Friday on My Mind: Dragnet

NOTE: This post is part of Me-TV's Summer of Classic TV Blogathon hosted by the Classic TV Blog Association. Go to http://classic-tv-blog-assoc.blogspot.com to view more posts in this blogathon. You can also go to http://metvnetwork.com to learn more about Me-TV and view its summer line-up of classic TV shows.

 

Authority figures – particularly police officers – make a lot of us nervous. We may not be doing anything wrong but the moment we spot a police cruiser in our rear view mirror, it’s hard not to tense up.

I have always had a contentious relationship with authority, so it might seem surprising that I love Dragnet so much. But I think if all police officers were more like Sgt. Joe Friday (Jack Webb) and Officer Bill Gannon (Harry Morgan), only criminals would shun the police. The rest of us would want to buy them a cup of coffee and thank them for their service.

Dragnet is not a show about the cool renegade cops who “play by their own rules.” It’s not an action-packed series with tire-screeching car chases and guns blazing. It’s a meticulous, dialogue-driven series about two middle-aged LA police officers (played by actors whose faces will never grace a poster on a teenage girl’s wall) who show up for work every day and do their best to serve the city that pays their salary. 

From 1967 to 1970, viewers tuned in to watch Friday and Gannon solve the most routine cases, while wearing the same drab suits in almost every episode. They ran down leads that didn’t pan out. They sat at their desks filling out reports. They made awkward small talk until the boss called them into his office.

Why was this so compelling? I think it starts with the authenticity and attention to detail that Jack Webb insisted on in his depiction of cops at work. Dragnet humanized the men who wear the badge, and made them admirable not because of super-heroic deeds, but through their decency, compassion and dedication.

This was also a series that sounded like nothing else on television. The unique staccato rhythm of the dialogue was often parodied in its day – some readers might remember a famous skit on The Tonight Show featuring Webb and Johnny Carson, and some missing copper clappers. 

But it was a technique that worked, and when Friday would launch into one of his speeches about the importance of respecting the law, or the privilege of being a police officer, you feel like getting up from the couch and applauding.

One of the show’s best moments occurred in an episode called “The Big Interrogation,” when a rookie cop (played by future Adam-12 star Kent McCord) is wrongfully accused of robbing a liquor store. Friday’s moving monologue on the policeman’s life should be required viewing at every police academy graduation. 

It’s no wonder that real cops felt tremendous respect for Jack Webb, and the honor he brought to their profession. The Los Angeles Police Department actually retired Friday’s badge number – 714 – to acknowledge his contribution to the law enforcement community.

Viewers, too, wished more cops were like Friday. During the show’s original run the LAPD frequently received calls asking to speak to Sgt. Friday. The response was always the same: “Sorry, it’s Joe’s day off.” 

Checking Into Comfort TV Hospital

 

Here’s another under-appreciated pleasure of classic television from the Comfort TV age: it makes places you’d never want to visit seem less terrible.

I was in the hospital recently and found nothing pleasurable about it. You’re away from your home and your bed, in a big building full of monotonous hallways and colorless rooms. You try to rest but are disturbed by the buzzes and beeps of strange machinery. And the food is worse than what they serve on Delta’s red-eye from Minneapolis to New Jersey.

But watch any popular situation comedy from the 1950s to the 1970s, and there was probably an episode featuring one of the main characters logging some hospital time. And for them, it didn’t seem so bad.

What’s the difference? Classic TV hospital stays typically begin with the patient safely ensconced in their room, skipping past the multiple blood tests, book-length insurance forms, questionnaires that ask male patients if they’ve ever been pregnant, and being asked one’s height and weight by every doctor, nurse and administrator, all of whom write down the responses but none of whom apparently share this paperwork with anyone else in the building.

Of course, the best of part of visiting a classic TV hospital is that everyone gets to leave. Healthy.

Do you have a favorite hospital episode from a classic series? Here are some of mine.

“Lucy Plays Florence Nightingale”

The Lucy Show

Lucy is a volunteer nurse at the hospital where Mr. Mooney is recovering from a broken leg. From the moment you see Mooney in his hospital bed, his injured leg suspended above him, you know he’s about to be subjected to every form of comedic torture the writers can devise. There’s also an inventively choreographed wheelchair chase that plays like something out of a classic silent movie. 

