1960s TV Shows: What Did People Watch?

38 thoughts on “1960s TV Shows: What Did People Watch?”

1. Terri February 13, 2017 at 7:37 pm

   There was a tv show, I believe in the 1960’s, that I have a vague recollection of. I would have been very young, so my memory is not clear. But I think I recall an opening introduction where a woman opens the front door and looks around to assess the weather. She may have been the housekeeper? The weather is sunny, so the man of the house heads out to work and the sky instantly turns dark and the rain begins to pour. I believe the housekeeper hands him an umbrella. Do you recall something like this? It bugs me every once in a while.

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   1. Paul Phipps Post authorMarch 3, 2017 at 6:29 pm

      This sounds like it could be one of the introductions to Hazel.

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   2. Earline September 21, 2018 at 6:37 pm

      You are definitely thinking of the show “HAZEL”. Though you must have been thinking about the last season. In the introduction “HAZEL” played by “Shirley Booth” is standing outside at the Front Door, offering each of The Baxter’s an umbrella, as they are leaving the house. Each one of them look up at the sky and rejects the umbrella. In the next scene we see “Hazel” running down the walkway with an armful of rain gear. No doubt she was trying to keep a few people from getting wet. I don’t think “HAZEL” will ever hit any of “THE BEST OF THE 1960’S TELEVISION SHOWS” LIST. Eventhough “SHIRLEY BOOTH” WON TWO EMMYS FOR HER ROLE AS “HAZEL”, it just doesn’t seem to have stuck well on anybody’s well received shows list. It even did very well in the ratings. Well, at least it is available on DVD, on “AMAZON”, but if you’re interested in getting Season One, count on either paying well over $100.00 or keep checking for inexpensive Good Used Copies. I believe it is out of print, which probably contributes to the high cost. I understand too, that you may be able to find an inexpensive copy of “SEASON ONE” from one of those “GAME STORES”. The rest of the Seasons, 2-5, are available now on “AMAZON”. WELL, ENJOY!

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2. Matt Pellegrini June 15, 2017 at 4:35 pm

   This one is driving all of us at work crazy. Doews anyone have title to this Made for tv movie, set in the 1950’s, about about a town rebel falling in love with a pretty blond teenager.
   They both want to get married but he finds out that a girl he had sex with is now pregnant with his child.
   At the end of the movie, he decides to marry his pregnant friend and become a bean farmer

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   1. Sue Upchurch December 28, 2018 at 1:48 am

      Did you ever find out what you were looking for with the town rebel and the pretty blonde teenager? I remember one very close to that called BLUE DENIM. It was a very good movie with a lot of emotion. Hope that was it. If so, it starred a very young Brandon DeWilde and Carol Lynley.

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   2. Bob Stutts September 26, 2019 at 3:10 pm

      I do seem to recall this – however I believe it was Michael Parks and I believe it might have been in the series “Channing”.

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   3. TG March 29, 2021 at 4:08 am

      Could you be thinking of the movie “Splendor in the Grass” with Warren Beatty and Natalie Wood? It was released in 1961, tho Natalie Wood wasn’t blonde. Warren Beatty wasn’t so much a rebel but a college-bound rich kid and Natalie Wood was living with her very prudish mother who was worried she would get pregnant and ruin her life. They part ways and both go off in different directions, but Wood comes back to visit and finds Beatty, a farmer, living in a shack with his pregnant wife and a bunch of kids. Wood has became lovely and refined while Beatty turned into a trashy slob.

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   4. adrian January 18, 2022 at 12:29 am

      Peyton Place

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3. Anne Heafield June 17, 2017 at 11:29 am

   I am looking for a 60’s TV show that featured and adult scout. I cannot for the life of me remember the name. Any help appreciated, thanks

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   1. Kelsey Rotten October 6, 2020 at 6:30 am

      There were a lot of Henry Aldrich movies made in the 40’s that regularly aired in the 60’s.

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4. Shay March 3, 2018 at 8:47 am

   I’m trying to remember an old show black and white it started off with a guy telling about mysteries or something to that effect and in the beginning it had circles flipping across the screen he had came on every time a skit was over and talked and introduced the next one.?

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   1. Julie October 26, 2018 at 9:00 pm

      The show was “One Step Beyond”. All the episodes had a slant toward the supernatural. (ie: deaf man rescues a crippled woman during a tsunami in Hawaii. He hears her calls for help: strange knocking on as ship at see goes on for years, when ship is scraped a skeleton with a wrench in its hand is found in the hull). Lots of fun. Creepy but not horror shows.

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5. mieke March 25, 2018 at 8:32 am

   Does anyone remember a Christmas movie about a boy who rides on a train with his old teddy bear to the North Pole so that he can ask Santa Claus for a new teddy bear?
   As he gets his wish with a new white teddy bear, there is a haunting moment when Santa tells the boy “Look at your old teddy bear–he still loves you”.

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6. Mike September 8, 2018 at 10:52 pm

   Can anybody help with the title of a half-hour U.S. comedy which featured briefly on Granada TV (North West England) that started at around 18:30 or 19:00 in mid-to-late 1960s? The opening credits feature a woman crossing the street and almost getting run over by a car. She then clouts the hood/bonnet of the car with her umbrella. I think the title of the show was a female Christian name.

   TIA.

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7. malike January 4, 2019 at 7:43 pm

   who remembers the old batman and robin that was the joint !!!!

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   1. zach May 6, 2019 at 4:20 pm

      that was a very old movie

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8. gail February 3, 2019 at 4:46 pm

   I am trying to remember the name of TV show starting with a man moving across a giant chess board with chess pieces?

