11 Iconic TV Shows from the 70s You Loved Watching Every Week
Have you ever said, “They don’t make shows like they used to”? We sure have! Hollywood truly doesn’t make sitcoms like it used to, which is probably why we find ourselves rewatching our favorite shows from decades ago. One of our very favorite decades for shows? The 1970s! Whether you were a kid in the ’70s or yet to be born, you’ve probably watched at least one of these iconic shows!
The Brady Bunch
Here’s the story…of an iconic TV show that might not exist if it weren’t for The Los Angeles Times. When creator Sherwood Schwartz read that nearly 30% of marriages were between people who already had kids, inspiration struck. Thus, in 1966, he began working on a pilot script for a show then called Mine and Yours. Two years later, the show we now know as The Brady Bunch hit TV screens for the first time. Though it wasn’t exactly a ratings giant during its original airing, The Brady Bunch has since become a beloved pop culture staple. No, really. Chances are, if you say “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia” or hum the theme song, people won’t look at you like you have a tomato growing out of your eye. Most people are familiar, whether they’ve seen the original show or the spoof movie from the 90s.
Columbo
Created by William Link and Richard Levinson, this show spearheaded the inverted mystery technique. “Columbo wasn’t really a cop show,” wrote David Koenig, author of Shooting Columbo: The Lives and Deaths of TV’s Rumpled Detective. “It was a drawing-room mystery done backwards with a cop as the lead. It was an anti-cop show.” Plus, you have to love Peter Falk as Columbo! We love watching the villains underestimate him and get their comeuppance, even though we know it’s coming. If you’re a fan of Everybody Loves Raymond, you might notice a familiar face in some of the episodes. Robert Culp, who plays Debra’s father, actually guest-starred in not one, not two, but THREE episodes.
Fantasy Island
Starring Ricardo Montalbán as the enigmatic Mr. Rourke and Hervé Villechaize as his sidekick Tattoo, this fantasy drama series started as a joke. Frustrated that executives kept shooting down all his ideas during a meeting, producer Aaron Spelling sarcastically asked, “What would you like me to do? Put some guy on an island and have him grant wishes to people?” Much to his surprise, the network loved the idea. Viewers never learn the truth about Fantasy Island. However, Mr. Montalbán devised his own backstory for his character. “Even though the audience didn’t realize what I was thinking…I decided this man was an angel who still had a little sin of pride in him,” he once explained. “So he is in charge of purgatory, and he has his little cherub to help him.” You can see quite a few familiar faces on Fantasy Island! A young Geena Davis is in one episode, as is Bob Denver, AKA Gilligan. Even Mr. Reading Rainbow himself, LaVar Burton, made an appearance!
Happy Days
We’re not sure about any other day of the week, but Tuesdays in the 70s were likely pretty spectacular for fans of Happy Days! This American sitcom aired every Tuesday at 8 p.m. for ten seasons until 1983. Starring Ron Howard and Tom Bosley, Happy Days wasn’t an instant success. In fact, creator Garry Marshall had to rework the show after ratings fell in the second season. After highlighting the character of Fonzie, played by Henry Winkler, the show became the number-one program on TV in 1976 through ’77. Interestingly, Happy Days inspired the idiom “jumping the shark” after The Fonz quite literally jumped over a live shark on water skis during the 1977 episode “Hollywood, Part 3.”
Mr. Winkler himself supplied a little backstory on the episode in an Archive interview with the Television Academy Foundation. “My father suggested a storyline…he said, ‘Why don’t you water ski? You’re a good water skier.’ So I water skied and jumped the shark, and then came ‘Jump the Shark,'” the veteran actor explained. “Now you have to understand, we were number one for, like, six years after that, so nobody else thought we jumped the shark.”
Laverne & Shirley
Diehard fans of Happy Days already know that Laverne & Shirley is a spin-off. Starring Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams as the titular Laverne and Shirley, this show revolves around two working-class besties from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Unlike Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley didn’t struggle to find its bearings. It was such a smash hit that it inspired an entire merchandise franchise that included dolls, board games, Halloween costumes, and more. At one point, it was even the most-watched American TV show!