 “Hi!”

The Mary Tyler Moore Show

Mary has her tonsils out and gets saddled with the roommate from hell, played by the wonderful Pat Carroll. The episode is probably best remembered, at least among the show’s male viewers, for the sexy nightgown Rhoda slips into Mary’s overnight bag before she leaves for the hospital. 

“That’s My Boy?”

The Dick Van Dyke Show

A flashback episode in which Rob recalls how, after Ritchie was born, he became certain that the hospital gave them the wrong baby. The final scene received the longest laugh in the history of The Dick Van Dyke Show.

“The Candy Striper”

Family Affair

Cissy gets a candy striper job and the head nurse provides only one warning – never give a patient food or drink without consulting with a doctor. And just like Gremlins, you start counting the minutes until she forgets the rule. On the verge of quitting, she returns to the hospital after a pep talk from Uncle Bill and finds a way to balance her compassion with responsibility. 

“Bob Has to Have His Tonsils Out, So He Spends Christmas Eve in the Hospital”

The Bob Newhart Show

The title says it all. Bob is subjected to the indignities of peekaboo hospital gowns, Howard’s hospital horror stories, and an ancient nurse played by the veteran character actress Merie Earle, who gets a laugh with every line she utters. 

“Operation: Tonsils”

The Patty Duke Show

Classic sitcom misunderstanding- Patty overhears her handsome doctor praising the trim lines and beauty of his new boat, and thinks the compliments are all for her.  The doctor is played by one-time matinee idol Troy Donahue. 

“And Then There Were Three”

Bewitched

Tabitha is born in this milestone second season episode, that also features the first appearance of Serena, the ever-acerbic Eve Arden as a confused nurse, and a rare moment in which Darrin and Endora are actually kind to each other. 

One and Done: Seven Short-Lived Series Worth Remembering

 

Longevity isn’t always a measure of quality when it comes to television (see: Step by Step). That’s especially true over the past 5-10 years when shows like Wonderfalls and Freaks and Geeks and Firefly were pulled before their time. I thought Pan Am had its moments, too.

That was not the case in the classic TV era. Back then if a series was canceled after one season it was usually for good reason. Networks were slower to go to the hook, allowing shows like The Dick Van Dyke Show and Cheers to find their audience despite low-rated first seasons.

Unfortunately, not every show was so lucky. Here are seven Comfort TV series that disappeared too quickly, but still have their fans.

My World and Welcome To It (1969)

Maybe its blend of live-action and animation was ahead of its time. Maybe its basis in the writing of James Thurber made it sound too highbrow – or maybe it was just scheduled against Gunsmoke and never had a chance. Whatever prompted its early cancellation, My World and Welcome To It is one of television’s buried treasures. Sample the clips on YouTube and see if you don’t fall under its whimsical spell. 

Ellery Queen (1975)

After creating one of TV’s greatest detectives in Columbo, Richard Levinson and William Link introduced Ellery Queen to television, in the genial presence of star Jim Hutton. Set in the 1940s, the series revolved around Queen assisting his police detective father (David Wayne) on baffling murder mysteries. The high point of each episode had Hutton turning to the camera and addressing the audience at home, just before he cracked the case. “Have you figured it out?” he’d ask, before reminding us of the suspects and the most important clues. Rarely has it been more fun to match wits with the characters on screen. 

Gidget (1965)

Gidget made Sally Field famous but didn’t find an audience until it was rerun over the summer, not surprising for a show about surfing under the California sun. By then the show had already been canceled, and ABC scrambled to find another vehicle for its breakout star. The best they could do was The Flying Nun, which lasted three seasons but doesn’t hold up nearly as well. For all its carefree sand and surf fun, what really made Gidget memorable was the heartfelt connection between Field and costar Don Porter, who created one of TV’s most appealing father-daughter relationships. 

