Vintage Television Comedies One Misses

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The Patty Duke Show

"There's Kathy who's lived most everywhere from San Sebar to Barkley Square.But Patty's only seen the sights a girl can see from Brooklyn Hights!What a crazy pair!But they're cousins.Identical cousins all the way!One pair of matching bookends.Different as night and day.

Where Kathy adores a minuet,the ballet roost and crepe suzette,our Paty loves to rock and roll,a hot dog makes her lose control! what a wild duet!

But they're cousins.Identical cousins and you'll find.They laugh alike,they walk alike,at times they even talk alike!You can lose your mind! When cousins are two of a kind!!!! I MISS THAT SHOW!!! I got some of the greatest ideas from watching her antics.Almost like Lucies but a bit more from the "now "generation from that fabulous era!!!Got me in lots of trouble too!!
 
Ward, you were a little tough on the Beaver last night...

Wally was my 1st teen crush; the re-runs still do it for me.

Say what you want about the cornyness of Leave It To Beaver, at least people spoke correctly and had manners. Even Eddie Haskell was polite to Mr. & Mrs. Cleaver. I wished that my mom was like June.

Funny thing about sitcoms, you hardly ever saw the characters WATCHING TV as part of the story line! Except maybe for Archie Bunker and George Burns. A lot of sitcom houses didn't even have a TV set.
 
Words One Learned From Archie Bunker

No offence meant to anyone:

Wops
Hebes
Coloureds
Pollacks
Faries
Krauts

And a whole other assorted and sundry horribly bigoted slang words.

Only Archie Bunker could string them all together in a phrase as well:

You don't know nothing about Lady Liberty, standing there in the harbor, with her torch on high, screaming out to all the nations in the world: Send me your poor, your deadbeats, your filthy, and all the nations sent them in here. They come swarming in like ants, Hispanics... your Japs, your Chinamen, your Krauts and your Hebs and your English fruits. They all come spillin' in here where they're all free to live in their own separate sections where they feel safe. And they'll bust your head if you go in there. THAT'S what makes America beautiful, buddy."
 
My favorites were:(not necessarily in any kind of order)

1.I Love Lucy
2.Here's Lucy
3.The Lucy Show
4.The Carol Burnett Show
5.The Jeffersons
6.The Mary Tyler More show
7.All in the family
8.Green acres
9.The Beverly Hillbillies
10.The Bob Newheart Show
11.Rowan and Martin's Laugh In
12.The Flip Wilson Show
13.Sony and Cher
14.Maud
15.The Golden Girls
16.My Mother the Car
17. The Munsters
18.The Adams Family
19.The Pruitts of South Hampden
20. The Patty Duke Show
21.The Petula clark show
22.The Andy Griffith Show
23.The Ghost and Mrs.Mure
24.The Flying Nunn
25.Rhoda
26.The Ed Sullivan show
27.The Real McCoys
28.The Pearl Baily Show
29.The Outer Limits
30.The Twilight Zone
31.Red Skelton
32.Perry Mason
33.Alfred Hitchcock
34.Ben Casey
35.Leave it to Beaver
36.Dennis the Mennace
37.Medical Center
38.Hawaii 5 0
39.The F.B.I.
40.Doctor Who
41.My Three Sons
42.Family Affair
43.Lassie
44.Sky King
45.Zoro
46.Maverick
47.Gunsmoke
48.Combat
49.Hogan's Heros
50.Hazel
51.Mr Ed
52.The Mod Squad
53.Lucy Desi Comedy Hour
54.Pettycoat Junction
55.The Big Valley
 
Recently PBS ran a program with many of the young actors from TV's "golden age" who are now in their 50's and 60's. They had some great insights into the shows they worked on, things they didn't think about as kids, and have a real respect for the standards TV shows were held to back then. I recommend it if you see something like that in the PBS listings.

It's clear that the writing from the golden age assumed a certain level of knowledge--even sophistication--on the part of the viewing public, it was often clever and witty, and that is what I miss. Today's TV fare for the most part appeals to the lowest common denominator and is indeed a more vast wasteland than its early detractors ever thought possible. Or maybe they did.
 
I Forgot:

Grindl, with Imogene Coca

The Bill Dana Show

The Colgate Comedy Hour, particularly the shows hosted by Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis

The Hathaways, with Peggy Cass and the Marquis Chimps

Ozzie and Harriet (Because of the Nelsons' fearsomely wholesome image, most people don't remember that they hold a little-known distinction; they were the first sitcom couple to share a double bed, two decades before any others did)

The Ann Sothern Show, plus its other iteration, Oh, Susannah!

My Little Margie, with Gale Storm (whose '50s recordings for Dot Records are not nearly as well-remembered as they should be)

The Ernie Kovacs Show, with the great Nairobi Trio performing (more or less) "Solfeggio"

That Was the Week That Was, a brilliant, short-lived political satire show often referred to simply as TW3

and while it wasn't strictly a comedy, it did have lots of clowns:

International Showtime, a summer replacement series showing circuses from all over Europe. Don Ameche was ringmaster each week, and Studebaker was the sponsor. To this day, I can't hear Alfven's "Swedish Rhapsody" on my local classical station without thinking of this show - it was used as the theme music.
 
I love the old tv shows

Steve and I both love watching the older tv shows. We have a collection of them on dvd. Here's a list of what we have. And I love watching them.

