Must-Watch TV Classics from the 1970s: A Timeless Viewing Experience

The 1960s marked a period of significant social transformation in the United States, with breakthrough advancements in civil rights reshaping both governance and entertainment. By the dawn of the 1970s, classic television shows like “The Andy Griffith Show” and “Leave it to Beaver” felt like relics from a bygone era. However, Hollywood was brimming with fresh ideas, producing a slew of innovative and engaging programs. Viewers were drawn to these new shows for their humor, relatable depictions of everyday life, and as a steadying influence amidst the shifting societal landscape.

The 1970s were indeed a tumultuous decade for America, characterized by events such as the near-disastrous Apollo 13 mission, the Watergate scandal, and widespread protests against the Vietnam War. Amidst this backdrop, television became a beacon of entertainment, with some of the era’s most memorable shows gracing the small screen. As TV gradually began to rival Hollywood films in prestige, network sitcoms and variety shows became platforms for the era’s brightest stars. The following ten shows from the 1970s are essential viewing for their exceptional writing, talented ensembles, and insightful portrayal of American life during that period.

“The Brady Bunch,” which made its debut in September 1969, may have the lowest average IMDb episode rating among these selections, yet it epitomizes the ’70s through its distinctive home decor and fashion. The series crafted a lasting legacy despite its modest contemporary ratings. This sitcom tackled the dynamics of a blended family at a time when America’s divorce rate was rising sharply. The young actors portraying the six Brady children had the opportunity to learn from seasoned performers like Robert Reed and Florence Henderson. The show was rich with teachable moments for the Brady kids, featuring memorable lines such as Marcia’s (Maureen McCormick) “Oh, my nose!” and Jan’s (Eve Plumb) iconic “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia.”

• Creator: Sherwood Schwartz
• Stars: Robert Reed, Florence Henderson, Maureen McCormick
• Years: 1969-74
• Episodes: 117
• Where to watch: Paramount+

Although “The Brady Bunch” premiered in September 1969 and has the lowest average IMDb episode rating of any show on this list, the home decor and fashions alone make it as ’70s as could be, and it has one of the most lasting legacies of its contemporaries. The low-stakes drama of this sitcom centered on a blended family at a time when the divorce rate in the United States was rising sharply, and the young actors playing the six kids were able to learn from masters of the craft in Robert Reed and Florence Henderson. The scripts were full of lessons for the Brady children and included such unforgettable lines like Marcia’s (Maureen McCormick) “Oh, my nose!” and Jan’s (Eve Plumb) exasperated “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia.”

The original series is likely more popular now than when it aired. It never finished a season in the top 20 but spawned several spinoffs and specials, three feature-length films, and a reality TV special. In seven episodes of “A Very Brady Renovation,” the actors who played the Brady kids got back together to help remodel the iconic house used for exterior shots on the show. Although the interior scenes were filmed on soundstages, the 2019 HGTV series saw the Studio City house transformed into a true clone of the TV set. The house ultimately sold for $3.2 million, proving that nostalgia has value. Much of Generation X grew up with the family that was at once wildly chaotic and relentlessly peaceful, and “The Brady Bunch” is still worth a watch today. Its average episode rating on IMDb is just 6.8/10, but it offers full ’70s immersion in a form that’s appropriate for the whole family.

• Creator: Norman Lear
• Stars: Carroll O’Connor, Jean Stapleton, Sally Struthers
• Years:1971-79
• Episodes: 207
• Where to watch: Tubi

“All in the Family” is one of the most influential TV series of all time, and Bravo named patriarchal grump Archie Bunker (Carroll O’Connor) the greatest TV character ever in 2017. The bigoted dock foreman and father spread his contempt wide for other ethnic and racial groups, including his Polish son-in-law Michael Stivic (Rob Reiner) and Black neighbors George, Louise, and Lionel Jefferson (Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford, and Mike Evans). The show’s run encompassed nearly the entire decade and reflected the massive social changes of the time that included important progressive milestones for American women, people of color, people with disabilities, and  members of the LGBTQ+ community.

O’Connor won four Emmys for the role and has since made it clear that he didn’t intend for Archie to be a role model for anyone. In an interview with the Television Academy he said of Bunker that “all his preconceptions were keeping him from enjoying life. That was my message. Archie never enjoyed anything. He never smiled, never had anything nice to say about the day. Something was always poisoning life for him.” He praised his co-star Jean Stapleton, saying she made Archie’s wife Edith “the sensible, moral reaction to this nonsensical, immoral man.”  Viewers have given the 200-plus episodes an average rating of 8.4/10 on IMDb, and “All in the Family” is as clear a reflection of the decade’s social turmoil as any ’70s series. The show’s thought-provoking message hiding underneath doesn’t take away from the comedy, and it’s an important piece of TV and cultural history.