The Muppet Show
If you love Kermit the Frog as much as we do, then you definitely watched The Muppet Show in its heyday! The variety sketch show featured everyone from Christopher Reeve to Carol Burnett to Vincent Price. Except for John Denver, you’ll never see the same celebrity face twice. That’s because The Muppet Show had a strict rule: no celebrity guest was allowed to host the show twice. Celebrity guests were given a little more leeway in one area. They got to choose which Muppet they wanted to interact with onscreen. Apparently, Miss Piggy was the most requested!
Little House on the Prairie
No list about iconic ’70s TV shows would be complete without a mention of Little House on the Prairie! Loosely (very loosely) based on the best-selling book series of the same name, this American drama chronicled the lives of a homesteading family who lived in Walnut Grove, Minnesota. Melissa Gilbert played Laura “Half-Pint” Ingalls with irrepressible charm while Michael Landon’s Pa supplied the heart…and an uncanny ability to cry on cue. This show made us laugh, cry, and wish we were part of the Ingalls family for nine seasons.
Raise your hand if you hated Mrs. Olsen. Well, you’ll be happy to know that Katherine MacGregor was absolutely nothing like her character. Karen Grassle, who played Caroline Ingalls, recently said of her late costar: “It was wonderful to work with her. Katherine and I both loved to rehearse, and that was how we struck it off with each other.” Dean Butler, AKA Almanzo Wilder, also added that he adored Katherine—and had never met anyone quite like her. We hate to burst your bubble, but two of the actors who purportedly didn’t get along behind the scenes? None other than Karen Grassle and Michael Landon.
The Love Boat
Aaron Spelling is responsible for yet another entry on this list! Although it debuted at the tail end of the 70’s, The Love Boat still deserves a shoutout. This show is, to put it bluntly, cheesy. But it’s the good kind of cheesy. Plus, like Spelling’s other show, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat is a great place to see some familiar faces! In fact, the Maxwell Smart, Don Adams, appears on The Love Boat several times! Two of our Little House faves, Melissa Sue Anderson (Mary Ingalls) and Alison Arngrim (Nellie Olson), also starred in some episodes. Even Tom Hanks shows up in one 1980 episode, looking very young!
The Partridge Family
While we love Shirley Jones as Shirley Partridge, she was in the running to play another iconic TV mom. Believe it or not, casting directors offered her the role of Carol Brady before Jones’ real-life best friend, Florence Henderson, accepted it. We think she made the right decision, as we can’t imagine anyone else as the musical matriarch of the Partridge family! The family was loosely based on the Cowsills, a real-life group of musical siblings popular in the 60s.
According to IMDB, Shirley Jones stated that she got along with most of her co-stars—except for Ray Bolger. Fans of The Wizard of Oz might recognize his name, and for good reason–he played The Scarecrow! In real life, Bolger was apparently quite irritable and a bit of a control freak who demanded that everything on set go his way. Sorry if we burst another childhood bubble!
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!
There have been countless Scooby-Doo reboots, movies, and even a musical. But we still love the show that started it all. If you try to tell us that that ghostly glowing diver didn’t scare the bejeebers out of you as a kid, then we simply won’t believe you! Interestingly, this show might actually be connected to Gilligan’s Island. There’s a popular urban legend that The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis might have inspired Scooby-Doo, Where Are You. People insist that creators based Shaggy off Maynard G. Krebs, played by Bob Denver. AKA, the guy who played Gilligan on Gilligan’s Island. In other words, Shaggy Rogers might not exist if it weren’t for Bob Denver. Who knew!
The Waltons
Did you know that the pilot of this show was actually a 1971 made-for-TV movie called The Homecoming: A Christmas Story? It was so successful that CBS immediately ordered a show based on the characters. If you go back and watch the movie, you might note that the cast looks a little different! Richard Thomas, who played John Boy, was one of the only cast members from the original movie who stayed on the show. And while we’re on the subject, Gilmore Girls fans might be interested to learn about its connection to The Waltons. The Dragonfly Inn set used in Gilmore Girls was actually a replica of the Walton House. How’s that for pop culture trivia?
Popular Articles About TV
Originally published May 22, 2025
Author(s):
