Classic TV Shows That Aired On NBC
As the oldest operating television network, the National Broadcasting Company or NBC first broadcast in 1939 and later, in 1954, was the first to air a program in color. NBC is one of the premier television networks as it has had countless award-winning and groundbreaking series throughout its history.
Browse our collection of the best TV shows that aired during primetime on NBC from 1950 to the present day.
1996-2001 | 
NBC
3rd Rock from the Sun is an American sitcom that aired from 1996 to 2001 on NBC. The show is about four extraterrestrials who are on an expedition to Earth, which they consider to be a very insignificant planet. The extraterrestrials pose as a human family in order to observe the behavior of human beings.
NBC 
1983-1987 | NBC
The A-Team is an action adventure series about a fictional group of ex-United States Army Special Forces personnel who work as soldiers of fortune, while on the run from the Army after being branded as war criminals for a "crime they didn't commit". The show featured Mr. T and aired on NBC from 1983 to 1987.
NBC 
1968-1975 | NBC
Adam-12 is a television police drama which followed two police officers of the Los Angeles Police Department, Pete Malloy and Jim Reed, as they patrolled the streets of Los Angeles in their patrol unit, 1-Adam-12.
NBC 
1986-1990 | NBC
ALF is an American science fiction sitcom that originally aired on NBC from 1986 to 1990, created by Paul Fusco. The title character was Gordon Shumway, a friendly extraterrestrial nicknamed ALF (an acronym for Alien Life Form), who crash lands in the garage of the suburban middle-class Tanner family.
NBC 
1982-1993 | NBC
Cheers is a sitom that ran for 11 seasons on NBC from 1982 to 1993. The show is set in the Cheers bar (named for the toast "Cheers") in Boston, Massachusetts, where a group of locals meet to drink, relax, chat and have fun. The show's theme song, written and performed by Gary Portnoy, and co-written with Judy Hart Angelo, lent its famous refrain, "Where Everybody Knows Your Name", as the show's tagline.
NBC 
1977-1983 | NBC
CHiPs is a drama series that aired on NBC from 1977 to 1983 that followed the lives of two motorcycle police officers of the California Highway Patrol, Baker and Ponch.
NBC
Series Info | Cast & Characters | Episodes | Theme Song | DVDs | Watch | Photos
1984-1992 | NBC
The Cosby Show is a sitcom starring Bill Cosby that aired for eight seasons on NBC from 1984 until 1992. The show focuses on the Huxtable family, an affluent African-American family living in Brooklyn, New York.
NBC
Series Info | Cast & Characters | Episodes | Theme Song | DVDs | Watch | Photos
1988-1992 | NBC
Dear John is a sitcom that aired on NBC from 1988 to 1992. The series was originally based on the British sitcom of the same name. Dear John starred Judd Hirsch as easy going high school teacher John Lacey who is dumped by his wife, Wendy, via a Dear John letter. Wendy ends up with everything in the divorce settlement, including custody of the couple's son, forcing John to move into an apartment in Queens.
NBC 
1978-1985 | 
ABC
Diff'rent Strokes is an sitcom that aired on NBC from 1978 to 1985, and on ABC from September 1985 to March 1986. The series stars Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges as Arnold and Willis Jackson, two African American boys from Harlem who are taken in by a rich white Park Avenue businessman named Phillip Drummond (Conrad Bain) and his daughter Kimberly (Dana Plato), for whom their deceased mother previously worked.
ABC 
1952-1970 | NBC
Dragnet is a radio and television crime drama about the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners. The show takes its name from an actual police term, a "dragnet", meaning a system of coordinated measures for apprehending criminals or suspects.
NBC 
1994-2009 | NBC
ER is a medical drama that aired on NBC from 1994 to 2009 . Created by best-selling author Michael Crichton, the Emmy Award-winning series has completed fourteen seasons as one of television's highest-rated dramas. The doctors and nurses of County's ER confront the daily challenges of a busy urban hospital, including overcrowded waiting rooms, staffing shortages, and the impact of life-and-death decisions. While they teach the next generation of doctors, each must tackle the demands of their personal lives, at times unsuccessfully.
