# TV Shows Only You Remember **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [July 8, 2021, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-only-you-remember/946022 "2021-07-08T20:36:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2021, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-only-you-remember/946022/142 "2021-07-09T23:54:56Z")
I know Arlene was the girlfriend of both Howard Sprague and Sam Jones on _ **Andy Griffith** _/_ **Mayberry RFD** _, but I first became aware of her in1965, listening to this record that my dad had: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/uil9jjO-EWQ/maxresdefault.jpg "You Don't have to Be Jewish - 1965") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uil9jjO-EWQ) This was my introduction to Jewish humor,\* which has stayed with me ever since. When Arlene turned up in Mayberry a few years later, I couldn’t help thinking that she seemed somewhat … out of place? \*Along with _ **MAD Magazine** _, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2021, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-only-you-remember/946022/143 "2021-07-10T00:44:19Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > When Arlene turned up in Mayberry a few years later, I couldn’t help thinking that she seemed somewhat … out of place? She also played a prostitute in _Hang 'Em High_ and _All in the Family_, so she was more out of place than you thought! ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2021, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-only-you-remember/946022/144 "2021-07-10T00:51:32Z")
Yes, she had quite a career. She apparently had two roles in Mayberry. I also saw her recently in an episode of _ **Matlock** _, in which she played a rich cougar. Turns out she was a roommate of Valerie Harper too. > **[Arlene Golonka](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlene_Golonka)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > Arlene Leanore Golonka (January 23, 1936 – May 31, 2021) was an American actress. She is perhaps best known for playing Millie Hutchins on the television comedy The Andy Griffith Show and Millie Swanson on Mayberry R.F.D., and often portrayed bubbly, eccentric blondes in supporting character roles on stage, film, and television. > Golonka was born in Chicago on January 23, 1936, of Polish descent, the daughter of Elinor (Wroblewski) and Frank Golon... > **["Matlock" The Celebrity (TV Episode 1991) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0643972/)** > > The Celebrity: Directed by Leo Penn. With Andy Griffith, Nancy Stafford, Julie Sommars, Clarence Gilyard Jr.. Matlock defends cosmetics queen Catherine Welden who is accused of killing a former live-in lover who was blackmailing her for 4 million... ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2021, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-only-you-remember/946022/145 "2021-07-10T00:56:50Z")
I just want to say that if you’re of a certain age, like born in '63, almost all of this is ‘Yeah, summer, 73, 8:00, CBS . . . and why did have to remind me of how terrible television was when I was a kid?’ ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2021, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-only-you-remember/946022/146 "2021-07-10T00:58:08Z")
I remember Paula Prentiss mainly from this movie, which I saw at a very impressionable age. > **[Man's Favorite Sport? (1964) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058324/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)** > > Man's Favorite Sport?: Directed by Howard Hawks. With Rock Hudson, Paula Prentiss, Maria Perschy, John McGiver. The author of a best-selling fishing guide is actually extremely inexperienced in the sport, which causes mayhem when he is entered into a... ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2021, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-only-you-remember/946022/147 "2021-07-10T01:05:45Z")
Before he was Ralph and Randy’s dad… [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/mpn4WboU660/hqdefault.jpg "KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER - promos & ephemera") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpn4WboU660) ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2021, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-only-you-remember/946022/148 "2021-07-10T01:33:49Z")
Much earlier, Darren McGavin started with a young Burt Reynolds in a Gunsmoke-meets-Route 66 show called Riverboat. Regardless of how we now look back on each of them, I do like the classic insult Burt Reynolds used to describe his co-star’s ego; “Three days after he dies, McGavin is in for a big disappointment.” “Traveling around helping people” seemed like a common theme for shows back them. Besides the two mentioned above, it was just came as second nature. Even if the cops were chasing you, like David Janssen, or you only had a few months to live, like Ben Gazzara, or would turn green and bulk up like Bill Bixby, you still had time to fix other peoples messed up lives once a week. Can’t imagine that today. “who was that masked man?” “I don’t know, but when my husband was drinking up the grocery money, he just shrugged and his horse shit in front of my house.” ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2021, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-only-you-remember/946022/149 "2021-07-10T01:46:01Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > In 2014 when Indy Niedell started his incredible WWI weekly centennial Youtube channel, I wrote in asking if the opening riff was from that. Soon a different intro was in use. Was it “if some nudnik on the internet hears a similarity, what about the estate of Morton Gould?” The complete CBS documentary series. narrated by Robert Ryan, is on YouTube. Unfortunately, the quality of the episodes I’ve watched is pretty poor. ---
**Author:** ![Jay\_Z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Jay\_Z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jay_Z)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2021, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-only-you-remember/946022/150 "2021-07-10T02:08:54Z")
> [@digs](#): > > I know those guys! > > Anyone from Madison, WI might remember the amazing troupe of improv guys who worked for ComedySportz (on State Street). Well, a half dozen of them became the Bert Fershners. And then moved away and went on to become Doctors and Programmers and Regular People. Though one of them worked on the [excellent documentary](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5591236/) on [Smart Studios](https://pbswisconsin.org/article/directors-cut-the-smart-studios-story/) in Madison, where Butch Vig recorded and produced Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Garbage, Death Cab For Cutie and other bands. > > I can find out more about the Fershners through friends we have in common, if anyone wants… I remember them too and Comedysportz. From the looks of it, some of them did stick it out in entertainment. I saw their pilot on air. ---
