77 Sunset Strip
Kookie, Kookie, lend me your comb — Hollywood private eyes with cool jazz.
broadcast network
ABC
ABC is broadcast television with a long memory: suburban spells on Bewitched, island mythology on Lost, hospital weather on Grey's Anatomy, and classroom warmth on Abbott Elementary. Dynasty, Charlie's Angels, Happy Days, Roots, and The Wonder Years still share the same prime-time argument. Not a cable novel, not a streamer dump — a living-room network.
On TV Flash, ABC reads as the broadcast network that could sell a nose twitch, a plane crash, and a Wisteria Lane casserole under one logo. Bewitched and The Addams Family make suburban weirdness appointment comedy; Roots and The Fugitive prove event drama can still outrun the clock. Moonlighting flirts. Desperate Housewives gossips. Grey's Anatomy never clocks out.
The deeper shelf is just as loud. Alias trains you for mythology; All My Children and American Bandstand keep daytime and after-school in the mix; Barney Miller, Batman, and black-ish prove the comedy can be precinct, camp, or family politics. Start with a highlight, then wander into 77 Sunset Strip or China Beach when you want the network's other temperatures.
FAQ
What did ABC mean as a broadcast network?
ABC is where American prime time learned to mix family sitcom, event miniseries, and glossy soap without becoming a cable novel. Bewitched, Happy Days, and The Wonder Years sold the living room; Roots, Lost, and Grey's Anatomy sold the watercooler. It is broadcast scale: many tones, one schedule.
Where should I start with ABC on TV Flash?
Begin with the highlights that still argue: Lost for mythology, Abbott Elementary for the current classroom, Roots for event drama, Moonlighting for flirtation as plot. Then drop into catalog heat — Alias, Barney Miller, All My Children, or Dancing with the Stars — depending on whether you want spies, a precinct, daytime, or Saturday glitter.
How is ABC different from CBS or NBC?
CBS in this catalog leans Lucy, Gunsmoke, and the Sunday stopwatch; NBC leans Cheers, Friends, ER, and Law & Order. ABC's broadcast flavor is suburban magic, island puzzles, and soap that photographs as a lifestyle. Same living-room fight, different house style.
Catalog
Shows on ABC
Alias
Double agent. Red wigs. J.J. Abrams before the island.
All My Children
Pine Valley forever — Erica Kane as daytime's defining diva empire.
American Bandstand
Dick Clark's after-school dance floor — where kids rated records and stars paid court.
America's Funniest Home Videos
Home-video fails as primetime — user-generated comedy before YouTube.
Baretta
Don't do the crime if you can't do the time — street-level undercover with a cockatoo.
Barney Miller
One squad room, infinite paperwork — the smartest cop comedy that barely left the station.
Batman
Pow! Bam! Camp crusader in tights — the color-TV superhero explosion.
Beat the Clock
Married couples vs. messy stunts and a ticking clock — proto-Fear Factor in formal wear.
Ben Casey
Man, woman, birth, death, infinity — intense neurosurgeon drama with a chalkboard creed.
Benson
Soap's butler takes the statehouse — deadpan competence vs. political chaos.
black-ish
Upper-middle-class Black family sitcom that smuggled essays into multi-cam comfort.
Boy Meets World
Cory, Topanga, and Mr. Feeny — growing up on TGIF in public.
Candid Camera
Smile — you're on hidden camera. Allen Funt's prank sociology as entertainment.
Cheyenne
TV's first hour-long western smash — Clint Walker as the drifting mountain of a hero.
China Beach
Vietnam through nurses and R&R tents — prestige war drama without the gung-ho filter.
Combat!
Saunders' squad in WWII Europe — grit over glory on network war TV.
Dancing with the Stars
Celebrities, sequins, and judge shade as Monday-night ritual.
Dark Shadows
Daytime vampires, werewolves, and Collinwood gothic — soap opera goes undead.
Diff'rent Strokes
What you talkin' about, Willis? — adoption comedy with very real aftershocks.
Disneyland
Walt himself sells a magic kingdom on Tuesday nights — TV as the world's longest commercial, and a gift.
Donny & Marie
A little bit country, a little bit rock and roll — sibling variety as teen-idol TV.
Doogie Howser, M.D.
Boy genius doctor journals each episode — Neil Patrick Harris arrives.
Eight Is Enough
Sacramento brood with a columnist dad — blended-family sprawl before it was a genre.
Ellen
Bookstore sitcom that made history with “The Puppy Episode.”
F Troop
Fort Courage farce — cavalry, Hekawi schemes, and slapstick frontier corruption.
Family Feud
Survey says! — Richard Dawson kissing contestants into a national habit.
Family Matters
Perfect Strangers spin-off that got Urkel'd into a phenomenon.
Fantasy Island
De plane! — wishes granted with a twist and a white suit.
Full House
Uncle Jesse hair, Olsen twin cuteness, and wholesome chaos as TGIF religion.