NBC 
1979-1988 | NBC
A spin-off of the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes, The Facts of Life is a sitcom that aired on NBC from 1979 to 1988 and focused on Edna Garrett (Charlotte Rae) as she becomes housemother at the fictional Eastland School, an all-female boarding school in Peekskill, New York.
NBC 
1982-1989 | NBC
Family Ties is an sitcom that aired on NBC for seven seasons from 1982 to 1989. The sitcom reflected the move in the United States from the cultural liberalism of the 1960s and 1970s to the conservatism of the 1980s. This was particularly expressed through the relationship between young Republican Alex P. Keaton (Michael J. Fox) and his ex-hippie parents, Elyse and Steven Keaton (Meredith Baxter-Birney and Michael Gross).
NBC 
1964-1967 | NBC
Flipper is a drama series that aired on NBC from 1964 to 1967. Flipper, a bottlenose dolphin, is the companion animal of Porter Ricks, Chief Warden at fictional Coral Key Park and Marine Preserve in southern Florida, and his two young sons Sandy and Bud.
NBC 
1993-2004 | NBC
Frasier is a sitcom that aired on NBC for eleven seasons from 1993 to 2004. A spin-off of Cheers, Frasier stars Kelsey Grammer, David Hyde Pierce, John Mahoney, Jane Leeves and Peri Gilpin. It is one of the most successful spin-off series in television history, as well as one of the most critically acclaimed comedy series of all time.
NBC 
1990-1996 | NBC
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is a sitcom that aired on NBC from 1990 to 1996 that stars Will Smith as a fictionalized version of himself, a street-smart teenager from West Philadelphia who is sent to move in with his aunt and uncle in their wealthy Bel Air mansion, where his lifestyle often clashes with that of his relatives.
NBC 
1994-2004 | NBC
Friends is a sitcom created that aired on NBC for ten seasons from 1994 to 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan going trough the humorous trials and tribulations of relationships, work and personal life.
NBC 
1965-1970 | NBC, CBS
Get Smart is a comedy series that satirizes the secret agent genre that aired on both NBC and CBS from 1965 to 1970. Created by Mel Brooks with Buck Henry, the show starred Don Adams (as Maxwell Smart, Agent 86), Barbara Feldon (as Agent 99), and Edward Platt (as Chief).
NBC, CBS 
1985-1992 | NBC
The Golden Girls is a sitcom that aired on NBC from 1985 until 1992 that centers on four older women sharing a home in Miami, Florida.
NBC 
1981-1987 | NBC
Hill Street Blues is a police drama that aired on NBC from 1981 to 1987. Chronicling the lives of the staff of a single police precinct in an unnamed American city, the show received critical acclaim and its production innovations influenced many subsequent dramatic television series that were made.
NBC 
1965-1970 | NBC
I Dream of Jeannie is a 1960s sitcom that aired on NBC from 1965 to 1970 and starred Barbara Eden as a 2,000-year-old genie, and Larry Hagman as an astronaut who becomes her master, with whom she falls in love and eventually marries.
NBC
Series Info | Cast & Characters | Episodes | Theme Song | DVDs | Watch | Photos
1952-1955 | NBC
I Married Joan is a sitcom that aired on NBC from 1952 to 1955 that starred veteran vaudeville, film, and radio comedienne Joan Davis as the manic wife of a mild-mannered community judge, Bradley Stevens.
NBC 
1986-1994 | NBC
L.A. Law is legal drama series that ran for eight seasons on NBC from 1986 to 1994 created by Steven Bochco and Terry Louise Fisher. This critically acclaimed ensemble drama reflected the social and cultural ideologies of the 1980s and early 1990s as many of the cases featured on the show dealt with hot-topic issues of the day. The series often also reflected tensions between the wealthy senior lawyers and their less well-paid junior staff.
NBC
Series Info | Cast & Characters | Episodes | Theme Song | DVDs | Watch | Photos
2003 - 2008 | NBC
Las Vegas is an American comedy-drama television series which aired on NBC from 2003 to 2008. The show centres around a team of employees who work at the Montecito Resort and Casino in – you guessed it – Las Vegas. The team must handle every high a low, dangerous and mundane predicament that they encounter as they try to operate the various parts of Montecito.
