1970s TV on DVD

Cafe Society
1

For some reason, I’ve become fascinated with watching 1970s tv shows on dvd this year.

Here’s what I’ve been watching.

  1. Chips. Only two season out on DVD, watched them all
  2. Dukes of Hazzard. Watching season 3 now.
  3. All in the Family. For some reason, I had a hard time getting into the first season. I’ll try it again.
  4. Soap. Watched all 4 seasons. Loved it.
  5. Saturday Night Live. Just about through the first season. While some skits haven’t aged well, I’m really enjoying this.

In my queue.

  1. The Love Boat
  2. Fantasy Island. Can’t have Love Boat without Fantasy Island.
  3. Good Times
    I’ll probably also add The Jeffersons, One Day at a Time, and The Facts of Life.

So, what am I missing?

2

What are you missing from the 1970s? My choice are a bit odd:

Connections by James Burke. In the US i ran on PBS, and it blew me away.
Roots, the mini-series based on Alex Haley’s book, was a TV blockbuster and a major history lesson for a lot of people.

MAS*H – got better through the 1970s, and still one of my all-time favorite TV shows.
** The Mary Tyler Moore Show** – another good TV sitcom.

3

I’ve been Neflixing this the last month or so and have just started the 2nd season. I’d forgotten how much I used to love it.

DVD pluses: through the commentaries and that feature on the final DVD in the first-season set, I have learned quite a lot about MTM’s hat-throwing in the credits and how they made the kitten logo.

4

The Odd Couple and Barney Miller. Not all seasons are available yet, though.

5

Columbo… Greatest detective ever!!

6

The Bob Newhart Show. My wife got me into it and I really enjoy it. Only the first four seasons are out though.

7

Taxi and WKRP in Cincinnati (only the first season’s available, though).

p.s. I was surprised to see how well Soap held up when I watched it on DVD. Same with Mary Tyler Moore and Bob Newhart.

8

Your sanity? I would rather put red-hot darning needles through my eardrums than watch All in the Family ever again.

Okay, granted. But aside from that, what did 'Seventies television ever do for us?

Stranger

9

However, it is perfectly sane to watch dvds of The Dukes of Hazzard!

10

Shows I’ve watched that haven’t been mentioned yet:

Mork and Mindy (first season is the only one I’ve seen): Definitely a vehicle for Robin Williams. His schtick is fun to watch, though if you were to subtract it, what would be left would be a conventional, dated sitcom.

Quincy: Jack Klugman is good, but the show doesn’t seem as fast-paced or sophisticated as similar shows of today.

11

I know a number of men who were very thankful for Lynda Carter in Wonder Woman.

(I have all three seasons on DVD and… wow, she was a cutie. Kinda dumb stories usually, but entertaining to watch, and plenty of eye candy.)

12

Don’t forget Rockford Files. I got my dad Season 1 of that for Father’s Day. He loves it.

13

The A-Team, duh. How can you watch Dukes of Hazzard and not the A-Team? (I dunno, maybe I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure we used to watch them together when I was a kid.)

14

The original **Battlestar Galactica ** counts as a seventy’s show. I’ve been wondering for awhile now whether I’d enjoy revisiting it. I was young enough to enjoy it when it was running.

15

The A-team is a 1980’s show.
A-Team

16

I have had a good time this summer watching Scooby doo (early 1970s) and Spiderman (late 1960s) with my 3yr old son.

some of the stuff really cracks me up

certianly don’t mean to hijack, I gather the OP does not want to include animated 70s classics

17

I have just finished the first season of Banacek, the Polish prince.

Still waiting for The Paper Chase and the rest of Barney Miller.

18

One reason for its lack of technical sophistication (I’ll let Steven Johnson explain the lack of every other kind of sophistication in this and most of the other shows) is that forensic science was in its infancy back then and Quincy, Sam, and the lab were were on the cutting edge and an optical microscope, a spectrograph, an X-ray machine, and a few blood tests were all anybody had for toys. Quincy had barely more at his disposal than Sherlock Holmes did 80 years before.

19

Emergency! was a classic 70s TV show (about firefighter/paramedics) that stayed at the top of the ratings for seven years and holds up rather well today. I think the first four seasons are out on DVD. Some credit the show with driving the establishment of paramedic programs across the United States. IIRC, it ran directly opposite ‘All In the Family’ and was the only show that ever gave it serious ratings competition.

20

Next to MASH, my favorite '70’s DVD find has been The Streets of San Francisco. Michael Douglas (now I remember why I had a crush on him!), Karl Malden, interesting, well-written crime stories, great guest stars, and of course the City by the Bay.