About This Quiz
Television really exploded into something unprecedented in the 1960s. Black and white was giving way to color and variety, talk and game shows became more popular in addition to the full range of comedy and drama programming. Production values were going up and some real effort was put into making TV shows that people wanted to tune into each and every week.
Some of the shows from the '60s have proven so popular that not only have they endured in reruns and DVDs, Blu-ray and streaming services, but they've been given new life as films and modern reboots as well. That's pretty incredible when you think about it. Shows like "Star Trek" or "Batman" only lasted a few seasons back when they originally aired. But somehow they struck a chord with audiences and have lived on. Thrived, even! That's the sign of quality writing and quality acting. Or maybe it's just kitsch value. Or maybe a mix of everything.
If you're a fan of '60s TV and feel like you've seen your fair share of shows well enough to pick some out of a crowd, now's your chance to flex your skills. We'll give you a trio of characters, you name the show. Easy, right? Let's find out!
"Bewitched" was the first of two popular comedies about magical women around the same time, the second being "I Dream of Jeannie." Jeannie was a knockoff of "Bewitched" and even filmed on some of the same sets.
"Star Trek" is arguably the most famous show to come out of the '60s and is still running, albeit in a very different iteration, over 50 years and several movies later. That's pretty surprising since the original Trek was actually not a ratings success and was canceled after only three seasons.
"Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood" started in 1968, though Rogers himself had been on TV for several years beforehand. His show aired until 2001 and was likely seen by tens of millions of children all around the world.
Advertisement
"The Andy Griffith Show" is where Don Knotts got his start and became a comedy dynamo for many years. It's also where future Academy Award-winning director Ron Howard got his start as Andy Griffith's son Opie. Griffith's hometown of Mt. Airy, North Carolina, has many tourist attractions connected to the show.
"Gilligan's Island" only ran for three seasons in its initial run, but oddly enough became a lot more popular in the '70s and '80s when it was rerun in syndication. The first season of the show was actually black and white and was later colorized.
"The Addams Family" is one of the few horror sitcoms that ever got off the ground and has endured to this day through remakes, cartoons and movies. The show and character were created by cartoonist Charles Addams who, presumably, did not have an actual cousin named It.
Advertisement
"The Brady Bunch" was an exceptionally popular show that first aired back in 1969. Its success sparked numerous spinoffs and movies including "The Brady Bunch Hour," "The Brady Girls Get Married" and "The Brady Brides." That's a lot of Brady.
"The Dick Van Dyke Show" was one of the first meta-comedy shows on TV, as it was a TV comedy about a guy who wrote a TV comedy. Carl Reiner was inspired to create the show based on his own experiences as a writer on "Your Show of Shows."
"The Munsters" was a satirical take on the family sitcom which featured a family of monsters in place of the typical, middle-class household. Because Universal Studios produced "The Munsters," it was able to use the same makeup for Herman that was used back in the day for Frankenstein in the movie.
Advertisement
"The Green Hornet" only lasted for a single season on TV but it made a lasting impression if for no other reason than it provided the world with a weekly dose of kung fu legend Bruce Lee.
"Get Smart" was created by comedy legend Mel Brooks as a send-up of the whole spy genre that had grow to popularity with the rise of things like James Bond. Don Adams, who played Agent 86 Maxwell Smart, would go on to voice "Inspector Gadget," who was basically the same kind of bumbling agent only in cartoon form.
"Batman" is an iconic show for its campiness and over-the-top goofiness. Weirdly, it was only on TV for two seasons as well, but the impact has lasted for decades and, of course, Batman has appeared in numerous movies since. Adam West spent years working the convention circuit.
Advertisement
"Hogan's Heroes" is notable for being pretty much the only show ever to try to make a German POW camp in the Second World War into a comedy. Oddly enough it worked, and the show lasted for 6 whole seasons. The show featured Richard Dawson, who later shot to fame as the original host of "Family Feud."
"Hawaii Five-O" first aired back in 1968 and proved to be so popular it got a reboot in 2010. It's mostly known for the catchphrase "Book 'em, Danno" and also for popularizing "Five-O" as slang for police. At the time, it was one of the few shows on prime time TV featuring Asian actors.
"Family Affair" aired from 1966 to 1971 and proved to be rather popular with little girls owing to the children on the show. Mattel even marketed a "Mrs. Beasley" doll after the doll carried around by the character Buffy on the show.
Advertisement
"The Monkees" chronicled the adventures of the band as they tried to make it in the music business, and even though it only lasted two seasons has proven to be immensely popular in syndication ever since. The whole thing was inspired by The Beatles and their movie "A Hard Day's Night."
"The Beverly Hillbillies" ran for nearly 10 years starting in 1962. The show was still fairly popular in the year that CBS canceled it but it was part of something called the "rural purge" that saw the networks cancel all rural-themed shows in favor of cool, urban shows.
"I Dream of Jeannie" was a direct knockoff of "Bewitched" but was still remarkably popular in its own right. For some reason, the show depicted NASA as being a branch of the military, which created some of the drama throughout.
