1970s in American television

The decade of the 1970s saw big changes in television programming in the United States. The "family sitcoms" and rural programs stopped and more socially modern programs and "young, hip and urban" sitcoms started.

## Overall trends

_The Red Skelton Show_ and _The Ed Sullivan Show_ were canceled after being broadcast for many decades. The "family sitcom<nowiki/>s" of the 1950s and 1960s were replaced with newer ones like _The Brady Bunch_. The series has been broadcast in syndication since 1974. Many children grew up with it. They think of the Bradys as the normal family in 1970s television. _I Dream of Jeannie_ and _Bewitched_ began to lose American interest. _I Dream of Jeannie_ ended its run in 1970, followed by _Bewitched_ in 1972.

### Rural-oriented programming and "socially conscious" programming

In 1971, CBS was being called the "Hillbilly Network" because the most of its hit shows were rural-oriented. It ended the shows _The Beverly Hillbillies_, _Hee Haw_, _Green Acres_, _Mayberry RFD_ and every program "that had a tree in it" as described by actor Pat Buttram. They were replaced with programs that appealed to younger urban viewers. Programming was called "social consciousness" and was led by television producer Norman Lear.

_All in the Family_ ended television barriers. When the series was first broadcast in 1971, Americans heard the words "fag (short for "faggot")," "jigaboo," and "spic" on national television programming for the first time. _All in the Family_ was a part of common dinner conversation in the country. Americans had not seen anything like it on television before. The program became the highest-rated program on U.S. television in the fall of 1971. It stayed in the top slot until 1976. _All in the Family_ started a number of spin-offs, such as _Maude_. It starred Bea Arthur.

Maude was Edith Bunker's cousin and Archie's archenemy. She stood for everything liberal and was outspoken about civil rights and feminism. Like _All in the Family,_ Maude broke new ground in television. It presented American audiences with something they had never seen on television before when Maude said that she was planning to have an abortion. Maude was comfortable and hired a black woman as her housekeeper. Maude's housekeeper, Florida Evans (played by Esther Rolle), became popular in her own right. She was given her own television series in 1974, _Good Times_. The series starred John Amos and Rolle. _Good Times_ was another hit for Lear.

Lear developed two more programs in 1975. _The Jeffersons_ is a spin-off of _All in the Family_. Archie Bunker's black next-door neighbors moved to an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. _One Day at a Time_ is about a single mother raising her two teenage daughters in Indianapolis.

### Decline of western

With the rise in socially-responsible programming, the television western slowly died out. The first programs to end were _The High Chaparral_ and _The Virginian_ in the spring of 1971. _Bonanza_ ended a year after actor Dan Blocker died during surgery in 1972. CBS's _Gunsmoke_ ended with a star-studded series finale in 1975. During this time, _Kung Fu_, airing from 1972 to 1975, had a mix of Eastern philosophy and martial arts. _Bonanza_ actor Michael Landon was on a television version of the popular children's book series _Little House on the Prairie_. The series first aired in 1974 and ran for eight years. The competitor of the program was CBS's _The Waltons_. It was about family unity during a different time and place (Virginia) during the Great Depression.

### Medical shows

Medical programs were popular in the early 1970s. _Marcus Welby, M.D._ was the first medical drama to deal with many subjects on television. The series aired for 7 seasons. _Emergency!_ was also the first series ever to have both the paramedic and the emergency hospital. It starred Robert Fuller and Julie London. _M*A*S*H_, starring Alan Alda, was about the days of the Korean War. It was a comedy drama.

### Jiggle television and crime shows

By the mid-to-late 1970s, viewers no longer wanted socially responsible sitcoms. Former head of programming Fred Silverman left CBS and worked for ABC. He started the trend of TV about sexual gratification, humor and situations. It was nicknamed "jiggle television." Jiggle TV programs included the crime-fighting series _Charlie's Angels_. It starred soon to be sex symbols Farrah Fawcett, Jaclyn Smith, and Kate Jackson

_Charlie's Angels_ was one of many crime series during the 1970s. Another program, _Police Woman_ was the first to have a female lead in the title role who also became a sex symbol. Other successful TV crime dramas included _The Streets of San Francisco_, _Columbo_, _Barnaby Jones_, _The Rockford Files_, _Starsky & Hutch_ and _Kojak_. The most popular was _Hawaii Five-O_. For many years it was the longest-running crime show in the history of American television. Crime shows were then often criticized during the 1970s because they often had violent content. _CHiPs_, an action-packed police-buddy show, first aired in 1977. The police rarely used their guns in the show.