General Hospital
Port Charles pulse — 1970s medical soap that set up a later supercouple explosion.
Growing Pains
Psychiatrist dad, journalist mom, and Kirk Cameron as Tiger Beat chaos.
Hart to Hart
When the Harts take a case — champagne detective couple energy.
Head of the Class
Individualized Honors Program kids with a substitute teacher who actually gets them.
Home Improvement
Tool Time testosterone and Tim Allen’s grunt — a 1990s ratings bulldozer.
How to Get Away with Murder
Annalise Keating’s class of killers — twist factory with Viola Davis gravity.
Kolchak: The Night Stalker
Wire-service reporter vs. monsters — seersucker suit against the supernatural.
Kukla, Fran and Ollie
Ad-lib puppets and Fran Allison — gentle absurdity that adults watched without irony.
Kung Fu
Grasshopper walks the West — martial arts mysticism in a frontier serial.
Laverne & Shirley
Schlemiel! Schlimazel! — bottle-cappers, basement dreams, and Milwaukee mayhem.
Let's Make a Deal
Door Number Three and costume-clad traders — deal-making as carnival chaos.
Life Is Worth Living
Bishop Sheen vs. Milton Berle in the ratings — a chalkboard and a cape beat vaudeville some weeks.
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
Superman as rom-com — Teri Hatcher and Dean Cain’s flying chemistry.
MacGyver
Duct tape, paper clips, and no gun — problem-solving as action-hero brand.
Marcus Welby, M.D.
Robert Young's kindly GP — house-call empathy as ratings medicine.
Maverick
A gambler hero who preferred cards to bullets — the western that winked.
Max Headroom
Stuttering CGI-ish host and cyberpunk TV news — 20 minutes into the future.
McHale's Navy
PT-73 hijinks — wartime sitcom with Ernest Borgnine's sneaky skipper.
Modern Family
Three households, one mockumentary — family sitcom reinvented for a new decade.
Mork & Mindy
Nanu nanu — Robin Williams as alien chaos in Boulder, Colorado.
My So-Called Life
Angela Chase narrates adolescence like it actually hurts — one perfect canceled season.
My Three Sons
Widower dad, three boys, and Uncle Charley — domestic sitcom built to last.
Naked City
There are eight million stories — and this one was shot on the real New York streets.
NYPD Blue
Butts, badges, and Sipowicz — network TV learning to be adult out loud.
Omnibus
Aloft culture for the masses — Leonard Bernstein, Orson Welles, and Sunday seriousness.
Perfect Strangers
Cousin from Mypos, dance of joy, and Chicago fish-out-of-water chaos.
Peter Gunn
Cool jazz PI, blonde nightclub, and a Henry Mancini score that outlived the plots.
Peyton Place
Prime-time scandal town — secrets, affairs, and serial heat twice a week.
Police Squad!
Six episodes of pure Zucker spoof — canceled, then immortal via Naked Gun movies.
Pushing Daisies
Pie-maker touches dead people — candy-colored noir canceled too sweet to live.
Queen for a Day
Applause-meter misery pageant — the most 1950s show that ever 1950s'd.
Rich Man, Poor Man
Brothers at war with class — the novelization of the American century in chapters.
The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin
A boy and his German shepherd at Fort Apache — military kid adventure with bark.
Rocky and His Friends
A flying squirrel, a moose, and Cold War satire — Jay Ward's anarchic gift at decade's end.
Room 222
Integrated L.A. high school — relevance sitcom-drama with chalk dust.
Roseanne
Working-class chaos without the sitcom polish — loud, broke, and revolutionary.
Sabrina the Teenage Witch
Talking cat, magic aunts, and Melissa Joan Hart — TGIF enchantment.
Scandal
Olivia Pope’s gladiators — Shondaland live-tweeting as national sport.
Schoolhouse Rock!
Conjunction Junction and bills on Capitol Hill — three-minute genius between cartoons.
Scrubs
Fantasy cutaways in a teaching hospital full of found family.
Shindig!
Prime-time rock variety — go-go dancing and British Invasion heat on ABC.
Sister, Sister
Tia and Tamera — twin sitcom energy that defined mid-’90s youth multi-cam.
Sky King
Arizona rancher with a Cessna — aviation adventure for kids who wanted wings.
Soap
Daytime-soap parody with murder, aliens, and a butler who saw everything.
Space Patrol
Commander Buzz Corry vs. the universe — ray guns, brainagraphs, and 30th-century justice.
Spin City
Mayoral farce in NYC — Michael J. Fox’s comeback engine.
Sports Night
Sorkin walk-and-talk in a sports highlight studio — two seasons of velocity.
Starsky & Hutch
Gran Torino buddy cops — street cool with a giant afro sidekick named Huggy Bear.
Super Friends
Hall of Justice roll call — Justice League for the cereal-hour crowd.
S.W.A.T.
Special weapons energy — theme song chart heat and paramilitary gloss.