NBC
Series Info | Cast & Characters | Episodes | Theme Song | DVDs | Watch | Photos
1992-1992 | NBC
Mad About You is sitcom that aired on NBC from 1992 to 1999 that stars Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt as a newly married couple in New York City. Reiser played Paul Buchman, a documentary film maker. Hunt played Jamie Stemple Buchman, a public relations specialist. Near the end of the show's run, the couple had a baby daughter, whom they named Mabel.
NBC 
1984-1989 | NBC
Miami Vice was a crime drama series that ran on NBC for five seasons from 1984 to 1989. The series starred Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas as James "Sonny" Crockett and Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs respectively, two Metro-Dade Police Department detectives working undercover in Miami.
NBC 
1987-1990 | NBC
My Two Dads is a sitcom that aired on NBC from 1987 to 1990 and starred Staci Keanan, Paul Reiser and Greg Evigan about a two men who could have been the father of the main character Nicole.
NBC 
1984-1992 | NBC
Night Court is an sitcom that aired on NBC from 1984 to 1992 about night shift of a Manhattan court, presided over by the young, unorthodox Judge Harold T. "Harry" Stone (Harry Anderson). It was created by comedy writer Reinhold Weege, who had previously worked on Barney Miller in the 1970s and early 1980s.
NBC 
1989-1993 | NBC
Quantum Leap is a drama series that aired on NBC from 1989 to 1993 that starred Scott Bakula as Dr. Sam Beckett, a physicist from six years in the future who becomes lost in time following a time travel experiment, temporarily taking the places of other people to "put right what once went wrong".
NBC 
1972-1977 | NBC
Sanford and Son is a sitcom that aired on NBC from 1972 to 1977 that starred Redd Foxx as Fred G. Sanford, a 65-year-old widower and junk dealer living in the Watts neighborhood of South Central Los Angeles, alongside Demond Wilson as his 30-year-old son, Lamont Sanford.
NBC 
1990-1993 | NBC, Syndication
Saved by the Bell is a popular 1990s sitcom that aired between 1989 and 1993. The series is a retooled version of the 1988 series Good Morning, Miss Bliss, which was itself later folded into the history of Saved by the Bell. The series followed the exploits of several students along with their principal at fictional Bayside High School.
NBC, Syndication 
1989-1998 | NBC
Seinfeld is a sitcom that aired on NBC from 1989 to 1998 set predominantly in an apartment block on Manhattan's Upper West Side, the show features a host of Jerry Seinfeld's stories with his best friend George Costanza, former girlfriend Elaine Benes, and neighbor across the hall Cosmo Kramer.
NBC 
1982-1987 | NBC, Syndication
Silver Spoons is a sitcom about an extremely wealthy Stratton family that aired on NBC from 1982 to 1986 and in first-run syndication from 1986 to 1987.
NBC, Syndication 
1966-1969 | NBC
Star Trek is a science fiction series that aired on NBC from 1966 to 1969. The show later acquired the retronym of Star Trek: The Original Series to distinguish the show within the media franchise that it began. The show became a cult classic in syndication during the 1970s, leading to additional television series, movies, books and more.
NBC 
1982-1988 | NBC
St. Elsewhere is a medical drama series that ran on NBC 1982 to 1988 set at fictional St. Eligius, a decaying urban teaching hospital in Boston's South End neighborhood. The show starred Ed Flanders, Norman Lloyd and William Daniels all as teaching doctors, who gave interns a promising future in making critical decisions.
NBC 
1978-1982 | ABC, NBC
Taxi is a sitcom that aired from 1978 to 1982 on ABC and from 1982 to 1983 on NBC that chronicled the everyday lives of a handful of New York City taxi drivers and their abusive dispatcher. Taxi won won 18 Emmy Awards, including three for "Outstanding Comedy Series".
ABC, NBC 
1990-1997 | NBC
Wings is a sitcom that ran for eight seasons from 1990 to 1997 on NBC and that starred Tim Daly and Steven Weber as brothers Joe and Brian Hackett. The show is set at the fictional “Tom Nevers Field” airport, a small two-airline airport in Nantucket, Massachusetts, where the Hackett brothers operate Sandpiper Air.
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