**Author:** ![Jay\_Z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Jay\_Z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jay_Z)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2021, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-only-you-remember/946022/151 "2021-07-10T02:11:40Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > She also played a prostitute in _Hang 'Em High_ and _All in the Family_ , so she was more out of place than you thought! I think she was actually a prostitute on Maude, not AITF. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2021, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-only-you-remember/946022/152 "2021-07-10T02:46:02Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > _ **Mr Terrific** _ on CBS. > > _A scientist, both brave and bold, set out to cure the common cold. He found instead this Power Pill, which he said most surely will turn a man into a lion, like an eagle he’ll be flying…_ The only thing I remember about that show is that the “power pill” was enormous—about the size of a large gumball. I found this very disturbing, because I had a childhood phobia about swallowing pills. Oh, and I also remember that he had to flap his arms to fly. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2021, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-only-you-remember/946022/153 "2021-07-10T02:51:51Z")
There was a show in the late-'70s, or possibly very early-'80s about a space ship that got caught in a time warp and returned to Earth in the future. The space ship was a Space Shuttle, and I’m pretty sure one of the actors was Ike Eisenmann, I can’t remember the name of it. There was also a show about colonising Mars, that had Tim Curry in it. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2021, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-only-you-remember/946022/154 "2021-07-10T03:08:52Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > There was a show in the late-'70s, or possibly very early-'80s about a space ship that got caught in a time warp and returned to Earth in the future. The space ship was a Space Shuttle, and I’m pretty sure one of the actors was Ike Eisenmann, I can’t remember the name of it. That sounds like the opening to the [Buck Rogers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v32VypWeF0I) series starring Gil Gerard and Erin Gray. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2021, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-only-you-remember/946022/155 "2021-07-10T03:36:43Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > That sounds like the opening to the [Buck Rogers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v32VypWeF0I) series starring Gil Gerard and Erin Gray. That show still runs once a week on one of those channels for old people like me….. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2021, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-only-you-remember/946022/156 "2021-07-10T04:43:42Z")
I remember Emerald Point, N.A.S., which only lasted one season 83-84. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2021, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-only-you-remember/946022/157 "2021-07-10T05:04:44Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > I can’t find it anywhere online, but the three old boyfriends of her mother that she thought could be her father were Larroquette’s character, a random made-up character, and a real well-known man (whose name she mentioned). Apparently this man had given his permission to be mentioned on the show as one of the three possible fathers. I found the episode on YouTube. It’s S2 E8. The three men who could have been Bialik’s character’s father were Larroquette’s character, someone described as a politician in Colorado, and Kinky Friedman. I presume that Friedman gave the people who ran this series permission to have him listed by Bialik’s character as one of the three possible fathers. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2021, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-only-you-remember/946022/158 "2021-07-10T10:37:43Z")
Anyone else remember “ **Babes** ”, an early-'90s sitcom about three overweight sisters? It was fairly controversial at the time, yet fairly funny. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2021, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-only-you-remember/946022/159 "2021-07-10T11:31:12Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > My obscure contributions are _Space Precinct_ . A show about a cop, but he’s in space for some reason. It was syndicated in the 90s, like _Xena_ or _Hercules_ , but unlike those I’m not sure anybody else ever watched it. yep it had ted shackelford who had just finished knots landing a year or two before this … > [@Jackmannii](#): > > Another good show was Night Heat. It was produced in Canada but was about graveyard shift detectives and an intrepid reporter in an unnamed northeastern U.S. city. that and a spy show called Adderley was part of the infamous cbs “late show” either before or after the pat Sajak show flopped … it was partly written by sonny Grosso a cop that turned to writing tv shows that the networks loved for some reason until something happened or was discovered … > [@MrAtoz](#): > > **The Adventures of Sinbad** , which was actually mentioned on an episode of _Hercules_ . They had like 2 seasons partially filmed after the aired ones but the producers and production company went bankrupt ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2021, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-only-you-remember/946022/160 "2021-07-10T11:33:40Z")
In one episode of Xena, characters in trouble say something to the effect (when Xena comes to the rescue), “Oh, we were hoping for Hercules, or at least Sinbad” ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2021, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-only-you-remember/946022/161 "2021-07-10T12:33:46Z")
There was a short-lived UK science fiction show back in 1970 that I loved but have never seen since it first aired. It was [The Adventures of Don Quick](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Don_Quick) and was loosely inspired by Don Quixote. Quick was a member of a Maintainance Squad who visited different planets to fix problems - but he always misinterpreted things and caused problems instead of solving them. Before that, in 1966, there was another UK production called [Vendetta](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159927/), which appeared at the height of The Man From UNCLE’s popularity. It wasn’t a secret organisation, but the hero did spend all his time taking down various Mafia characters. The IMDB link above describes it as ‘Intrigue from the Mediterranean Islands as Danny Scipio dispenses his own brand of revenge against organized crime outfits around Europe.’ It ran for 2 series and I think I watched every episode but I don’t think I’ve met anyone else who remembers it! (It’s nothing to do with the 1980s show with the same title about a demoted tv producer.) And, finally, there was a short season of only 4 episodes of a sitcom called [Room at the Bottom](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0224523/) from 1964. Obviously based on Room at the Top, it featured the janitors, cleaners, etc. of an office block and how they really ran the show! Looking at the link, it had a top cast of British actors so I’m not sure why it only lasted 4 episodes. I expect I was too young to get a lot of the jokes but my father (who worked in an office) enjoyed it and so I watched it too and still remember little bits of it… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-only-you-remember/946022.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-only-you-remember/946022.md?page=9)