creating some of the most unusual television ever aired. His persona of an unhip hipster worked. He was replaced by David Letterman in 1982.
Police Story (1973-1978) This was a series anthology created by once police officer and author Joseph Wambaugh, who had a non fiction best seller the same year with The Onion Field. It was the first police series done in "realism" and responsible for subsequent acclaimed crime series such as Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue and Homicide: Life on the Street.
Last of the Summer Wine (1973-present)
The Young and the Restless (1973-present)
The $10,000 Pyramid
Most Watched 1973 - 1974
1 All in the Family
Television News 1973
To many complaints daytime television was interrupted over most of the Summer to televise the Watergate hearings. The three networks ABC, CBS and NBC rotated the broadcasts every third day. Those who watched got to know and admire a previously little known Southern Senator , Sam Irvin pictured in the middle in the above photo.
Irene Ryan who played Granny on The Beverly Hillbillies died of a brain tumor not tobacco related.
After a 14 year run the hit adult Western Bonanza closes shop. Caused primarily by the deal of Dan Blocker who played Hoss Cartright and being moved from its famous Sunday slot to Tuesdays up against the then hip show Maude.

NBC, once a broadcasting network, will be shelving 30 ROCK until midseason. Uh, it wins the Emmy for Best Comedy every year. Wouldn’t you sort of want that show on the air? Watch. The minute their first new show tanks it’ll be back on the schedule. So I’m guessing October 1st.
My best wishes to all the writers of all these shows. Keep the torch lit. The foundation of television has always been comedy (whether they know it or not). In success it's Jed Clampett hitting oil. And now more than ever, boy do we need to laugh.
Monday, May 25, 2009
The Upfronts are over, the smoke has cleared, and the final tally for fall pickups is 32 new scripted series – 21 dramas and 11 comedies. So percentage-wise, that’s 33% sitcoms. Clearly an improvement over past years but remember, NBC has officially thrown in the primetime towel and scheduled Jay Leno every weeknight at 10. There go two or three potential new nurse dramas (leaving us with only three).
A couple of the networks have given up on Saturday night completely, airing reruns of dramas rather than new product. (What a contrast to the 70s when CBS Saturday night was the biggest night of the week with ALL IN THE FAMILY, MASH, MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW, BOB NEWHART SHOW, and CAROL BURNETT SHOW. Today it’s NCIS reruns.)
SAMANTHA WHO? would have been picked up but ABC insisted producers cut $500,000 off of each episode’s budget… thus making it SAMANTHA HOW? The producers declined. Too bad. It was a decent show.
A couple of shows switched networks. MY NAME IS EARL apparently will move to FOX (I'm waiting for final confirmation but TBS is also interested) and MEDIUM will join the CBS lineup. NBC wanted to give MEDIUM a smaller order so the producers happily jumped to CBS who offered more. And now of course NBC is saying the show under-performed and they didn’t want it anyway. Had the producers agreed to stay at NBC they’d be claiming it’s the crown jewel of the network.
Greg Garcia, creator of EARL, was hardly miffed over leaving NBC.

Using his no-nonsense approach, host Ed Sullivan was instrumental in bringing many acts to prominence in the United States, including Elvis Presley and The Beatles. The Lawrence Welk Show (1955-1982) would go on to become one of U.S. television's longest-running variety shows; based on the concept of the big band remote from the old-time radio era, it was already one of the last shows of its kind when it debuted and far outlasted all other big-band centered broadcast series by the end of its run.
Other long-running American variety shows that premiered during this time include Texaco Star Theatre (1948-1956), Cavalcade of Stars, later titled The Jackie Gleason Show (1949-1955), The Garry Moore Show (1950-1967, in various incarnations), The Colgate Comedy Hour (1950-1955), Your Show of Shows (1950-1954), The Red Skelton Show (1951-1971), The Dinah Shore Show (1951-1957), The George Gobel Show (1954-1960) and The Dinah Shore Chevy Show (1956-1963). Perry Como also hosted a series of variety shows that collectively ran from 1948 to 1969, followed by variety specials that ran until 1994.
In the UK, The Good Old Days--which ran from 1953 to 1983--featured modern artists performing dressed in late Victorian/Early Edwardian costume, either doing their own act or performing as a music hall artist of that period. The audience was also encouraged to dress in period costume in a similar fashion. Other long-running British variety shows that originated in the 1950s include Tonight at the London Palladium (1955-1969), The Black and White Minstrel Show (1958-1978), The White Heather Club (1958-1968) and Royal Variety Performance (an annual event televised since the 1950s).

Television programming through the
1940s and 1950s was very basic. The stations that existed at the time, NBC CBS, ABC, and DuMont all had similar programming
which stemmed from existing means of communication available at the time. These included radio, cinema, and theater.
One of the most popular types of shows
extracted mainly from radio and theater was the variety show. From the late '40s up to even today, variety
shows provided compilations of short acts and sketches that were relatively easy to put together and provided much
entertainment. One of these shows was the Texaco Star Theater (pictured below). From the cinema
came longer for television movies. The industry primarily concerned itself with adaptaion until the late
With these early programs, also came early attempts to
commercialize the industry. Most of the shows through these two decades were sponsered much like the great syndicated
radio shows. But these weren't the only commercials present at the time. There were also blocks of space like
we have today sold for advertising. Ironically, some of these slots were filled by companies trying to sell their newest
models of television set to an increasingly interested general public.
However, the programming wasn't all based on previous forms of
entertainment. As the years went on and the industry became more and more popular, the programming became more customized
to fit the new form of mass communication. One of these new forms of entertainment was the half hour television program.
These included the sitcom and other such pre-recorded shows made possible by the new videotape recording devices. Perhaps
the most recognized of these new half hour shows was I Love Lucy which premiered in 1951 with much acclaim. (pictured

- Ran from 9/90 to 12/90 and was done my Mark Frost and David Lynch.
Larry Virden says it "was a series that basically was news items - think
TV Nation..." Richard Dreyfuss was the narrator.
America's Most Wanted
- Profiles America's most wanted criminals. Fall of 1987 to September
- Weekday cartoon featuring the Warner Brothers, Yakko and Wakko, and the
Warner Sister, Dot. Also has Pinky & The Brain, The Goodfeathers, and other
goofy characters. Fall of 1993 through August of 1995. Moved to The WB
Network on September 9, 1995.
- Sports writer Jack Cody, recently fired by his boss and former girlfried Melissa Peters,
transforms himself into a woman and is hired to write his former paper's advice column,
"Ask Hariett." The advice he gives out is refreshingly blunt and from a man's point of view,
which makes the column very popular, but wreaks havoc with his macho man lifestyle. Premiered
January 4, 1998.
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
- Saturday morning cartoon based on the movies of the same name. I think
Fall 1990 to Summer 1991.
Programs That Begin with the Letter B
- Sit-com about three overweight women who live together. I think it was
on for two seasons: Fall of 1989 to Summer of 1991.
- Paul (a half-Italian black played by Giancarlo Esposito) is an intelligent,
by-the-book cop from Washington, D.C./ who moves to Bakersfield, CA, where he's
teamed with Wade (Ron Eldard), a nutty free spirit who likes to wear roller
skates when he chases crooks and wishes he were black. They're the odd-couple
heroes of this uneven but pleasantly off-beat sitcom. Chris Mulkey plays the
best supporting role, as a dimwitted macho officer who hates the day shift.
Fall 93. Four unaired episodes begin again July 7, 1994.
Batman: The Animated Series
- Weekday cartoon-- shouldn't need explaining. Fall of 1992 to 1994.
The Ben Stiller Show
- A skit show starring mostly Ben Stiller. Fall/Winter 1992/3.

Paramount // 2008 // 220 Minutes // Not Rated
Reviewed by Appellate Judge James A. Stewart (Retired) // January 23rd, 2008
"There must be a better way of making a living than this." -- Jack Paar
Most of us grew up with television. Those of us born before the explosion of cable TV know at least a little bit about television's past, thanks to all those afternoon reruns of The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Flintstones, and Lost in Space. The sitcoms and dramas played endlessly -- and they often made mention of famous shows that didn't turn up, like Howdy Doody.
Still, it's hard to consider that, in 1948, "overall, the new medium was struggling," as Pioneers of Television puts it. The four-part PBS documentary looks at genres and shows that helped to make television a part of everyone's lives.
Pioneers of Television has four episodes on one disc:
* "Late Night." Want to watch something light and funny before going to sleep? NBC exec Pat Weaver thought so. That's why he sent over Broadway Open House and Steve Allen's Tonight. Much of the hour, though, concentrates on Johnny Carson.
* "Sitcom." CBS thought Jackie Gleason should stick to variety shows, but he gave us a season of The Honeymooners instead. Other sitcoms featured are I Love Lucy, Make Room for Daddy, The Andy Griffith Show, and The Dick Van Dyke Show.
* "Variety." Once the toast of the town, this format no longer is a source of star theater, Texaco or otherwise. Ed Sullivan, Milton Berle, Red Skelton, Arthur Godfrey, Perry Como, Andy Williams, Pat Boone, Nat King Cole, Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca, Carol Burnett, the Smothers Brothers, Laugh-In, Flip Wilson, and Tony Orlando and Dawn are featured here.
* "Game Shows." Deal or No Deal? It's the sort of question people have been asking since the radio days of the 1920s. Among the games covered here are Truth or Consequences, What's My Line?, You Bet Your Life, Password, The Price is Right, Wheel of Fortune, The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game, and Art Fleming's Jeopardy!.
You've heard most of the stories here.

