My candidate for this evening’s viewing? The Andy Griffith Show, with six episodes airing tonight on TV Land (7-10 pm, EST). The saga of a small-town sheriff (Griffith), his nervous but boastful deputy (the great Don Knotts), and his sweet little son Opie (Ron Howard) struck the perfect balance, it seems to me, of chuckles, guffaws, verbal and physical humor, and a sentimentality that rarely become too mushy.
Tonight’s TV offerings include a dandy season-four edition in which Knotts’ Barney Fife and Jim Nabors’ Gomer Pyle enter a haunted house.
What old TV show—and just for fun, let’s make a rule that it has to have aired originally in black-and-white—do you think is a just-about-perfect TV series?
I Love Lucy
Leave it to Beaver
The Avengers
The Phil Silvers Show
Easy:
The Dick Van Dyke Show.
The Wild Wild West with Robert Conrad and Ross Martin. The show had a bit of everything, action, drama, humor, mystery, and suspense. Conrad did outstanding fights and stunts and the music was awesome. Way ahead of it’s time. It was canceled after four seasons and 104 episodes because it was “too violent.” Crazy. One of my all time favorites.
I Love Lucy. The best ever.
Bewitched – It’s first two seasons aired in black and white.
The Carol Burnett Show.
The sketches were brilliant. Carol was hysterical. The guest appearances were inspired. The moments between Tim Conway and Harvey Korman still make me roll with laughter.
All in all, a perfect comedy show.
The Dick Van Dyke show is the best. It is always funny, and all of the actors and actresses are good.
Golden Girls
I love Lucy.
thirtysomething…which they’d finally put it out on freakin dvd already!
In terms of seasons I would say Friday Night Lights because season 1 and season 3 have both been pitch perfect. It is such a genuinely moving realistic show that I think will stand the test of time.
ALSO–freaks and geeks. It may have died too soon, but at least it went away with no complaints about its quality which never wavered.
I hate black and white TV
The best shows were in color and were on TGIF:
Full House, Boy Meets World, Family Matters, Perfect Strangers, and Step by Step