1970's TV Shows

The Best 1970's Classic TV Shows


The super 1970's were a groundbreaking time in television history. As social climates changed there was a decline in the more wholesome programming audiences were accustomed to. This led to a new generation of shows focused on issues of the day such as race, equality and politics. Series like The Mary Tyler More Show, All In The Family and M*A*S*H earned high ratings with their ability to connect with viewers. The 70's had an abundance of excellently written sitcoms like Laverne & Shirley and The Bob Newhart Show and dramas like The Waltons and Marcus Welby M.D. Variety shows such as The Carol Burnett Show and The Sonny and Cher Show became popular among TV viewers during the latter part of the decade.
Browse our collection of some of the best 1970s TV shows that aired during primetime television from 1970 to 1979.


1968-1975 | NBC
Adam-12 is a television police drama which followed two police officers of the Los Angeles Police Department, Pete Malloy and Jim Reed, as they patrolled the streets of Los Angeles in their patrol unit, 1-Adam-12.

1971-1979 | CBS
All in the Family is a sitcom that aired on CBS from 1971, to 1979. In September 1979, a new show, Archie Bunker's Place, picked up where All in the Family had ended. This sitcom lasted another four years, ending its run in 1983.

1964-1972 | ABC
Bewitched is a sitcom that aired for eight seasons on ABC from 1964 to 1972 about a witch who marries a mortal and tries to lead the life of a typical suburban housewife.

1972-1978 | CBS
The Bob Newhart Show is a sitcom that aired on CBS from 1972 to 1978 starring Bob Newhart who portrays a psychologist having to deal with his patients and fellow office workers. The show was filmed before a live audience.

1959-1973 | NBC
Bonanza is a western TV series that aired on NBC from 1959 to 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series (behind Gunsmoke) and still continues to air in syndication.

1969-1974 | ABC
The Brady Bunch is a 1970s sitcom aired from 1969 to 1974 on ABC centered around the daily lives of newly blended Brady family.

1976-1981 | ABC
Charlie's Angels is a crime drama series about three women who work for a private investigation agency, and is one of the first shows to showcase women in roles traditionally reserved for men. The show aired on ABC from 1976 to 1981.The

1977-1983 | NBC
CHiPs is a drama series that aired on NBC from 1977 to 1983 that followed the lives of two motorcycle police officers of the California Highway Patrol, Baker and Ponch.

1978-1991 | CBS
Dallas is a drama that revolves around the Ewings, a wealthy Texas family in the oil and cattle-ranching industries. The series won four Emmy Awards, including a 1980 Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series win for Barbara Bel Geddes. Throughout the series, Larry Hagman stars as greedy, scheming oil baron J. R. Ewing. The show also starred stage/screen actress Barbara Bel Geddes as family matriarch Miss Ellie, and movie Western actor Jim Davis in his last role as Ewing patriarch Jock Ewing before his death in 1981.

1978-1985 | ABC
Diff'rent Strokes is an sitcom that aired on NBC from 1978 to 1985, and on ABC from September 1985 to March 1986. The series stars Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges as Arnold and Willis Jackson, two African American boys from Harlem who are taken in by a rich white Park Avenue businessman named Phillip Drummond (Conrad Bain) and his daughter Kimberly (Dana Plato), for whom their deceased mother previously worked.

1952-1970 | NBC
Dragnet is a radio and television crime drama about the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners. The show takes its name from an actual police term, a "dragnet", meaning a system of coordinated measures for apprehending criminals or suspects.

1979-1985 | CBS
The Dukes of Hazzard is a comedy series that aired on the CBS from 1979 to 1985 about "The Duke Boys", cousins Bo and Luke Duke, who live in a rural part of the fictional Hazzard County, Georgia with their attractive cousin Daisy and their wise old Uncle Jesse, as they race around in their customized 1969 Dodge Charger stock car, christened (The) General Lee, evading crooked county commissioner Boss Hogg and his inept county sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane, and always managing to get caught in the middle of the various escapades and incidents that often occur in the area.

1979-1988 | NBC
A spin-off of the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes, The Facts of Life is a sitcom that aired on NBC from 1979 to 1988 and focused on Edna Garrett (Charlotte Rae) as she becomes housemother at the fictional Eastland School, an all-female boarding school in Peekskill, New York.

1965-1970 | NBC, CBS
Get Smart is a comedy series that satirizes the secret agent genre that aired on both NBC and CBS from 1965 to 1970. Created by Mel Brooks with Buck Henry, the show starred Don Adams (as Maxwell Smart, Agent 86), Barbara Feldon (as Agent 99), and Edward Platt (as Chief).

