My most memorable year of tv viewing was 1968. Mod Squad, Land of the Giants, Hogan’s Heroes, The Guns of Will Sonnett, Ironside, THE F.B.I… I had a favorite show to eagerly watch every night of the week. It was one of the best prime time schedules ever. imho I was in 5th grade.
I was curious to see the old schedule and what nights the shows were on. Wikipedia has it laid out very simply. Life was so easy then. three channels and three hours of prime time. There wasn’t really that many shows compared to today.
think back to your childhood. What was the year you had the most favorite shows to watch? When you couldn’t wait to turn on the tv at 7pm? How old were you?
wikipedia has a navigate bar by year in the upper right corner. Or just change the URL’s years.
for example 1982 I changed the earlier link from 1968–69 to 1982–83
Wikipedia made it simple to jump to various years.
Anyone else get totally absorbed by the 70’s dramas?
Medical Center and Cannon started in 1971
Barnaby Jones, The Streets of San Francisco, Waltons and Marcus Welby all started in 1972
yeah 1972 rocked with those six shows Great memories
Tv became less important in high school. I had other activities and wasn’t home. No VCR’s and if you missed a show that was it. The rerun would be a couple months later.
You’ve now linked to a grid showing THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO and THE A-TEAM and KNIGHT RIDER and THE FALL GUY and THE DUKES OF HAZZARD and MAGNUM PI, and so my elementary-school-age self literally could not be more impressed.
Combat!***; Rat Patrol; 12 O’Clock High (albeit marred by the departure of General Savage); Batman; Wild, Wild West; Time Tunnel; Green Hornet; The Avengers; Mission: Impossible (with Steven Hill as Dan Briggs); F Troop; Gilligan’s Island; Hogan’s Heroes; ***That Girl ***(Marlo Thomas, mmmmmmmmm! :o ), Bewitched (Elizabeth Montgomery, GRRRRRRAOWRRRR! ); Get Smart; Gomer Pyle; It’s about Time; The Beverly Hillbillies; Green Acres. These were all must-sees.
Lots of other shows I liked but didn’t watch regularly, e.g., The Fugitive, Man from UNCLE; Daniel Boone; I Dream of Jeannie; Dean Martin; Phyllis Diller.
No, I wasn’t into Star Trek when I was 11 or 12. I was a second-generation Trekkie—I didn’t start watching it until after it was in syndication.
Also not particularly interested in Girl from UNCLE or (by this time) Lost in Space and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
Short-lived shows that I didn’t watch but wish I had: Jericho (about the French Resistance in WWII), Coronet Blue (about a double agent who’s lost his memory), The Man Who Never Was (Robert Lansing mistaken for a spy).
Looking over the official schedule for the year, I see other shows are missing: Addams Family, Munsters, McHale’s Navy, Jonny Quest, Tom Jones (all cancelled), and The Prisoner (not until the next season).
I picked 1982 completely at random. But you’re right that was a very good tv schedule. I watched most of those shows.
TV was such a big influence on kids before the internet and home video. Reading these old prime time tv schedules puts me right back on the sofa in my pj’s. Watching hour after hour of my favorite shows,
I can’t think of a show that hooked me to a night until Cheers came along. Somewhere along the line I began to schedule based on leaving Thursday night open to see it.
Are most people picking shows from their childhoods, teens or 20s? Does anyone have a collection of shows they were glued to in their 40s or senior years?
For me, I guess it was TGIF on ABC. Full house, family matters, perfect strangers, a fourth show that wasn’t ever very good, then 20/20.
This would’ve been around 1991. Another lineup I loved was Fox on sunday around 1990. Married with children, in living color, the simpsons.
Some. CSI; Criminal Minds; The Sopranos; Due South; Married … with Children; 'Allo, 'allo!; The Simpsons all come to mind. I turned 40 in 1995, and I would have seen all these mostly while I was living full-time in Russia.
Most of the 80s were pretty great for my family WRT television. We’ve always been a television family.
I’ll say 87-88.
Our House, Married With Children, It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, Max Headroom, Tracey Ullman, Kate & Allie, Newheart, Valerie’s Family, Family Ties, Perfect Strangers, Nightcourt, Head of the Class, ALF, Sledgehammer!, Full House, Cosby, Different World, The Wonder Years, Just the 10 of Us, Cheers, Designing Women, Mr. Belvedere, Facts of Life, Amen, The Golden Girls. Plus, I often watched the Disney Sunday Movie.
This was the greatest lineup in American TV history. It was so good, it only lasted one season. CBS broke it up so they could jump start new shows Paul Sands, Doc, Jeffersons, etc.) by sliding them into the lineup.
Same here, although I only recall watching the bolded ones. I would have been 9 or so when this lineup was on, and haven’t watched tv like that before or since. I remember squabbling with my siblings over who had to wash the dishes on Thursday and Friday nights.
Also, totally didn’t realize that Facts of Life was still going then! Loved it in the early 80s, though I can’t remember quite why.
'97-'98. Seinfeld, ER, Friends, Third Rock, Simpsons, Newsradio, Frasier, King of the Hill, 90210, Drew Carey. That was a good year. Plus, Beavis and Butthead was still on, Real World Seattle, and MTV still played music videos.
I was in 5th grade.
Great memories
); Get Smart; Gomer Pyle; It’s about Time; The Beverly Hillbillies; Green Acres. These were all must-sees.