The Green Hornet (1966)

This Batman spin-off was played with similar visual style but less camp, and is best remembered now for Bruce Lee, who appeared opposite Van Williams as the Green Hornet’s high-kicking chauffeur, Kato. It was the first time many Americans had seen martial arts performed by a master, and the charismatic Lee insisted on authenticity in the fight choreography. Given the shortness of his subsequent film career, it would be wonderful to have more Green Hornet episodes to enjoy. 

The Magician (1973)

Two magic-themed films recently opened to mixed reviews (The Incredible Burt Wonderstone and Now You See Me), and neither was one-tenth as entertaining as The Magician, starring Bill Bixby as a magic man who helps those in trouble with his powers of prestidigitation. Bixby is one of TV’s most appealing leading men, as well as a talented amateur magician. Every illusion in the series was performed with no camera tricks or special effects.  

Jennifer Slept Here (1983)

Ann Jillian deserved a more substantive TV career. She got close with It’s a Living, but with all its title changes and timeslot changes and personnel changes the series never really found its footing. Jennifer Slept Here was her second shot. The high-concept premise has a family moving into a Beverly Hills mansion once owned by glamorous movie star Jennifer Farrell, now deceased.  As a ghost, she appears to the family’s 14 year-old son, and helps him adjust to high school, meeting girls and life in California. Jillian elevated her material as she always did, but the show could not compete against Webster and The Dukes of Hazzard.

Tenspeed and Brown Shoe (1980)

Can too much promotion kill a TV show? I think so. I never watched Malcolm in the Middle because of the obnoxious nonstop promos that FOX aired leading up to its debut. ABC tried that same desperate strategy for Tenspeed and Brown Shoe, which teamed Ben Vereen and Jeff Goldbum as unlikely detectives. Result? Big numbers for the first episode followed by rapidly diminishing returns. Perhaps if the network had merely promised a good show rather than the landmark television event of the season, viewers would have been more patient. 

Breaking 1950s Conventions on Father Knows Best

 

There’s something remarkable about Father Knows Best. You can watch any dozen episodes and be entertained by the wholesome charms with which this 1950s sitcom is identified. And then you’ll discover a story that is so compelling in its content that you could write a term paper about it.

To some extent this is true of many shows from an era we now group into a collective memory of innocent nostalgia. To some these situation comedies are nothing more than idealized portrayals of a traditional family that may provide a few simple pleasures, but are no longer relevant to the way we live today. Some actually find them offensive – a reactionary fantasy of a Middle America that never really existed, where Dad brings home the bacon, Mom is happily chained to her stove, and together they raise unfailingly polite kids. 

Those who hold such opinions have either never watched shows like Father Knows Best or The Donna Reed Show, or they just weren’t paying attention when they did. There was far too much talent involved, both in front of and behind the camera, to create something so bland.

If certain formulas tended to repeat themselves – first dates, first jobs, eccentric neighbors and relatives, keep in mind that these are moments and rites of passage that many families experience in the non-scripted world as well.

You won’t find challenging content in most of these vintage series, but that is not a creative flaw. Consistency and predictability is an important part of their enduring appeal. I for one would never want to watch an episode of Father Knows Best in which Margaret gets cancer, or Bud is critically injured in an auto accident. I don’t want Jim to lose his job at the insurance company, and wonder how he’s going to keep up the mortgage payments. That was not why these shows were made.

But that doesn’t mean Father Knows Best can’t surprise you. Here are three remarkable episodes that skirt the comfort zone of classic television.

“Woman in the House”

Often shows like Father Knows Best seem to be set within a secure suburban bubble, immune to the confusion of the outside world. In this season two episode from 1955, some of that less settled world invades Springfield in the form of Jill Carlson, the younger and free-spirited wife of one of Jim’s oldest friends. She smokes, she talks a little too loud for the heartland, and at one point she asks Margaret if she’s ever read Kafka. Margaret, played with quiet dignity by Jane Wyatt, can barely hide her discomfort, which only deepens after Jill becomes their houseguest for a few days. At one point she breaks down, ashamed by how provincial her life seems to this strange outsider, and by her own intolerance. This being Father Knows Best, both Margaret and Jill are changed for the better through the experience, but it’s the culture clash that makes “Woman in the House” so unsettling.