Enter veteran actor Bill Cosby (“I Spy”) and his modern family comedy, “The Cosby Show.” More than any other sitcom of its time, NBC’s “The Cosby Show” broke through color and class barriers and into the living rooms of the American people. Millions tuned in each week of the show’s eight seasons to watch comedian Bill Cosby as Cliff Huxtable, the patriarch of a large, upper-middle class Brooklyn family.
Not only was Bill Cosby the era’s most prominent man in standup, he was also the country’s most lovable dad, raising a generation of viewers on a mix of stern looks and silly one liners. From its inception until the show’s finale in 1992, Bill Cosby and The Cosby Show cast revived network television ratings, drastically changed the face of American comedy and left a lasting mark on the sitcom genre.
In September of 1968, NBC premiered the first episode of what promised to be a truly revolutionary sitcom. “Julia” starred African-American actress and singer Diahann Carroll in the title role, making waves as one of the first television shows to resist placing African-American characters in stereotypical parts. Carroll’s Julia was a mother, a widow and a professional nurse, living with her young son in a nice suburban home. What made Julia different was that it was the first sitcom to portray an African American woman with a college degree thriving in a professional position.
Despite its progressive design, “Julia” was critiqued for not engaging deeply enough in the highly charged Civil Rights-era politics of the time. Although “Julia’s” broadcast made waves during the turbulent 1960s, the characters and their creators stayed far away from any associations with activism. For Carroll, just the presence of a person of color on television was enough of a contribution. “There was nothing like this young successful mother on the air,” Carroll explained, emphasizing the show’s social impact. “And we thought that it might be a very good stepping stone.” Though “Julia” was only on the air for three seasons, its treatment of African-American characters represented a significant turning point in television history.
Star Trek: The Original Series
When “Star Trek” premiered in 1966, the beloved science fiction series imagined a distinctly diverse future.

It was an era of heady independence, when as mainstream an actor as Hal Holbrook could portray a gay father in That Certain Summer with dignity—and without reprisals from skittish advertisers.
Comedy-variety experienced a Renaissance with The Flip Wilson Show and the zaniness of The Carol Burnett Show. And when NBC decided to turn over a traditional ratings wasteland to producer Lorne Michaels and his young, censor-busting comedians, America rushed home for Saturday Night Live.
But breakout freedom was also vulnerable. The decade's top programmer, Fred Silverman, had brought All in the Family and its cousins to CBS. But he's now mostly remembered, unfairly, for jumping to ABC and then NBC and shrewdly targeting the youngsters of the Baby Boom generation for more silliness. He sent a sine wave of "jiggle" rippling through the land—Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg's Charlie's Angels soared to ratings heaven and led inexorably to shows like Three's Company, which made the airwaves safe for innuendo.
The decade that began with Mary and Lou, Edith and Meathead, went out with Laverne and Shirley, Joanie and Chachi. Norman Lear decided to go on sabbatical. Dallas heralded the emergence of the prime-time soap opera as TV's new dominant form. In the next decade, Dynasty, Falcon Crest, etc. would make heroes out of villains—and do wonders for the careers of fading movie types like Joan Collins and Jane Wyman. As television, along with the nation, retreated from confrontation in search of comfort, some viewers began to look back at the early '70s as the medium's second Golden Age and to agree with Archie and Edith: Those were the days...
Golfing in mine fields and bedding every nurse they could, the medicos of M*A*S*H survived 11 seasons of grand tragicomedy in Korea but were decimated by plot twists: From left, Hawkeye (Alan Alda) had a nervous breakdown in the last episode; Klinger (Jamie Farr) wore dresses for nearly a decade in a gamy attempt to look mentally unfit; Colonel Blake (McLean Stevenson) was lost at sea on his flight home; and Major Burns (Larry Linville) went AWOL when his five-year romp with Hot Lips Houlihan (Loretta Swit, inset) ended.

As a kid in the early 1960’s, the tv shows I watched were part of a group decision. There was only one set for a family of four kids (for the time being) and two parental units. My three sisters had their preference for girlie shows, but, we all always wanted to watch what we thought must have been meant for adult viewing. As if we got extra credit for trying to make ourselves seem more sophisticated than we were.
In those days, if a show got good ratings, it stayed on the air for several years. Good ratings meant that they were drawing lots of people on a regular basis. Of course, this was before cable and dishes that give you anywhere from 50 to 150 channels to choose from. In the big cities, you were glad to have five or six channels. In 1973, All in The Family one week drew a 33.7 rating which translated into a 54 share. This meant that fifty-four percent of all tv’s in use were watching Archie Bunker pontificate. Today, the most watched shows are ecstatic to get up to 25 percent of the sets in use.
Continue reading “Bring Back What’s My Line”

Remember, CBS had long been the most-watched network (total viewers) of the three, which gave it a legitimate claim for being #1. By the ’68-’69 season, NBC was catching up, and almost eked out a victory. Following this failure, the peacock network’s response was essentially, “Oh, well, we’re #1 in the demographics that matter to advertisers.” (“Nanny-nanny-boo-boo!” was the theme of NBC’s “least objectionable” Paul Klein’s correspondence with CBS’ furious Mike Dann.)
There’s some truth, though, to the claim that because #2 and #3 weren’t the most-watched, they had already been attempting throughout the mid-to-late ’60s to skew younger and “hipper” (with shows like Laugh-In and The Mod Squad) than CBS, which only half-heartedly tried to keep up by programming The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (which secured both good totals and the supposedly desired demo, but gave everyone a headache – including relevance-seeking Wood, who cancelled it after its initial renewal for ’69-’70). Yet there’s little doubt that nearly all programming decisions — cancellations and renewals — were still based, for every network, on total viewership: winning. So, CBS entered ’69-’70 with a new president, but business as usual… until it looked like NBC was actually going to win the season in total viewers. This is where the split occurred. CBS’ Senior Programming VP, Mike Dann, who’d essentially been the chief creative decision-maker throughout the decade’s revolving door of presidents, launched a campaign called Operation 100, in which he rejuvenated the CBS schedule by pre-empting low performing shows and replacing them with events — specials, films, one-offs — in a calculated effort to win the year. His tactic worked (depending on when you choose to view the season’s end and start dates), but it didn’t matter anymore. Dann left CBS that summer following a creative coup staged by Bob Wood early in Operation 100, in which he persuaded William Paley that NBC’s “demographics that matter to advertisers” argument was worth pursuing, especially if CBS was going to be #2 with its “business as usual” in the ’69-’70 season; this could be a way for them to win again — inexpensively.

In May 2014, NBC aired The Maya Rudolph Show, a variety show starring SNL performer Maya Rudolph. The broadcast was intended to be a one-off special, but with the possibility of additional episodes depending on its performance. This was the first attempt in nearly six years by NBC to bring this concept back to television (its last successful series in this genre, Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters, left the network's schedule in 1982), having struck out back in 2008 with Rosie Live. The special pulled in 7.23 million viewers in its 10 p.m. (ET/PT) timeslot, making it the third most watched program of the night.
The prime time variety show format was popular in the early decades of Australian television, spawning such series as In Melbourne Tonight, The Graham Kennedy Show, The Don Lane Show, and Hey Hey It's Saturday, which ran for 27 years. Recent prime time variety shows include the short lived Micallef Tonight and The Sideshow.
Another of today's variety shows in Asia is Taiwan's Guess (variety show) and 100% Entertainment. East Asian variety programs are known for its constant use of sound effects, on-screen visuals and comedic bantering. Many of the shows are presented in a live-like presentation in a fast-paced setting, with scenes repeating or fast forwarded.
Another popular variety show in Taiwan is Kangxi Lai Le, a talk show with variety show elements. The hosts and guests were associated with variety shows. Famous for its bantering, which was written before tapings.
The first Chinese variety show to become a major success was Hong Kong's Enjoy Yourself Tonight, which first aired in 1967 and ran for 27 years. In Hong Kong, variety shows are often combined with elements of a cooking show or a talent competition but end in various results.
Variety programming has remained one of the dominant genres of television programming. While Japanese variety shows are famous abroad for their wild stunts, they vary from talk shows to music shows, from tabloid news shows to skit comedy. The prominent use of telop on screen has created a style that has influenced variety programming across Asia. One of the most popular variety show in Japan includes Downtown no Gaki No Tsukai.

To the modern-day ”source” …that being Wikipedia. Whether it is accurate or inaccurate it certainly provided a (shockingly) thorough listing of “reality shows” and even categorized them.
I know you are sitting on the edge of your chairs to hear what I found out, so:
There are 69 “Docustyle” shows…this is including The Real Housewives of Orange County, New Jersey and Atlanta and of course, the infamous Jersey Shore. I have spent more time defending the real New Jersey Shore since that show first aired than I have ever defending anything in my entire life.
There are 70 “Dating” shows. All the Bachelors/Bachelorettes (which are aired in several countries) and Matchmaker shows not to mention a salty list of some x-rated titles that I never knew existed, nor do I want to know when they are on TV.
Sadly, only four reality shows fall into the category of “Science”…Mythbusters is a favorite among some of my grandchildren.
You can have a style “Makeover” (or your home, your car, your life) on any one of the 35 shows that air.
Hopefully, you will never appear on any of the 20 “Law and Order” type reality fests…and I don’t even think they listed America’s Dumbest Drivers among those, a MOTNSO favorite. “Military” themed shows are also included in this category.
History is relived in 18 programs, but there are only 11 shows categorized as “spoofs.” (My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance would be considered a “spoof.”)
Game shows? there are 63 “reality” game shows and “play-0ffs.” I never realized it, but Beat the Clock which I remember watching back in 1958 was probably the first of these. Wipeout, I blushingly admit, is one that I do watch, always yelling “OH! that’s going to leave a mark!” when the contestants crash into walls.
Are you ready for this? there are 119 talent search reality shows. You thought there was only American Idol and The Voice? Sorry, they are just the most well-known. Another bit of television history? You may remember The Original Amateur Hour and Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts from the late ’40′s and early ’50′s. They were the fore-runners of the big time.

''You have to be right more often,'' explains Ted Harbert, ABC's vice president of prime-time television who plays a key role in designing that network's schedule. ''Not that many years ago, you could be wrong with a show and still deliver a 20 percent rating and thus your advertisers could still get enough for their buck and the network would make money. Now, if you make a mistake, you get a 9 rating. It's become a one-network economy, where one network gets enough points, and there's not enough for the other two.'' The Way It Was, The Way It Is
Until relatively recently, in fact, scheduling was pretty simple. There were two television seasons: the fall season that began in September once children grumpily returned to school and mid-season in February, a good time to get rid of flops and try again. Outside of those times, schedules remained fairly static.