### Science fiction

Science fiction became more popular as the 1970s progressed. Many sci-fi programs were popular during this time. They included _The Six Million Dollar Man_, _The Bionic Woman_, _Battlestar Galactica_, _Wonder Woman_, _The Incredible Hulk_ and _Fantasy Island_.

### Soap operas

Another popular medium in U.S. television moving into the 1970s was soap operas. They moved from being watched exclusively by housewives to having a sizable audience of men (who largely watched _The Edge of Night_) and college students. The latter audience helped _All My Children_ gain a devoted following, as it was on during many universities' traditional "lunch period." In a _TIME_ article written in 1976, it was estimated that as many as 35 million households tuned into at least one soap opera each afternoon, the most popular being _As the World Turns_. It routinely grabbed viewing figures of twelve million or higher each day.

The soap boom spawned a nighttime soap parody, _Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman_. The parody made a star out of Louise Lasser, who played the eponymous heroine. A rising soap opera toward the decade's end was _Ryan's Hope_. It built on the success of the movie _Rocky_. Despite _Ryan's Hope_ starting earlier, the show's success came a while after the movie's release. The serial was about an Irish-American family running a pub in New York City. Television critics liked its realistic portrayal of an "ethnic" middle-class family in a contemporary setting. The show's matriarch, played by Helen Gallagher, won two Daytime Emmys. _General Hospital_, a soap that spent most of the decade with bad ratings, saw a rise in popularity around late 1978 due to its more youthful focus. It would not become a ratings giant until the 1980s.

ABC aired _Soap_, a sitcom that parodied soap operas. It had one of the first gay characters on U.S. television. Many stations refused to air the series (another storyline consisted of heroine Corinne Tate, played by Diana Canova, lusting after a priest who eventually left the priesthood to marry her). The escapist "fantasy" genre started in 1977 with _The Love Boat_. The series involved popular movie and television stars in guest roles as passengers on a luxury cruise liner that sailed up and down the Pacific Coast. It was followed in 1978 with _Fantasy Island_, starring Ricardo Montalban and Hervé Villechaize.

### Daytime game shows

Daytime television had several game shows. They aired alongside soap operas during the mornings and afternoons. During the early years of the decade, _The Hollywood Squares_ (NBC) was the most popular. It won numerous Emmy awards. Hosted by masterly emcee Peter Marshall, nine celebrities in a large tic-tac-toe board respond to questions. Contestants must state whether they "agree" or "disagree" with the answers. If they are correct, their "X"/"O" symbol lights up in the celeb's box. The first to get three in a row or a five-square wins.

_Match Game_ (CBS) was the most popular game show from 1973 to 1977. Fun between the panel and "ringmaster" host Gene Rayburn made it popular. At one point, it was the highest-rated daytime TV show in U.S. history. The show launched a spin-off, _Family Feud_ (ABC). It was the #1 game show of the late 1970s. Two families squared off in assuming the most common answers to surveys of 100 people across the nation with such questions as, "name a public figure most Americans dislike." The simple idea was the main cause of its success. Other successful game shows during this decade included _The Price Is Right_ (still on the air to this day), _Let's Make a Deal_, _The $20,000 Pyramid_, _The Gong Show_, _The Newlywed Game_, _Password_, _Tattletales_, _Tic Tac Dough_, _Bowling for Dollars_, _Break the Bank_ and _The Joker's Wild_.

### Television newscasts

Another influential genre was the television newscast. Each of the three television networks had widely recognizable and respected journalists on their newscasts: CBS anchor Walter Cronkite was voted "The Most Trusted Man in America" many times over. He led in the nightly ratings. NBC's John Chancellor and David Brinkley were a strong second, while ABC was in third place in the news department until the 1990s. It had a newscast with Howard K. Smith.

