Vintage Television Comedies One Misses

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The Dean Martin Show for sure.

But what I really hated to see canceled lo these many years ago was "NBC News Overnight" with Linda Ellerbee and Bill Scheckner. Best news show that ever hit network TV but as with so much good TV over the years, it didn't play in Peoria so that was that.

What a great double feature that was when it was happening--The totally on-the-fly "Tomorrow" (was that really just tobacco Tom was smoking?) followed by Linda & Bill.

And if you were still not ready to call it a night, there were the public domain-genre all night movies with Old Sourdough and his native American friend whose name I can't spell, brought to you by 3M Carpets. Or after all of that smoking, patty melts at the 24 hours Sambo's on the corner.
 
I liked The Mary Tyler Moore Show, especially the first season. That Girl was good too and was probably a prototype for MTM.
 
Don't worry, it's only Margo

I second The Good Life! What a great show. Just finished another run through the complete series. Margo cracks me up just like Hyacinth does.
 
The Flintstones
Beverly Hillbillies
Get Smart
That Girl (I watched it for Ted Bessell, not Marlo)
Batman (That older/younger thing always appealed to me)
Gidget (For the surfers, not Gidget)
Laugh-In
MPFC
Bob Newhart Show
Carol Burnett Show
Brady Bunch
Courtship of Eddie's Father
My Favorite Martian
Family Affair

In the non-comedy genre, I really miss Adam-12 (Kent McCord was the hottest thing ever on TV), Mission Impossible and Hawaii Five-O.
 
Oh, Man....

....There are so many.

First and foremost, I miss CBS's powerhouse Saturday night lineup of the early '70s, which included my personal all-time favourite, The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

That same night, you'd get:

All In the Family
The Bob Newhart Show
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Carol Burnett Show

And one other half-hour sitcom, which changed over the years. One I remember with especial fondness was Bridget Loves Bernie, with David Birney and Meredith Baxter, before she turned into The Great Stone Face of cheesy made-for-TV dramas.

Others include:

The Mothers-In-Law
Make Room for Daddy
December Bride
Pete 'n Gladys (a spin-off of December Bride)
The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour
The Jack Benny Show (his 1958 violin competition with Gisele MacKenzie is one of the funniest things I've ever seen)
Laugh-In
Roseanne
Grace Under Fire

I've become very fond of Britcoms in recent years, because American television can't seem to come with good sitcoms any more, and because British shows manage to be both more civil and funnier than the ones over here:

Waiting for God
Are You Being Served?
To the Manor Born
As Time Goes By
Last of the Summer Wine
Yes, Minister
Yes, Prime Minister
Fawlty Towers
The Vicar of Dibley

My liking for British TV is not absolute; I have never liked Keeping Up Appearances, and if I never see another episode of My Hero, Red Dwarf, or A Fine Romance it will be perfectly fine with me.
 
The Carol Burnett Show
The Partridge Family (I have a big crush on David Cassidy)
I Love Lucy
Bewitched
Gilligan's Island
Green Acres
Petticoat Junction
The Bionic Woman (Original with Lindsay Wagner)
Maude
Soap
Wonder Woman
I Dream of Jeannie
Beverly Hillbillies
 
Part of my list

M*A*S*H----but only the Mike Farrell years

Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In

Mary Tyler Moore

My Britcoms:

As Time Goes By

Keeping Up Appearances

Waiting For God

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
My Two Bits . . .

Green Acres and Absolutely Fabulous. I'm not much of a TV guy, outside of Perry Mason, but Green Acres and Absolutely Fabulous both make me laugh pretty hard!

Going back further in TV history, does anybody here remember Love That Bob with Bob Cummings? In the late '60s Channel 11 in Dallas would broadcast old '50s shows in the afternoon, and Love That Bob was one of the best, at least from the perspective of an elementary school kid. Part of the fun was that even then I realized how preposterous it was that the main character would have one girlfriend, let alone the two or three who always popped up at the same time.
 
By the Way....

....Here's a link to that Jack Benny/Gisele MacKenzie violin competition. I'm not sure if the full effect will come over watching it on the Web; Gisele's facial expressions are a lot of what makes it so uproarious. This is an AOL video; it's also on YouTube, so if you prefer that site, just search and it'll pop up.

The skit is one of the all-time greats. No meanness, no raunchiness, no slapstick - just consummate comedic skill and timing, plus a lot more musicianship than Jack Benny usually gets credited with.

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/gisele-mackenzie-and-jack-benny-legendary-violin-due/1792374479
8-29-2008-01-33-16--danemodsandy.jpg
 
Love That Bob

I watched this in first-run. Ann B. Davis, of "Alice"/"Brady Bunch" fame, played the assistant "Schultzy". In the first Brady Bunch movie, someone else played "Alice" but Ann had a cameo as a truck driver. She picked up her CB mike and said "This is Schultzy" and I hit the floor laughing. I was the only one in the show who got the joke, though.

Another TV show from that time was "The Stu Erwin Show" (or maybe it was called something like "Life With Father"). The characters had pretty familiar sitcom characteristics, with the exception of the younger daughter "Jackie". She was portrayed by Sheila James Kuehl as a bright, competent person unlike any other female kids I had ever seen on TV. Although Sheila found her greatest fame as "Zelda Gilroy" from the "Dobie Gillis Show", I prefer her as that earlier role.
 
Sheila Kuehl aka Zelda Gilroy has been a member of the California State Legistature for quite a number of years now. She has been out of the closet the whole time and pushing gay rights issues on a regular basis.

Sounds to me like her "bright, competent" Jackie character would have been a cinch for her even back then.
 
I LOVE "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman." The title role just couldn't belong to anyone besides Louise Lasser.

A couple of years back a local station (or was it cable?) had a MHMH marathon and I missed it.

What about the mini-series "Fresno" with Carol Burnett and Charles Grodin? That was the best spoof since "Airplane!" It was a shame when CBS re-ran it and felt the need to put a laugh-track on it. Criminy, Carol Burnett was the star so you'd think people wouldn't need to be reminded that they were watching a spoof. Shame on CBS! I taped the first run, but at the time I had a Betamax. I still have the tapes and the machine, only because it may be the only way to watch it again without the laugh track.
 
I remember it as well. I taped it on VHS but I couldn't find the tapes in under a month. (I have over 1500 tapes and most are in boxes in storage)

Mary Hartman was another favorite, for the first season or two anyway. My first exposure to Dabney Coleman, as the slimy Merle Jeeter.

The guy who played Tom Hartman recently resurfaced on a Nickelodeon kids show called "iCarly" playing Carly's grandfather. He looks lots older, but he is still pretty funny.
 

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