Yes, the show's trademark innuendo and misunderstandings could be funny, but what makes the show inherently funny is that the situation driving this situational comedy was a landlord who was tolerant of homosexuals but not unmarried cohabitation. Was there really a point in American culture when this was plausible? See also 70's, Homosexual, Sitcom.
With his trusty NES Zapper and Power Pad holstered in his belt, Kevin Keene and his band of unlikely heroes clashed again and again with the forces of King Hippo, Dr. Wily, and the infamous Mother Brain throughout the domain of Videoland. See also 80's, Cartoons, Video Games.
A CIA agent and housewife team to save the world. See also 80's.
1980's TBS television show in which the Beaver (still portrayed by Jerry Mathers) is now divorced and living in the suburbs with his mother (still portrayed by Barbara Billingsley). See also 80's, Television.
Television game show in which midwestern housewives try to fit as many Butterball turkeys as possible into a shopping cart and push it around at a high rate of speed. See also 90's.
Hey! A little help here! Add your own funny TV show.
For example, MC Hammer's short-lived Hammerman featuring a magical pair of talking dance shoes and the Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, and Bo Jackson collaboration and breakfast-cereal-tie-in ProStars which, incidentally, was "all about helping kids". See also 90's, Cartoons, Television.
With contestant names like Storm and Nitro, plus the chance to beat each other up with foam covered staffs, American Gladiators was the stuff with which childhood ambitions were formed. See also Television.
Not to be confused with Blue Thunder, this movie/television show starred Jan-Michael Vincent (as Stringfellow Hawke) and Ernest Borgnin as two pilots of an advanced battle copter that was basically a flying KITT car (Knight Industries Two Thousand) without wheels. See also Television.
Apparently someone thought that turning the comic strip Cathy into a TV show was a good idea. See also Sitcom.

The Danny Kaye Show returned to television in 2017 with reruns on Jewish Life Television (and, in the case of a one-off Christmas special, the Christian-leaning network INSP); JLTV also carries other classic comedy/variety series by Jewish comics in its schedule. Digital multicast network getTV shows variety shows on an irregular basis. The Spanish language variety show Sabado Gigante, which began in 1962, and then moved from Chile to the United States in 1986, continued to produce and broadcast new episodes on Univision until its cancellation in September 2015.
At least one national variety show continues on national radio: Live from Here, a musical variety series hosted by Chris Thile. It has followed three formats over the course of its history, the first and longest being that of A Prairie Home Companion; founding host Garrison Keillor created the series in 1974 as an homage to rural radio variety shows, featuring sketch comedy based on radio dramas of the old-time radio era, complete with faux commercials. (The other format, The American Radio Company of the Air, also hosted and created by Keillor, was set in a more urban environment and likewise was based on old-time radio; its short run in the late 1980s eventually morphed into a revival of A Prairie Home Companion). Live from Here, which was established in its current format in 2016 and took on its name a year later after losing the rights to the A Prairie Home Companion name, focuses mainly on musical acts.
Fox's Osbournes Reloaded, a variety show featuring the family of rocker Ozzy Osbourne, was canceled after only one episode had been telecast in 2009. More than two dozen affiliates refused to telecast the first episode of the show. This series had been slated for a six-episode run.
NBC has made repeated attempts at reviving the variety format since the late 2000s (its last successful series in this genre, Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters, left the network's schedule in 1982) . A pilot episode for Rosie Live was telecast the day before Thanksgiving Day in 2008 and, after receiving middling ratings and extremely poor reviews, was not picked up for its originally planned run in January 2009. In May 2014, NBC aired The Maya Rudolph Show, a variety show starring SNL performer Maya Rudolph.

Fat Ladies... Game
BBC East Anglia
Cheapo Cartoon Man
Mike Der Da-Da
Return of the Doughnut
Mind Your Foreigners
Stiff Actors Five-O
The Gag Trade
The Two Quasimodos
A Fine Romance
The much-loved stage and film actress Judi Dench made her TV comedy debut in this series, playing opposite her husband Michael Williams and performing the signature tune. As Laura and Michael, they're singletons who feign interest in each other to ward off the interference of Laura's match-making younger sister Helen (Susan Penhaligon). But their relationship blossoms into a happy marriage by the end of the fourth and final series.
1976 - 1977
The Fosters holds a unique place in the history of British TV, in that it was the first sitcom written for and starring black actors. It was also the making of 17 year-old Lenny Henry, who had "arrived" the previous year in ATV's New Faces. Here he supported Norman Beaton, Isabelle Lucas and Carmen Munro. There were two series of 13 episodes, plus a 1977 New Year special, all adapted by Jon Watkins from the US sitcom Good Times (CBS 1974-79).
The Galton and Simpson Comedy:
An Extra Bunch of Daffodils - 1969
Frank Muir was LWT's original comedy guru. He lured genius writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson from the BBC to create a series of six plays in the same style as their 1962 Comedy Playhouse, from which Steptoe & Son became a hit. This sharp and delightful two-hander tells the story of a pair of avaricious poisoners, played by Stratford Johns and Patsy Rowlands. They fall in love with funereal consequences.
LWT blew a fortune on lavish props when Graeme, Bill and Tim switched to ITV for their ninth series. Executives believed that spending so much money on what was deemed to be "just a kids programme" was not viable, so just six episodes and a Christmas special were made. The theme is funkier than the Beeb version, and the titles show the chaps larking about in the Festival gardens on the South Bank.

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I often call this current period of the television sports calendar the black hole of sports programming.
The time between the end of the Super Bowl and the beginning of televised Spring Training baseball games is an empty void when I'm looking for something to watch on traditional television. I don't watch the NBA and the NHL on TV holds my interest for maybe a period. College basketball I can't watch until the tournament.
This didn't used to be as much of a problem back when I could turn instead to my favorite sitcoms in February. Do you remember when February was "sweeps month"? (Maybe it still is, I don't know). Networks would make sure that every top show aired original episodes that month, no reruns. So you'd always have something to view during the week even when the sports scene was boring.
(I know, people have multiple streaming viewing options now. But I find myself going weeks sometimes before I see something I want to view on Netflix or Amazon).
Sitcoms were a big part of my life in the '80s and I thought I'd look back and provide my top 10 weekly shows from the '80s. These were the shows that entertained me the most back then. Most were sitcoms, but not all:
1. Cheers; 2. It's Garry Shandling's Show; 3. The A-Team; 4. Family Ties; 5. Benson; 6. The Wonder Years; 7. The Cosby Show; 8. Moonlighting; 9. The Greatest American Hero; 10. Too Close For Comfort.
The '80s covers a wide maturation period for me, from age 14 to 24, so my interests varied wildly (Too Close For Comfort is basically there because 14-year-old me couldn't wait to stare at Lydia Cornell).
For you '80s fans, I'll throw in a few more shows I liked to watch, some long-forgotten: Hill Street Blues, Mr. Belvedere, Valerie (what became Hogan's Family after they killed off Valerie Harper's character), My Two Dads, Night Court, Empty Nest and It's a Living.
Notice there is no St. Elsewhere, Dynasty or thirtysomething on there. Nine times out of 10, my entertainment needs to make me laugh.
OK, so enough of that.

Merlin,” “Three’s Company,” “McMillan and Wife,” “Get Smart,” “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” “F Troop,” “Hank,” “Mister Roberts,” “Omnibus,” “The Saturday Night Revue,” and “The Colgate Comedy Hour.”

September 1988 to December 1989.
Big Bad Beetleborgs
- Three kids are dared into a haunted house and accidently free
Flabber, a benevolent ghost, who grants them a wish. They choose to
become Bid Bad Beetleborgs, characters from their favorite comic book.
Unfortunately, the gateway to comic books is left open, and the other
occupants of the house, Count Fangula, Frankenbeans, Mums, and Wolfgang
Smith, plus the Villians from the comic book use it cause trouble in the
town. Weekday program. Began September 9, 1996.
- This weekly audience participation game show featuring musical and
celebrity guests is taped before an arena-sized audience. The
hour-long show, hosted by Mark DeCarlo(STUDS), involves audience
members vying for big prizes by participating in outrageous games and
stunts. Players can keep their prizes and trade them for something
else, sometimes better and sometimes worse. The games escalate in size
and scope, until the two top winners can risk everything they've won
for a chance to win the BIG DEAL. Premeired September 1, 1996.
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
- Sitcom based on the movies. Two high school 'dudes', Bill and Ted,
travel through time in a phone booth. Summer 1992. There was also an
animated version on Saturday mornings.
- Jason Bateman is the college educated younger brother of a NJ auto
mechanic, who returns to help his brother's business after losing his job
on Wall Street. The Pilot aired Thursday, June 30, 1994. In it he tries
to convince his brother that he can help him.
- Saturday morning cartoon about Howie Mandel's four year old character
Bobby Generic, and the imaginative adventures he has. On since Fall of
- Spin off from 21 Jump Street. Ex-cop Booker (Richard
Grieco) becomes an insurance investigator, but always gets caught up in a
bigger mystery. Aired from Sep 24, 89 to May 6 90.
Programs That Begin with the Letter C
- Saturday morning cartoon based on the comic. Casper the friendly
ghost vs the world. Began January 1996.

Weird super-hero
The Tick and his companion save The City from evil. Began September 1994.
Tiny Toon Adventures
- Weekday cartoon about adolescent Warner Brother's cartoons going to
Cartoon school where the are taught by the old WB greats.
Tom and Jerry Kids
- Weekday cartoon about adolescent Tom and Jerry. On since at least
- Roommates and friends Donny Reeves and Eric McDougal work in the Mail room
of Crown, Pink & Wagner. Donny really wants to be a photographer, while Eric
wants to be a writer. They have a problem though, they won't show anyone
their work. (It's all about trying to make your dreams come true.) They
rent a room to Daisy, a bitter woman, and have friend Evelyn who owns a
clothing store. Began Fall 1995.
Top of the Heap
- A spin off from Married with Children. A lower class father has his son
work at a country club so that he can meet and marry a rich girl. See also
Vinnie and Bobby. April 7 to May 19, 1991.
Totally Hidden Video
- A Candid Camera inspired show.
- Comedian-filmmaker Robert Townsend hosts this hour of skits, spoofs
and musical performances. Fall of 1993.
The Tracy Ulman Show
- British commedianne stars in a series of skits. The Simpsons started of
here as filler between commercials and skits. Winter/Spring 1987 to 1989?
- I have no idea... I think this existed sometime in Fall/Winter 1993.
Edwin Yuen says this:
The was the Robert De Niro produced story about life in
NYC. There was a NYPD officer, a black father (I think was played by
Laurence Fishburn) and some others. It got good reviews and FOX kept
hyping the De Niro connection.
Julie Prince adds:
the info you have on Tribeca is a bit mis-
leading. Laurence Fishburne was only in the first
episode. Tribeca was an anthology series, focusing
on different people each time. I think the black
cop (not Fishburne; don't know who played him) and
the owner of a coffee shop were the only recurring
characters. It was pure drama.

