The 12 Best TV Shows of the 1970s

Among ’70s shows, Columbo has proven to be the one with the most legs. In the 2020s, it became quite popular again as shows like Poker Face were praised for their similarities to the Peter Falk police procedural. People love to bandy about talks of a reboot, and who they would want to see play Columbo.

Frankly, Columbo should never be remade, because the crux of what makes the show so good is Falk’s turn as the titular homicide detective. It’s more than the rumbled raincoat and the cigars. Falk is fantastic in the role, and when he has a strong guest star to work off of, Columbo absolutely sizzles.

Oh, just one more thing. For the purposes of this list we are just talking about the show’s original run on NBC. The ABC reboot that ran intermittently from 1989 through 2003 is spotty at best.

If we had to choose one underrated sitcom of the 1970s you should check out if you haven’t, The Bob Newhart Show is our choice. Sure, it’s remembered by many, and it has gotten its praise, but it’s one of the three-or-four best comedies of the decade. Built around Newhart’s established comedic persona, the titular star plays Bob Hartley, a psychologist in Chicago.

We spent time with Bob and his eccentric patients, sure, and Mr. Carlin was usually enjoyable in his appearances. However, Bob and Emily’s marriage is one of the best depictions of a relationship in sitcom history. They are a complex, but loving, three-dimensional sitcom couple. There are laughs to be had at Bob’s office, but his home life helps flesh out the show quite well.

Say “hi” to Bob if you get a chance.

The Rockford Files is one of the best procedurals ever, and probably your favorite if you are a fan of car chases. To help explicate what makes the show so good, here’s an anecdote about another procedural. When Magnum P.I. began, Thomas Magnum was smooth and sophisticated, with everything going his way. Tom Selleck didn’t feel that was quite right for the role, though. He wanted Magnum to be more like Jim Rockford.

Jim Rockford works as a private investigator in Los Angeles, and he has a cool car, but his life is by no means glamorous. He lives in a trailer in a parking lot by the beach. Jim is often hard up for cash and gets stiffed by clients every now and again. His dad hassles him, the cops mostly don’t like him, and even when he wins a fight, you can count on him taking a punch or two, and those punches aren’t shrugged off.

Rockford is just a guy trying to get by, but he’s a ton of fun to watch.

In terms of influential, iconic sitcoms, few are on the level of All in the Family. Archie Bunker, played indelibly by Carroll O’Connor, was crass, prejudiced, and beloved by TV audiences. It was never light on laughs, but tackled race, sex, homosexuality, and all sorts of social matters, without lecturing,

That made it sort of the perfect show for the 1970s, a time of social tumult. The show ran for nine seasons and 205 episodes, all in the ‘70s. It won Emmys, and few shows have ever launched as many spinoffs — they included Maude and The Jeffersons.

Sure, Archie wasn’t PC, but that was the point. You laughed with him, but also at him, depending on the circumstance. That needle was well-threaded.

In terms of ‘70s medical dramas, Marcus Welby M.D. stood out. Gregory House and Dr. Welby have nothing in common. This was not an intense show, and Welby was no antihero. Instead, Marcus Welby M.D. was fairly gentle, all things considered. Robert Young’s Dr. Welby is a kind, older man who often makes house calls. In this show, the older doctor was the unorthodox one, while Dr. Kiley, played by a young James Brolin, wanted to do things by the books.

Marcus Welby M.D. made history in 1971, when it became the first ABC show to finish number one in the ratings for the season. It also won an Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series. While it may not have aged the best of the best TV shows of the 1970s, for a time it was the foremost medical drama, and the gentle nature of the show appealed to many.

Versions of Match Game both preceded and followed, but the ‘70s version, which aired from 1973 through 1979, is the quintessential version. It was also its own thing, different from the earlier take on the game show, and also different from the most-recent reboot. Back in the ‘70s, five days a week you could enjoy Match Game, which was one of the best game shows ever in its heyday.

Hosted with aplomb by Gene Rayburn, Match Game featured two contestants who vied to match the stars. Sure, they weren’t usually big “stars,” but that didn’t matter. Brett Somers, Charles Nelson Reilly, and Richard Dawson, among others, became famous as much for being on Match Game as anything.

It was a fun show to play along with, but also just entertaining to watch. That’s the perfect combination for a game show. Match Game is so enjoyable to watch you’ll blank. It may not have been in primetime, but it sure was one of the most fun and best TV shows of the 1970s.

The LAPD gave us both Detective Columbo and Sergeant Pepper Anderson in the 1970s. Police Woman, which was different in that it focused on a female police officer, starred Angie Dickinson as a member of the “Criminal Conspiracy Unit” of the LAPD. Pepper spent much of her time going undercover to infiltrate all sorts of sordid criminal enterprises.

