M*A*S*H
War comedy that earned its tears — and a finale still used as a ratings myth.
1970–1979
1970s: Relevance Goes Prime Time
Social issue sitcoms, miniseries events, and late-night that rewrote what television could say out loud.
Earth tones, catchphrases, and watercooler arguments that still echo.
Highlight shows
10 shows that defined the 1970s
All in the Family
The living-room argument as national sport — bigotry, love, and loud chairs.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
Single working woman energy that made the newsroom a second home.
Saturday Night Live
Live from New York — the talent factory and scandal factory that never fully sleeps.
Happy Days
Nostalgia engine with a leather jacket that jumped a shark and entered the language.
Charlie's Angels
Feathered hair, jiggle TV debates, and a speakerphone boss who never showed his face.
Roots
Event television that forced a nation to watch — and talk — together.
Columbo
The rumpled trap — howdunit inverted, guest killers as prestige toys.
The Rockford Files
The anti-hardboiled PI — answering machine, beat-up Firebird, real exhaustion.
Good Times
Projects sitcom with catchphrases, heartbreak, and industry arguments that never ended.
Top 100 catalog
79 more essential 1970s shows
Expanded ranking beyond our highlight reel — full pages, cast, and editorial links.
The Jeffersons
Movin' on up — Black excellence, dry-cleaning money, and a deluxe apartment in the sky.
Sanford and Son
Junkyard king Fred Sanford and the big one that never quite takes him.
The Muppet Show
Vaudeville chaos with felt — and guest stars who risked being upstaged by a frog.
Taxi
Sunshine Cab Company's beautiful losers — rough New York hope in a garage.
Little House on the Prairie
Walnut Grove tears and triumphs — frontier family myth as weekly comfort.
Maude
Liberal firebrand in Tuckahoe — abortion episode included, sponsors terrified.
Barney Miller
One squad room, infinite paperwork — the smartest cop comedy that barely left the station.
The Bob Newhart Show
Hi, Bob — deadpan psychology with the perfect group-therapy Greek chorus.
Laverne & Shirley
Schlemiel! Schlimazel! — bottle-cappers, basement dreams, and Milwaukee mayhem.
The Waltons
Goodnight, John-Boy — Depression-era mountain family as soft-focus America.
Rhoda
Mary's best friend moves home to New York — wedding special as event TV.
Three's Company
Roper misunderstandings, Jack on a bike, and the art of the slammed door farce.
Starsky & Hutch
Gran Torino buddy cops — street cool with a giant afro sidekick named Huggy Bear.
Kojak
Who loves ya, baby? — bald charisma, lollipops, and Manhattan grit.
The Six Million Dollar Man
We can rebuild him — slow-mo bionics and the sound effect you can still hum.
The Love Boat
Excursion of the week — guest stars, cupids in white, and Pacific soft-focus.
Soap
Daytime-soap parody with murder, aliens, and a butler who saw everything.
Mork & Mindy
Nanu nanu — Robin Williams as alien chaos in Boulder, Colorado.
Wonder Woman
Spinning transformation, golden lasso, and Lynda Carter as patriotic pop icon.
The Odd Couple
Neat freak vs. slob — Broadway DNA in a New York apartment.
One Day at a Time
Divorced mom, two daughters, and a superintendent with all the punchlines.
Welcome Back, Kotter
Sweathogs in the back row — and a theme song that charted for real.
Chico and the Man
East L.A. garage buddy comedy with a star exit the medium never forgot.
The Bionic Woman
Jaime Sommers: tennis pro, teacher, ear of steel — feminist cyborg cool.
The Incredible Hulk
Don't make me angry — Bill Bixby pathos, Lou Ferrigno smash.
Fantasy Island
De plane! — wishes granted with a twist and a white suit.
Soul Train
The hippest trip in America — line dances, guest stars, and Black music TV power.
The Flip Wilson Show
The devil made him do it — first Black host of a hit network variety hour at this scale.
Lou Grant
Mary's boss goes hour-long serious — newsroom integrity with teeth.
WKRP in Cincinnati
Turkeys away! — rock radio misfits and the funniest disaster in sitcom history.
Alice
Kiss my grits — Mel's Diner as working-class stage and catchphrase factory.
Diff'rent Strokes
What you talkin' about, Willis? — adoption comedy with very real aftershocks.