"The Brady Bunch Hour" began as a 60 minute special titled "The Brady Bunch Variety Hour" produced by Sid and Marty Krofft which aired on ABC on November 28, 1976. The success of this special led to a semi-regular series of which eight additional 60 minute episodes were produced and aired from January to May 1977. None of the installments, known herein as "The Brady Bunch Hour" were ever repeated on network television. It was not until twenty years later in 1997 that all nine episodes were rerun (in their entirety and commercial-free) on the Australian cable network "TV1, Television's Greatest Hits". The American based cable networks Nick-at-Nite and TV Land also aired a handful of episodes during the 1990's, but with large portions edited out. Overall, "The Brady Bunch Hour" is by far the most rarely seen Brady series.
The premise of "The Brady Bunch Hour" is hard to understand. The Brady family was chosen to star in a variety show on ABC. They left their familiar two

Saturday morning shows featuring the Hanna-Barbera laugh track:
- Harlem Globetrotters (CBS, 1970–71; second season only)
- Help!... It's the Hair Bear Bunch! (CBS, 1971–72)
- The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show (CBS, 1971–72)
- The Funky Phantom (ABC, 1971–72)
- The Roman Holidays (NBC, 1972)
- The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan (CBS, 1972)
- The Flintstone Comedy Hour (CBS, 1972–73)
- Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space (CBS, 1972–74)
- The New Scooby-Doo Movies (CBS, 1972–74)
- Yogi's Gang (ABC, 1973)
- The Addams Family (CBS, 1973–74)
- Inch High, Private Eye (NBC, 1973–74)
- Jeannie (CBS, 1973–75)
- Speed Buggy (CBS, 1973–75)
- Goober and the Ghost Chasers (ABC, 1973–75)
- Hong Kong Phooey (ABC, 1974)
- Partridge Family 2200 A.D.

It started out very
strongly with the Laurence Fishburne episode, but
went somewhat downhill from there. Fall of '92
sounds right to me. It only lasted a few months.
- Sit-com about a white mother who marries a black widower dentist. The
actor who played the father changed in the middle of the second season. Fall 1990 to
- Michael Moore's former NBC wacky, left-leaning documentary show moves to
FOX. Now features the Corporate Crime Fighting Chicken!
Twenty-one Jump Street
- Young looking undercover cops are sent into high-schools and colleges to
bust young criminals. Winter 1987 to Summer 1991? Maybe 1990? I can't
remember because it continued in syndication afterwards.
Programs That Begin with the Letter U
The Ultimate Challenge
- I don't know
Programs That Begin with the Letter V
The Vicki Lawrence Show
- After a bunch of hosts, the axing of Bob the Puppet, and other changes between
August 1996 and August 1997, Fox After Breakfast was renamed to
The Vicki Lawrence Show. Vicki Lawrence had been host since
July 1997. The live show now features an in studio audience and comedienne
Nancy Giles as announcer. Premiered August 19, 1997.
Vinnie and Bobby
- A second attempt at Top of the Heap, only with more emphasis on the son
and his friend, who now live in an apartment together. May 30 to July 11, 1992.
- The military shoots down a UFO, and the only survivor is Adam McCarther, an Air
Force pilot who dissapeared over the Bermuda Triangle in 1947. He claims to have been
abducted by aliens, and that he stole the UFO to escape because he is on a mission,
and that he must "interfere before it is too late." He has not aged since 1947, and
has various abilities, touching those with whom he comes in contact. The NSA and the FBI
are chasing him, but do not appeart to be cooperating with each other. Premiered
September 19, 1997.
- Sydny Bloom, a lineman for TelCal, using her computer made from spare
parts, is able to use Virtual Reality to interface with people's minds.

“The Jackie Gleason Show” with that fabulous melody to open and the gentlemen so solid and musical announcing “…with the June Taylor Dancers” from Miami. The Red Skelton Show, the “I Love Lucy” Show, Dean Martin’s very clever variety show and every night the “Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.”
So, television, here are a few I wouldn’t have missed.
The incredible “The Man from Uncle” and “The Girl from Uncle”
The very fabulous British export, “The Avengers”, John Steed and Emma Peel.
This one scared and fascinated me. “David Vincent on a lonely country road….” I remember the entire opening dialogue about how this man stumbles on the information that aliens have landed and are trying to take over the world. VERY well done show, “The Invaders” with Roy Thinnes. Made a huge impression on me. Rod Sterling’s “The Twilight Zone” and the very eerie, “The Outer Limits” actually taking control of your television sets! Such a scary thought, that seems to have occurred in our lifetimes?
Who didn’t purr along with the amazing Julie Newmar? Girl crush for days, I thought she was the “cat’s meow”. Come to think of it, she was very operatic.
Don’t ask me why, I loved this show, and “Petticoat Junction”, “Green Acres” and “The Beverly Hillbillies”, “Hawaii 50″ and later on “Happy Days”, and so many others for HIGH SCHOOL times.
And I used to dream about this one. “The Wild, Wild West” with the handsomest Mr. Conrad, who reminded me so much of my Dad.

According to analysis carried out in 2015 from the tv network FX, there was an unprecedented rise in programming from all tv networks and content material producers in the previous couple of years . In 2009 there 211 unique scripted collection, 217 in 2010, 267 in 2011, 288 in 2012, 343 in 2013, 376 in 2014, and 409 in 2015 .

His character works as a writer for The Alan Brady Show, a variety hour run as a dictatorship by an egotistical comic played (mostly in absentia) by the show’s creator, Carl Reiner. When Van Dyke isn’t at home tripping over ottomans and buttering up wife Mary Tyler Moore to get her to go along with his crazy schemes, he’s in the writers’ room thinking up gags for his boss alongside cynical veterans Morey Amsterdam and Rose Marie. At the end of the show’s fifth season, Van Dyke finally finishes the memoir that provides a framing device for the entire series, only to see it rejected by a publisher. Is this the end of our meta-television comedy? Never fear; Carl Reiner suggests that the memoir be transformed into a situation comedy, starring himself playing Van Dyke’s character. And so the cycle begins anew.
4. The Mary Tyler Moore Show
It’s a long way from Moore’s flustered, capri-sporting wife on The Dick Van Dyke Show to her groundbreaking role as an associate producer at Minneapolis’s WJM-TV on her own series. And not just because she’s the one bringing home the bacon and frying it up. As the center of a group of newsroom eccentrics, Moore held together a show about a woman doing something with her life other than looking for a man, though she did go on plenty of dates. She’s stuck with an evening newscast hosted by handsome bubblehead Ted Knight, a writer who delights in making the anchor look foolish, and an old-school newsman boss whose pride in his female protégé requires masking under a heavy layer of paternalism. Although the show’s seven seasons contain plenty of episodes only tenuously related to Moore’s job, her news-show-within-a-show remained at the heart of the show’s comedic universe, serving as the setting for such classic episodes as “Chuckles Bites The Dust.”
5. Sports Night
In the magical world of writer Aaron Sorkin, everyone is doing their best. That tack got him into some trouble with Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, a short-lived series that treated the creation of a Saturday Night Live-like comedy series with the same dewy-eyed awe that Sorkin brought to the leaders of the free world in The West Wing, but it worked well for his first short-lived series, Sports Night.

Now, I’m not going to bother with the clichéd “it was ahead of its time” argument, because I think it’s foolish to discount what happens in the medium to allow any specific series to organically exist within its own era in the first place. (My World And Welcome To It is very of its period!). But I do believe that if a similar show had premiered with the same notices on NBC three years later, when the genre seemed to have an evolved creative mission statement, it would have had a greater chance of getting a second season. Heck, it may have even had a better fate (however slight) premiering on NBC three years earlier, when the network’s competition with CBS wasn’t quite so fierce and executive faith saved shows.
Even more telling though: I believe if the show had premiered on CBS instead of NBC, it wouldn’t have been a one-season wonder. I’ll explain, but first it’s imperative to have a brief understanding of the era. As you know, 1969-’70 found the medium at the precipice of change — not only would the following season see the premieres of both The Mary Tyler Moore Show and All In The Family, but the mindset of top network executives also seemed to undergo a quick transformation led by a few key figures. When written about today, the programming shift is often associated with the “Rural Purge,” which is said to be a result of the networks, CBS in particular, deciding to no longer target total viewers, but rather key demographics — the ones advertisers were claimed to most desire: young urbanites. The truth is more complicated. In my study of the history, I’ve found that the “Rural Purge” had as much to do with demo-targeting as it did the FCC’s 1970 passage of the Prime Time Access Rule, which limited the number of primetime hours that networks could broadcast (in the hope that affiliate stations would become more creatively emboldened). This would be implemented starting in the fall of ’71, and while the networks could choose which 21 hours to broadcast, by 1972-’73, 8:00-11:00 was the set standard except for Sunday, which ran 30 minutes earlier. Ultimately, four whole hours of weekly programming were lost in between the falls of ‘69 and ‘72. (This arrangement stuck until ’75, when the networks were granted a full extra hour on Sunday.)

hmmm, i rarely check out this section, which explains my lateness in showing up here.
my top 10 sit coms of all time
all in the family
the odd couple
dick van dyke
i love lucy
the bob newhart show (the old one from the 70's)
the satirical issues explored on all in the family, make that show (imho), the far away best sit com ever produced. the show contiued to be relevent and quite funny through it's 8 year run. even the final years, when most shows that last that long have long since lost their appeal, aitf, kept it going strong and true to it's original concept ideals.
the odd couple, presented some of the sharpest comedic writings, performed by quite possibly the best match duo ever in television history. Jack klugman and tony randall played off of each other like no one else in sit com history. the comdeic timing of these two was amazing to watch. the 1st two years were pretty lackluster due to the show being scripted and taped in a closed studio. it wasn't until the 3rd year, when they changed the format to be filmed before a studio audience, that that the show really took off, and the talents of mssr. klugman, and randal were fully shown.
when watching monty python, i can at times either take it or leave it. some of the skits were absolutely brilliant, while others left me flat. not so with fawlty towers. everyone of the waaaaay to few episodes is fabulous! john cleese along with the rest of the cast, performed the zany episodes flawlessly
cheers displayed some of the finest comedy scripts of all time. the developement of each cast member over the years grew stronger and stronger. although there are some dud episodes along the 11 year run of the show, as a whole, i was rarely disapointed for the entire run
i usually lump cheers and taxi together, as they were both created by the same team. the characters and stories were well thought out. reverend jim could possibly be my favorite television character of all time
dick van dyke set the tone, and raised the bar for how sit coms should be produced. possibly the funniest ensemble ever put together for a show.