It was a hit show, and a different take on the police procedural, and it was influential in a few ways. Some may view that legacy as a mixed bag. Police Woman did pave the way for more hour-long dramas centered on women, but it inspired shows like Charlie’s Angels, which effectively said, “What if instead of one beautiful woman we had three beautiful women?”

Indeed, Anderson often went undercover in roles that highlighted her sexuality, which Dickinson both embraced and came to find tiresome. Television can be a complicated business.

One more cop show because, well, cop shows are common. Barney Miller is a sitcom, but it is sometimes cited as a dramedy as well. It was not a breezy, effervescent show, so we can see that. Police Squad! it is not, but there are plenty of laughs to be had in Barney Miller.

Hal Linden played Captain Miller, who ran the 12th Precinct in Manhattan. Watching Barney Miller, you get to know the ins and outs of that precinct quite well. The show focused almost entirely on in-office work. Rarely did Barney Miller leave the setting (and the sets) of the police precinct. It was intentionally designed to feel like a theatrical play, which, along with a strong cast, helped make the show stand out.

It was a successful play, then a successful movie, and then a successful sitcom. The Odd Couple’s conceit is right there in the title. Two divorced men, Felix Unger and Oscar Madison, end up sharing Oscar’s New York apartment. Felix is fastidious and neat. Oscar is brash and slovenly. They get on one another’s nerves, but they make it work and help one another get by.

Tony Randall, who played Felix, and Jack Klugman, who played Oscar, were both nominated for Emmys for all five seasons of the show. The former won once, and the latter twice. Both of them will forever be remembered for playing Felix and Oscar. Additionally, The Odd Couple was the first successful sitcom for a burgeoning TV producer named Garry Marshall. Perhaps we wouldn’t have gotten Marshall’s iconic TV and movie career if Randall and Klugman didn’t have such chemistry.

Soap operas, of the daytime and primetime variety, were immensely popular in the 1970s. Then, somebody, namely Susan Harris, thought to parody soap operas in the sitcom format. That’s how we got Soap, which takes all the elements of soap operas to their absurdist limits.

Packed with a massive cast, Soap is ostensibly about two sisters, Jessica Tate and Mary Campbell, and their families. Of course, what it is really about is spoofing soaps. You get the romances, the affairs, and the murders, naturally, but also alien abductions, demon possessions, and more.

Soap was considered quite risqué for the time, pushing the envelope for what network TV would air, which helped built up its cult following. Plus, it won Emmys, and it was an early success for a young comedian named Billy Crystal, who was one of the first gay characters on TV. It’s not only one of the best TV shows of the 1970s, but one of the most groundbreaking.

Sketch shows and variety shows were still commonplace in the 1970s. What if one of those variety shows also starred puppets? That would give you The Muppet Show. While the Muppets did not debut with their own show, which actually originated from England, it was where Kermit, Miss Piggy, and the crew first found footing. These icons of pop culture hit the ground running with The Muppet Show.

The show-within-a-show was both a variety show and a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of that variety show. Real celebrities and musicians would stop by to hang with Fozzie, Gonzo, and the rest of the Muppets, who also had plenty of backstage drama.

Actual sketches were produced, many of them still beloved. Fittingly, in 1979 we got the first Muppet movie. Also fittingly, it was called The Muppet Movie. While the Muppets have proved timeless, their run began in the 1970s.

For our money, The Mary Tyler Moore Show is both one of the best TV shows of the 1970s, and the single best sitcom of the 1970s. Moore was already a household name thanks to The Dick Van Dyke Show, but now she got to be front and center.

Mary Richards was in her thirties and a single working woman, which was, at the time, a significant premise for a TV show. Beyond that, though, the show is just really funny and well-crafted. The crew at WJM, from the gruff Lou Grant to the vain Ted Baxter, is a lot of fun to watch in action.

Then, in Mary’s personal life, both of her friends (Rhoda and Phyllis) got their own spinoff shows. Moore won three Emmys, and rightfully so. Also, we have to mention the opening theme song, which rules.

You may also like this list of 13 Jaw-Dropping Saturday Night Live Moments or this list of 12 Behind the Scenes Stories From Blazing Saddles.

Main image: Mary Tyler Moore in a promotional image from Season 1 of one of the best TV shows of the 1970s. CBS

We had to make some tough decisions when it came to excluding The Brady Bunch (above) and plenty of other shows. Let us know your thoughts on the best TV shows of the 1970s and we’ll consider them for future updates of this gallery.

Main image: Mary Tyler Moore in a promotional image from Season 1 of one of the best TV shows of the 1970s. CBS