Editor: David Tanny
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Top TV Shows of 1977 (Dec 26, 2007)This is what TV is like 30 years removed from what I believe was the best season of prime time television ever with, through just three broadcast networks, schedules full of scripted programming with some variety on the side. This was way before the 1,000 channel cable and satellite universe came to be as it is today. With so many channels demanding attention, the networks have to produce cheaply nowadays since there's not enough ratings for the advertisers to pay the high rates the networks once enjoyed even when NBC was mired in third place in the 77-78 season.So with that in mind, here's a quick look at what I was watching 30 years ago in prime-time. This was way before digital TV recorders, but there were a few shows I had to tape in audio form on a second TV and cassette tape recorder so I could hear one show at another time while I watched another show live. Sundays:
Six Million Dollar Man Mondays:
San Pedro Beach Bums
Tuesdays:
M*A*S*H Wednesdays:
Eight is Enough Thursdays:
Welcome Back, Kotter Fridays:
Donny and Marie Saturdays:
Fish Just thinking of that season 30 years ago in retrospective makes me appreciate how much better things were back then than they are now. Today, I just watch Simpsons, Family Guy, King of the Hill, American Dad on Fox, Heroes on NBC, and I guess that's about all. I tried to watch some of the other series, but I could find anything else inside broadcast prime-time that I could watch week after week. Even the WGA writers are doing a shoddy job producing mostly crap for prime time when compared to the writing of the bomb The San Pedro Beach Bums from 1977. Even THAT show was written better than Two and a Half Men. The WGA writers just can't write sitcoms anymore that I can watch. I tried watching My Name Is Earl only because Alyssa Milano guested on the show. She was sexy and was great. The show did nothing for me. I watched Law & Order SUV, or SVU, whatever, for the first time ever, only because Melissa Joan Hart guested. Nothing for me to watch every week. Tried to watch The Office twice. I turned it off after five minutes. Tried 30 Rock. Nothing. Sitcom writing went so far downhill I just don't care if the WGA striking writers ever come back. Best non-animated sitcom of 2007? OK. I'll have to give it to Hannah Montana. Disney Channel seems to be the place to go for quality sitcoms that families can watch, unlike what I can find on the broadcast networks. The best new show of 2007 is the show that follows it on Friday nights, The Witches of Waverly Place, which seems to cure our withdrawl of seeing magical characters on television since Charmed quit last year. It's too bad that nobody at the networks are going after Disney Channel and bringing back the family hour from 8-9pm like we used to have in the 70s. Miley Cyrus is the most annoying 15-year-old girl since Alyssa Milano and Valerie Bertinelli when they were once at that age years ago, so annoying that she's literally everywhere on gifts under the Christmas tree. Like Alyssa, Miley can actually sing. Like Valerie and Alyssa, Miley can act. Like neither, Miley is a marketer's dream come true. Put her image on asparagus and teenage girls will want to eat them! She's even on the giant HDTV screen at the Children's Hospital ER waiting room several times a day. I'll bet you that that nurses there have seen every episode at least 27 times by now. Well, I'll give the WGA writers credit for making Hannah Montana watchable for a wide spectrum of demographics. They should be doing just that for the other sitcoms on the broadcast networks.
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