“Mister Beal Meets His Match”

Betty, writing a story for college, casts her family in a new version of the Faust tale.  Mysterious stranger Harry Beal sells Bud a set of books that seem to grant wishes, but you don’t get something for nothing (or at least, that was a lesson still taught in the 1950s). Jim discovers to his horror that the gifts in the books were received at the forfeiture of his children's souls. A panicked Jim offers Beal his own soul in exchange for theirs. The harrowing parts of the tale are played straighter than you might expect. 

“The Bus to Nowhere”

Whatever joys and sorrows are felt by fifties sitcom characters, they still maintain a basic contentment with their lives and their place in the universe. They hold on to certain bedrock values formed by their faith and Midwestern common sense. And then there’s “The Bus to Nowhere,” in which Betty Anderson experiences full-tilt existential angst that shakes her to her core. Nothing matters to her, not even dances and dates and hayrides (man, they loved their hayrides in the ‘50s). Her family dismisses her anguish as “just a mood” and “rubbish,” but Betty is disconsolate – “I don’t know anything anymore,” she confesses. In the climax she’s at the bus station ready to go wherever her savings will take her. I won’t spoil the ending and how she finds her way back, but “The Bus to Nowhere” is worthy of study and debate in college classes devoted to philosophy and theology. It’s one of the most profound and extraordinary episodes in 1950s television. 

Classic TV 101: The 1980s

 

The 1980s was the last true classic TV decade. Which is not to say that television hasn’t introduced many brilliant shows in the 20 years since – only that the medium, and our relationship to it – has drastically changed.

Cable and satellite television added hundreds of viewing options to our TV menu. As a result, viewership for even the most celebrated shows has been greatly diminished. Series such as Mad Men, Game of Thrones, Girls and Breaking Bad are watched by about 10% of the people that watched the lowest-rated network shows in the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s.

The introduction of the VCR, followed by TiVo, the DVR and programs streaming on Netflix and mobile apps, allow viewers to view programs whenever they like. So even if 10 million people watch The Walking Dead, they’re not all watching at the same time.

For better or worse, new channels and new technology have abolished the communal pop culture experience that television once provided.  That experience, to me, is what separates the classic TV era from our current TV age.

The times were already changing by the 1980s, but if you can't find your Betamax tapes here's a reminder of the best television of the decade.

Hill Street Blues

Though it was preceded by 30 years of cop shows, Hill Street Blues immediately looked and felt different from anything that had come before. The large, multiracial cast, the frank portrayals of sex and violence, the handheld camerawork that put viewers inside the Hill Street station, sometimes uncomfortably so, all seemed to represent a sea change in dramatic television. 

Cheers

The last great workplace comedy of the classic TV era (though Taxi would also get some votes) Cheers was lucky to survive a first season where it ranked at the bottom of the ratings. Once it found an audience the series lasted more than 10 years, gracefully adapting to multiple cast changes like no other show since M*A*S*H.

Moonlighting

Sardonic and self-referential, Moonlighting was a one-hour detective show that generated more laughs than a situation comedy. The easily-confused Television Academy steered all its Emmy nominations into the Drama category, though the series’ only real drama was whether costars Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd could coexist long enough to keep the magic fresh. They couldn’t, and it didn’t. But for three seasons Moonlighting was a masterpiece.  

Roseanne

Many of the best shows of the 1980s were created by the first generation to grow up with television. Roseanne Barr, raised on sitcoms like Leave it to Beaver and The Donna Reed Show, believed it was time for a less idealized take on family life. And that’s what she delivered, though her self-titled series lost its way in later seasons.

Miami Vice

“MTV cops” was the two-word pitch that allegedly sold this sun-drenched, pastel-colored series to NBC. Parts of Miami Vice are now as badly dated as Valley girl talk and Members Only jackets, but the slick visual style of executive producer Michael Mann and Jan Hammer’s scoring both left their imprint on the crime drama genre – you can see echoes of them in shows airing today. 

The Cosby Show

It’s surprising that it took this long for a family like the Huxtables to achieve mainstream acceptance. And it’s also regrettable that, without Bill Cosby’s cross-generational, cross-cultural appeal, we’ve seen no comparable heir to their success.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Most of us who remember the build-up to this sequel were pretty sure it wasn’t going to work. Even many of the hardcore Star Trek fans were ambiguous, concerned it might soil the legacy of Gene Roddenberry’s original classic. Instead, Star Trek: The Next Generation expanded and deepened the Trek universe, paving the way for three more series.

