Best US Sitcom of the 1970s Part II: The Late '70s

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Continuation of a Golden Age - or Regression into Superficiality? This is for shows that debuted between the 1976 fall season and the end of the decade. I decided to include a couple of hour-long semi-sitcoms, Eight is Enough and The Dukes of Hazzard. The first poll, covering the earlier part of the '70s, is here:

Best US Sitcom of the 1970s

Poll Results

OptionVotes
WKRP in Cincinnati 8
Taxi 7
Soap 3
Three's Company 2
¿Qué Pasa, USA? 1
Alice 1
The Facts of Life 1
Eight Is Enough 1
Diff'rent Strokes 1
The Dukes of Hazzard 0
What's Happening!! 0
The Tony Randall Show 0
Angie 0
Archie Bunker's Place 0
The Bad News Bears 0
The Ropers 0
Benson 0
Mork & Mindy 0
House Calls 0
Hello, Larry 0
C.P.O. Sharkey 0
Carter Country 0
Fish 0


Josefa, Thursday, 17 March 2016 04:43 (eight years ago) link

wkrp

portumnes (alomar lines), Thursday, 17 March 2016 04:48 (eight years ago) link

Voted Barney Miller... oh, wait...

A Fifth Beatle Dies (Tom D.), Thursday, 17 March 2016 06:56 (eight years ago) link

weirdly i've seen almost none of these -- i feel like these shows didn't get rerun as often as the ones in the first thread. of the 3-4 i've seen, taxi was the only good one.

(The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, 17 March 2016 07:18 (eight years ago) link

"Barney Miller" used to play at 1 p.m. on my local public TV station in the early '80s. I didn't know it has a reputation.

The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 17 March 2016 11:02 (eight years ago) link

btw the truest representation of Cuban American life remains "Que Pasa USA?" and the truest representation of the hotness of Steven Bauer.

The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 17 March 2016 11:03 (eight years ago) link

Dukes of Hazzard a sitcom?

pplains, Thursday, 17 March 2016 13:09 (eight years ago) link

Not purely, that's why I qualified it. And Eight Is Enough was kind of a comedy-drama.

Barney fans will have their voice.. in a third and final poll where the show will appear on a ballot alongside the winners of the first two polls

Josefa, Thursday, 17 March 2016 13:12 (eight years ago) link

Alice! Goin ' through life with blinders on it's
tough
to
see

La Lechuza (La Lechera), Thursday, 17 March 2016 13:14 (eight years ago) link

Wonder how many sitcoms have a theme song that's sung by the lead actor?

Josefa, Thursday, 17 March 2016 13:17 (eight years ago) link

or that's that good?!
fa fa fa fa faaaaaa

La Lechuza (La Lechera), Thursday, 17 March 2016 13:18 (eight years ago) link

Wonder how many sitcoms have a theme song that's sung by the lead actor?

Dennis Waterman never tried his luck in Hollywood then.

A Fifth Beatle Dies (Tom D.), Thursday, 17 March 2016 13:29 (eight years ago) link

There was David Cassidy with The Partridge Family

Josefa, Thursday, 17 March 2016 13:31 (eight years ago) link

Wonder how many sitcoms have a theme song that's sung by the lead actor?

scrambled eggs all over my face. what is a boy to do?

There was a hole bunch of problems whit his campaigns (crüt), Thursday, 17 March 2016 13:31 (eight years ago) link

Wonder how many sitcoms have a theme song that's sung by the lead actor?

The ones that come to mind are Alice, All in the Family, Frasier, Reba, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Gimme A Break, and Green Acres. But there have to be others!

T.L.O.P.son (Phil D.), Thursday, 17 March 2016 13:34 (eight years ago) link

Is Only Fools and Horses the only sitcom where the theme song was sung by the writer?

Chicamaw (Ward Fowler), Thursday, 17 March 2016 13:34 (eight years ago) link

x-post Ah, yeah I guess not so rare then

Josefa, Thursday, 17 March 2016 13:35 (eight years ago) link

Mr. Ed has that cameo at the end.

pplains, Thursday, 17 March 2016 14:10 (eight years ago) link

WKRP and then everything else far, far behind. I did watch a fair amount of Three's Company, occasionally funny when it did farce.

Retro novelty punk (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 17 March 2016 15:42 (eight years ago) link

I always remember the ubiquitous Three's Company reruns as perhaps marking the first time I developed a critical perspective on something as a child: I started out finding it funny but then realised that every episode pretty much worked the same way and became painfully predictable.

Hi! I'm twice-coloured! (Sund4r), Thursday, 17 March 2016 16:47 (eight years ago) link

I don't have fond memories of any of these really. had no idea there was actually a bad news bears tv show wtf

Οὖτις, Thursday, 17 March 2016 17:06 (eight years ago) link

I loved reruns of Facts of Life and Diff'rent Strokes when I was 9-10 or so.

Hi! I'm twice-coloured! (Sund4r), Friday, 18 March 2016 02:56 (eight years ago) link

bad news bears show was (obviously) less foul-mouthed than the movie. They used to show reruns on nickelodeon in the late 80s. I remember being surprised to find out there was a bad news bears movie!

intheblanks, Friday, 18 March 2016 03:07 (eight years ago) link

In fact there were three Bad News Bears movies by the time the TV show appeared. Tbh I don't remember that show at all. Sadly though, I think I've seen at least a couple of episodes of almost every other show on the list, and I watched many of them regularly, which shows a shocking lack of discrimination on the part of my adolescent self. I mean, I may have seen every episode of Hello, Larry for chrissakes.

I loved reruns of Facts of Life and Diff'rent Strokes when I was 9-10 or so

NBC ran Facts of Life and Diff'rent Strokes back-to-back in 1980-1981

Josefa, Friday, 18 March 2016 03:34 (eight years ago) link

No Welcome Back, Kotter in either poll. What am I supposed to vote for?

Check Yr Scrobbles (Moodles), Friday, 18 March 2016 03:41 (eight years ago) link

Hello, Larry

Josefa, Friday, 18 March 2016 03:52 (eight years ago) link

Eight Is Enough was my favorite of these.

Disco theme song to Angie was so good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvJ3KqxgyjQ

timellison, Friday, 18 March 2016 05:05 (eight years ago) link

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Saturday, 19 March 2016 00:01 (eight years ago) link

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

System, Sunday, 20 March 2016 00:01 (eight years ago) link

eight is enough not a sitcom

shoulda voted taxi

karla jay vespers, Sunday, 20 March 2016 00:03 (eight years ago) link

or dukes

karla jay vespers, Sunday, 20 March 2016 00:03 (eight years ago) link

er dukes not a sitcom
never watched it

karla jay vespers, Sunday, 20 March 2016 00:04 (eight years ago) link

Yeah I mentioned that up top, check it out

Josefa, Sunday, 20 March 2016 00:08 (eight years ago) link

soz, weird additions tho

karla jay vespers, Sunday, 20 March 2016 00:17 (eight years ago) link

Guarantee you if they hadn't been there somebody would've whined about it

Josefa, Sunday, 20 March 2016 00:20 (eight years ago) link


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