Fall Season: Networks Strike Out Again
Summer is the broadcast television networks' equivalent of baseball's spring training. In each case, it's a hopeful time, when new shows have the potential to make a splash in the upcoming season, just as rookies do; and broadcast networks dream of finishing atop the final standings, just as teams do.
The major difference is that in baseball, there's a winner for every loser, whereas in today's broadcast network game, almost everyone is losing. The statistics tell much of the story.
During the week of September 21, the networks rolled out not only the bulk of their debuting series, but also the vast majority of the fall premieres of their returning shows. As always, they had extensively promoted this programming, and magazines like TV Guide had devoted considerable space to the new season, further widening and deepening public awareness of the supposed small-screen delights ahead.
How did the public react? Unfortunately for ABC, CBS, and the rest of the broadcast networks, plenty of viewers were in front of their sets - but tuned to basic cable channels, the audience for which increased 14 percent over the corresponding week last year. Meanwhile, after all the hype, the broadcast webs were down a staggering 8.5 percent from their 1997-'98 premiere week.
The results capped a splendid third quarter of '98 for basic cable, which increased both its rating and its share 13 percent over the third quarter of '97. Clearly, part of the growth is attributable to Monicagate; CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News Channel each drew far more viewers than it did last summer. But family-oriented channels performed strongly as well - Nickelodeon was up 11 percent; the Cartoon Network, 23 percent - suggesting yet again that the broadcast networks' obsession with attracting twenty- and thirtysomethings, to the exclusion of practically everyone else, is a mistake.
The terrible numbers for the broadcast networks confirm they are in a disastrous free fall. During '97-'98, they lost almost two full rating points (i.e., almost two million households) from the previous season.
What to do? Some industry bigwigs have a clue.

With the knowledge gained from tackling feature-length shows on a weekly basis, Wasserman in 1964 led the studio to its next logical step: made-for-television movies. "See How They Run," starring John Forsythe, was the first.
Around this time, Revue was officially incorporated as Universal's television arm. Though the studio did a little of everything, drama was its forte.
"I think the approach they took was a very slick formula that they knew well, from decades of theatrical features, and it adapted well to television," said Walter Podrazik, Castleman's co-author on "Watching TV."
"In effect, think of [many of the Universal dramas] as second-tier star vehicles," Podrazik went on. "So for instance, by the time Rock Hudson is doing 'McMillan and Wife,' he's not boffo at the box office, but he's still a strong name. So they find a way to showcase him with solid, dependable scripts, solid dependable productions. You're not going to find something that's going to push you off the edge of your seat, but you're going to say, that was a good, entertaining show. And they just were able to do that based on what was almost in the blood, after decades of work."
In 1966, when Universal and NBC signed an agreement that would put a specific number of TV movies on the schedule for the next few years, the public was receptive. "Doomsday Flight," an airplane disaster saga written by Rod Serling, received very good Nielsen ratings, as did "Fame Is the Name of the Game," which would return in 1968 as the regular 90-minute drama "The Name of the Game." On an alternating basis, series leads Robert Stack, Tony Franciosa and Gene Barry starred as key figures in the magazine publishing world.
Continuing the rotating, longform format, Universal's "The Bold Ones" premiered on NBC in 1969, consisting of three series, "The New Doctors," "The Lawyers" and "The Protectors."
"Four-In-One" followed in 1970, featuring "Night Gallery," "San Francisco International Airport," "The Psychiatrist," and "McCloud."
"McCloud," starring Dennis Weaver, was loosely based on Universal's 1968 Clint Eastwood film "Coogan's Bluff."

C-Bear and Jamal
- Saturday morning cartoon about Jamal and his teddy-bear C-Bear.
C-Bear takes Jamal through a variety of imaginary adventures. Tone Loc
provides the voice for C-Bear and produces the cartoon. Premeired
September 7, 1996.
- Sam Kinison is Tim Matheson's guardian angel. Sam was about 6 inches
tall or so when Tim could see him. Tim had a wife and few kids, who
mysteriously disappeared after a few episodes. November 9 to December
The Chevy Chase Show
- Late night talk show hosted by Chevy Chase. Winter 1993/4.
The Class of '96
- Soap opera about college freshman. Fall of 1992 to Summer of 1993.
- Follow real life fireman and medics around as they save people.
Comic Strip Live
- Saturday night stand up comic show. I think 1989 to Winter 1993.
- Follow real life cops around as they arrest people. On since at least 1990.
- Sit-com about Miami based Regency Air, focusing on Jess and Maggie, two
air stewardesses who are roommates. Other characters include Randy, an air
steward, the arrogant pilot, the bitchy head stewardess, and the gay air
- Fox picks up the discarded ABC show, where Jon Lovitz is the voice of
Jay Sherman, host of Coming Attractions, where he reveiws
parodies of recent films. Began March 5, 1995.
Programs That Begin with the Letter D
- Richard Lewis stars as a psychologist who's Archie Bunker-type father (Don
Rickles) moves in after separting from his wife (Renee Taylor). Lewis also
incorporates his neurotic schtick into the character. Fall 1993.
- A very stupid show that contained two 15 minute very stupid
action/adventure skits parodying Hawaii 5-0, and other cheesy adventure
shows. July 11 to August 22, 1993.
- Weekday cartoon mini-series. 91/92? Troy Kearney says: "The cartoon
Pirates of Dark Water was a mini-series and was just called Dark Water.

PhilVaried Programs A&E 19 118 265CSI: MiamiVaried ProgramsCriminal MindsVaried ProgramsCriminal MindsVaried ProgramsThe First 48Varied ProgramsThe First 48Varied ProgramsThe First 48Varied Programs HALL 20 185 312Marie Marie The WaltonsLittle House on the PrairieLittle House on the PrairieThe Brady BunchThe Brady Bunch FX 22 136 248(11:00) MovieVaried Programs CNN 24 200 202Around the WorldCNN NewsroomCNN Newsroom The Lead With Jake TapperThe Situation Room TNT 25 138 245BonesBonesBonesBonesCastleCastle NIK 26 170 299Peter RabbitMax & RubyDora the ExplorerDora the ExplorerSpongeBobSpongeBobSpongeBobOdd ParentsOdd ParentsOdd ParentsSpongeBobSpongeBob SPIKE 28 168 241Varied Programs MY-TV 29 32 -Hawaii Five-0GunsmokeBonanzaThe Big ValleyDragnetAdam-12Emergency! DISN 31 172 290Little EinsteinsLittle EinsteinsVaried ProgramsPhineas and FerbVaried Programs Good Luck CharlieVaried Programs LIFE 32 108 252Will & GraceWill & GraceHow I Met/MotherHow I Met/MotherGreys AnatomyGreys AnatomyWife SwapWife Swap USA 33 105 242Varied Programs BET 34 124 329(11:00) MovieVaried ProgramsThe ParkersThe ParkersFamily MattersFamily MattersFamily MattersMovie ESPN 35 140 206SportsCenterSportsCenterSportsCenterOutside the LinesColl.

The stories were entirely predictable, and the writing was
average only at the best of times. Most weeks, the high point of the
episode was the catchy opening theme, "Workin' For a Livin'"."
- Semi-sleazy one hour news journal. I think this was 1989/1990.
- A loosely historical action-drama set in 400AD Ireland. Conner is the youngest son of
a Celtic tribal king. When his tribe is wiped out by a rival tribe with the aid of Roman
forces, only he and the royal champion Fergus survive. An ancient wizard, Galen, convinces
Conner that he must unite the warring tribes against their common Roman enemy. Now he leads
a small army of tribeless Celts and escaped slaves against the Roman princess Diana and her
consort Casius Longinus, a 400 year old Centurian who is cursed with immortality for spearing
Jesus on the cross. Conner's friends include Fergus, Catlain an escaped Celtic slave, and
Tully, a young North African escaped slave. Premeired July 14, 1997.
- Comedy Drama about a black family in Baltimore. Fall of 1991 to Spring
1994? Started broadcasting live during the second season I think.
Round the Twist
- A live-action action weekday program produced by Children's Television Workshop of
Australia. The Twist family moves from the big city to live in a lighthouse, where
many bizarre and surreal events take place. Premiered July 7, 1997.
The Ruby Wax Show
- Ruby Wax interviews celebrities in a quirky and spontaneous manner,
which includes going shopping with them, lying in bed with them, going
in the jacusi with them, and just plain having fun. The segments are
taken from the British show Ruby Wax Meets.... Aired
June 9 to July 7, 1997.
Programs That Begin with the Letter S
Saturday Night Special
- Rosanne's experimental comedy skit program. Cast includes Jennifer
Coolidge, Kathy Griffin, Warren Hutcherson, Heath Hyche, Laura
Kightlinger, C.D. LaBove, Rob Rubin, and Jason Davis. Aired April 13, 1996
to May 18, 1996.

So without further ado, let's begin...
Number 10 - The Addams Family
In 1964, the ABC-TV network created The Addams Family television series based on Charles Addams' cartoon characters. The series was shot in black and white and aired for two seasons in 64 half-hour episodes (September 18, 1964 – September 2, 1966). During the original television run of The Addams Family television series, The New Yorker editor William Shawn refused to publish any Addams Family cartoons.
The television series featured a memorable theme song, written and arranged by longtime Hollywood composer Vic Mizzy. Check it out...
Number 9 - Rod Serling's Night Gallery
The series was introduced with a pilot TV movie that aired on November 8, 1969, and featured the directorial debut of Steven Spielberg, as well as one of the last acting performances by Joan Crawford.
Check out this TV Promo Spot...
Number 8 - Dexter
Dexter aired on Showtime from October 1st, 2006 to September 22nd, 2013, with 8 seasons altogether. Michael C. Hall has received several awards and nominations for his portrayal of Dexter, including a Golden Globe award.
Let's go inside the kill room (spoiler alert!)...
Number 7 - Kolchak: The Night Stalker
Kolchak: The Night Stalker is a television series that aired on ABC during the 1974–1975 season. The series was preceded by two television movies, The Night Stalker (1972) and The Night Strangler (1973). The series only lasted a single season. The main character originated in an unpublished novel, The Kolchak Papers, written by Jeff Rice. After the success of the TV movie and its sequel, the novel was initially published in 1973 by Pocket Books as a mass-market paperback original titled The Night Stalker, with Darren McGavin on the cover to tie it to the movie. Moonstone Books continues to produce Kolchak comic books.
Here's the TV intro...
Number 6 - Tales from the Crypt
The title is based on the 1950s EC Comics series of the same name and most of the content originated in that comic or the four other EC Comics of the time (Haunt of Fear, Vault of Horror, Crime SuspenStories, and Shock SuspenStories).

