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What Classic TV Shows Had a Major Impact On You and or Society?

M

Mark Giardina

Groundbreaking - All In The Family

Funny but censored- The Richard Pryor Show

Science Fiction- Babylon Five /BSG (second series)

Crime Drama- The Shield.


Please feel free to include your own picks
 
20th Century - History

The Defenders - Judicial system/law

Smothers Bros - Political satire

Laugh-In - Political and cultural satire

Science Fiction Theater - Science (not fiction)

Cosmos - Science
 
Emergency!- medical/New concepts (Firefighters trained as EMT).

Police Squad!- Satire

The Civil War (by Ken Burns)- History

Law and Order- Police/legal
 
This is an excellent topic.

The series that had the biggest impact on me was "The Prisoner," which I saw, years after its initial airing, in PBS syndication. Scholar Collin Cleary makes a strong case that the show is an "anti-modern manifesto," and argues that the great Patrick McGoohan "must be understood as belonging to the school of Pound, Yeats, Eliot, Huxley, Lawrence, Kafka, and (to some extent) Orwell." The oppressive Village remains television's most disturbing dystopia.

"Progress. I don't think we've [truly] progressed much."--McGoohan (1977)
 
The '50s "Dragnet" and, later, "Hill Street Blues" depicted
the unglamorous side of police work. "LA Law" is probably
the most accurate depiction of a law firm, although it enticed
a lot of young people to attend law school (some of those same
people found law school to be less intimidating that what James
T. Hart went through in "The Paper Chase").

Also, I wonder how many young women chose broadcast journalism
as a career after seeing "The Mary Tyler Moore Show"?
 
Thought-provoking topic. Here goes...

News & Public Affairs; See It Now with Edward R. Murrow; 60 Minutes (both CBS)

Comedy/Variety; Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (NBC); Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (CBS)

Arts & Culture; Ken Burns' Jazz (PBS)

Crime Drama; CSI (CBS); NYPD Blue (ABC)

Sports; Monday Night Football (ABC, ESPN)

Children; Mickey Mouse Club (ABC/Disney Channel), Sesame Street (PBS)

Situation Comedy; Seinfeld (NBC), arguably the best series in ANY genre in American TV history; the master of its domain

Science Fiction; Star Trek, The Next Generation (syndicated)

Talk; The Late Show With David Letterman (CBS)

Morning News/Talk; Today (NBC)

Shows in boldface are still in production
 
On me personally: Captain Kangaroo (1960s version), Star Trek, any news program with David Brinkley on it, Saturday Night Live
On society: I Spy, Saturday Night Live, All in the Family,
 
I'm going to try to keep this short, but I have a hard time doing that when I talk about the one TV episode that has impacted my life the most. Near the end of the 2nd season of "Lost In Space", there is an episode called "The Astral Traveler". I had seen the episode a number of times over the years, to no big deal. Then one afternoon in the 1980s I was home, mildly sick. A slight fever, slight soar throat, slight headache and just worn-out and tired. I was laying on the couch half watching "The Astral Traveler". In the story, Dr. Smith and the boy Will Robinson find a dimension-warp that takes them back to earth, to the dungeon of an old Scottish castle. They meet up with Hamish, a ghost and Angus, a scary monster that lives in a bog. You find out that Angus was a human being when alive. Hamish and Angus are being punished for evil deeds done centuries ago. They come to find that Dr. Smith's ancestors were the ones that turned them in. For this Hamish wants to have Dr. Smiths head chopped off. Not being able to convince Hamish not to murder Dr. Smith, Will runs out and pleads with Angus to not allow Hamish to have Smith's head chopped off. Hamish hears the plea. He admits that he was wrong to want to take revenge and allows Smith to go free. In the only case in the series where the final scene does not involve any of the principles, Hamish accepts that he will forever stay in the hellish place. Then, the voice of "Father" from the sky calls out. Because Hamish chose life over death vis-a-vis Dr. Smith ... because he showed kindness and made a moral decision not to take revenge, both he and Angus are invited to "come home". Then with a lightening bolt and a crash of thunder, both are whisked away to their final reward, which I interpret to be Heaven! While seeing this play out, I suddenly sat up and thought..."Hey, did I just see something profound?" As I sat there thinking about this episode of "Lost In Space", I soon noticed that I was no longer sick! I felt fine! To this day I think about this episode and the importance of its central Spiritual message. If you watch this episode, you will come to realize that the deep and powerful message may not have been on the mind of the writer as much occurs that does not advance things towards anything remotely "deep", but if you think about key things that do happen, you just may come away from your viewing experince in awe. Believe me, I have thought a-lot about "The Astral Traveler", and there's a lot going on in. The probable fact that the author may not have known what a moving piece of television he was writing, adds to the mystery and awe. THANK YOU TO THOSE WHO STUCK WITH ME ALL THE WAY DOWN TO HERE.
 
What got me through the post-McCarthy fear factor years,the cold war,VietnammWatergate and Reaganomics:

Rocky and Bullwinkle

The Monkees

Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In

The Brady Bunch

Saturday Night Live

Mystery Science Theater 3000

POLICE SQUAD!

MAD TV

(hey gang...you gotta laugh!)
 
My name is Michael Anthony. When I was young, I watched the Millionaire, and chose Anthony as my confirmation name. I just liked it.
 
