As suggested by monkjoel, here’s a list–in no particular order–of the sitcoms that got me through childhood and adolescence and whose episodes I still enjoy watching today. A lot of the really great/classic sitcoms are missing from my list because I only watched them as an adult.
*The Dick Van Dyke Show
*The Donna Reed Show
*Mr. Ed
*Leave It To Beaver
*The Addams Family
*Gidget
*Green Acres
*Get Smart
*The Andy Griffith Show
*That Girl
*Bewitched
*All in the Family
*I Love Lucy
*The Mary Tyler Moore Show
*M*A*S*H
(I had to do 15, Joel, 12 was too hard.)
I remember one time this professor I knew said to me: “You know, you’re really dating yourself.” After I had referred to Columbo, which was on when I was little kid. I wish I would have said: “There’s such a thing as syndication, ya know!” There were a lot of shows I watched as a kid that were in syndication that I was too young to see when they were first run.
When I originally wrote this post, I made note of the fact that some of these shows were actually in syndication the first time I saw them. Even I’m too young to have watched “I Love Lucy” when it was new, for example. But I didn’t want to belabor the “I’m 35!” myth, since the way I look today, even Stevie Wonder wouldn’t buy it.
I think there’s a tendency for us to think we look much older than we actually do because of our own increased self-consciousness about our own looks. If it makes you feel better, I guessed that you were way too young to have seen at least half of the shows on that list when they were new! So I guessed that you saw at least half of those shows in syndication, and probably even more, young lady!
I’m sending you a check. 😉
Ha ha!
*The Addams Family
The Munsters
The Brady Bunch
*Green Acres
*Get Smart
*The Andy Griffith Show
Gomer Pyle
*That Girl
*Bewitched
*All in the Family
*I Love Lucy
*The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Beverly Hillbillies
I pared it down to 13..but …I am sure I left out some…I AM from the TV generation.
The Brady Bunch
Hill Street Blues
Dukes of Hazard
The Beverly Hillbillies
Bewitched
The Munsters
Cheers
Taxi
The Bob Newhart Show
MASH
Great list — how could I have forgotten Gidget and That Girl? And now that I think about it, I really liked The Flying Nun for some reason.
Dang,, now I need to ADD to my list.
I can’t believe I forgot Sister Bertrille – The Flying Nun. I wanted one of those habits so I could fly too….and back then I weighed less than Sister Bertrille so it shoulda woulda coulda worked for me.
My list exists somewhere in the many lists already mentioned, and I’d probably not be able to list them in any particular order.
I would like to say, though, that I enjoyed “Peticoat Junction” (one of a couple of “Beverly Hillbillies” spinoffs). How could I not have known I was a lesbian, even at such a young age? I loved watching the pretty girls bathing at the beginning (and only later did I think it somewhat icky that people [and a dog] bathed in the town’s water supply. And, of course, this lesbian loved watching a show that takes place in Hooterville!
Green Acres: Why did Eddie Albert do farm work in a suit?
He was an idiot, but he was a very lovable idiot–just like the rest of the cast (except Mr Haney and Hank –who both drove me CRAZY)
I didn’t like Mr. Haney, but I liked Hank. In fact, I liked everyone on the show, but my most special favorites were Mr. Ziffel, Arnold Ziffel, and Lisa.
Same guys drove me nuts. I think that, even as a small child, I marveled that I was actually smarter than a couple of grownups. When you’re younger than 10, and the grownups in your real life are kind of scary smart, the thought of stupid grownups is really trippy.
Ha! I love your baby lesbian spin on Petticoat Jct, as a baby gay I remember loving their dresses….sigh……
Heck with the dresses, I was loving their boyfriends.
Ah yes, the televised signs that you are gay. I also had the stereotypical crushes on Kristi McNichol and Nancy McKeon.
I like a few of your shows… The Addams Family, Green Acres