Newhart

The inspired final episode was one of TV’s most talked-about moments, but Newhart also earns a place on this list for updating the absurdist rural archetype established by Green Acres. Just like Eddie Albert’s Oliver Douglas, Newhart’s Dick Loudon was a sane man set adrift among lunatics. 

Thirtysomething

A love-it-or-hate-it show that divided generations almost as much as The Smothers Brothers, Thirtysomething was a series about baby boomer disillusionment. It struck a chord with viewers coping with the same family and career issues, but others were turned off by what they saw as self-absorbed navel-gazing. 

The Golden Girls

Building a show around four senior citizens was distinctive, but in every other way The Golden Girls was as traditional as comedies get. It holds up thanks to the steadfast expertise of three TV sitcom vets, and an unknown stage actress (Estelle Getty) who consistently trumped their punch lines. 

The Wonder Years

The music and the fashions and the Vietnam references set this coming-of-age series in a very specific time and place, but there was also something universal about the struggles of Kevin Arnold. One hundred years from now, adolescent boys will still identify with his sibling issues, school issues, and the agony and ecstasy of falling in love with the exquisite Winnie Cooper. 

St. Elsewhere

Before St. Elsewhere, hospital shows tended toward idealized depictions of doctors and nurses. The staff of St. Eligius would make Marcus Welby cringe, and the show itself never attracted much of an audience. Fortunately, this was a time in television when quality still counted, and NBC gutted out six low-rated but magnificent seasons. The last episode, unfortunately, was a self-indulgent misstep.

Night Court

No gimmicks, no breakthroughs, no landmark episodes – just superb comedy. Stay with it through an inconsistent first season – after that it’s all good, especially in the Markie Post years.

Designing Women

Both politically charged and politically incorrect, Designing Women was a showcase for Dixie Carter’s supercharged sermonizing, Delta Burke’s entitled cluelessness, and Jean Smart’s downhome charms. But when Burke and Smart leave, you should too. 

Married With Children

In the 1970s it was Soap that heralded the collapse of culture and civilization; in the 1980s that title passed to this series, one of the first on the then-new FOX network. It was comedy wielded like a blunt instrument, but it lasted ten years.

Extra Credit

For more ‘80s goodness, check out these shows as well:

Square Pegs

L.A. Law

Max Headroom

China Beach

Murphy Brown

Family Ties

Classic TV 101: The 1970s

 

Whenever necessary I will own up to my own personal biases. So in the interest of full disclosure I acknowledge that the 1970s is my favorite TV era. It’s certainly not the best or the most groundbreaking but it’s the one I grew up on. And I have always believed that the television shows you bond with in childhood are the ones that always stay closest to your heart.

Escapism reigned for much of the decade, with a profusion of forget-your-troubles-and-just-get-happy shows that helped viewers cope with gas lines, presidential scandals and leisure suits as fashion statements. Those seeking more serious fare embraced a new programming genre – the miniseries – that adapted great books and retold great moments in history with all-star casts.

How I wish I could justify the addition of The Magician, Harry-O, Switch, Eight is Enough and ElectraWoman and DynaGirl to the list of must-see 70s shows. But here’s a more objective list of the decade’s finest offerings.

The Mary Tyler Moore Show

One of the best comedic ensembles ever assembled for a situation comedy, choreographed into consistent excellence by two masters of the form, James L. Brooks and Allan Burns. The show is as fresh and funny today as it was 40 years ago. 

Columbo

Peter Falk’s trenchcoat-clad police lieutenant, who annoyed suspects into confessions, was one of several characters featured in NBC’s Sunday Mystery Movie series. But while McCloud, McMillan and Wife and Hec Ramsey all had their moments, Columbo was the only one that earns a place alongside the creations of Poe and Conan Doyle in the annals of classic detective fiction.  

