Welcome back my friends as I look at some of the best TV line-up’s ever. Last time I discussed 1994. Twenty years earlier, CBS was the one with the killer line up. The amazing part? It was on Saturday! Saturday is notorious for being hard to program since many people go out. NBC did it successfully (we’ll cover that another day) for a brief time, but it’s the CBS one everyone remembers. Let’s take a look at a lineup which is considered by many to be one the best prime time line-ups’ EVER
CBS had been having trouble making it’s Saturday line-up solid. A comedy called Bridget Loves Bernie just wasn’t making the grade, neither was Mission:Impossible at 10:00. So in 1973 CBS took another show called MASH and put it in the slot. Then swapped in a little variety shows you may have heard of at 10:00. The result? Magic!
8:00
All in the Family
This was the classic Norman Lear comedy which broke all the rules. And I mean, ALL the rules. It’s amazing to me that people loved Archie Bunker, who was bigoted and prejudiced as they come. But that was the magic of Carroll O’Connor. Of course the supporting cast weren’t bad either, especially the always adorable Jean Stapleton as Edith. One thing I loved this show for were all the barriers they broke, from showing a toilet (gasp!) to Archie changing a babies diaper on screen.
8:30
MASH
While it’s true I have a hard time understanding how this show was a “sitcom” when it was pretty serious, that’s pretty irrelevant really. The point is this show was really good. One good indicator of how good is all the cast changes that series had, which would have killed another show. But the writing and action was so solid that the show always shouldered on. It went 11 years and of course the finale was one of THE most watched TV programs EVER.
9:00
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
I guess she made it after all. It’s easy to forget that there was a time when this show hadn’t been created yer and all Mary Tyler Moore was known for was The Dick Van Dyke Show. And while there’s nothing wrong with that, man did MTM change that! This show was funny, real funny, and set a standard very few shows have managed to meet. For a time it was a record setter for most Emmy wins ever. Until Frasier years later broke that record. Another thing forgotten about this show are all the celebrities who got there start on it, from John Ritter to Henry Winkler to Helen Hunt!
9:30
The Bob Newhart Show
Bob Newhart was the kind of deadpan and after years playing sidekick to Dean Martin he finally hit it big with this sitcom. While it never had the acclaim that Mary Tyler Moore had, it was a really good mix. The ensemble was near perfect with every one them going on to become famous. Even the patients that Bob treated would become well known character actors. That’s when you know a show is good, when all you do is guest star and everyone remembers it.
10:00
The Carol Burnett Show
I’m not gonna pretend I haven’t mentioned this one yet. I fell in love with this show in re-runs, and it will always kill me that I missed out on it first run. Carol Burnett is one of the best entertainers that ever graced the TV, and it’s hard to believe this show only lasted 11 years. To be fair CBS would have extended it but once Harvey Korman left Burnett knew the show had run its course. Burnett, Korman, Conway, and Lawrence. What they did on that show every week is remarkable from the sketches to the comedy to the amazing song and dance numbers…the show will be treasured and loved forever.
Sadly I was born just as little to late to appreciate this line up, which always saddens me. That being said…Are you kidding me? Talk about a killer lineup! And on a Saturday no less! The big thing with these shows wasn’t that they were hit shows, that’s a no brainer, but that they were all smart shows. Almost every strong line up has that one entry which is good but hardly sophisticated (Night Court is a good example). Not the case here. These were five quality, well written programs that are remembered and loved to this day! CBS would hit a steep decline as the 70’s became the 80’s, but at this point in history it was clearly king.
And I can’t think of a better way to end than with this :
Archie Bunker was supposed to be bigoted and prejudiced, yes. But really, it soon became clear that he wasn't such a bad person after all. He was only a man from a previous generation, who clashed with his baby boomer daughter and son-in-law. And it seems like he was relatively open to be proven wrong about whatever prejudices he did have. Add to all this that Meathead was an annoying hypocrite, who never was able to admit when he was wrong, and who left his wife and his son to live with annother woman, it is hard to not see Archie as the sympathetic one in comparison.
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