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   1. Kelsey Rotten October 6, 2020 at 6:07 am

      Could be The Prisoner

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9. Florrie Williams March 31, 2019 at 5:18 am

   two shows I can not remember the name of; One opened with music from a Lutheran hymn. The main character was a little boy named Davie and each day he would learn a lesson on kindness, giving sharing etc.
   The other show had characters that were puppets. possibly security agents that were sent to stop any sabotage in what was a futuristic city.
   Not sure how long they aired. The one with Davie may have only been a fifteen minutes long.
   Now this will test your memory.

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   1. andy May 23, 2019 at 4:50 pm

      Davey and Goliath

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10. Nancy April 21, 2019 at 6:19 pm

    I recall a 30 minute children’s program. It featured a friendly older woman who fed fish and read children’s stories. Story time lady? It would have been 1969ish. It aired in the mornings in my home town in West Michigan. Unlike Romper Room, or Bozo there were no kids. Mr. Rogers “borrowed” some of the basics.

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11. Trish October 20, 2019 at 6:05 pm

    I remember a show that had a little white figure made of egg shells that would introduce cartoons (Loony Toons) and he had a creepy voice. He was called Mr. EggHead. At the end of each show a hand would smash him in some bizzare way. I remember a toy tank running him over. Does ANYONE else remember this show?

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12. Carla Michels December 31, 2019 at 8:09 am

    I think it was a talk show that had 2 women hosts and a male host I also remember that one or both of the women would sing the song I don’t like spiders and snakes and I think it was either in the late year of 73 0r early 1974 the show was canceled because the male host had a fatal heat attack it was a very sad day does anyone remember the name of the show and the names of the hosts I think it was on the NBC network but could be wrong.

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    1. TG March 29, 2021 at 5:01 am

       The Jim Stafford show was a limited (6 week) Summer variety show…skits, singers, dancers…. that aired in July-September 1975. Jim Stafford was well known for the song he sang (I dont’t like spiders and snakes…).
       However, Jim.Stafford did not die. Perhaps this is the show you were thinking about?

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13. Ria February 23, 2020 at 8:34 pm

    As a little girl, around 3 or 4 p.m. a show that always showed at the commercial break a little boy skipping/running fast barefoot outside with a fishing pole. It’s was around the time Ma and Pa Kettle came on.

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14. grace hayes March 5, 2020 at 12:52 am

    There was a show in the 60’s based on historical events and had a rather dramatic theme song sort of in the nature of a John Williams theme. Does anyone remember it?

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    1. Kelsey Rotten October 6, 2020 at 6:13 am

       Possibly Time Tunnel

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15. Elaine May 2, 2020 at 12:03 am

    I kinda remember a circus tv weekly show ack in the 60’s or 70’s . Am I loosing it or does someone else remember it. I wanna say it was on Friday night for an hour. Help please,,,,,

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    1. Kurt J. June 5, 2021 at 4:49 am

       Circus Boy. The series starred Micky Dolenz and Noah Beery, Jr.

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    2. David Clark August 16, 2021 at 8:21 am

       Ithad Don Amechi and I think it was called circus circus in the 1960’s black a d white.

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    3. Gisele January 6, 2022 at 5:48 pm

       I remember a circus-themed show hosted by Don Ameche in the early sixties. I believe it was International Showtime.

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16. Richard May 2, 2020 at 4:41 pm

    There was a kind of current events show around the 1960’s that I vaguely remember. What caught my attention was the fellow on a raft playing a saxophone at the beginning of the show. At the time, I really liked what he was playing. Does anyone recall the name of this show?

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17. Karhy June 10, 2020 at 9:45 am

    Hazel or nanny and the professot

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18. Elaine Miller June 10, 2020 at 9:12 pm

    Does anyone remember the name of the Perry Mason episode where Perry interrogated a child on the witness stand and was able to get him or her to admit they were not telling the truth by saying something to the effect “your story is very consistent. Who helped you make up your story” to which the child finally replies “nobody helped me – i made it up all by myself”. Would love to see that episode again but still havem’t foulnd it after countless reruns on METV. Probably was one of the earlier episodes, possibly made in the 1950s.

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19. JONATHAN FINKELMAN June 15, 2020 at 8:11 am

    I am trying to remember the name of a TV show that aired in NYC in the early 1960s. It was a show that, like the Million Dollar Movie and The Late Show, featured full-length theatrically released films. It had a peppy musical theme that I think featured pizzicato (plucked) violins. Can anyone help think of what it might be?

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20. Ricardo Blanco September 2, 2020 at 11:14 pm

    When I was about 6yrs. old in Queens, N.Y., I recall what I believe was a weekend children’s show, either Saturday or Sunday were they had the usual fanfare of those kids shows from that mid-60’s era. Then at about before the show’s ending, the host would sit at a desk not unlike the desk of “The Johnny Carson Show”, where he would show slides of and discuss very real looking and to me at that time very unsettling pictures of UFO’s.
    It isn’t Wonderama or the Soupey Sales Show. That I’m sure of.

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21. Kelsey Rotten October 6, 2020 at 6:18 am

    There was a final episode of Star Trek that possibly only aired in Canada. It so bad it never made it to syndicated reruns. A transporter accident causes crew members to switch bodies, and Spock has to adjust to walking like a woman.

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22. Deborah J Elzey May 1, 2021 at 2:01 am

    My Three Sons I loved that show, of course also Hazel and Mr. Ed the talking horse. Surprised Gillians Island was not mentioned.

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