1964-1969 | CBS
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. is a sitcom that originally aired on CBS from 1964 to 1969. The series was a spinoff of The Andy Griffith Show, that featured Gomer Pyle's trails and tribulations in the military.. The show ran for five seasons and a total of 150 episodes.

1974-1979 | CBS
Good Times is a sitcom that aired 1974 until 1979 on the CBS television network. Good Times is a spin-off of Maude, which was itself a spin-off of All in the Family.

1965-1971 | CBS
Green Acres is a sitcom starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor about a couple that moves from New York City to a country farm. Produced by Filmways as a sister show to Petticoat Junction, the series aired on CBS from 1965 until 1971.

1955-1975 | CBS
Gunsmoke is a western drama series starring James Arness that took take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West. The show ran for 20 seasons from 1955 to 1975 on CBS, and stands as the longest-running prime time, live-action drama with 635 episodes.

1974-1984 | ABC
Happy Days is a sitcom that aired from 1974 to 1984 on ABC. Created by Garry Marshall, the series showcased an idealized vision of life in mid-1950s to mid-1960s America.

1968-1980 | CBS
Hawaii Five-O is a police procedural drama series set in Hawaii that aired for twelve seasons from 1968 to 1980 The show featured a fictional state police unit run by Detective Steve McGarrett, portrayed by Jack Lord. The theme music composed by Morton Stevens became especially popular. Most episodes would end with McGarrett instructing his subordinate to "Book 'em, Danno" sometimes specifying a charge such as "murder one."

1965-1971 | CBS
Hogan's Heroes is a sitcom that aired on CBS from 1965 to 1971 set at a German prisoner of war camp during the World War II. Bob Crane had the starring role as Colonel Robert E. Hogan, who coordinated an international crew of Allied prisoners running a Special Operations group from the camp. The program also featured Werner Klemperer as Colonel Wilhelm Klink, the commandant of the camp, and John Banner as the inept sergeant-of-the-guard, Schultz.

1955-1971 | CBS
The Honeymooners is a sitcom that starred Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden and centered Ralph's trials and tribulations of trying to better his life and family.

1965-1970 | NBC
I Dream of Jeannie is a 1960s sitcom that aired on NBC from 1965 to 1970 and starred Barbara Eden as a 2,000-year-old genie, and Larry Hagman as an astronaut who becomes her master, with whom she falls in love and eventually marries.

1975-1985 | CBS
The Jeffersons is a sitcom that aired on CBS from 1975 until 1985 that chronicled the Afican-American Jefferson family who had recently moved up the socioeconomic ladder. The Jeffersons is the longest-running sitcom with a predominantly African American cast in the history of American television.

1979-1993 | CBS
Knots Landing is a primetime drama series that aired from 1979 to 1993 on CBS. Set in a fictitious coastal suburb of Los Angeles in California, the show centered on the lives of four married couples living in a cul-de-sac, Seaview Circle. Initially intended to be a Scenes From a Marriage-type drama series, storylines also included rape, murder, kidnapping, assassinations, drug smuggling, corporate intrigue and criminal investigations. By the time of its conclusion, Knots Landing had become one of the longest-running primetime dramas on U.S. television after Gunsmoke and Law & Order, and tied for third place with Bonanza.

1954-1973 | CBS
Lassie is a drama series that follows the adventures of a female Rough Collie named Lassie and her companions, human and animal. The show was the creation of producer Robert Maxwell and animal trainer Rudd Weatherwax and aired from 1954 to 1973. One of the longest running dramatic series on television, the show chalked up seventeen seasons on CBS before entering first-run syndication for its final two seasons. Initially filmed in black and white, the show transitioned to color during 1965.

1976-1983 | ABC
Laverne & Shirley is a sitcom that ran on ABC from 1976 to 1983 starring Penny Marshall as Laverne De Fazio and Cindy Williams as Shirley Feeney, roommates who worked in a fictitious Milwaukee brewery called "Shotz Brewery".

1977-1986 | ABC
The Love Boat is sitcom set on a cruise ship that aired on ABC from 1977 until 1986. The show starred Gavin MacLeod as the ship's captain. It was part of ABC's popular Saturday night lineup that included Fantasy Island until the latter show ended in 1984.

1969-1976 | ABC
Marcus Welby, M.D. is a medical drama series that aired on ABC from 1969 to 1976 that starred Robert Young as family practitioner, Marcus Welby, whose thoroughness and dedication involved him in the lives of all sorts of patients.