Eight Is Enough
Sacramento brood with a columnist dad — blended-family sprawl before it was a genre.
The Dukes of Hazzard
Yee-haw justice — General Lee jumps, Boss Hogg schemes, and controversy rides shotgun.
Emergency!
Squad 51 rolling — paramedics as heroes before medical dramas went steadicam.
Quincy, M.E.
Coroner with a cause — Jack Klugman yells at the system until justice shows up.
The Streets of San Francisco
Cable-car cop mentorship — Karl Malden grit and a young Michael Douglas.
Baretta
Don't do the crime if you can't do the time — street-level undercover with a cockatoo.
Police Woman
Pepper Anderson undercover — glamour badge work and 'jiggle' era debates.
Barnaby Jones
Buddy Ebsen trades Jed Clampett overalls for a PI trench and lab coat.
Cannon
William Conrad as the heavyweight PI who never needs to look like a leading man.
Kolchak: The Night Stalker
Wire-service reporter vs. monsters — seersucker suit against the supernatural.
Space: 1999
Moonbase Alpha torn from Earth — British design porn in deep space.
The Partridge Family
Come on get happy — family band sitcom that sold real records.
Phyllis
Cloris Leachman's self-absorbed neighbor gets her own San Francisco chaos.
The White Shadow
White coach, mostly Black high-school team — gym class as social drama.
Rich Man, Poor Man
Brothers at war with class — the novelization of the American century in chapters.
Holocaust
Network TV forces the Shoah into American living rooms — controversy included.
Upstairs, Downstairs
Edwardian townhouse split by class — servants and masters as dual protagonists.
I, Claudius
Poison, incest, and imperial gossip — Rome as the nastiest prestige soap.
Fawlty Towers
Don't mention the war — 12 episodes of hotelier rage perfected.
Match Game
Blank the blank — celebrity panel innuendo as daytime sport.
Family Feud
Survey says! — Richard Dawson kissing contestants into a national habit.
Donny & Marie
A little bit country, a little bit rock and roll — sibling variety as teen-idol TV.
Hee Haw
Cornfield vaudeville — country music, cornball sketches, and rural syndication power.
The Midnight Special
Late-night rock on the network — Wolfman Jack howls after Carson.
All My Children
Pine Valley forever — Erica Kane as daytime's defining diva empire.
The Young and the Restless
Genoa City boardrooms and bedrooms — youth, wealth, and that theme song.
General Hospital
Port Charles pulse — 1970s medical soap that set up a later supercouple explosion.
S.W.A.T.
Special weapons energy — theme song chart heat and paramilitary gloss.
McMillan & Wife
Rock Hudson as commissioner — murder with martini banter and a smart spouse.
McCloud
New Mexico marshal in New York — boots on asphalt fish-out-of-water crime.
Adam-12
One-Adam-12 — black-and-white patrol as Jack Webb moral clarity.
Schoolhouse Rock!
Conjunction Junction and bills on Capitol Hill — three-minute genius between cartoons.
The Electric Company
Hey, you guyyyys! — literacy variety with Morgan Freeman before the movies.
Land of the Lost
Sleestak nightmares — Saturday-morning pocket universe with real craft.
Super Friends
Hall of Justice roll call — Justice League for the cereal-hour crowd.
Kung Fu
Grasshopper walks the West — martial arts mysticism in a frontier serial.
CHiPs
Ponch and Jon on freeways of gold — California Highway Patrol as sunshine action.
What's Happening!!
Rerun, Raj, and Dwayne — soda-shop hangouts and Mama's basement rules.
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman
Consumer angst as serial — waxy yellow buildup and mass-murder next door.
The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour
I got you babe — marital sparring as variety gold before the divorce plot twist.
The Rookies
Young cops learning the badge — Spelling-Goldberg earnest street drama.
The Paper Chase
Law school as blood sport — Professor Kingsfield terrifies a generation of pre-law kids.
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Disco-era space hero thawed out for laser fights and Twiki sidekick comedy.
In Search of...
Leonard Nimoy narrates Bigfoot, Atlantis, and every late-night rabbit hole.
Benson
Soap's butler takes the statehouse — deadpan competence vs. political chaos.
Hart to Hart
When the Harts take a case — champagne detective couple energy.
SCTV
Second City Television — Melonville media satire for comedy nerds who quote deep cuts.