Wonderama (w/Sonny Fox or Sandy Becker, didn't like Bob McAllister) Especially when "The Amazing Randi" was on...
o. That's another full set we own along with Hogan's Heroes. We get MeTV over the air. Tons of classics there. Lots of Perry Mason, Gunsmoke, etc. We also sometimes record & watch George Burns and Gracie Allen. What a hoot!! Jack Benny, too. One of my favorites was when his secretary, Mary, (who was played by his real-life wife) showed up in a new Cadillac. He wondered how she could afford one. She said, "You remember those Christmas bonuses you give me every year?" He remembered. She said, "Well, I've been saving them up now for five years, and this year I finally saved enough to buy a raffle ticket and I won." Not on MeTV, afaik, but I wish they were are the Rocky & Bullwinkle Show. Cartoons that were way over the heads of the kids watching them. Bugs Bunny, too.
I seriously miss that show. I can't believe nobody has mentioned the Honeymooners! or F-Troop or Green Acres. Anybody remember Have Gun Will Travel?
LOL!! My wife and I were just singing the Green Acres theme to each other the other day as we were wandering around Cades Cove in Great Smoky Mtn. Natl. Park.
We pause this show for a word from our sponsors . . . Cades Cove is one of our favorite places. Now back to our regularly scheduled program . . . .
No one has yet mentioned the Andy Griffith Show. Sure can't leave that great series of shows out of the thread. Here's a statue outside the Andy Griffith Museum in Mount Airy, NC, from last year. Mount Airy is Griffith's boyhood home. Pilot Mountain is close nearby, which became "Mt. Pilot," a neighboring town to Mayberry. Other than that, then I'd have to also vote for Columbo. And Star Trek.
Of course being a car site we can't forget "My Mother the Car" starring Dick Van Dyke's brother Jerry, about a guy who's mother has reincarnated as a 1928 Porter, which he buys unknowingly thus giving his mother the ability to continue to try and control his life (she talks to him through the radio). This 1965 sitcom ran for one season and to no surprise was widely panned by both critics and viewers. Although people who have seen the show (I haven't) say it really wasn't that bad. The acting and writing was apparently decent for the era and it was produced by people who went on to success in other shows such as The Mary Tyler Moore show, Taxi and The Simpsons. However audiences apparently just couldn't get past the ridiculous premise, preferring more sensible shows of that era such as I Dream of Jeannie, The Munsters, and It's About Time.
Car show just parasitised Mr. Ed, no? Without a warm and wacky equine personality. 'Car' shows needed tech sparkle to succeed. That came later.
I assume you may be referring to KITT? As far as shows copying each other, that was fairly common back then. I Married Joan has been mentioned, that was a takeoff of I Love Lucy. I Dream of Jeannie came about because the success of Bewitched on ABC led NBC to request a similar show from Bewitched's producers Screen Gems (the TV division of Columbia pictures). However interestingly neither The Munsters (CBS) or The Addams Family (ABC) were copies of the other. Both had a long development history and happened to wind up on the air for the same two seasons, although on different nights so they weren't direct competitors. The Addams Family was based on the New Yorker magazine cartoons by Charles Addams. Meanwhile the Munsters originated as an idea by cartoonist Bob Clampett, originally planned as an animated show CBS decided it should be a live action sitcom. Being produced by Universal Television is what allowed the Munster's stars to resemble the Frankenstein, Wolfman and Dracula characters which any other TV production company wouldn't have been able to do as those characters were owned by Universal Studios.