Saturday Night Live

While each generation grumbles about how SNL is not as funny as it used to be, the show itself continues to introduce at least 2-3 major comedy talents every few years. The original cast may still be untouchable, though inconsistency has always been part of the mix. But no other series has been as influential on American comedy – from John Belushi to Eddie Murphy to Phil Hartman (and from Gilda Radner to Tina Fey to Kristen Wiig).

Dallas

In the seventies there were several prime-time soap operas depicting the shady lifestyles of the rich and glamorous. Dallas was the most successful and the most entertaining. J.R. Ewing, played with grinning malevolence by Larry Hagman, was a villain for the ages – as demonstrated by his charismatic return in the series’ 2012 revival. 

M*A*S*H

M*A*S*H lasted so long – ten years and nearly 250 episodes – that fans debate which series era was better. Do you prefer the early years, which mimicked the impertinent tone of Robert Altman’s film, or the later, less outrageous seasons that reflected the input of star Alan Alda (who wrote and directed several episodes)? The final show still holds the record for most viewers, at more than 125 million.

All In the Family

The first of several Norman Lear-produced comedies that broke genre taboos, frankly discussed controversial issues and represented (for some) a bold step forward from the more innocent family sitcoms of an earlier age.

The Love Boat

Carefree escapism was a seventies TV staple, and no one delivered more of it than producer Aaron Spelling. The Love Boat was one of his most shallow and most successful concepts. It’s also worth another look for the golden age movie stars who staved off retirement with appearances on shows like this one, Fantasy Island and Hotel. Where else can you see Don Ameche and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. sailing alongside Jimmie Walker and Roz Kelly?

The Bob Newhart Show

No situation comedy explored the comic possibilities of the telephone and the elevator more than The Bob Newhart Show. Newhart’s dry delivery and Suzanne Pleshette’s sass anchored one of the decade’s top sitcoms. Plus, “Home to Emily” may be the era’s best instrumental TV theme. 

Roots

The ABC network was so nervous about how viewers would greet the ‘miniseries’ format, especially one that dealt with the harsh realities of slavery, that they aired all eight episodes on consecutive nights. The idea was to just get it over with quickly. Instead, America became enthralled with Roots. It drew 100 million viewers and became for a time the most watched and most honored dramatic show in television history.

Little House on the Prairie

Michael Landon was one of TV’s most beloved stars. While he also enjoyed long-running success in Bonanza and Highway to Heaven, Little House is his best TV work. Based on the classic books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, the series also introduced adorable half-pint Melissa Gilbert, and the delightfully wicked Nellie Oleson.

General Hospital

Soap operas were successful before and after the seventies, but General Hospital achieved the kind of pop culture prominence reserved for prime-time shows after introducing super-couple Luke and Laura, played by Tony Geary and Genie Francis. Their wedding was the most-watched daytime drama moment ever. 

Happy Days

Truth be told I don’t think this show holds up as well as other comedies from its era, but you can’t talk seventies television without paying due homage to The Fonz. For a few seasons, before he literally jumped the shark (introducing that phrase), Henry Winkler could stop the show with every entrance, every line reading and every thumbs-up. His leather jacket now hangs in the Smithsonian.

The Rockford Files

Beneath the glittering disco balls and superficial fads that flitted through 70s pop culture, there lingered a more sobering cynicism, spurred on by two events that served as decade bookends - Watergate and the Iran hostage crisis. Few shows tapped into that cynicism as entertainingly as The Rockford Files. No other TV detective ever received as little personal satisfaction or financial compensation for his work, suggesting that no matter how hard you try, you’re bound to fail in a system that’s rigged.

WKRP in Cincinnati

I’m not sure why this show seems to bubble just under confirmed “classic TV” status. Maybe it wasn’t on long enough. But I still can’t get through Thanksgiving without one reference to flying turkeys.

Charlie’s Angels

The first “jiggle TV” series, and the launching pad for the decade’s most famous and flawless face, Farrah Fawcett-Majors. The first three seasons offered pleasures besides cheesecake – Kate Jackson earned two Emmy nominations and almost made the Angels credible as investigators.  

Barney Miller

Barney Miller gets better with age. It’s been called TV’s only optimistic cop series, and that’s as good a description as any. Depicting real crime and real victims with humor requires a delicate balance, but at the 12^th Precinct it was all in a day’s work.

