And since it is my thread, you don’t need to be too rigid about the no-reruns thing. Something might be shown at 3 am somewhere but that doesn’t mean that anyone is really following it (as opposed to random channel surfing insomniacs).
No argument. GSN isn’t even basic cable here any more like it used to be, and I don’t expect anybody to recognize the name American Life. But, yeah, I was just applying the OP’s “isn’t rerun anywhere” criterion.
Which I now see the OP is waffling on. Meh.
The Rockford Files had a long, healthy run in syndication, but I haven’t seen it in years.
On the other hand, a friend of mine is hooked on current reruns of Columbo and Simon & Simon.
Does anyone, anyone at all, remember James at 15? High ratings, critical acclaim, controversial, and then splat.
Or Freaks and Geeks. Or any of a number of shows that were beloved by critics but not the public. Can anyone think of a few more?
Small Wonder
Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous
The inside-out version of this concept is:Peter Gunn.
And early PI show from B&W TV, it didn’t last long.
But Henry Mancini’s Peter Gun Theme…AH! A classic, & widely played today.
Oh, yeah! Lance Kerwin? Didn’t it go up to James at 17? I liked that show.
There was a moderately successful fan convention in Toronto for Due South a couple of months ago. I wasn’t there, but I was mailed souvenirs. David Marciano spoke, apparently he was very well received, and everyone involved with the show seems to be incredibly sweet to its fans, which probably explains why the fans stay so loyal.
I guess that makes it under the radar but not totally at the bottom of the ocean, or something.
It went up to “…at 16”, but didn’t last long enough to change to 17. I remember that show was controversial enough that my parents wouldn’t let me & my sibs watch it.
As for new additions to the thread, what about “the Six Million Dollar Man” and “the Bionic Woman”? I remember them being HUGE shows in my youth, and what the hell is Lee Majors doing now? (I saw Lindsay Wagner in a paid-advertising special, selling I think mattresses.)
He was in Out Cold, playing Jason Majors, a business tycoon who wanted to buy the ski town the movie is based around and turn it into a gimmicky yuppie ski resort. Absolutely hilarious movie very very loosely based on Casablanca.
Do you mean Mystery Science Theater 3000? There are a lot of episodes on DVD, and as far as cultural radar, maybe you don’t know as many dorky people as I do. Rowsdower!
No, he means Science Fiction Theatre.
Dur. Thanks. I guess he’s right, then.
Lucky for you you didn’t mention Alicia Witt. Some industry goon in a black suit and no tie would have sprung up out of the back seat of your car and scrambled your brains with a single, silencered bullet. pweewt.
We don’t talk about Alicia.
Hey, that was my good suggestion! Take it back so I can say it first. 
Okay, erm, how about X-Files. It was huge when it started, but when they announced another movie, it seemed like someone was having a mean-spirited joke at the show’s expense. Like someone wanted to make sure they had an entry for “Least Necessary TV-to-movie adaptation of 2008”.
No, it only went up to 16.
Alf?
You have to keep an eye on the dollar DVD racks at Wally World and 7-11. I was very much surprised to learn that is was contemporary with the first few seasons of “The Twilight Zone” because, even as a kid in the early 60s, it seemed much older, like from the early- to mid-50s.
I, too, have not found “Man Into Space,” though I keep looking for it. Because of it, the associated lunchbox, and real books by Willy Ley (he’s the one who was NOT a Nazi war criminal) I have never ceased to be disappointed by NASA. Where’s the style? Where’s the flair? Where’s the exposed tanks?
It seems to me that this is true of almost all television programs, other than the very few that become ‘cult’ classics.
Even the biggest of TV shows succumbs to this eventually. How about The Mary Tyler Moore Show? When I was growing up, that was the biggest show on television, bar none. It kept that title for years and years. But I haven’t seen an episode of that on TV in at least ten years, and maybe longer. And no one talks about it any more.
Or even the biggest comedy ever, I Love Lucy? It maybe has a little more visibility than some of its peers, but it’s getting close to being forgotten.
The Waltons and Little House on the Prairie are increasingly forgotten because the culture has simply moved on from the values they represent, and the audience doesn’t relate. When I was a kid, those shows were huge because they called back to a simpler time that the audience still remembered fondly. Now the population is urban and sophisticated, and those shows are looking increasingly archaic and drawing much less interest.
I disagree about The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman. Both of them have entered the public consciousness. There were recently movie remakes of them, and you hear references to them in shows all the time. I think people will remember those shows for quite a long time (maybe not so much the Bionic Woman).
MASH will also be around for a long time, because it’s timeless. It was already an historical comedy when it came out, so it doesn’t really age. As new audiences discover it, it takes on new life. The same can be said for shows like “Fawlty Towers”. They could be set in one of many decades, and you can’t really tell. And the humor isn’t topical.
That’s probably also why a comedy like “Caddyshack” will outlive other comedies like “Trading Places”. Caddyshack is set on a nondescript golf course, and doesn’t really age. “Trading Places” feels very much of its time as it set on locations all over the place, and they’re all looking very dated.