Adam 12
Adams Family
All in the Family
Andy Griffity
Bewitched
Bob Newhart Show
Car 54
Charles in Charge
Cheers
Chips
Diffrent Stokes
Doris Day Show
Dragnet
Facts of Life
Family Affair
Family Guy
Flipper
Flying Nun
Get Smart
Ghost and Mrs Muir
Gimmie A Break
Good Times
Green Acres
Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Mysteries
Heres Lucy
Hazel
Highlander
Highlander The Raven
Honeymooners
I Dream Of Jeannie
Ironside
Johnny Quest
Laverne And Shirley
Law And Order C.I.
Law And Order S.V.U.
Mary Tyler Moore Show
My Mother The Car
Perry Mason
Quantum Leap
Quincy
Rocky And Bullwinkle Show
Smallville
South Park
Tabitha
Taxi
Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea
Will And Grace
WKRP In Cincanitti
Without A Trace
Wonder Woman

Theres a couple that are more modern, but still I think are very good.
 
Some thoughts...

The Hathaways, with Peggy Cass and the Marquis Chimps

-- for some reason I am incredibly creeped out by monkeys, chimps, and other simians interacting with people. I hated this show, and Lancelot Link, and others I can't remember now.

The Ann Sothern Show, plus its other iteration, Oh, Susannah!

--Ann Sothern's other show was "Private Secretary" (with Zazu Pitts). "Oh, Susannah!" was Gale Storm's show after "Margie". She was a cruise ship employee.

My Little Margie, with Gale Storm (whose '50s recordings for Dot Records are not nearly as well-remembered as they should be)

--Can anyone write in words the sound Margie would make when exasperated? (nngngngngaaaaa, or something....)

The Ernie Kovacs Show, with the great Nairobi Trio performing (more or less) "Solfeggio"

-- my Dad thought Ernie Kovacs was brilliantly funny. As I recall it, his show was not regularly presented, but appeared now and then maybe as a summer replacement. When ever it was on, we watched it.
 
nurdlinger:


--Ann Sothern's other show was "Private Secretary" (with Zazu Pitts). "Oh, Susannah!" was Gale Storm's show after "Margie". She was a cruise ship employee."

I stand corrected - you're quite right. Goes to show that my memory, while keen enough, isn't what it used to be!

Your dad was absolutely right about Ernie Kovacs. Pity that nothing that much fun is on TV today.
 
oh, wow where do I begin?

"Bewitched" is my all time favorite. Fortunately, I have seasons 1-6 on DVD.
"I Dream of Jeannie"
"Maude"
"All in The Family"
"Leave it to Beaver"
"Batman"
"The Patty Duke Show"
"Ozzie and Harriet"
"The Donna Reed Show"
"Dragnet"
"Mary Tyler Moore"
"Eight is Enough"
"Love American Style"
"That Girl"
"Charlie's Angels"
"Ben Casey"

I could go on and on. There are so many! Thank Goodness for TV Land and DVD's!
 
Good News MTM Fans!

Good news for we Mary Tyler Moore Show fans:
According to the "New York Times," 20th Century Fox will soon release the final three seasons on DVD! More Sue Ann, more Georgette, plus of course Chuckles the Clown and the final episode.
I'm saving up my pennies.
 
OMG!!

"Patty loves to rock and roll, a hot dog makes her lose control..."

Just WHAT is she doing with that hot dog? A friend of mine once made the comment "it looks like she rolled her hair with a sex device".
 
Hot Dog

Some say the line is "a hot rod makes her lose control", have to find the lyrics. Anyways one show I don't know if anyone remembers is "Hot l Baltimore", was only on for a short time, but I believe it was the first to have gay characters in it. What about "My Living Doll", I wish they had a channel for short lived shows. "I'm Dickens, He's Fenster" is another I remember. Pre Gomez Addams...
 
Pruitts of Southampton.

Speaking of short-lived sitcoms, does anyone remember the Pruitts of Southampton starring Phyllis Diller? That was a great show, but lasted only 1/2 season.

On youtube, there is a clip of the of the opening (see link). Someone said that there were 30 episodes in 1966 and 1967. Is that true? I only remember airing this from Sept. to Dec.?

Rob.

 
Mike, you've cited some obscure and short-lived programs. I remember them all.

There's a pilot from the mid-70's, I think from CBS that I'd love to see again. It was for a show titled "Inside O.U.T." which was a comedy spy show starring a pre-Angels Farrah Fawcett and she was the definitive dumb blonde. Also had the guy who played Capt/Major Healy in "I Dream of Jeannie." It was silly beyond belief. Too bad it never got picked up.

I can remember a lot of obscure shows. I have the fat book of all TV shows from like 1946 to the present and have found blurbs on all of them in there. It's one thing to remember them and quite a different thing to wish they were still on. I think some I'd pass on after seeing them again, even though as a kid I thought they were a riot.

Ralph
 
Pruitts of Southampton

Was quite clever, I thought. Phyllis Diller was on top of her game then. I still remember lines from one scene. Phyllis is trying to tart-up her cute adult daughter to attract the attentions of some rich guy to help them out of their financial plight:

Phyllis: "Let's see, we'll take in your blouse, take in your skirt..."
Daughter: "But, what if it doesn't work?"
Phyllis: "Then we'll take in washing!"

Hey, no wonder I liked that so much!
 

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