Votes: 30,762 | Gross: $0.11M
15. Maude (1972–1978)
30 min | Comedy
This "All In The Family" spin-off centers around Edith's cousin, Maude Findlay. She's a liberal, independent woman living in Tuckahoe, NY with her fourth husband Walter, owner of Findlay's ... See full summary »
18. ABC Afterschool Specials (1972–1997)
60 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
"ABC Afterschool Specials" was the umbrella show name for various educational shows that were shown in the afternoon, occasionally. Each episode was produced by a separate company.
21. Mighty Aphrodite (1995)
R | 95 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
When he discovers his adopted son is a genius, a New York sportswriter seeks out the boy's birth mother: a ditzy prostitute.
Votes: 31,616 | Gross: $6.70M
24. Another World (1964–1999)
TV-14 | 90 min | Drama
The continuing story of life in the Midwestern town of Bay City, and the love, loss, trials, and triumph of its residents, who come from different backgrounds and social circles. Those who ... See full summary »
25. The Romantics (2010)
PG-13 | 95 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Seven close friends reunite for the wedding of two of their friends. Problems arise because the bride and the maid of honor have had a long rivalry over the groom.
Votes: 10,057 | Gross: $0.10M
26. And the Band Played On (1993 TV Movie)
PG-13 | 141 min | Drama
The story of the discovery of the AIDS epidemic and the political infighting of the scientific community hampering the early fight with it.
27. Kate & Allie (1984–1989)
TV-PG | 30 min | Comedy
When Allie Lowell divorces her husband and gets custody of their two children, she moves to New York City and moves in with her best friend, Kate McArdle, also divorced and raising a ... See full summary »
30.

|Cagney & Lacey|
One's blonde. One's brunette. One's strong. One's sensitive. They're both women. They're both cops. They're partners.
|The Carol Burnett Show|
One of tv's greatest variety shows featuring the great cast of Carol, Tim Conway, Harvey Korman, and Vicki Lawrence.
A miniseries following the lives of the citizens of Centennial, Colorado, the poor treatment of the Native Americans by colonists, and a murder mystery that took over 100 years to solve.
“Once upon a time, there were three little girls who went to the Police Academy. And they were each assigned very hazardous duties. But I took them away from all that and now they work for me. My name is Charlie.”
This sitcom follows the lives of the bar staff and regulars at the Boston bar Cheers, where everybody knows your name.
This western follows the adventures of Cheyenne Bodie after the Civil War as he looked for bad guys to beat up and women to pursue.
CHiPs follows the adventures of members of the California Highway Patrol on the job.
This anthology series featured a different case and different dramatic story each week. One such episode was Casino Royale, the James Bond story that later became a movie of the same title.
Colgate Theater was a dramatic anthology series in half hour format.
Los Angeles homicide detective Lieutenant Columbo may be rumpled and a bit eccentric, but he uses that to his advantage to throw murderers off guard and bring them to justice.
This show follows the missions of an American infantry squad at the front of the battle lines of Europe in World War II.
|The Cosby Show|
This show follows the every day life of the successful African-American family, the Huxtables, headed by obstetrician Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable and attorney Clair Huxtable.

TV Comedy Shows A-Z
By Josh Bell, About.com Guide
Check out thoughts and analysis of show debuts and significant episodes.
- 'The Goodwin Games' Premiere Episode
- 'Family Tree' Premiere Episodes
- 'Maron' Premiere Episodes
- 'Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous' Premiere Episodes
- 'Family Tools' Premiere Episodes
- 'Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell' Advance Episode
- 'How to Live With Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life)' Premiere Episodes
- 'The Ben Show' Premiere Episodes
- 'Legit' Premiere Episodes
- 'Burning Love' Season 1
- 'Real Husbands of Hollywood' Premiere Episode
- 'Second Generation Wayans' Premiere Episode
- '1600 Penn' Premiere Episodes
- 'Malibu Country' Premiere Episode
- 'The Neighbors' Premiere Episodes
- 'The Mindy Project' Premiere Episode
- 'Guys With Kids' Premiere Episode
- 'The New Normal' Premiere Episode
- 'Bullet in the Face' Season 1
- 'Go On' Premiere Episode
Although the days of Must-See TV are long gone, NBC still brings a lineup of funny and edgy sitcoms to prime time, carrying on a long legacy of classics.
CBS has been a sitcom powerhouse for years now, with a strong lineup of family-oriented shows that appeal to a wide audience.
ABC's sitcom lineup is small these days, a far cry from when their TGIF block dominated the world of family comedies. But the shows they have now are more diverse, and more exciting.
- 'How to Live With Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life)'
- 'Malibu Country'
- 'The Neighbors'
- 'Family Tools'
The fourth broadcast network has been light on the sitcoms lately, but it still has a handful of shows to check out.
In addition to its edgy, acclaimed dramas, FX has developed some pretty outrageous comedies, pushing boundaries while getting laughs.
With its tagline "Very Funny," TBS has established itself as basic cable's home for traditional sitcoms.
TV Land Shows
In addition to its reruns of classic shows, TV Land has a growing stable of old-school sitcoms that recall the classic style.
Adult Swim Shows
Known for its raunchy oddball animated fare, Adult Swim has added live-action shows in the same spirit.

(In fact, CBS voiced its own favor for NBC’s Emmy-winning mishandled series by rerunning select episodes in the summer of ‘72.) Yet, wherever it was, My World And Welcome To It would have eventually been cancelled if it couldn’t be a ratings winner — even on CBS — but at least comedies of its smarts, charm, and following were slowly being given space. The 1969-’70 season was the year that foretold the future – mostly in its failures: what wasn’t working, and what wasn’t being allowed to work.
I’ve written verbosely about the turbulent nature of 1969-‘70 to illustrate just how creatively jumbled the era was, and hopefully help explain why My World And Welcome To It was both an outlier, not destined to triumph, and a direct participant, an attempt by NBC to project this half-practiced directive. But let’s talk about comedy in this period. In general, the sitcoms of the late ’60s were clear-cut — they were either broad, loud romps (Here’s Lucy) or “warmedys,” like Julia, an NBC sitcom that also had a socially progressive nature to give it extra cachet. (There was rarely any middle ground for a show that aimed to be logical and realistic, but also wanted to deliver grand guffaws.) Simultaneously, the ratings war led to an increased experimentation that made possible the groundbreaking shows that would soon arrive in the early ‘70s, which The Governor And J.J., Julia, and Room 222, for example, all presaged. In these, there existed some slight genre-muddying, whereby a show marketed as a half-hour comedy didn’t feel the need to go for a laugh on every page, and felt freer to engage in heavier, mildly relevant motifs — the kind that would suggest a self-aware reality that could indeed appeal to young urban consumers (the targeted demo). It’s clear watching today that My World And Welcome To It embraces the above notion that, as a comedy, it doesn’t need to reach a laugh quota, for it considers character drama, sometimes founded on warmth and sometimes on the absence of it, to be just as rewarding. And with Thurber as its source material, the series has a natural ability to weave together all sorts of elements — burlesque laugh-eliciting comedy, warm smile-inducing charm, and honest self-aware commentary.

PhilVaried Programs A&E 19 118 265Varied ProgramsCriminal MindsVaried ProgramsCriminal MindsVaried ProgramsThe First 48Varied ProgramsThe First 48The First 48 HALL 20 185 312Home & Family The Brady BunchThe Brady BunchThe Brady BunchThe Brady BunchLittle House on the PrairieLittle House on the Prairie FX 22 136 248(11:00) MovieTwo and Half MenTwo and Half MenMovieVaried Programs CNN 24 200 202Legal View With Ashleigh Ban eldWolf CNN Newsroom The Lead With Jake TapperThe Situation Room TNT 25 138 245BonesBonesBonesBonesCastleCastle NIK 26 170 299PAW PatrolPAW PatrolWallykazam!Peter RabbitSpongeBobSpongeBobSpongeBobOdd ParentsRabbids InvasionSanjay and CraigSpongeBobSpongeBob SPIKE 28 168 241Varied Programs MY-TV 29 32 -Hawaii Five-0GunsmokeBonanzaThe Big ValleyDragnetAdam-12Emergency! DISN 31 172 290Mickey MouseSo a the FirstJessieLiv & MaddieVaried Programs A.N.T. FarmVaried Programs LIFE 32 108 252How I Met/MotherHow I Met/MotherGreys AnatomyGreys AnatomyCharmedCharmedWife Swap USA 33 105 242Varied Programs BET 34 124 329MovieVaried ProgramsMy Wife and KidsVaried ProgramsMovieVaried Programs ESPN 35 140 206SportsCenterSportsCenterSportsCenterOutside the LinesNFL InsidersNFL LiveAround the HornInterruption ESPN2 36 144 209Numbers Never LieFirst TakeVaried ProgramsSportsNationQuestionableQuestionableNFL InsidersESPN FC SUNSP 37 -Varied Programs DISCV 38 182 278Sins & SecretsU.S. Drug WarsVaried Programs TBS 39 139 247(11:30) WipeoutCleveland ShowAmerican DadAmerican DadAmerican DadCougar TownFriendsFriendsFriendsFriendsKing of QueensKing of Queens HLN 40 202 204Showbiz TonightNews Now What Would You Do?

