|
Most of the serial TV shows
listed here are from my early years in the 1960's, and
looking back, most of them were good shows that I would
watch again today. As the 60's rolled into the 70's fewer TV shows caught my attention, as most TV serials
were becoming ever more baseline dumb. By the mid-1970's
there was almost nothing being produced in the realm of serial TV
that interested me.
Pondering the list, it would
appear that I was watching a lot of TV during my early
years, especially when considered along with the
movie list. I don't recall
ever feeling like I watched more than an average amount, but
then, I do list a lot of shows here! I'll have to expand on that later...
Other than news programs,
documentaries, The History Channel (pre-2008), and movies on the
Western channel, I haven't watched much
TV since the 1970's. Northern Exposure (1990-1995) was the
last serial TV program that I tuned into almost every week,
and I probably watched Modern Marvels
on The History Channel (pre-2008) more than any other program since the
Northern Exposure days.
As an aside, when The
History Channel dumbed-down most of its programming in 2008,
becoming simply "History," it became largely a load of
pop rubbish like most of the other networks. History
International maintains more of the old style, but many of
its programs are also weak.
As I look over the list
below, so many of those old shows were choice!
|
|
Title
|
Date
|
Notes
|
|
12 O'Clock High
|
1964-1967
|
|
|
Alias Smith and Jones |
1971-1973 |
|
|
The Andy Griffith Show
|
1960-1968
|
|
|
The Ascent of Man |
1973 |
Jacob Bronowski. BBC documentary. |
|
Astro Boy
|
1963-1965
|
|
|
Batman
|
1966-1968
|
|
|
The Beverly Hillbillies
|
1962-1971
|
|
|
Bonanza
|
1959-1973
|
|
|
Breaking Away |
1980-1981 |
The
movie... |
|
The Civil War
|
1990
|
Documentary by Ken Burns.
|
|
Clay Jenkinson as Meriwether Lewis |
Ongoing |
The Chautauqua
Method.
The Jenkinson portrayal of Meriwether Lewis that I have watched
many times was recorded in Tukwila, WA, in 2003. The
presentation is riveting (in spite of a few distracting nods to
political correctness). |
|
Colombo
|
1971-1978
|
|
|
Combat!
|
1962-1967
|
|
|
COPS
|
1989+
|
|
|
Dark Shadows
|
1966-1971
|
|
|
Daniel Boone
|
1964-1970
|
|
|
Death Valley Days
|
1952-1975
|
|
|
The Dick Cavett Show
|
1968-1975
|
|
|
The Ed Sullivan Show
|
1948-1971
|
|
|
Firing Line
|
1966-1999
|
|
|
Flipper |
1964-1967 |
|
|
Fred Kirby
|
1960's
|
|
|
Lost In Space
|
1965-1968
|
|
|
The Merchants of Cool
|
2001
|
Documentary from the FrontLine
series.
|
|
Get Smart
|
1965-1970
|
|
|
Gunsmoke
|
1955-1975
|
|
|
Grizzly Adams
|
1977-1978
|
|
|
Hogan's Heroes
|
1965-1971
|
|
|
The Huntley-Brinkley Report /
This Week With David Brinkley
|
1950's-1990's
|
|
|
Johnny Quest
|
1964-1965
|
|
|
Kung Fu
|
1972-1975
|
|
|
Lassie |
1954-1973 |
|
|
Leave It To Beaver
|
1957-1963
|
|
|
Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corp of Discovery
|
1997
|
Documentary by Ken Burns. The music from the soundtrack of
this documentary has played a thousand times in my world...
|
|
Little House on the Prairie
|
1974-1982
|
|
|
The Little Rascals
|
1922-1944
|
Also known as Our Gang.
|
|
Lost in Space
|
1965-1968
|
|
|
McHale's Navy |
1962-1966 |
Ernest Borgnine. |
|
Mission Impossible
|
1966-1973
|
|
|
Modern Marvels
|
1995+
|
|
|
Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom
|
1963-1988
|
|
|
My Three Sons
|
1960-1972
|
|
|
Northern Exposure
|
1990-1995
|
|
|
On the Road - With Charles Kuralt |
1967-1987 |
Very influential...
Charles Kuralt. |
|
The Porter Wagoner Show
|
1960-1981
|
|
|
Rawhide |
1959-1966 |
Looking back, I can clearly see how the character Gil Favor
contributed to my conception of the "real man." Other characters
who contributed were Roy Rogers, Ben Cartwright (Bonanza), Ward
Cleaver (Leave It To Beaver), Steve Douglas (My Three Sons),
etc. Note that while fictional characters such as these were
influential, my conception of the "real man" was formed even
more by real men such as my father. |
|
The Red Green Show |
1991-2006 |
|
|
The Road Runner Show
|
1966...
|
|
|
The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show
|
1959-1964
|
|
|
Route 66
|
1960-1964
|
|
|
The Roy Rogers Show
|
1951-1957
|
|
|
Shindig!
|
1964-1966
|
|
|
Sky King
|
1951-1959
|
I watched the Saturday lunchtime reruns in the mid-60's.
|
|
The Sons of Hercules (TV movie series) |
1960's |
Theme song - "The
Mighty Sons of Hercules" |
|
Star Trek
|
1966-1969
|
|
|
The Story of English |
1986 |
Documentary directed by William Cran. |
|
Then Came Bronson
|
1969-1970
|
|
|
Time Tunnel
|
1966-1967
|
|
|
Tom & Jerry
|
1940-1958...
|
My favorite episode is "Pecos
Pest." Even now, I can watch Tom & Jerry episodes for hours...
|
|
The Twilight Zone
|
1959-1964
|
|
|
The Up Series (Every 7 Years)
|
1964 + 7...
|
Documentary directed by
Michael Apted.
|
|
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
|
1964-1968
|
|
|
The Wackiest Ship in the Army
|
1965-1966
|
|
|
Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color |
1961-1969 |
Walt Disney. |
|
Wagon Train
|
1957-1965
|
|
|
The Western Tradition |
1989 |
Lecture series presented on public TV by
Eugen Weber.
|
|
The Wild Wild West
|
1965-1969
|
Artemus Gordon and his gadgets, and the well appointed train car that James
West and Artemus Gordon traveled in sparked my young imagination
week after week...
|
|
The Woodwright's Shop - With
Roy Underhill |
1979... |
I do not support government funded TV and radio, but the
Woodwright's Shop is a fine show. The point is made that back in
the 1960's, when all TV broadcasting came from just 3 networks,
more program variety was needed. PBS was created to fill that
gap. But since the 1960's that gap has been filled by a plethora
of new commercial TV networks. Which is not to say that
commercial network TV generally meets high standards. Commercial TV networks
produce large amounts of garbage; but at least they
are not subsidized by tax payer dollars. The government has no
business funding TV, radio, or the arts in general. |