• Creator: Larry Gelbart
• Stars: Alan Alda, Loretta Swit, Harry Morgan
• Years: 1972-83
• Episodes: 251
• Where to watch: Hulu

“M*A*S*H” might be one of the most artful mixes of comedy and drama to ever hit the small screen and is frequently mentioned among the best shows of all time. Alan Alda won five of the series’ 14 Emmy awards: Three for his performance as surgeon Capt. Hawkeye Pierce plus one each for writing and directing. He’s the only person ever to win in those three categories for a single series, which may come as a surprise once you see some of the other entries on this list. Loretta Swit, Harry Morgan, Jamie Farr, and Gary Burghoff also played starring roles over the show’s 11 seasons.

The 250-plus episodes have an average viewer rating of 8.5/10 on IMDb, and the last episode’s live audience of 106 million people is still bigger than any other series finale over 40 years after it aired. For a modern comparison, that’s about the same number of streams for the entire final season of “Stranger Things.” M*A*S*H came in at No. 44 on our list of the greatest TV shows of all time, and was tops among all series that aired primarily in the ’70s. Some of the gender relations may seem outdated, but M*A*S*H is all-time great television with plenty to offer modern audiences.

• Creator: Garry Marshall
• Stars: Henry Winkler, Ron Howard, Tom Bosley
• Years: 1974-84
• Episodes: 255
• Where to watch: Paramount+

If we were naming the best TV theme songs or characters of the 1970s, we’d also have to include “Happy Days.” While the Cunningham family (Tom Bosley, Marion Ross, Ron Howard, and Erin Moran) were at the heart of the show, its soul was the tenant above their garage, Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli (Henry Winkler). The Fonz’s brown leather jacket is now in the Smithsonian along with Archie Bunker’s living room armchair, and his signature exclamations of “Eyyyy” and “Exactamundo” made the motorcycle-riding, advice-dispensing greaser mechanic even more lovable and charming.

We also wouldn’t have the phrase or phenomenon “Jumping the Shark” without “Happy Days,” although the show remained popular after its notorious water-skiing scene in Season 5. While the ’50s slang and teenybopper culture might seem a bit passe, the show is another quintessential bit of ’70s culture that will leave you with plenty of smiles. Winkler, Bosley, and Ross each earned Emmy nominations for their performances, but it’s shocking that one of the most popular shows of the decade only won one trophy, with an Emmy for editing in 1978. There’s a joyful, nostalgia undercurrent to the life shown in “Happy Days” that might be welcome to modern audiences, and the performances of Winkler, Howard, Bosley, Ross, and company are timelessly enjoyable.

• Creator: David Wolper 
• Stars: Levar Burton, Robert Reed, Louis Gossett Jr.
• Years: 1977
• Episodes: 8
• Where to watch: Prime Video, Apple TV

The only miniseries on our list, “Roots” began life as a novel by Alex Haley that told of the slave trade that sent millions of African natives to the Americas beginning in the 16th century. Levar Burton and John Amos share the role of Gambian slave Kunta Kinte, and Robert Reed appears in half the episodes as Dr. William Reynolds. “Roots” cleaned up at the 1977 Emmy awards, winning nine statuettes that year, including best limited series. Louis Gossett Jr, Edward Cole, and Olivia Cole won three of the others for their performances, and they were joined in the loaded cast by Ben Vereen, Ed Asner, Lloyd Bridges, and Sandy Duncan.

A seven-episode follow-up called “Roots: The Next Generations” aired in 1979, and the History Channel produced a four-episode remake of the original in 2016 starring Laurence Fishburne as Haley and Malachi Kirby as Kinte. But for historical significance and a true ’70s experience, you can’t beat the original mini-series that enjoys an average viewer rating of 8.4/10 on IMDb. The events of the series go back way earlier than the 20th century, but have ripple effects still felt in the U.S. and around the world today.

• Creators: David Davis, Lorenzo Music
• Stars: Bob Newhart, Suzanne Pleshette, Marcia Wallace
• Years: 1972-78
• Episodes: 142
• Where to watch: Apple TV

Before Bob Newhart delighted audiences of “Newhart” with his dry wit from 1982 to 1990 as a New England innkeeper, he played psychologist Bob Hartley on “The Bob Newhart Show” from 1972-1978. The earlier series featured Suzanne Pleshette as Bob’s wife Emily, Marcia Wallace as his receptionist Carol, and Peter Bonerz as Jerry Robertson, a dentist who shares Dr. Hartley’s office building. “The Bob Newhart Show” never presented ridiculous circumstances for laughs like many contemporary sitcoms, but its reliance on work and home life for plot fodder informed the genre for decades. Dr. Hartley’s patients also provided plenty of comedic material at a time when psychotherapy was becoming more common and accepted in the United States.

It might not be a stretch to say that the show helped destigmatize therapy — Newhart’s gentle affable manner and the empathy he shows for his patients certainly might have encouraged some people to seek treatment for mental health issues. It wasn’t as much of an Emmy favorite as some of the other shows on this list, but “The Bob Newhart Show” was nominated as best comedy series in 1977, while Pleshette also earned the first of her two consecutive nods as best actress in a comedy that year. It’s surprisingly sophisticated for a show of that era and provides a broad look at domestic and professional life in the mid-’70s.