The majority of the actors and writers went on to create Filthy Rich & Catflap, which lasted only six episodes. Bottom, also with Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson, did rather better, three seasons and a total of 18 episodes (as well as five stage shows).
- Blackadder is actually 4 different six-episode series (set at different periods of history but including Identical Grandson characters), each one launched with no expectations of making another. In fact, each series was picked up a year after its predecessor had ended.
- The Good Life was a big enough deal during its run that the Queen herself attended a taping. There are 30 episodes (4 series of 7 episodes apiece, one Christmas special, and the Royal Command Performance).
- Ever Decreasing Circles, written by the same duo as The Good Life, also ran for four seasons plus a Grand Finale for a total of 27 episodes.
- Hi-de-Hi! – 58 episodes in 9 seasons over 8 years, and there almost certainly would have been more if the real-life holiday camp used for all the location shooting hadn't been closed, sold off and bulldozed for housing.
- Dad's Army – 80 episodes in 9 seasons over 9 years. And a feature film.
- Are You Being Served? – 68 episodes in 10 seasons over 13 years. And a feature film.
- The Prisoner was originally planned as 7 episodes, but extended to 17 at the request of Lew Grade to make the series more attractive to overseas (i.e. American) markets. Star Patrick McGoohan just couldn't see it stretching to a full 26.
- Channel 4 Sitcom Spaced had seven episodes in each of its two series. Many fans clamored for some sort of concluding special, with the expectation of seeing the two main characters finally hook up, but never received it. The writers did send a little kiss to the fans in the form of the last minute of the Skip To The End Documentary – check out the DVD and, erm... skip to the end.
- Primeval had six episodes in its first season, and seven in the second, giving it a grand episode count of thirteen episodes. It got a surprisingly larger 10 episodes in its third season, while Series 4 and 5 had seven and six episodes respectively, for a total of 36 episodes.

No mode cookie
Jonny Quest and Television
© 2001, Craig Fuqua, Lyle Blosser
Jonny Quest started Friday, Sept. 18, 1964, at 7:30 p.m. Eastern then moved to Thursday
evenings at 7:30 starting Dec. 24, 1964, switching timeslots with "The Flintstones."
New television shows that debuted the same week as Jonny Quest included "Voyage
to the Bottom of the Sea," "Shindig," "Bewitched," "Addams Family" and "12 O'Clock
High." The next week's debuts included "Gilligan's Island," "Mr. Magoo," "Flipper,"
"Peyton Place" and "The Man from UNCLE."
A summary of the shows appearing during
the 1964-65 prime time television season. (Thanks
to Mike Esaia for providing this info.)
After the last show 9/9/65, Jonny Quest's timeslot on ABC was taken over by the
dance program "Shindig." During the season, it was replaced 6/10/65 by a "Donna
Reed" rerun and 6/17/65 by a health care program.
Saturdays in the '60s and the '70s
Jonny Quest's first Saturday morning runs were on CBS from Sept. 9, 1967, to Sept.
5, 1970, and on ABC from Sept. 13, 1970, to Sept. 9, 1972. It was also included
in NBC's "Godzilla Power Hour" starting Sept. 8, 1978, then got its own timeslot
on Sept. 8, 1979.

By Lisa Henderson
Let’s be honest – it’s the consistent existence of entertaining television shows that gets us through long work weeks. Without sympathetic tears and laughs at the expense of likeable fictional characters, we’d all be just a bit more tightly wound. This fall promises an exceptional lineup of television shows, some new and some returning to the small screen for the first time in almost a decade.
Whether it’s for lack of creative ideas for new shows or simply due to popular demand, a large handful of programs from our childhood days have returned to television. This summer, Nick at Nite introduced what is known as The 90s Are All That, a portion of late-night airtime during which they run some of the most popular Nickelodeon programs of the 1990s, including All That, Kenan and Kel, Clarissa Explains It All and Doug. Now, it seems that MTV and VH1 are both following in Nick’s footsteps and hopping on the train to Throwback Town.
It’s 1996. You’ve just returned home from a long day at elementary school, stationed yourself in front of the family room TV and are now catching your favorite music videos on VH1’s Pop Up Video. Not only were music videos the main focus, they were also accompanied by “bubbles” that would appear sporadically and feature interesting facts about the video and the artist. It may be true that music videos have taken a backseat to reality programs, but not everyone has lost hope in the once-prevalent art-form. Pop Up Video returned to VH1 on Oct. 3, much to the delight of 90s enthusiasts.
MTV has followed suit. Premiering Oct. 27, Beavis and Butt-head will make a comeback. New episodes of this crude, hilarious animated series have not aired since 1997, yet the two delusional teens from the fictional town of Highland, Texas will still appear to be the same age as they were almost 15 years ago.
Nostalgic fans of the ’90s can always expect a new bunch of quirky reality stars on The Real World each fall. This season is sure to be cause for talk, as the cast has already taken note of their extreme differences; no one was sure of Sam’s sex until she revealed herself to be a woman, and Frank has yet to show us his alcoholic, emotional tendencies.

Some fans probably felt a serious case of deja vu!
39. Monstrous Coincidence
TV’s two classic monster family-themed sitcoms, The Addams Family and The Munsters, not only both had similar subject matter—they also both ran for the exact same two year period as one another from 1964 to 1966. Who knows what it was about those two years that made the public so temporarily interested in monster families?
38. A Future With a Future
The Simpsons creator Matt Groening also had a second hit cartoon sitcom, Futurama, which was surprisingly canceled after a short initial run—but its persistent popularity and fan pushback over its cancellation eventually led to revivals in various formats, and ultimately a few new seasons.
37. Know When to Fold ‘Em
One of America’s earliest hit TV sitcoms, The Honeymooners, was stopped after 39 episodes by its own star, Jackie Gleason, to avoid a decline in quality due to running out of good ideas. A famous legend about Gleason was that he never rehearsed. It turns out that this is true, and the main reason was that he felt his performance would be more fresh and funny if he let it happen spontaneously. It seems like in this case, the public concurs. Over 100 previously forgotten and unavailable sketches from Jackie Gleason’s variety show featuring the characters and settings from the Honeymooners were recently uncovered and released as the “lost episodes”—a dream come true for fans of any show.
36. That What?
Despite the understandable misconception that the short-lived That ’80s Show was a spinoff of the popular That ’70s Show, there is actually no connection between the characters or storylines of the two series (except that the main character was designed as Eric Forman’s cousin), and their connections go no farther than title, basic theme, and production team. Of course, this list is about beloved shows, so let’s move on quickly, shall we?
35. Multidimensional Antics
The Addams Family series and its classic characters were actually based on a comic strip from The New Yorker.
34. Long Time for a Short Run
The 1980s British TV adaptation of Sherlock Holmes is noteworthy for its loyalty to the original books, but also for another reason—despite a run of just 41 episodes, the series took 10 years to be completed!
33.

And now for a look at the most exciting upcoming television shows this fall:
What's on TV? This flamethrower remote control, apparently.
Sarcastic Homosexual Man and Sassy Black Woman! (Comedy) - Hollywood's two favorite stereotypes, the sarcastic homosexual man and the sassy black woman, have been combined to form one hilarious 30-minute block of wacky hijinks which were previously only possible in 70, maybe 80 different shows. Jack Sterling is an intelligent gay man who works in a cutting-edge architect's office and deals with a myriad of offbeat co-workers like the gossiping secretary, the hare-brained elderly white guy who runs the company, and the colorful rival gay man who works at the firm down the street. Jaqwuannatry Shamequela is a quick-tongued African American woman who deals with the trials and tribulations of a normal black person's life, at least according to Hollywood standards. She has to deal with racist police officers, racist next door neighbors, racist moon astronauts, and racist deep sea starfish in each episode of this hilarious and cutting-edge show which TV Guide recently called "a... TV show... which is... not... so terribly fucking bad that nobody should ever watch, even under the threat of physical violence against members of their family!" Watch in hilarious amazement as Jaqwuannatry calls a white bigot some colorful and sassy name, followed by Jack making a highly dry, acerbic comment and rolling his eyes while the laugh track plays at a million decibels and the show cuts to a commercial for constipation pills. So how did these two unique and different characters end up meeting each other? Simple: they're both incarcerated for vehicular manslaughter!
Game Show: The Game Show (Game Show) - The public's highly non-insatiable desire for primetime game shows hasn't stopped a few renegade production studios in Yekaterinburg from creating new televised contests which challenge guests to name the capitol of New York (New Jersey) under the penalty of being artificially impregnated with experimental horse semen. Game Show: The Game Show takes elements from some random popular show, combines them with elements from a completely different yet somewhat similar show, and produces something that is nothing like anything previously unlike it! Host Tony Danza, star of the smash TV show "Who's the Boss?"

With Paul Reiser and James Spader (BOSTON LEGAL).
ETHEL IS AN ELEPHANT – MR. ED with very wide master shots. Starring Todd Sussman who, during that period, starred in fifteen or twenty failed pilots. Ethel’s career never recovered from this project.
THE FESS PARKER SHOW – The man who played Davy Crockett starred in a comedy.
FRANKIE & ANNETTE: SECOND TIME AROUND – You loved them in the Beach Party movies and wondered how long could they remain a couple before they finally had sex? According to this pilot, twelve years and counting.
FRAUD SQUAD – from Jack Webb productions. Frank Sinatra Jr. as the head of the LAPD Fraud Squad. Not intended to be a comedy but ohhh mannn…
FROM CLEVELAND – Featuring Bob & Ray and the brilliant cast of SCTV.
GHOST OF A CHANCE – Shelley Long, pre-CHEERS, as a zany ghost.
GOOBER & THE TRUCKERS’ PARADISE – The title alone should have warranted a pick-up. This is a spin-off of THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW and marks the very first appearance of Gomer Pyle.
GOOD PENNY – Billed as a comedy about an emotionally disturbed woman (that must’ve been a helluva pitch). Well cast with Rene Taylor in the starring role.
GREAT DAY – another premise chock full of comedic possibilities. Skid row derelicts in Los Angeles. Featured Al Molinaro (HAPPY DAYS) and as “Jabbo “– Spo-De-Odee.
HARRY’S BATTLES – Dick Van Dyke and Connie Stevens did not have the magic of Dick and Mary Tyler Moore, or even Dick and Hope Lange.
HIGH SCHOOL USA – After his “Garden Party-take-me-seriously-as-an-artist” period Rick Nelson starred as the principal in a series that featured a ton of 50’s and 60’s family sitcom cast members including Harriet Nelson, Jerry Mathers, Ken Osmond, Paul Peterson, Dick York, and Barbara Billingsley. Also Crystal Bernard (WINGS) who must’ve been 9 then.
HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING – Adaptation of the Broadway smash. Written by Abe Burrows. NOT directed by James Burrows.