Medical: Marcus Welby, M.D. (ABC 1969-76), Emergency! (NBC 1972-77), The Bold Ones: The New Doctors (NBC 1969-73)
Police: Sirens (ABC 1993, Syndicated 1994-95), Adam-12 (NBC 1968-75), Hunter (NBC 1984-91), Hawaii Five-0 (original Jack Lord version, CBS 1968-80), Dragnet 19XX (NBC 1967-70), NYPD Blue (ABC 1993-2005), The Bold Ones: The Protectors (NBC 1969-70)
Law: Any Law & Order series, The Bold Ones: The Lawyers (NBC 1969-72), Harry's Law (NBC 2011-present)
Policitial: The Bold Ones: The Senator (NBC 1970-71), Cory in The House (Disney Channel 2007-08)
Music: Soul Train (Syndicated 1971-2006), The Ed Sullivan Show (fomerly Toast of the Town) (CBS 1948-71), Hee Haw (CBS 1969-71/Syndicated 1971-93)
School: Degrassi: The Next Generation (Canadian 2001-present)
Comedy: Sanford & Son (NBC 1972-77)
Educational: Square One TV/Mathnet (PBS 1987-93)
War: M*A*S*H (CBS 1972-83), China Beach (ABC 1988-91)
Peroidical: Mad Men (AMC 2007-present), PanAm (ABC 2011-present)
Soap: Dark Shadows (ABC 1966-71)
Reality: Dancing with The Stars (ABC 2005-present)
News: ABC World News Tonight (from the Frank Reynolds, Peter Jennings, and Max Robinson era ABC 1978-83, god rest their souls) to tell you the truth, I wasn't around when Frank Reynolds (who died in 1983) was alive. But I was around as a kid when Jennings (who died from lung cancer in 2005) and Robinson (who died from AIDS in 1988) were living.
Variety: Saturday Night Live (NBC 1975-present)
Game Show: Family Feud (I like the Richard Dawson, Steve Harvey, and the late Ray Combs' versions the most), Face The Music (Syndicated 1980-81, which I saw only on Family channel reruns back in 1995)
Animated: The Simpsons (FOX 1989-present)
Talk Show: The David Frost Show (Syndicated 1969-72, which I saw episodes on YouTube and VH1 reruns years back in 1997), The Mike Douglas Show (Syndicated 1961-82, which I also saw on VH1 reruns in 1997), Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (NBC 2009-present, one of my faves), and last but not least is The Dick Cavett Show (ABC 1969-75). Ironically, me and Cavett share the same birthday today. :)
British Comedy: Monty Python's Flying Circus (BBC 1969-74), and Are You Being Served? (BBC 1972-85)
Risque: The Playboy Club (NBC 2011)
Childrens: All That (Nickelodeon 1995-2000), Kenan and Kel (Nickelodeon 1996-99)
Cooking: The Galloping Gourmet (Syndicated 1969-71)
Science-Fiction: Space Cases (Nickelodeon 1996-97)
Fantasy: The Vampire Diaries (The CW 2009-present)
 
Mark_Giardina said:
Groundbreaking - All In The Family

Funny but censored- The Richard Pryor Show

Science Fiction- Babylon Five /BSG (second series)

Crime Drama- The Shield.


Please feel free to include your own picks
If you do not watch any other episodes of Battlestar Galactica, the second series, watch the pilot, I think it was 4 hours and the last episode. That is the road that the United States and the world in general is taking. Way to dependent on computers and technology.
Click to expand...
 
The McGoohan quote is taken from Collin Cleary's essay on "The Prisoner" in the first volume of the Radical Traditionalist journal "Tyr" (2002). The piece is called "Son of man, can these bones come to life?".
 
Finally, somebody listed M*A*S*H (SpencerKarter, above).

Most memorable episode for me was a later one, producing one of Margaret Hoolihan's most pivotal, thought provoking lines, "...here's to me!" Smarting from her latest humiliation at the hands of yet another man, she uttered these words while staring at herself in the mirror, raising a toast to herself, as if doing a gut-check. Her character would evolve from there; she was never the same, just stronger.

Sounds silly, but remembering that episode today gets me to singing the hook phrase from Rick Nelson's 1972 classic, Garden Party; "you can't please everyone so you got to please yourself!"
 
In my own realm (not so much the societal part) . . .

Variety: The Carol Burnett Show, SCTV, Saturday Night Live (the 1975-80 period), The Muppet Show
Comedy: The Honeymooners, M*A*S*H (the 1972-75 Trapper/Col. Blake period), Bonkers! (1978-79 series hosted by The Hudson Brothers and featuring Bob Monkhouse), The (New) Red Green Show
Educational: Sesame Street, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (more so in this case; I'd actually met Mr. Rogers and in the early '80's even saw a taping of a Neighborhood of Make Believe segment at the WQED studios in Pittsburgh), The Electric Company
Documentary: Civilisation, The Ascent of Man, The Body in Question, Connections, Cosmos
Game Show: The Hollywood Squares (1966-80 NBC and 1971-81 syndicated versions)
Talk Show: The Dick Cavett Show (in its early '70's ABC and late '70's PBS incarnations)
British Comedy: Dave Allen at Large, The Benny Hill Show
 
War: China Beach (ABC 1988-91)
Reality:On Scene: Emergency Response(Syndicated 1990-94)
Game Show:Sale of the Century(NBC 1983-89) American Gladiators(Sydncaited 1989-97)
 
I'm not sure how I missed this thread earlier but here goes:

Comedy: MASH, WKRP, The Red Green Show
British Comedy: Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, Mr. Bean
Variety: Ernie Kovacs, Laugh-in, Saturday Night Live (1975-80), Carol Burnett
Sci-Fi: Star Trek (The original series and The Next Generation)
Game shows: Match Game (70's), Who Wants to be a Millionaire (with Regis)
Talk shows: Late Night/Late Show with David Letterman
Reality shows: American Pickers, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, Man V Food
 
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