Taxi
Sunshine Cab Company's beautiful losers — rough New York hope in a garage.
That Girl
Marlo Thomas's aspiring actress — single-girl independence in a still-daddy world.
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
The real Nelson family playing themselves — meta domestic TV before anyone said 'meta.'
The Bionic Woman
Jaime Sommers: tennis pro, teacher, ear of steel — feminist cyborg cool.
The Brady Bunch
Here's the story — blended-family sitcom that became 70s afterschool religion.
The Danny Thomas Show
Make Room for Daddy — nightclub dad energy meets living-room warmth.
The Dating Game
Bachelor, bachelorette, and innuendo — dating as primetime quiz.
The Donna Reed Show
Donna Stone's perfect living room — mid-century motherhood as star vehicle.
The Drew Carey Show
Cleveland rocks — big box store workplace sitcom with musical cold opens.
The Ernie Kovacs Show
Visual gags, blackouts, and Nairobi Trio — the medium inventing itself for laughs.
The Fall Guy
Hollywood stuntman who moonlights as a bounty hunter — meta action cheese.
The F.B.I.
Efrem Zimbalist Jr. vs. the ten most wanted — Bureau procedural as national myth.
The Flintstones
Prime-time stone-age sitcom — yabba-dabba-doo as American family brand.
The Greatest American Hero
Teacher in a super-suit who can't quite fly — and that theme song.
The Green Hornet
Britt Reid and Kato — martial-arts sidekick energy that made Bruce Lee a U.S. star.
The Invaders
They're here — Quinn Martin's alien-invasion paranoia in a suit-and-tie America.
The Jetsons
Space-age family sitcom — flying cars, push-button jobs, and Rosie the robot.
The Lawrence Welk Show
A-one and a-two — champagne music for America in a bubble of pure polka polish.
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
Hugh O'Brian's Earp — Buntline Special justice and a badge polished for prime time.
The Lone Ranger
Hi-Yo Silver — masked justice, a faithful friend, and the purest kids'-western brand of the age.
The Love Boat
Excursion of the week — guest stars, cupids in white, and Pacific soft-focus.
The Mickey Mouse Club
Mouseketeers, ears, and 'M-I-C-K-E-Y' — Disney's talent school broadcast daily.
The Mod Squad
One Black, one white, one blonde — undercover youth cops for the counterculture age.
The Odd Couple
Neat freak vs. slob — Broadway DNA in a New York apartment.
The Outer Limits
There is nothing wrong with your television set — sci-fi anthology with teeth.
The Partridge Family
Come on get happy — family band sitcom that sold real records.
The Patty Duke Show
Identical cousins — one Brooklyn bounce, one Edinburgh poise, one Emmy kid star.
The Practice
Boston lawyers, moral gray, and David E. Kelley’s Emmy factory.
The Price Is Right
Bill Cullen and the art of the bid — pricing game as mid-century consumer fantasy.
The Real McCoys
West Virginia clan hits the California farm — rural sitcom before Green Acres made it a punchline.
The Rifleman
A widowed dad, a boy, and a rapid-fire Winchester — fatherhood with a lever action.
The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show
Moose and squirrel vs. spies — puns, Cold War satire, and fractured fairy tales.
The Rookies
Young cops learning the badge — Spelling-Goldberg earnest street drama.
The Six Million Dollar Man
We can rebuild him — slow-mo bionics and the sound effect you can still hum.
The Streets of San Francisco
Cable-car cop mentorship — Karl Malden grit and a young Michael Douglas.
The United States Steel Hour
Industrial giant, theatrical punch — live drama with a steel-hard production sheen.
The Untouchables
Eliot Ness vs. Capone's Chicago — machine-gun morality plays in sharp suits.
thirtysomething
Yuppie angst as weekly opera — feelings, careers, and dinner-party existential dread.
Three's Company
Roper misunderstandings, Jack on a bike, and the art of the slammed door farce.
Tom Corbett, Space Cadet
Space Academy cadets learning the solar system — homework with rocket ships.
Ugly Betty
Guadalajara meets Mode magazine — heart, fashion, and fish-out-of-water charm.
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Irwin Allen's Seaview — submarine spectacle with sea monsters and Cold War nerves.
Wagon Train
A moving town of guest stars — the prairie as anthology stagecoach.
Welcome Back, Kotter
Sweathogs in the back row — and a theme song that charted for real.
What's Happening!!
Rerun, Raj, and Dwayne — soda-shop hangouts and Mama's basement rules.
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
Phone-a-friend fever — quiz show as primetime event TV at decade’s end.
Who's the Boss?
Househusband baseball player, ad-exec boss, and will-they tension with gender-role flip.
ABC's Wide World of Sports
The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat — anthology sports as global window.
Wonder Woman
Spinning transformation, golden lasso, and Lynda Carter as patriotic pop icon.
Zorro
Disney's masked caballero — Z's carved into California legend and kids' hearts.