In the late '80s hubby got addicted to EastEnders (along with an Australian prison soap opera). Later he also avidly watched soap about football (soccer) players. I do not remember the names of either of the last two.
We were trying to remember which station he watched them on and could not come up with it. EastEnders could have been PBS but we both cannot imagine the Australian prison soap playing on PBS and we both remember him watching them back to back. The footie soap was much later and could have been on any one of the newer places you can watch stuff.
Are You Being Served always seemed a bit lowbrow for PBS to me. It’s like they kept trying to repeat the success of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. First with Fawlty Towers, then The Goodies, always getting further away from what appealed to Python fans until they ended up with something like Are you Being Served?.
It was probably Prisoner (which was called Prisoner: Cell Block H in the U.S.). I seem to remember seeing it syndicated, on an independent U.S. station, here in the US back in the '80s.
The Wikipedia article I linked to contains a partial list of U.S. stations which carried it.
The Prisoner was aired on CBS as a summer replacement in 1967, as I recall.
Strange Report and Dean Martin’s Golddiggers from London were summer replacements on NBC in 1970, I think. I vaguely remember Val Doonican and Engelbert Humperdinck being on around the same time.
Tom Jones was on ABC Friday nights before The Avengers in 1965–66. The Tara King episodes of The Avengers continued through 1969, IIRC.
The Persuaders was run in prime time in the early '70s. The Champions and The Protectors were on in syndication around the same time.
I loved watching Dave Allen at Large in syndication in the early '80s. Tales of the Unexpected was on in syndication around the same time.
The Six Wives of Henry VIII was on CBS (I think) as a summer replacement when I was in junior high. I watched it later on PBS along with Elizabeth R.
I became a regular PBS viewer around 1975 when they aired The Ascent of Man after Civilisation. Monty Python came on the same year.
I watched Connections on PBS in the early '80s
I now watch Heartbeat, The Royal, and Doc Martin every week.
Blake’s Seven and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy were on PBS in the early '80s, IIRC.
Were 'Allo, 'Allo and The Thin Blue Line aired in the US? I saw them when I was living abroad in the '90s.
The Goode Life was aired on PBS under the title Goode Neighbors in the early '80s.
Oh that reminds me, what about all the Agatha Christies??? I’ve never yet found a Miss Marple version that I think really nailed the title character, but many viewers feel differently.
And David Suchet’s Poirot absolutely is Hercule Poirot as far as I’m concerned. (And I’ve always thought that Philip Jackson’s Inspector Japp is right up there with Anton Lesser’s Chief Superintendent Bright in Endeavour as an all-time gem of a supporting-actor performance.)