The Classic TV Database

Boy, the way the Beaver played. Ricky Nelson made the hit parade. Voices they were seldom raised. Those were the days. And then, on January 12, 1971, America met the Bunkers, and sitcoms would never be the same. The Bunkers were TV's first dysfunctional family: blue-collar bigot Archie (the late Carroll O'Connor in his icon…

In addition to inspiring a college drinking game that's never gone out of style, The Bob Newhart Show gave one of America's greatest stand-up comedians a perfect sitcom showcase. This wasn't Newhart's first TV show (following the success of his comedy albums, he hosted a short-lived variety show in 1961-62), but it was the …

Here's a story ... of a man named Mike Brady, an architect widower with three sons: oldest Greg, middle son Peter and youngest Bobby. He meets and marries a widow (or a divorcee - it depends on whom you ask), Carol, with three daughters of her own: oldest Marcia, middle girl Jan and little one Cindy. Tending to them is a wa…

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 all away from all that and now they work for me. My name is Charlie. Those famous words were heard every week from 1976 to 1981 during Charlie's Angels 5 year run.

"CHiPs" followed the adventures of two hunky California Highway patrolmen, Francis "Ponch" Poncherello (Erik Estrada) and Jon Baker (Larry Wilcox). Ponch was the wisecracking ladies' man, while more reserved Jon played Ponch's straight man. But when it came to busting criminals and protecting the good drivers of California,…

Good Times was a spin-off from Maude, which in turn was a spin-off from All In The Family. Florida Evans was originally Maude Findlay's maid until, in the spring of 1974, she got a show of her own. Florida and James Evans were lower middle-class blacks living with their three children in a high-rise ghetto on the south side…

Less than a year after Ron Howard played a college-bound adolescent enjoying a final, summer-of-1962 romp with old friends in American Graffiti, he turned up as high school innocent Richie Cunningham in the memorable, ABC television network debut of Happy Days, set a few years earlier in Milwaukee. The show would last a dec…

Opening with Morton Stevens's unforgettable theme music, Hawaii Five-0 followed the crime fighting adventures of Steve McGarrett (Jack Lord), who commanded a fictional Hawaiian state police force who reported to the governor. Many episodes would end with McGarrett telling his right-hand man Danny Williams to Book 'em, Danno…

"We're moving on up, to the East Side, to a deee-luxe apartment in the sky" ... This spin-off from All in the Family was about literal upward mobility - African American couple George and Louise Jefferson move into a swanky high-rise building. George was an obstreperous, often rude guy who thought his wealth should get him …

As a spin-off from Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley was an instant hit and one of the most popular sitcoms of the '70s. It's a bit quaint by contemporary standards, and its light-hearted sentiment is strictly old-school, due to the crowd-pleasing influence of producer and cocreator Garry Marshall, a veteran of The Dick Van Dyk…

Marcus Welby, M.D. portrayed the cases of a veteran general practitioner in Santa Monica, California, whose thoroughness and dedication involved him in the lives of all sorts of patients. Assisting him was Dr. Steven Kiley, who during the first season contracted to work with Welby for one year before resuming his train…

Mary Richards is a thirty-something single woman who settles in Minneapolis after breaking up with a boyfriend. She lands a job as an associate producer of the evening news at WJM-TV, which happens to be the area's lowest-rated station. Her boss, Lou Grant, hates her spunk but often looks to her to solve newsroom (or even p…

Like the TV incarnation of The Odd Couple, the M*A*S*H series has supplanted the original film in the public's consciousness. Legendary comedy writer Larry Gelbart (Your Show of Shows) deserves a medal for developing Robert Altman's bloody, funny 1970 classic for television with much of its anti-establishment spirit intact.…

Sitcoms come and go. And then there's Maude, the groundbreaking Norman Lear comedy that was both wildly popular and just as wildly controversial in its 1970s heyday. The show revolves around Maude Findlay, a very outspoken middle-class woman who wears her liberal politics on her sleeve and shares her home in suburban Tuckah…

The charm, the zaniness, the corny jokes, the showbiz cliches--every element of The Muppet Show holds up 30 years after Jim Henson's legendary variety series' debut season. Well, perhaps not everything: Today's younger viewers might have a hard time placing some of The Muppet Show's then-guest stars, such as Florence Hender…

Jack Klugman and Tony Randall give an advanced course in chemistry in the auspicious first season of The Odd Couple, which would only get better as the veteran character actors made themselves at home in their signature roles and the series switched from a laugh track to a live audience. In these first episodes, The Odd Cou…

An iconic 70s sitcom opening with the classic theme by Quincy Jones, Sanford and Son was the American version of the British sitcom Steptoe and Son. Red Foxx played the grouchy but lovable junkman Fred Sanford, who constantly threatened heart attacks whenever things did not go his way. Foxx was supported by an equally hilar…

This character-driven humane comedy from the creators of The Mary Tyler Moore Show rolled out of the garage with a full tank of gas: a lightning-in-a-bottle ensemble, smart, witty, and compassionate writing, and extraordinary characters. The Sunshine Cab Company was a much grittier workplace than the sunny WJM newsroom. Its…

Come And Knock On Our Door… In the spring of 1977,ABC network executives gave a six-episode "trial" run to a new sitcom called Three's Company. Almost overnight, it became one of the biggest hits of the entire season. Racy and daring for its time, this breakthrough bedroom farce skyrocketed to the Top 10 in its second week.…

The Waltons' nearly 10-year run on network television grew out of the popular, 1971 made-for-TV movie The Homecoming, which was derived from a Depression-era, rustic setting ("Walton's Mountain"), and characters based on Earl Hamner Jr.'s autobiographical novel Spencer's Mountain--itself the source for a very nice 1963 feat…

Travel back to a time when sitcoms were recorded live on tape before a studio audience and dialogue was dominated by nonsensical catch phrases, like "Up your nose with a rubber hose!" and "Off my case, potato face!" The year was 1975. Saturday Night Fever had yet to make John Travolta a star, and stand-up comedian-turned-cr…

WKRP in Cincinnati, an MTM production, was created by Hugh Wilson, who had previously written scripts for MTM's The Bob Newhart Show and served as a producer on the short-lived MTM production The Tony Randall Show. MTM, which had not had a big comedy hit since Rhoda several years earlier, was counting on WKRP to revive the …