Advertisement
"Lost in Space" covered the adventures of the Robinson family as they were, you know, lost in space. The show also featured a famous, floppy-armed robot and was remade as a movie in the '90s starring Matt LeBlanc as well as a rebooted and very updated series on Netflix.
Though it's much more popular as a movie series these days, "Mission: Impossible" premiered on TV back in 1966. The film series that was resurrected by Tom Cruise in 1996 has grossed over $3.5 billion worldwide.
"The Wild Wild West" ran from 1965 to 1969 and was a curious mix of science fiction and Western. The show was created because Westerns were becoming less popular but the spy genre was really amping up thanks to James Bond. Both genres came together in the show and it worked out. Will Smith starred in a movie version that didn't do terribly well.
Advertisement
"The Virginian" was actually retooled later as "The Men From Shiloh" in the early 1970s. It was a Western and featured Doug McClure as the character Trampas. McClure would be immortalized via the homage character of Troy McClure on "The Simpsons."
"My Three Sons" had the unusual distinction of being a sitcom on ABC for about half of its run before it was picked up by CBS for several more years. ABC didn't want to pay for the show to be made in color, so CBS footed the bill.
"The Big Valley" was a Western that ran from 1965 to 1969. It was known for featuring a huge number of guest stars over the years including Dennis Hopper, Ellen Burstyn, Richard Dreyfuss, Cloris Leachman and Regis Philbin.
Advertisement
"Sesame Street" started in 1969 and has gone on to become arguably the most iconic children's show of all time. In the mid-'90s, survey data showed that 95% of all preschoolers in America had seen the show by the time they were 3 years old.
"Gomer Pyle: USMC" was a spinoff of "The Andy Griffith Show" and featured the dimwitted Gomer Pyle as the lead character. Pyle was actually based on someone the writer had once met, described as an "incompetent gas station attendant."
"One Life to Live" was one of the longest-running shows in TV history. It ran from 1968 to 2012. It then managed to squeeze out another year running as a web series on Hulu and iTunes that was suspended due to litigation.
Advertisement
"Petticoat Junction" aired from 1963 to 1970. Weirdly enough, the same year it premiered an amusement park called "Petticoat Junction Amusement Park" opened in Panama City Beach, Florida. The owners were friends with the actor who played Uncle Joe, who got permission from producers to use the name.
"Adam-12" was one of the first police procedural shows on TV to try to present police work in a realistic manner. This was opposed to some of the goofier comedy-themed police shows that had been popular beforehand or others that seemed to just not be based in reality at all.
"General Hospital" is one of the longest-running TV shows in history and has been on since 1963. In 2018 it crossed the 14,000 episode mark. It'd take you over 580 days to watch every episode, assuming you don't need to sleep. The wedding of two characters, Luke and Laura, in 1981 was a major cultural event.
Advertisement
"Green Acres" was not a spinoff of "Petticoat Junction" so much as a concurrent or sister series. The show was oddly ahead of its time and featured some unusual comedy elements such as characters breaking the fourth wall and, of course, a talking pig.
"Daniel Boone" was actually made into a show twice in the 1960s. The first was in the year 1960, and it aired as a miniseries on ABC. The second was the more popular full series that aired from 1964 to 1970.
Raymond Burr starred in the show "Ironside" starting in 1967. When the cast reunited for a TV movie in 1993, Burr was suffering from kidney cancer and no longer had the ability to walk so, like his character, he required the use of a wheelchair.
Advertisement
"McHale's Navy" is known for being a pretty goofy military-themed sitcom that featured a strong comedic cast including Ernest Borgnine and Tim Conway. Bizarrely enough, the show was originally meant to be a drama, it just evolved into a comedy to meet the demands of the network.
"Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" lasted for four seasons and somehow got goofier with every single one. When the show started, it was heavily into speculative fiction in a real-world scenario dealing with Cold War plot lines. By the end, the show focused on ghosts and werewolves under the sea.
"F Troop" dealt with American soldiers and Native Americans and was, according to most TV historians, terribly racist. None of the Native American characters were played by actual Native Americans, they all spoke with broken English and most of their names were terrible puns.
Advertisement
"My Favorite Martian" was another of the popular magical being-type TV shows like "Bewitched" and "I Dream of Jeannie." Martian was not as popular, however, and tended to rely heavily on the use of a time machine for plot lines that ended up becoming rather stale.
"Car 54, Where Are You?" was a sitcom in the early '60s that was filmed in black and white. Because of that, the titular cars were actually red and white so that, on black and white film, they'd look like convincing police cars.
"Here's Lucy" featured Lucille Ball, once again as a character named Lucy, this time alongside her real-life children Desi Arnaz Jr. and Lucie Arnaz. This was actually Ball's third sitcom after "I Love Lucy" and "The Lucy Show."
Advertisement
"The Rat Patrol" was a World War II-era action drama that proved to be pretty popular back in 1966. It was pulled from TV in Great Britain due to historical inaccuracies, and numerous cast members were injured over the run of the show.