1970-1977 | CBS
The Mary Tyler Moore Show is a sitcom that aired on CBS from 1970 to 1977. The program was a television breakthrough, with the first never-married, independent career woman as the central character: "As Mary Richards, a single woman in her thirties, Moore presented a character different from other single TV women of the time. She was not widowed or divorced or seeking a man to support her.

1972-1983 | CBS
M*A*S*H is a medical-military-comedy series, adapted from the 1970 feature film MASH that follows a team of doctors and support staff stationed at the "4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital" in Uijeongbu, South Korea, during the Korean War. M*A*S*H's theme song featured an instrumental version of the song "Suicide Is Painless", which also appears in the original film.

1972-1978 | CBS
Maude is a sitcom starring Bea Artur that that aired on CBS network from 1972 until 1978.

1966-1973 | CBS
Mission: Impossible aired on CBS from September 1966 to March 1973 and chronicled the adventures of the Impossible Missions Force (IMF), a team of government spies and specialists who were offered "impossible missions" (should they decide to accept them) by the unseen "Secretary".

1978-1982 | ABC
Mork & Mindy is a science fiction sitcom that aired on ABC from 1978 until 1982 that starred Robin Williams as Mork, an alien who comes to Earth from the planet Ork in a small, one-man egg-shaped spaceship. Pam Dawber co-starred as Mindy McConnell, his human friend and roommate. In 1997, the episode "Mork's Mixed Emotions" was ranked #94 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time list.

1976-1981 | CBS
The Muppet Show is a American television programme produced by puppeteer Jim Henson and featuring Muppets. After two pilot episodes were produced in 1974 and 1975, the show premiered on September 5, 1976, and five series were produced until March 15, 1981, lasting 120 episodes.

1960-1972 | ABC, CBS
My Three Sons is sitcom that ran from 1960 to 1965 on ABC, and moved to CBS until its end 1972, that chronicles the life of a widower and aeronautical engineer named Steven Douglas (Fred MacMurray), raising his three sons.

1970-1995 | ABC
The Odd Couple is a sitcom that aired on ABC from 1970 until 1975 that starred Tony Randall as Felix Unger and Jack Klugman as Oscar Madison, based upon the play of the same name, which was written by Neil Simon. Felix and Oscar are two divorced men. Felix is a neat freak while Oscar is sloppy and casual. They share a Manhattan apartment, and their different lifestyles inevitably lead to conflicts and laughs.

1970 - 1974 | ABC
Based on the popular musical family the Cowsills, The Partridge Family develops the story of five siblings and their divorced Mom who form a musical group and tour the country.

1963-1970 | CBS
The Petticoat Junction is a sitcom that aired on CBS from 1963 until 1970 about a widow and her three daughters who operated a hotel on the outskirts of a small rural town. The girls' feeble-minded Uncle Joe often came up with zany ideas that put the hotel in jeopardy.

1972-1977 | NBC
Sanford and Son is a sitcom that aired on NBC from 1972 to 1977 that starred Redd Foxx as Fred G. Sanford, a 65-year-old widower and junk dealer living in the Watts neighborhood of South Central Los Angeles, alongside Demond Wilson as his 30-year-old son, Lamont Sanford.

1978-1982 | ABC, NBC
Taxi is a sitcom that aired from 1978 to 1982 on ABC and from 1982 to 1983 on NBC that chronicled the everyday lives of a handful of New York City taxi drivers and their abusive dispatcher. Taxi won won 18 Emmy Awards, including three for "Outstanding Comedy Series".

1977-1984 | ABC
Three's Company was a hit sitcom that aired on ABC from 1977 until 1984 that revolves around three single roommates: Janet Wood, Chrissy Snow and Jack Tripper who all platonically share Apartment 201 in a Santa Monica, California apartment building owned by Mr. and Mrs. Roper.

1972-1981 | CBS
The Waltons is a period drama series that aired on CBS from 1972 to 1981 that is based on the book Spencer's Mountain and a 1963 film of the same name. The show is centered on a family in a rural Virginia community during the Great Depression and World War II.

1975-1979 | ABC
Welcome Back, Kotter is a sitcom that aired on ABC from 1975 until 1979 and starred Gabe Kaplan as Mr. Kotter, who returns to his alma mater to teach a group of remedial students, and a young John Travolta, the head of Kotter's high school misfits, the Sweathogs.

1978-1982 | CBS
WKRP in Cincinnati is sitcom that aired on CBS from 1978 to 1982 that featured the misadventures of the staff of a struggling fictional radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio. The ensemble cast consisted of Gary Sandy, Howard Hesseman, Gordon Jump, Loni Anderson, Tim Reid, Jan Smithers, Richard Sanders and Frank Bonner.
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