The Six Million Dollar Man

Though cell phones and iPads were still years away, technology began to play a larger role in our lives in the 1970s, and this was a series that suggested advancements once relegated to science fiction were coming closer to reality. Plus, more Farrah Fawcett, an illustrious spin-off series in The Bionic Woman, and Bigfoot!

Soap

This was one of the first shows that some took as the beginning of the end for western civilization. Watchdog groups protested and some ABC affiliates refused to carry the series, but Soap was never as decadent as its detractors claimed. Much of the controversy focused on Billy Crystal as Jodie Dallas, one of TV’s first gay characters.

Extra Credit

For more groovy Seventies classics, check out these shows:

The Partridge Family

Marcus Welby, M.D.

Three’s Company

Family

Starsky & Hutch

Maude

Next Week: The 1980s

Classic TV 101: The 1960s

 

The 1960s was a watershed decade for popular culture, particularly in music. But there were also signs of the changing times reflected in the television of the era.

Contrast the programming choices at the start of the decade, many of them holdovers from the more traditional 1950s, with the iconoclastic shows of 1968 and 1969. The disparity is much deeper than the change from black-and-white to color.

Sometimes it’s possible to notice the medium’s evolution within just one show – observe how Samantha Stephens’ outfits change from the first season of Bewitched (1964) to the last (1972). To paraphrase a popular advertising slogan from that era, she’s come a long way, baby.

These are the shows you should know from the 1960s.

The Andy Griffith Show

Sixties TV is evenly divided between shows that look back, and shows that look forward. The Andy Griffith Show is one of television’s most delightful backward glances – more than 40 years later and we still can’t get enough of the tranquil Mayberry lifestyle. 

Mission: Impossible

Television’s finest espionage series, particularly in its first three seasons when Martin Landau and Barbara Bain were part of the team. The propulsive Lalo Schifrin theme and Mr. Phelps’ self-destructing tape recorders left a permanent mark on popular culture. 

Peyton Place

A groundbreaking prime time soap opera (based on a once scandalous novel) that launched the careers of Ryan O’Neal and Mia Farrow. New shows were aired as often as three times a week, and fans still hope that all 500+ episodes will be released on DVD.

That Girl

This story of a young single girl in the big city reflected the changing times and the rise of feminism. Marlo Thomas’s character of struggling actress Ann Marie was a TV trailblazer that begat Mary Richards and Carrie Bradshaw. 

The Dick Van Dyke Show

Mixing sophisticated wordplay with inspired moments of slapstick silliness, The Dick Van Dyke Show was a near-perfect situation comedy that remains strikingly modern more than 50 years after its debut.

Star Trek

Star Trek, and it’s many subsequent TV and film incarnations, represents a vision of our future that might be achievable if we don’t screw it up. The Enterprise’s original five-year mission barely lasted three seasons but introduced a profusion of iconic characters, concepts and expressions. The series also inspired a then-unprecedented level of television series fandom, that didn’t truly kick in until after the show was canceled.

Bewitched

There were many sitcoms with fantasy elements in the Sixties (I Dream of Jeannie, My Favorite Martian, Mr. Ed). Bewitched was the best and the classiest of the bunch, and the only one with a subtext beyond its supernatural set-up. Was it really about TV’s first mixed marriage?

My Mother the Car

On the other end of the fantasy sitcom spectrum was this infamous disaster starring Jerry Van Dyke as a man whose mother is reincarnated as a 1928 Porter automobile. Treasure it the way bad movie fans love Plan 9 From Outer Space, as one of the medium’s preeminent punch lines. 

The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour

This youth-oriented variety series was on the front line of the cultural and generational conflicts of the Vietnam era. Tom and Dick Smothers and their writers (including Steve Martin) constantly pushed the envelope on provocative political humor, so much so that the series was pulled by conservative CBS executives despite respectable ratings.

Scooby Doo, Where Are You?

This Saturday morning staple was the first in a seemingly endless series of Hanna-Barbera cartoons pitting teenage friends against phony monsters and would-be world conquerors. It wasn’t brilliant television, but the premise was certainly durable – they’re still making new Scooby Doo adventures.