• Creator: Norman Lear
• Stars: Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford, Roxie Roker
• Years: 1975-85
• Episodes: 253
• Where to watch: Prime Video, Netflix

“The Jeffersons” was spun off from “All in the Family,” giving the Bunkers’ neighbors their own stage when Black characters in prime time were often limited to stereotypical, relatively minor roles. The catchy, uplifting theme song told how the Jeffersons were “movin’ on up to the East Side,” and echoes of “The Jeffersons” can be felt in later series like “The Cosby Show” and “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.”

SHerman Hemsley and Marla Gibbs won NAACP Image Awards in 1982 for their work on “The Jeffersons,” and the series picked up five Golden Globes and one Emmy nod in 1985. If you watch the whole series you’ll also be treated to appearances by Louis Gossett Jr.,  Carroll O’Connor, and Garrett Morris. Morris is perhaps best known for his time on “Saturday Night Live,” although he’s one of many SNL stars who never got a big break from their work on the show.

• Creator: Carol Burnett
• Stars: Burnett, Vicki Lawrence, Tim Conway
• Years: 1967-78
• Episodes: 287
• Where to watch: Plex

Although her name is far bigger than his today, there would be no “Carol Burnett Show” without Garry Moore. Burnett made 133 appearances on Moore’s variety show beginning in 1958, and four years later the New York Times reported that she was leaving the regular cast to pursue other opportunities. Burnett got her biggest opportunity in 1967 when she triggered a clause in her contract with CBS that required the network to give her a 30-episode variety show. In 2017, Burnett told Variety that she and her co-stars kept expectations modest from the start. She described sharing a hug with Harvey Korman, Lyle Waggoner, and Vicki Lawrence moments before they shot the first episode and saying, “We don’t know what’s going to happen, but let’s just go out there and have fun. We knew we had 30 shows, and we were going to make the most of them.”

Those 30 shows turned into 11 seasons, and “The Carol Burnett Show” won 23 Emmy Awards during its run. The character-driven comedy sketches were scripted but recorded at least twice to allow the performers room to improvise, and this led to repeated instances of actors breaking into laughter during a scene. In a 2022 talk at the Smith Center in Las Vegas, Burnett said the cast would do their best to carry on through these moments. “If anything went wrong, we just kept going, unless the scenery fell down and knocked us out.” Scenes that paired Korman and Tim Conway could get especially chaotic, and in an interview for the Television Academy Foundation Burnett explained that the show’s second taping was Conway’s playground. Short clips from the show are available in plenty of places, but to appreciate the sheer volume of genius-level work we recommend watching as many complete episodes as you can.

• Creators: James L. Brooks, Allan Burns
• Stars: Mary Tyler Moore, Ted Knight, Ed Asner
• Years: 1970-77
• Episodes: 168
• Where to watch: Prime Video, Netflix

In terms of influence and star power, it’s hard to top “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” Moore starred as TV news producer Mary Richards, who was one of the first single professional women to headline a popular series in the United States. Moore’s supporting cast included icons Betty White, Ed Asner, and Gavin McLeod, and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” won a stunning 31 Emmy awards from 70 nominations. 

The series absolutely dominated the 1977 awards circuit, winning for best comedy as well as for writing and editing. Five performers also earned nominations that year: Moore, Knight, Asner, White, and Ellen Heckart. The legacy of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” also includes three successful spinoffs, with “Rhoda,” Valerie,” and the 13-time Emmy Winning “Lou Grant” all making a major splash. Moore and Carol Burnett were two of the most influential women in television history, and they bridged the gap between industry pioneer Lucille Ball and modern comedic TV powerhouses like Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tina Fey. “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” is forward-leaning enough to seem less dated than some ’70s shows that haven’t aged well.

• Creator: Hugh Wilson
• Stars: Howard Hesseman, Loni Anderson, Gordon Jump
• Years: 1978-82
• Episodes: 90
• Where to watch: Apple TV, Roku

Although only 35 of the 90 episodes of “WKRP in Cincinnati” aired during the decade, the show’s look and tone scream ’70s as much as “The Brady Bunch,” “All in the Family,” or any other series of its time. The workplace comedy is set in a radio station that gets a new rock format and manager (Gary Sandy) in the pilot episode, as wild child DJ Johnny Fever (Howard Hesseman) and his pal Venus Flytrap (Tim Reid) spin records while Jennifer Marlowe (Loni Anderson) runs the office from the receptionist desk. The laughs in “WKRP” come from all directions: nerdy news reporter Les Nessman (Richard Sanders), sleazy ad salesman Herb Tarlek (Frank Bonner), and hapless boss Arthur Carlson (Gordon Jump).

The series occasionally veers into territory that belies its fairly grounded premise and relatable characters. Perhaps the most famous episode of “WKRP in Cincinnati” involves a Thanksgiving weekend promotional poultry giveaway that results in large-scale off-camera turkey death and Mr. Carlson’s sheepish admission “As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.” Les’s five-minute report on the tragedy is comedy gold, and the series has plenty more combinations of clever writing and brilliant performances to keep viewers delighted. The show’s 10 Emmy nominations included two each for Hesseman and Anderson in supporting roles, but the only win for “WKRP” came in 1982 for editor Andy Ackerman. Hesseman died in 2022, but Anderson, Reid, and other cast members of “WKRP in Cincinnati” are still alive.