5 Lesser-Known but Still Awesome Classic TV Sitcoms
You Could Be Watching Them Right Now
If you’re a Boomer or Gen X, you probably grew up watching reruns of older TV shows in the afternoons before the networks took over the prime time hours.
Back then, there were certain shows that were always on in syndication somewhere at any given time.
Shows like I Love Lucy, Star Trek, and The Andy Griffith Show have never really been off the air since they were canceled decades ago. But only some shows would seem to hit syndication gold, while others would fade away into obscurity.
Today, between the hundreds of cable channels, streaming services, and all those local subchannels, there are more choices than ever for people who like old reruns.
With 24 hours a day to fill with programming, channels dedicated to classic TV are giving time slots to many of the lesser-known shows from the mid-20th century.
Here are a few in the sitcom category that you may not be aware of that are available to watch now.
1. Our Miss Brooks — Eve Arden played the title role in this radio hit that made an easy transition to television in 1952. The radio show continued through the four-year television run and a year beyond it.
The TV show changed dramatically for the fourth season. The elimination of some cast members, including Richard Crenna as the nasal-voiced teen Walter Denton, and a change of setting from a midwest public high school to a San Fernando Valley private elementary school had a mostly negative impact on the show. But the first three seasons (and honestly, much of the fourth) are positively hilarious.
Eve Arden was the queen of sarcastic wit, and the supporting cast included, in addition to Crenna, Gale Gordon as pompous principal Osgood Conklin and Jane Morgan as Miss Brooks’ hilariously daffy septuagenarian landlady Mrs. Davis.
2. Hazel — Based on the comic strip by Ted Key, this 60s sitcom starred Shirley Booth as a maid who runs the household she works in. Hazel came to lawyer George Baxter (Don DeFore) as a sort of dowry when he married Dorothy (Whitney Blake.) Hazel is bossy, opinionated, and hilarious.
As was the case with Our Miss Brooks, dramatic cast changes were made for the final season, and that hurt the show. But Hazel, of course, remained. Shirley Booth won an Oscar for her dramatic turn in the movie “Come Back Little Sheba,” but she is most remembered for Hazel. She earned two Emmys for the role.
3. Car 54, Where are You? — Although it only lasted for two seasons and a total of 60 episodes, Car 54, Where Are You? was a raucously funny early 60s sitcom about uniformed cops in New York City.
If you’re a fan of Barney Miller, you’ll notice some similarities. You might also recognize a young and clean-shaven Hal Linden in one episode. Spotting the guest stars who would later become famous is a great game to play while watching this show.
This is the pre-Munsters show that Al Lewis and Fred Gwynne were in together, but only Gwynne gets top billing. His co-star and on-screen partner was Joe E. Ross as the gruff but loveable Gunther Toody.
4. Bachelor Father — Before he was the voice of Charlie with the Angels, John Forsythe was the star of this 1950s sitcom where he played a bachelor uncle. Like Brian Keith in Family Affair, which was to come some years later, Forsythe played a wealthy lawyer who found himself caretaker for a niece after the death of a sibling.
As Bentley Gregg, he had a dog named Jasper and a live-in cook and housekeeper named Peter Tong. With “Niece Kelly” as Peter always called her, they were one of the most charming and funny families on TV.
5. The Black and White Episodes of Everything — My memory tells me that in the 70s, old reruns were always in color unless the show never had any color episodes, to begin with.
But shows that started in black and white and then switched to color apparently had their black and white episodes buried in a ditch by the syndication gods. Maybe they thought, back then, that no one would ever want to watch a black-and-white TV show again if color episodes were available.
All this changed in the 80s when Ted Turner dug up the ditch and started showing black and white episodes of shows like Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, and Gilligan’s Island again.
Today, it’s virtually unheard of for shows that are split between BW and color episodes to have the black and white ones kept off the programming schedule. How about those black and white pilots of Get Smart and Hogan’s Heroes? The five seasons of black and white My Three Sons, before Uncle Charlie or Ernie even existed? Gomer Pyle USMC in military greyscale?
Look out for colorization of early black-and-white shows like Bewitched, but for most series, the glorious grey originals are still available.