Here are the first ten programs from the seventeenth week of the 1972-1973 television season, which ran from Monday, January 1st, 1973 through Sunday, January 7th. If you’ve been paying close attention you’ll notice that the fifteenth week ran from December 18th to December 24th. So where’s the missing week? It was a Nielsen “black week,” which meant readings weren’t recorded. You can read more about black weeks here.
There were a total of 62 programs broadcast during the week and The Los Angeles Times published the complete Nielsen report on January 22nd, 1973. Not a single movie night or special was able to crack the Top Ten, unless you count McCloud, a segment of the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie. The week was topped by All in the Family on CBS. For the week as a whole, CBS averaged a 21.0 rating, NBC was just a hair behind with a 20.8 rating and ABC brought up the rear with a 17.5 rating.
Here’s the Top Ten, complete with Nielsen ratings:
|1.||All in the Family||CBS||35.4|
|2.||Sanford & Son||CBS||29.5|
|6.||NBC Sunday Mystery Movie (McCloud)||NBC||26.0|
|7.||Bridget Loves Bernie||CBS||25.8|
|9.||The Flip Wilson Show||NBC||24.6|
Here’s how the networks fared on Thursday, January 4th. ABC aired The Mod Squad, The Men and Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law. CBS broadcast The Waltons and The CBS Thursday Movie, which was the first half of The Sand Pebbles. NBC filled its schedule with The Flip Wilson Show, Ironside and The Dean Martin Show.
|8:00PM||17.4/26 (avg)||18.9/29 (avg)||19.5/30 (avg)|
|9:00PM||11.2/17 (avg)||18.5/30 (avg)||29.2/45 (avg)|
|10:00PM||17.7/30 (avg)||18.5/30||17.9/30 (avg)|
NBC easily won the night.

(And of course, “demos” had become the go-to response when a veteran show was cancelled – despite the fact that winning and profitability were always more important, especially in ’70.)
We can’t yet confirm whether PETTICOAT JUNCTION had higher total ratings than GREEN ACRES in the year the former was cancelled. But it hadn’t made the Top 30 since before the ’67-’68 season, when it moved to Saturdays and started suffering from Benaderet’s ill health. In fact, PETTICOAT JUNCTION was allegedly floated for cancellation at the end of the ’68-’69 season, its second year out of the Top 30 (when GREEN ACRES was #19). Why? Aside from dropping in position and skewing older (I believe it was the oldest-leaning of Henning’s three), it also endured the death of its star. So, PETTICOAT JUNCTION was forever in more danger than GREEN ACRES thereafter, and frankly, I think it entered its last year already *in* the cancellation queue, simply because the network hadn’t been ready to drop it during the season prior.
’68-’69 was almost as rocky as its successor. The first half of the TV year had been a wake-up call for CBS; as NBC rose, Dann was almost fired, network president Tom Dawson was replaced with Bob Wood, and Nabors was leaving his #2 sitcom for a variety show that would likely not fare as well. Programming changes were in order — and poaching NBC’s cancelled GET SMART was obviously not a real solution. But since there weren’t many good, different shows in development during late ‘68 to truly address what was necessary for a big shake-up, the network had to prolong its boldness. And Wood needed time to gain some cachet with Paley.
Thus, the new network president made sure CBS was slightly better prepared for change in the following year’s greenlighting period – when an upheaval was even more financially imperative.

The Dick Van Dyke Show is an American television sitcom that aired on CBS from October 3, 1961, to June 1, 1966, with a total of 158 half-hour episodes spanning five seasons. It was produced by Calvada Productions in association with the CBS Television Network and Desilu Studios; the show was created by Carl Reiner and starred Dick Van Dyke, Rose Marie, Morey Amsterdam, Larry Mathews, Mary Tyler Moore. It centered on the home life of television comedy writer Rob Petrie; the show was produced by Reiner with Sam Denoff. The music for the show's theme song was written by Earle Hagen; the series won 15 Emmy Awards. In 1997, the episodes "Coast-to-Coast Big Mouth" and "It May Look Like a Walnut" were ranked at 8 and 15 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time. In 2002, the series was ranked at 13 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time and in 2013, it was ranked at 20 on their list of the 60 Best Series; the two main settings show the work and home life of Rob Petrie, the head writer of a comedy/variety show produced in Manhattan.
Viewers are given an "inside look" at how a television show was produced. Many scenes deal with his co-writers, Buddy Sorrell and Sally Rogers. Mel Cooley, a balding straight man and recipient of numerous insulting one-liners from Buddy, was the show's producer and the brother-in-law of the show's star, Alan Brady; as Rob and Sally write for a comedy show, the premise provides a built-in forum for them to make jokes. Other scenes focus on the home life of Rob, his wife Laura, son Ritchie, who live in suburban New Rochelle, New York. Seen are their next-door neighbors and best friends, Jerry Helper, a dentist, his wife Millie. Many of the characters in The Dick Van Dyke Show were based on real people, as Carl Reiner created the show based on his time spent as head writer for the Sid Caesar vehicle Your Show of Shows. Carl Reiner himself portrayed the Sid Caesar character.

Its inaugural program was a late-night talk show, The Late Show, which was hosted by comedian Joan Rivers. After a strong start, The Late Show quickly eroded in the ratings; it was never able to overtake NBC stalwart The Tonight Show – whose then-host Johnny Carson, upset over her becoming his late-night competitor, banned Rivers (a frequent Tonight guest and substitute host) from appearing on his show (Rivers would not appear on Tonight again until February 2014, seven months before her death, when Jimmy Fallon took over as its host). By early 1987, Rivers (and her then-husband Edgar Rosenberg, the show's original executive producer) quit The Late Show after disagreements with the network over the show's creative direction; the program then began to be hosted by a succession of guest hosts. After that point, some stations that affiliated with Fox in the weeks before the April 1987 launch of its prime time lineup (such as WCGV-TV (channel 24) in Milwaukee and WDRB-TV (channel 41) in Louisville) signed affiliation agreements with the network on the condition that they would not have to carry The Late Show due to the program's weak ratings.
The network expanded its programming into prime time on April 5, 1987, inaugurating its Sunday night lineup with the premieres of the sitcom Married... with Children and the sketch comedy series The Tracey Ullman Show. Fox added one new show per week over the next several weeks, with the drama 21 Jump Street, and comedies Mr. President and Duet completing its Sunday schedule. On July 11, the network rolled out its Saturday night schedule with the premiere of the supernatural drama series Werewolf, which began with a two-hour pilot movie event. Three other series were added to the Saturday lineup over the next three weeks: comedies The New Adventures of Beans Baxter, Karen's Song and Down and Out in Beverly Hills (the latter being an adaptation of the film of the same name). Both Karen's Song and Down and Out in Beverly Hills were canceled by the start of the 1987–88 television season, the network's first fall launch, and were replaced by the sitcoms Second Chance and Women in Prison.

Found 52 Resources containing: Sitcoms
On September 19, 1970, “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” premiered: a mainstream sitcom about women in the workplace that millions of Americans could relate too. Today, its star, a feminist icon in her own right, Mary Tyler Moore, died. She was 80 years old.
Though “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” ran for seven season and became one of the most decorated shows of all time, it almost didn’t make it past its first season. The reason was because of its time slot, explains Jennifer Keishin Armstrong in her definitive book on the series, Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted: And all the Brilliant Minds Who Made the Mary Tyler Moore Show a Classic.
The show, Armstrong writes, was initially slated to run on Tuesday nights on CBS. The competitive lineup would have spelled doom for the fledgling sitcom. But then, CBS’ head of programming Fred Silverman got his hand on the pilot. What happened next changed the show's fate. Silverman was so impressed that after he finished screening the episode, he immediately called up his boss. “You know where we’ve got it on the schedule? It’s going to get killed there, and this is the kind of show we’ve got to support,” he said, as Armstrong reports.
“The Mary Tyler Moore Show” got moved to Saturdays at 9:30, and the rest was history.
It's not hard to see why the pilot episode had Silverman hooked. Just take the scene where Moore's character, Mary Richards, gets hired as an associate producer for a Minneapolis television station—it's one of the most famous job interviews in television history.
During it, news producer Lou Grant (a loveable Ed Asner), gives Richards a hard look. “You know what? You’ve got spunk,” he says, grudgingly.
Moore, wearing a long brown wig to differentiate herself from the character she played on “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” nods, graciously. “Well, yes.”
Grant’s face then does a 180. “I hate spunk,” he says, his eyes bugging out.
The scene is played for laughs, but it also served as an important mission statement for what “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” would be.

Captain Kangaroo(1955 - 1984)
Hosted by Bob Keeshan (at one time, he played Howdy Doody's friend, Clarabell) from "The Treasure House" the Captain was so named because he always wore an overcoat with large, kangaroo-like pouches. Each show featured stories, skits, vaudeville acts, songs, games and other educational activities. C...
Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour(1983 - 1984)
This short-lived blend of "Match Game" and "Hollwood Squares" had a workable premise: two new contestants played the "Match Game" portion of the show, with the winner going on to the "Hollywood Squares" portion against the previous day's champion. The winner of the "Hollywood Squares" section was th...
The Berenstain Bears Show(1985 - 1987)
Based on the popular series of kids books, this series follows the adventures of the Bear family (Mama, Papa, Sister and Brother) living in Bear country.
EastEnders(1985 - Current)
Eastenders is a soap from The BBC. It is set in Walford, London. There Local Pub is the Queen Vic.
Whose Line Is It Anyway?(1998 - Current)
Originally began in 1988 in the UK and hosted by Clive Anderson, Whose Line Is It Anyway? first came to the U.S in 1998. The show consists of a panel of four performers who create characters, scenes and songs on the spot, in the style of short-form improvisation games. Topics for the games are base...
The Adventures of Shirley Holmes(1996 - 1999)
Shirley Holmes is the grand-niece of the great detective Sherlock Holmes. She with the help from her friend Bo set to help solve crimes that they come across
Police Squad!(1982 - 1982)
From the creators of Airplane!, the Hot Shots! movies, and Top Secret!, Police Squad! began as the brain-child of Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker. The series would later spawn three follow-up movies under the new Naked Gun titles. The series was set up to spoof the Quinn Martin Productio...
Conan: The Adventurer(1992 - 1998)
The Hyborian Age A time of wizards, warriors and kings.