Watching TV in the 1970s, and Watching 1970s TV

When the decade started, I was a baby and when it ended I was a preteen.  So my memories and impressions of 1970s television are skewed towards the later end of the decade.  But watching TV in the '70s was never just about watching the current shows.  (And indeed, some of the shows I didn't see till the '80s or later, like Soap and M*A*S*H.)  Television in the '70s was to some extent reruns and syndication, so that I Love Lucy and The Andy Griffith Show were just as much a part of my childhood as part of a Baby Boomer's childhood.  And there were old movies, too.  And cartoons and even sometimes newsreels going back to the '30s.  So when Robin Williams as Mork would, for instance, do a Peter Lorre impression, a Gen-X kid was supposed to get the joke.

I watched a lot of TV, especially as the decade went on.  Not counting vacations and sick days, it must've been something like four to six hours a day, from the time I got home from school to sometime in the middle of prime time, day of the week depending.  Note that this was not a particularly remarkable amount.  I knew and heard of kids watching as much or more.  (The national average for American children in 1977 was 28 hours per week.)

A lot of what I watched hasn't stayed with me.  For example, I watched a decade of Happy Days but feel little nostalgia for it.  The shows I have on DVD (and in some cases VHS) are mostly ones that meant something to me at the time or in the '80s.  I can see their flaws now and to some extent could even at the time.  But I liked or even loved them, warts and all.

I was an ABC loyalist.  What did I watch on NBC?  Little House on the Prairie sometimes.  CBS was Norman Lear and other "adult" shows, which I might've been watching by '79 but less than I would in the '80s.  As the promos from the late '70s had it, we were still having fun, and ABC was still the one.  That was the network with the "immature" sensibilities after all, and not just jiggle shows.

I watched sitcoms mostly, although obviously I liked game shows and variety shows, too.  I watched cartoons and live-action (not just Krofft) on Saturday mornings, and a lot of that was on ABC, too.

And I had a pet cat and no remote control.  So I really did have to pick a network I liked and spend the evening with it sometimes.  She'd settle into my lap and I'd settle in to watch my shows.  And I watched a lot of nearly forgotten shows, like Holmes & Yoyo (about a robot cop).  In the competitive scramble for ratings of the later years of the '70s, where the networks' idea seemed to be put on something outrageous and hope the public went for it, otherwise cancel quickly, I saw a lot of crap, the kinds of things that were hard to parody.  (Although SCTV would come close.)

The 1970s were my childhood and watching television was my favorite childhood activity, so it is obviously nostalgic to revisit these shows, in a different way than watching That Girl was, where TG was already a relic by the time I saw it.  But the decade seems to have (at least) three parts to it: beginning, where it's still sort of the '60s; middle, or roughly the Vice-President/President Ford era; and end, the disco era let us say.  (The word "disco" appears frequently in 1979 sitcoms, and would have completely different and uncool connotations a year or two later on Bosom Buddies.)  I'd have to say that the middle of the decade is probably the best.  By 1977, the trend towards cartoonishness, even on The Bob Newhart Show, had begun, and with it, the loss of some wit and intelligence.  Of course, M*A*S*H followed it own trajectory, but I can see a slip in quality with Radar's departure, although it's too soon to say if this is definite shark-jumping.

(Incidentally, Fonzie's shark jump was in '77.  But I remember it was '80 when a friend of a friend said he never watched Happy Days now that Richie left.)




It would be too hard for me to pick Top and Bottom Tens for this decade, in the way that I could for the '60s.  But of the shows I've reviewed, here in chronological order are some of the best and the worst:

