Saturday, December 12, 2009

What were your favorite TV shows?

Every once in awhile I think about some of my favorite TV shows when I was growing up. I can remember sitting on the couch with my eyes glued to the tube. The house could have burned down around me and I would not have noticed! Here a few shows that I watched religiously.

M.A.S.H.
Aired:
1972 - 1983
Show Type: Live Action
Country of Origin: US

The 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital is stuck in the middle of the Korean war. With little help from the circumstances they find themselves in, they are forced to make their own fun. Fond of practical jokes and revenge, the doctors, nurses, administrators, and soldiers often find ways of making wartime life bearable. Nevertheless, the war goes on, and over time, friends are lost and new ones gained.

This show has several interesting trivia facts:
-The series lasted 11 years, while the actual Korean War was only 3.
-Almost 125 million people in the USA watched the final episode, at that time the largest audience ever for a television program.
-Klinger's attempt to be thrown out of the army by wearing women's clothing was inspired by the comedian Lenny Bruce, who similarly attempted to win his way home from active service by dressing up as a WAVE (female officer).
-During filming for the final episode, a brush fire broke out and destroyed much of the ranch set. Since the show was coming to an end, it was decided that rebuilding the set would be unnecessarily expensive, and the fire was written into the story by having the North Koreans set off incendiary devices and start a brush fire.

Land of the Lost
Aired:
1974 - 1977
Show Type: Live Action
Country of Origin: US

This show was about a father and his son and daughter who get sucked into a rift in the earth. Their jeep lands in "The Land of the Lost", a pre-historic time period, and they need to learn how to survive so they can find a way back home. They meet some dangerous creatures along the way, but they also makes friends and allies as well. The show was a bit campy, but I found it to be enjoyable :)

Hong Kong Phooey
Aired:
1974 - 1975
Show Type: Animated
Country of Origin: US

Hong Kong Phooey #1 Super Guy! In the 1970’s a Kung Fu craze was sweeping the nation and Hong Kong Phooey was Hanna-Barbera’s contribution to it. Hong Kong Phooey was a mild-mannered janitor named Penrod Pooch that worked in a police station with sergeant Flint and Rosemary the telephone operator. Hong Kong would literally jump at the call for help and emerge from a filing cabinet in full crime fighting gear. Phooey would get to the crime scene in the Phooeymobile, an ever-adapting car that could change into a boat, a plane, a telephone booth or whatever it needed to be. Hong Kong would solve the crime and capture the bad guy thanks to his striped sidekick spot the cat. The show remained on air for only 16 episodes.

Six Million Dollar Man
Aired:
1974 - 1978
Show Type: Live Action
Country of Origin: US

Colonel Steve Austin was a top NASA pilot, critically injured when his experimental spaceplane crashed. Oscar Goldman, head of the OSI (a government organization that develops new technologies), used Austin as a test subject for an experimental procedure. His body was rebuilt using incredible cybernetic technlogy, making him the world's first bionic man. Now, Austin works for Goldman and the OSI, protecting the nation from a myriad of threats.


The Pink Panther
Aired:
1971 - 1976
Show Type: Animated
Country of Origin: US

The 2nd Pink Panther Show featuring the Ant & the Aardvark.


Fat Albert
Aired:
1972 - 1984
Show Type: Animated
Country of Origin: US

Live action bumpers featuring Bill Cosby were set around animated episodes of Fat Albert and The Cosby Kids, a series about a group of urban adolescents growing up in a Philadelphia neighborhood. The show was based on Cosby's '60s stand up comedy monologues about his childhood.

The episodes revolved around the daily life lessons learned by Albert and his friends. Topics ranged from social issues to personal introspection and were blended with humor and music. Among the many great characters that inhabited Fat Albert's world were Rudy, Mushmouth, Donald, Bill, Weird Harold and Russell.


Sigmund & the Sea Monsters
Aired:
1973 - 1975
Show Type: Live Action
Country of Origin: US

Two boys, Johnny and Scott, were playing on the beach one day when they "meet" Sigmund, a green sea monster with tentacles who looks like moving seaweed. As it turns out, Sigmund got tired of his family who wanted him to become a "proper" sea monster (i.e., scaring people etc), and as a result, he ran away from home. Johnny and Scott decided to take him home with them, and decide to hide him in their clubhouse hoping that the housekeeper Zelda (who looks after them while their parents [whom we never see] are away) never finds him. Meanwhile, Signmund's family, who lives at "Dead Man's Point", is constantly scheming different ways to bring Sigmund back home, one way or the other. Signmund's brothers, Blurp and Slurp, are always trying to forcibly take Sigmund back with them, but their plans never work...

Isis
Aired:
1975 - 1976
Show Type: Live Action
Country of Origin: US

Thousands of years ago, Egyptian Queen Hatchupset was given an amulet by her Royal Wizard. This amulet empowered the queen with the powers of the goddess Isis; to command the elements of sky and earth. Flash forward to present time (1970's that is) young science teacher Andrea Thomas found this lost amulet while on an archaeological dig. She found she was heir to the "Secrets of Isis." By bearing the necklace that had the amulet, and calling out the phrase "OH MIGHTY ISIS," Andrea was transformed into Isis. As Isis, she could "soar as the falcon soars, run with the speed of gazelles, and command all the elements of sky and earth." In order to invoke her powers, she had to recite incantations. Her most famous incantation - "Oh zephyr winds which blow on high, lift me now so I can fly" - assisted her in taking flight. She also had control of animals, fire, water, etc. Her powers were usually used to help teach young people she came in contact with, a moral lesson. Her associates, Rick Mason, Cindy Lee, Dr. Barnes, and later, Rennie Carroll, were oblivious to her dual identity. Isis was seen as the female counterpart to Shazam (Captain Marvel). They had a few crossover episodes to each other's shows.

Good Times
Aired:
1974 - 1979
Show Type: Live Action
Country of Origin: US

The spin-off series to "Maude" features an African American family in Chicago.



Police Woman
Aired:
1974 - 1978
Show Type: Live Action
Country of Origin: US

Sexy Sgt. Pepper Anderson was an undercover agent for the criminal conspiracy department of the Los Angeles Police Department. Working on a vice-squad team that included detectives Joe Styles and Pete Royster, two other undercover cops, she was called on to pose as everything from a prostitute to a gangster's girlfriend.
The team reported directly to Lt. Bill Crowley, who
was the coordinator of its operations. Although not
seen on a regular basis, Pepper's autistic younger
sister Cherl, was visited occasionally at the Austin
School for the Handicapped during the first season. Pepper was a sensual, brassy, compassionate, sincere, and beautiful divorcee. She resided at 102 Crestview Drive. Stories, which were adult and open minded about sex and marriage, realistically depicted the life of a police woman.

Bionic Woman
Aired: 1976 - 1978
Show Type: Live Action
Country of Origin: US

Starring Lindsay Wagner as Jamie Sommers. A retired pro tennis player turned Californian middle school teacher experiences a parachute failure and the accident renders her a tomato. The government takes the opportunity to turn her into a government project and replaces her most damaged limbs and parts of the body with bionic machinery and parts... making her an all powerful crime fighting machine with super strength and hearing. Her signature was her jumping... over small buildings, walls, cars, she cleared them with no problem. Yeah... her running was cool too.

More of my favorites:
Adam 12
Emergency
The Incredible Hulk
Kojac
Logans Run
Wonder Woman
CHips
Barnaby Jones
The Carol Burnet Show
The Gong Show
Shazam
Starsky and Hutch
Ant and the Aardvark
The Dukes of Hazzard
Mork and Mindy
The Jeffersons