The Fugitive

As Dr. Richard Kimble, a pediatrician wrongly accused of killing his wife, David Janssen delivers one of the most poignant and nuanced performances on any program from any decade (so of course he never won an Emmy). The series’ final episode held the record for largest viewing audience until the resolution of Dallas’s “Who shot J.R.” cliffhanger. 

The Brady Bunch

If there is an official family sitcom of the Baby Boomer era, this is it. It’s far from the best written or performed representation of its genre, but its characters have been lovingly embraced by two generations of TV fans. This is one of the ultimate “Comfort TV” series. 

Candid Camera

Technically, Candid Camera debuted in 1948, and appeared sporadically on local stations and as a segment of network series throughout the 1950s. But it is mostly remembered for a 1960-1967 run, so it is listed here with the best of the sixties. The gags staged by host Allen Funt were remarkably inventive, without the streak of cruelty apparent in latter-day updates like Punk’d.

The Avengers

London had its own swinging sixties vibe, which provided the backdrop for this tongue-in-cheek secret agent series, one of the few British programs to crack a US prime time schedule. The chemistry and witty repartee  between Patrick Macnee (John Steed) and Diana Rigg (Emma Peel) has yet to rivaled, much less surpassed. 

The Carol Burnett Show

Though it’s now more closely associated with the 1970s, Carol Burnett’s classic variety series debuted in 1967. So many of the comedy sketches have passed into TV legend, but the show’s musical moments, now largely forgotten, were just as impressive.

Batman

Even with new superhero movies opening almost every month, there hasn’t been anything comparable to this inspired, deranged and altogether unique rendering of  the Caped Crusader and Boy Wonder.

Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In

A phenomenon in its day, and a peerless launching pad for future stars (Goldie Hawn, Arte Johnson, Lily Tomlin), Laugh-In introduced more memorable comedic characters and catchphrases than any other 1960s series. 

 

The Beverly Hillbillies

Paul Henning created three rural-themed sitcoms for CBS in the Sixties – The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres and Petticoat Junction. All of them are worth revisiting. Hillbillies was the most popular and the most polarizing. Some find it lowbrow humor at its worst, but others (like me) find the Clampetts irresistible.

The Outer Limits

Television’s first truly exceptional science-fiction series was hindered only by primitive special effects. But with scripts by Harlan Ellison and Joseph Stefano, and actors like Martin Sheen, Robert Culp, Leonard Nimoy, Martin Landau and Cliff Robertson, it was easier to imagine the show’s rubber-suited creatures as convincing metaphors for social injustice and the military-industrial complex.

The Monkees

American TV’s answer to A Hard Day’s Night proved far more successful, both artistically and musically, than anyone had a right to expect. The series was fresh and funny and made a pioneering contribution to music video. The Monkees’ music, once derided by some critics as corporate-driven and manufactured, has aged even more gracefully than the series.

Dark Shadows

A gothic daytime drama that added vampires, witches, werewolves, time travel and reanimated corpses into the usual mix of soapy afternoon romance and betrayal. Echoes of reluctant vampire Barnabas Collins, masterfully played by Jonathan Frid, can be perceived in nearly all of the vampire shows and movies of the past decade. 

Get Smart

An obvious gimmick – sending up James Bond – with a distinguished pedigree (Mel Brooks and Buck Henry served as creators) Get Smart was a giddy mix of dumb jokes and smart jokes, anchored by Don Adams’ matchless portrayal of Maxwell Smart. You can’t be a classic TV lover if you don’t cherish every appearance of the Cone of Silence. 

Julia

In Julia, Diahann Carroll became the first African-American woman to play a (non-domestic) lead role in a prime time series. With Greg Morris already on Mission: Impossible and Nichelle Nichols on Star Trek this wasn’t color-barrier breaking at the Jackie Robinson level, but it’s a progression of which TV fans should be aware.

Extra Credit

More 1960s standouts that deserve your attention:

The Flintstones

Monty Python’s Flying Circus

The Dean Martin Show

Honey West

The Defenders

The Patty Duke Show

Route 66

Next week: The 1970s

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