1. That Girl: I Ain't Got Nobody, October 9, 1970, B+
2. That Girl: There Sure a Bunch of Cards in St. Louis, Part I, October 30, 1970, B+
3. The Brady Bunch: Getting Davy Jones, December 10, 1971, B+
4. The Brady Bunch: Dough Re Mi, January 14, 1972, B+
5. Wait Till Your Father Gets Home: The Fling, September 12, 1972, B+
6. Jackson 5ive: Michael in Wonderland, September 30, 1972, B+
7. The Brady Bunch: Cyrano de Brady, October 20, 1972, B+
8. The Bob Newhart Show: Bob and Emily and Howard and Carol and Jerry, December 9, 1972, B+
9. The Brady Bunch: Love and the Older Man, January 5, 1973, B+
10. M*A*S*H: Tuttle, January 14, 1973, B+
11. The Brady Bunch: Amateur Nite, January 26, 1973, B+
12. The Bob Newhart Show: Who's Been Sleeping on My Couch?, March 10, 1973, B+
13. The Bob Newhart Show: I'm Okay, You're Okay, So What's Wrong?, November 17, 1973, B+
14. The Bob Newhart Show: My Wife Belongs to Daddy, December 8, 1973, B+
15. M*A*S*H: Hot Lips and Empty Arms, December 15, 1973, B+
16. The Bob Newhart Show: T.S. Elliot, December 15, 1973, B+
17. The Bob Newhart Show: The Modernization of Emily, January 12, 1974, B+
18. The Bob Newhart Show: A Love Story, February 9, 1974, B+
19. M*A*S*H: The General Flipped at Dawn, September 10, 1974, B+
20. The Bob Newhart Show: Big Brother Is Watching, September 14, 1974, A-
21. M*A*S*H: Iron Guts Kelly, October 1, 1974, B+
22. Man About the House: Cuckoo in the Nest, 9 October 1974, B+
23. The Bob Newhart Show: Sorry, Wrong Mother, October 12, 1974, B+
24. M*A*S*H: Aid Station, February 11, 1975, B+
25. M*A*S*H: Abyssinia, Henry, March 18, 1975, B+
26. Man About the House: The Tender Trap, 3 April 1975, B+
27. The Bob Newhart Show: The Longest Good Bye [sic], September 13, 1975, B+
28. The Bob Newhart Show: Here's Looking at You, Kid, September 20, 1975, B+
29. The Bob Newhart Show: Death of a Fruitman, September 27, 1975, A-
30. M*A*S*H: The Late Captain Pierce, October 3, 1975, B+
31. M*A*S*H: The More I See You, February 10, 1976, B+
32. M*A*S*H: The Interview, February 24, 1976 ,B+
33. The Midnight Special: Fleetwood Mac, June 11, 1976, B+
34. The Bob Newhart Show: The Great Rent Strike, October 23, 1976, B+
35. Welcome Back, Kotter: Sadie Hawkins Day, November 18, 1976, B+
36. The Midnight Special: Diana Ross, November 26, 1976, B+
37. The Brady Bunch Variety Hour: Pilot, November 28, 1976, B+
38. The Bob Newhart Show: Death Be My Destiny, February 12, 1977, B+
39. Welcome Back, Kotter: Radio Free Freddie, February 17, 1977, B+
40. M*A*S*H: Fallen Idol, September 27, 1977, B+
41. Soap: Episode 10, November 22, 1977, B+
42. M*A*S*H: Comrades in Arms, Part 1, December 6, 1977, B+
43. M*A*S*H: Comrades in Arms, Part 2, December 13, 1977, B+
44. What's Happening!!: Doobie or Not Doobie, Part 2, February 4, 1978, B+
45. Three's Company: Chrissy Come Home, February 28, 1978, B+
46. Soap: Episode 23, March 14, 1978, B+
47. The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, March 22, 1978, B+
48. Soap: Episode 25, March 28, 1978, B+
49. Three's Company: Triangle Troubles, May 15, 1979, B+
50. Three's Company: Chrissy's Hospitality, November 13, 1979, B+

1. The Brady Bunch: Sergeant Emma, February 11, 1972, D+
2. M*A*S*H: Pilot, September 17, 1972, D-
3. M*A*S*H: Germ Warfare, December 10, 1972, D+
4. M*A*S*H: Dear Dad...Three, November 10, 1973, D+
5. M*A*S*H: The Sniper, November 17, 1973, D+
6. Hong Kong Phooey: Comedy Cowboys, December 21, 1974, D
7. M*A*S*H: House Arrest, February 4, 1975, F+
8. After School Specials: The Skating Rink, February 5, 1975, D
9. The Midnight Special: Tom Jones, December 17, 1976, D
10. Saturday Night Live: Julian Bond & Tom Waits, April 9, 1977, D+
11. Three's Company: Jack's Navy Pal, February 7, 1978, D