Could 2016 mark the 50th anniversary of the greatest season in television history? I put forth that it’s difficult to argue! In front of me is a night-by-night listing of what was on the air in the 1966-1967 television season, and I count no fewer than 44 programs that are still fondly remembered today, many of which have achieved cult status.
Starting on Sundays, viewers of ABC enjoyed “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,” followed by “The FBI” and a movie. CBS had “Lassie,” “The Ed Sullivan Show,” “Candid Camera” and “What’s My Line?” And NBC boasted “Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color,” and “Bonanza.”
On Monday nights, ABC aired “Rat Patrol,” “Peyton Place,” and “The Big Valley,” while CBS explored “Gilligan’s Island,” “The Lucy Show,” “The Andy Griffith Show” and “Family Affair.” NBC countered with “The Monkees,” and “I Dream of Jeannie.” TV Land indeed!
Moving to Tuesdays, ABC started the night with “Combat” and closed it with “The Fugitive.” CBS punched our tickets for “Daktari” and “Petticoat Junction” sandwiching “The Red Skelton Hour.”
Wednesday nights saw Batmania in full-swing. ABC’s Caped Crusaders actually began fighting crime in January of 1966, and aired twice weekly with those delicious deathtrap cliffhangers. CBS tried to outcamp Adam West with the increasingly silly but endearing “Lost in Space,” followed by “The Beverly Hillbillies,” “Green Acres” and “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.” NBC viewers enjoyed “The Virginian,” followed by Bob Hope in “The Chrysler Hour” and the smash hit “I Spy.”
“Batman” was back on Thursday night, followed by “F Troop,” “Bewitched” and “That Girl.” CBS mopped the floor with its ABC competition, Tammy Grimes, with “My Three Sons.” And NBC opened the night with “Daniel Boone,” closed with “The Dean Martin Show,” and in between took a chance with a little show from Lucille Ball’s production house called “Star Trek.” Lucy, by the way, thought it was about a USO troop.
Heading into the weekend, it was “Green Hornet,” “Time Tunnel,” “The Milton Berle Show” and “Twelve O’Clock High” on ABC, “The Wild Wild West,” “Hogan’s Heroes” and a movie on CBS, and “Tarzan,” and “The Man from UNCLE” on NBC.
Saturday nights were ruled by Lawrence Welk on ABC and Jackie Gleason on CBS. Also scattered about the lineup was “Mission: Impossible” and “Gunsmoke” on CBS, with “Flipper” and “Get Smart” on NBC!
Wow!
And remember, this is before the advent of time-shifting devices like VCRs or DVRs. Choices had to be made.
Daytime was no less enthralling. 1966 marked the premiere of the first (and best) rendition of “The Hollywood Squares.” And ABC gambled on Dan Curtis’ bad dream and brought forth the first supernatural soap opera, “Dark Shadows” in the spring of the year, although it would be a year or so later before the training wheels came off and Barnabas Collins rose from his coffin.
The end result of this amazing season of television was a syndication bonanza (pun intended) for a young boy growing up in the early to mid-seventies, because MOST of the above shows were stripped for daily syndication, and became standard afterschool entertainment for yours truly. Many of the programs enjoyed long lives in primetime, which meant plenty of Monday through Friday fun. I remember being infuriated that President Nixon’s Watergate hearing pre-empted “Jeannie” for DAYS! The nerve!
So how do we explain this incredible crop of programming all converging at the same time? Well, let’s be honest. Color had something to do with it, and I’m not talking about the issue of Bill Cosby breaking through the barrier, Jackie Robinson-style on “I Spy.” I mean the sales of color televisions, led by Mr. Berle and “Bonanza,” which was airing in color from its 1957 inception. Many of these programs took to heart the color schemes that were showing off this new format of in-home entertainment. The starship Enterprise uniforms were in bold primary colors. “Batman” made a star out of its color, splashing it everywhere with Andy Warhol-style aplomb, even with the pop-out “Bam”s, “Biff”s and “Oooofs” of the obligatory fight scenes. Knowing that the color was coming, the networks were looking for … well … colorful programming, that would jump out at people and make them take notice.
Another reason is simply Bond. James Bond. The box office success of Sean Connery and 007 made an undeniable mark on television in this season. “I Spy” was the most realistic espionage drama, while “Mission: Impossible” and “UNCLE” were more along the gadgets and girls line that 007 employed so well. And of course, “Get Smart” poked fun at them all, and took some smart jabs at the government at the same time. “The Wild Wild West,” which had begun a season before, embraced the color format VERY well, updating its animated opening art (from “The Pink Panther”’s Depatie-Freleng studio, by the way, along with the opening of “Jeannie”), and fading its action into sepia comic art before each commercial break. Costumes were bright and elegant, and the plots ever more fanciful, bordering on fantasy.
In my opinion, television finally came of age … arguably its golden age … fifty years ago. Many of these programs are still remembered fondly today, and are being viewed by the grandchildren of the audiences that embraced them back in the day. Scan the weekly lineups slated for this fall. We have so many more networks now than we did then. Do you really think that they’ll find 44 classics in the 2016 season as our children look back in another fifty years? I wonder. And to Lucy, Batman, Mr. Spock, Max and 99, Napoleon and Ilya, Barnabas, Dr. Smith, Kelly and Scotty, Jim and Artie, the Cartwrights and the castaways … happy anniversary!
