3rd Rock, anyone? 6 seasons, 139 episodes. The only thing I remember about it was William Shatner showing up saying he was just on a plane with a gremlin on the wing, and John Lithgow says “The same thing happened to me!”
And I’m sure most people of a certain age remember ABC’s Wide World of Sports, but I had no idea that thing ran until 2006!
My only recollection was of a bumper (those little skits that run under the credits) where they played with the 4th wall. They tried rearranging the furniture in the room but no one liked things when they put the couch or a painting on the “camera wall”. It was cute.
Is that show Rules of Engagement still on the air after 7 seasons?
Regarding Malcolm in the Middle:
It is in syndication. One of my cable channels airs it in all-day marathon blocks. But I think it is falling rapidly in syndication popularity. Are all the episodes available in HD? That effects semi-recent series rerun potential.
Regarding Ed Sullivan: I watch Letterman, so I get references to the old Stone Face’s show several times a week. Paul even does “right here on our stage” thing from time to time. (And then there’s crosswords. Old-timers nostalgia paradise. I even saw a reference to Topo Gigio a couple weeks ago.)
I’ve never heard of half these shows! 
California Dreams is utterly unknown to me, really? All I can surmise is that they were just sort of…there…noise on the TV…while flipping channels, looking for something you actually wanted to watch. Not unlike those filler songs they play on the radio while you wait for a good song.
Used to be the stations that ran syndicated reruns would show old shows. That’s how someone my age could be well acquainted with shows like I Dream of Genie and Giligans Island. Now those stations will only show old episodes of recently off the air shows. Or shows that are still on the air and play them to death. That’s why a lot of shows are forgotten. The before mentioned Wings was played to death right after it went off the air.
And even the most unmemorable show can have a killer episode or two. Wings may fade away, but “The Big Sandwich” will live forever!
Wings has one of my favorite lines of all time. Probably wont work typed out because its all about timing and character.
Helen riding in a plane with idiotic mechanic Lowell when something goes wrong.
Helen: What just happened?
Lowell: Looks like catastrophic engine failure.
Helen: What causes that?
Lowell (looking at her like she’s an idiot): A catastrophe.
Just wanted to report in that I had a Yes, Dear sighting this morning on DirecTV! It was on some nick at night channel I think. Couldn’t believe it!
Me (see post #42) 
FWIW I liked Wings. My dad was a pilot and I thought it was cool that there was a sitcom about pilots. I liked Tony Shalhoub and have been glad to see him go on to greater success.
I saw Yes, Dear once or twice and it failed to make an impression on me. I’m not sure I’d remember it at all now except that one of the actors, Mike O’Malley, went on to play the only sane adult on Glee (Kurt’s dad, Burt Hummel). I don’t think I’d have even remembered he was on Yes, Dear if I hadn’t seen it mentioned somewhere online, though – I recognized him primarily from a supporting role as the cop on My Name is Earl. He also hosted a game show on Nickelodeon about 20 years ago, which may also be more memorable than the fact that he was on Yes, Dear.
My Family aired for a while on “British comedy night” on my local PBS station. I remember wondering why they’d chosen to include such a generic family sitcom (even the name is generic!) when we could see the same sort of thing on American television. I didn’t think it was awful, but it seemed like a generic American family sitcom only with British actors. Some of the other British shows aired on PBS are not IMHO that great, but many of them are about middle aged and elderly people (e.g. Keeping Up Appearances, Last of the Summer Wine) and since a lot of older folks watch PBS and not a lot of American shows center on older people I can see why they were chosen.
“Margaret, let me see Mr. Nielsen’s chart. Hmm, those numbers aren’t that bad.”
Becker runs pretty continuously in syndication.
3rd Rock ran pretty constantly on TV Land. Lots of great in-jokes too. For one, Dick (John Lithgow) ranting against rock and roll in a direct parody of his preacher character in Footloose.
Newsradio lasted five seasons (With Wings as a lead in), but never really made a cultural impact.
It’s one of my favorite shows ever, but it’s hard to find anyone who remembers it. One of my favorite moments of TV anywhere was when Jimmy James (the billionaire station owner) reads from his book ‘Macho Business Donkey Wrestler’
I see no mention of either Soap or Barney Miller, both of which were considered groundbreaking when they first came on:
St Elsewhere?
Hill Street Blues?
Lou Grant?
Remington Steele?
Rockford Files?
Last time I heard anyone mention Rockford Files was on an old rerun of Frasier. 
How about Alice? It ran for 9 seasons, and I remember it being part of a very popular programming block, but very little of it has been released on DVD, and I don’t believe reruns are frequently aired.
The British comedy Are You Being Served ran from 1972 to 1985, and was shown on PBS. Most people have never heard of it, but it is fabulous.
I loved Third Rock From the Sun. So many great characters and actors such as the above mentioned Lithgow and of course Joseph Gordon-Levitt (he sure grew up, hubba hubba)
Omg, I loved that show too! Along with Keeping Up Appearances!
** drew** is right, someone who watched as much tv as me really doesn’t count, lol
I loved that it had Dave Foley in it from Kids In The Hall
Walker gave Haley Joel Osment AIDS.