When it comes to primetime TV, my sons, Matt, 22, and Tim, 19, do share a common frame of reference with me, despite the grand canyon of generational gap.
Thanks to Nick At Nite and TV Land, my sons have seen Lucille Ball stomp grapes, Dick Van Dyke trip – and subsequently miss – the living room ottoman at the beginning of his eponymous show and watch as Deputy Sheriff Barney Fiff did his “scared to death” impression while investigating a haunted house with Gomer.
Their casual interest in shows of my youth started me thinking about analyzing primetime TV from a year in the past.
So I decided to focus on the primetime season of September 1970. I chose that year because it seemed to be the last year before significant changes in TV programming (All in the Family and more realistic shows began in 1971) and it was a highest-rated year of the last five TV seasons.
Variety was the spice of TV
First, the most popular TV show genre in 1970 is extinct today on TV. In 1970, there were more than 12 hour-long, comedy-variety shows that dominated primetime TV. In fact, the Carol Burnett Show was a top-rated show on Monday night and in 1972 moved to Saturday night, where networks today have given up on original shows because of low ratings and years of Walker Texas Ranger with Chuck Norris dialogue that was as wooden as the hardwood floors on HGTV’s Designed To Sell show.
With Burnett and her band of impresarios, sketch comedy reached vertical limits not seen since Sid Caesar.
These shows – often helmed by big names – blended sketch comedy with music. With Red Skelton, a comedian, sketches dominated with his lovable Freddie The Freeloader. By contract, Dean Martin and Andy Williams focused on musical standards.
Of course, Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In was in a class by itself with its iconic humor, from “Here Come The Judge” to Artie Johnson’s WW II German soldier who repeated, “Very interesting, but stupid.”
Laugh-In shattered time, transitions, traditional pacing and linear comedy. It screamed chaos, space-time fissures and comedy at once insouciant and searing, always catching viewers by surprise. The ground fault interrupters in this 60-minute lunacy were a traditional comedy team of Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, who did a typical, Las Vegas lounge stand-up act that enabled viewers to catch a breath and revel in traditional entertainment before being treated to Goldie Hawn and her gyrating body art.
How the West was Lost
The western drama hasn’t been a staple on primetime TV in 40 years. In 1970, the dramatic gun belt of the horse opera was nearly devoid of bullets. The 60s revolution had made the western seem outdated and a vestige of the dreaded older generation. In 1970, only the venerable Gunsmoke, Men From Shiloh and High Chaparral remained on TV, with the Men From Shiloh renamed from the long-running The Virginian as its ratings dropped faster than cows from hoof and mouth.
In fact, Men From Shiloh was cancelled after the season, as was the High Chaparral. Gunsmoke, which ran for 20 years (it began as a radio show in 1952 with William Conrad of Cannon fame as the voice of Matt Dillon), was being relegated to the audience of the denture generation. It ended its run in 1975, but in the 70s James Arness was seen in fewer shows as a more anthology series took hold and more contemporary themes like minority rights, social awareness and rape were addressed to make the show seem more relevant.
I see nothing
The 1970 season was rich in situation comedy shows; with an incredible 27 such shows on the schedule. Before All In The Family, the most progressive sitcom was the Mary Tyler Moore Show, since she was a single woman on her own in the business world. Julia with Diahann Carroll broke new ground with an African American star as a nurse, but the plots were so as bland as rice cakes.
In today’s hyper-sensitive era, a show like Hogan’s Heroes about American POWs in a Nazi prison camp could never be produced, with so many protests from so many groups with grievances that the Supreme Court could be forced to add new judge to handle all the litigation.
There were traditional comedies like Here’s Lucy, the Doris Day Show, My Three Sons and, of course, The Brady Brunch. There were hipper comedies but with themes seemed so 1950s with 1970s clothes. The Partridge Family, That Girl and The Courtship of Eddie’s Father wore contemporary window dressing but preached more traditional values.