### The rise of television movies

The success of the 1971 television movie _Duel_ signaled the rise of movies produced specifically for television. Some featured a hero or heroine whose life was in jeopardy, while others were pilots for proposed TV series to be picked up by a network. Still others centered on the destructiveness of a certain disease, whether medical or social. _Roots_ is a multi-part miniseries that ran on a number of consecutive nights in early 1977. It proved to be a huge hit in the ratings and thus paved the way for others of its kind like _Shogun_ and _The Thorn Birds_.

### Variety shows

Variety shows carried on in the 1970s with _The Carol Burnett Show_. With a repertory company that included Vicki Lawrence, Harvey Korman and Lyle Waggoner, the veterans' series ran well into the mid-1970s. NBC aired a variety show of its own, starring African-American comedian Flip Wilson. _The Flip Wilson Show_ became a success and became the first show headed by an African-American comedian to become a ratings winner.

In 1971, while Fred Silverman was still working for CBS, he spotted singing duo Sonny & Cher doing a stand-up concert. He decided to turn it into a weekly variety show. In addition to some entertaining stand-up banter between the husband and wife, _The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour_ would also have skits and music (mostly sung by Cher). The show was a ratings winner from the first episode and ran for three years. It was followed shortly after by singing duo Tony Orlando and Dawn.

Another group of singers who received a variety show in the 1970s were two of the famous singing Osmonds—Donny and his sister Marie. Sid & Marty Krofft set to work on their series and _Donny & Marie_ premiered on ABC in the winter of 1976. Although the show became very popular, the Osmonds were equally ridiculed for their wholesome image and Mormon moral reputation (on an episode of _Good Times_, the lead character, Florida, listed three things in the world you just can't do, and one was "smile wider than Donny and Marie").

### Producers of 1970s television

Many prime-time programs of the 1970s were run by independent producers, often in association with a major Hollywood studio. A particularly successful independent producer at the dawn of the decade was Quinn Martin. Martin produced crime shows such as _The Streets of San Francisco_, _Cannon_, and _Dan August_. The latter show was a one-season cop series, starring Burt Reynolds, that would find greater popularity after its star had hit it big at the cinema. Martin's success faded during the last half of the decade. Norman Lear produced the socially relevant _All in the Family_ as well as more innocuous fare such as _One Day at a Time_. Jack Webb oversaw _Adam-12_ and _Emergency!._ Glen A. Larson produced a number of shows in association with Universal TV _(_McCloud_, _Switch_, etc.), _while David Gerber made a name for himself with such fare as Police Woman and Police Story. The latter was a one-hour anthology series with no series regulars.

Among 1970s TV producers, was Aaron Spelling. He would go on to be perhaps, according to an article written by Michael Idato for The Sydney Morning Herald, "the most prolific producer in TV history." Like Quinn Martin, Spelling was known for producing crime dramas (S.W.A.T., Starsky & Hutch). Spelling also produced more escapist shows like The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, and Charlie's Angels. There was also Family, a socially relevant hour-long series. It would win a number of Emmys during its four-year run. Spelling's success would continue well into the 1990s.

## Television by year

- **1970** - Monday Night Football is first broadcast on (ABC). _Mary Tyler Moore_ and _All My Children_ premiere.
- **1971** - _All in the Family_ premieres. John Chancellor becomes the sole anchor of the NBC Nightly News.
- **1972** - _M*A*S*H_ and Bob Barker's _The Price Is Right_ debut. Home Box Office becomes first pay-TV channel.
- **1973** - Large-screen projection color TVs hit the market in the United States. _The Young and the Restless_, _Match Game_ and _Pyramid_ begin hugely successful daytime TV runs.
- **1974** - _Happy Days_ premieres on ABC. Monty Python's Flying Circus comes to American TV audiences for the first time.
- **1975** - _Saturday Night Live_, _Good Morning America, The Jeffersons_ and _Wheel of Fortune_ premiere. Sony introduces the Betamax, a home video tape recorder.
- **1976** - _Family Feud_ premieres on ABC
- **1977** - The miniseries _Roots_ airs on ABC. First episode of _Three's Company_.
- **1978** - _Dallas_ begins the return of prime time soaps in the United States.
- **1979** - 43 million viewers watch _Elvis!_ on ABC. All-sports cable channel ESPN is launched. The Pinwheel Channel changes its name to Nickelodeon.