Sesame Street is an educational TV show set in an inner-city neighborhood. Through a combination of live-action, puppetry, and animation, the show teaches children valuable lessons about reading, counting, and personal development. With a diverse cast of characters, including the iconic Big Bird and the lovable monsters, Sesame Street promotes multiculturalism and offers educational content with fun and entertainment.
Pipkins was a British children's TV programme. Hartley Hare, Pig, Topov and the gang were the stars of ATV's pre-school series which ran from January 1973 to 29 December 1981.
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a late-night talk show hosted by Johnny Carson. It features comedic monologues, interviews with celebrities, and performances by musicians. The show aired from 1962 to 1992 and became a cultural phenomenon.
Concentration is an American television game show based on the children's memory game of the same name. Matching cards represented prizes that contestants could win. As matching pairs of cards were gradually removed from the board, it would slowly reveal elements of a rebus puzzle that contestants had to solve to win a match. The show was broadcast on and off from 1958 to 1991, presented by various hosts, and has been made in several different versions. The original network daytime series, Concentration, appeared on NBC for 14 years, 7 months, and 3,770 telecasts, the longest run of any game show on that network. This series was hosted by Hugh Downs and later by Bob Clayton, but for a six-month period in 1969, Ed McMahon hosted the series. The series began at 11:30 AM Eastern, then moved to 11:00 and finally to 10:30. Nearly all episodes of the NBC daytime version were produced at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York City. A weekly nighttime version appeared in two separate broadcast runs: the first aired from October 30 to November 20, 1958 with Jack Barry as host, while the second ran from April 24 to September 18, 1961 with Downs as host.
Top of the Pops is a popular British music show that aired from 1964 to 2006. It featured live performances, music videos, and interviews with popular artists. The show had a significant impact on the music industry and showcased the latest trends in pop music. Although some episodes from the early years are partially lost, it remains a cultural phenomenon.
Valiant Lady is an American soap opera which ran daily on CBS radio and television from October 12, 1953 to August 16, 1957 at 12:00 PM. The show's title was taken from a 1930s radio soap opera about a young woman struggling through life but is otherwise very different. Like many early soap operas, the show was broadcast live from CBS studios in New York City. The series was created by Adrian Spies; the head writer was Charles Elwyn.
The Expert is a British television series produced by the BBC between 1968 and 1976. The series starred Marius Goring as Dr. John Hardy, a pathologist working for the Home Office and was essentially a police procedural drama, with Hardy bringing his forensic knowledge to solve various cases. The Expert was created and produced by Gerard Glaister. The series was also one of the first BBC dramas to be made in colour, and throughout its four series had numerous high quality guest appearances by actors such as John Carson, Peter Copley, Rachel Kempson, Peter Vaughan, Clive Swift, Geoffrey Palmer, Peter Barkworth, Jean Marsh, Ray Brooks, George Sewell, Anthony Valentine, Bernard Lee, Lee Montague, Geoffrey Bayldon, Mike Pratt, Edward Fox, André Morell, Brian Blessed, Nigel Stock, Philip Madoc and Warren Clarke.
University Challenge is a long-running quiz show that first aired in 1962. It features teams of university students competing against each other in answering general knowledge questions. The show is known for its challenging questions and intense competition.
American Bandstand was an American music-performance show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989 and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer. The show featured teenagers dancing to Top 40 music introduced by Clark; at least one popular musical act—over the decades, running the gamut from Jerry Lee Lewis to Run DMC—would usually appear in person to lip-sync one of their latest singles. Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon holds the record for most appearances at 110. The show's popularity helped Dick Clark become an American media mogul and inspired similar long-running music programs, such as Soul Train and Top of the Pops. Clark eventually assumed ownership of the program through his Dick Clark Productions company.
Number 96 was a popular Australian soap opera set in a Sydney apartment block. Don Cash and Bill Harmon of the Cash Harmon Television production company, produced the series for Network Ten, which requested a Coronation Street-type serial, and specifically one that explored adult subjects. The premise, original story outlines, and the original characters were devised by David Sale who also wrote the scripts for the first episodes and continued as script editor for much of the show's run. The series proved to be a huge success, running from 1972 until 1977. Number 96 was so popular it spawned a feature film version, filmed in December 1973. Number 96 was known for its sex scenes and nudity, somewhat risque at the time, and for its comedy characters. The series was the first Australian soap opera to feature an openly gay character.
Take Hart is a British children's television show about art, presented by Tony Hart. It took over from Vision On, and ran from 1977 until 1983. The show featured Hart and the animated Plasticine character Morph, and other characters created by David Sproxton like 'Smoulder the Moulder', which was a lump of mould which would create props by 'spraying' them out of a spray can. The only other human to appear on a regular basis was Mr Bennett, the caretaker, played by Colin Bennett. The programme won a BAFTA award for Hart in 1984. As well as demonstrating small-scale projects, Hart also created large-scale artworks on the TV studio floor, and even used beaches and other open spaces as 'canvases'. This idea was later adopted by Art Attack. A regular feature of the show was 'The Gallery', which displayed artworks sent in by young viewers. The easy-listening vibraphone music accompanying this feature - "Left Bank Two", composed by Wayne Hill - has passed into British TV musical lore. In later series, "Left Bank Two" alternated with John Williams' recording of "Cavatina", which is also well-remembered by many viewers.
Password is an American television game show which was created by Bob Stewart for Goodson-Todman Productions. The host was Allen Ludden, who had previously been well known as the host of the G.E. College Bowl. Password originally aired for 1,555 daytime telecasts each weekday from October 2, 1961 to September 15, 1967 on CBS, along with weekly prime time airings from January 2, 1962 to September 9, 1965 and December 25, 1966 to May 22, 1967. An additional 1,099 daytime shows aired from April 5, 1971 to June 27, 1975 on ABC. The show's announcers were Jack Clark and Lee Vines on CBS and John Harlan on ABC. Two revivals later aired on NBC from 1979–1982 and 1984–1989, followed by a prime time version on CBS from 2008–2009. In 2013, TV Guide ranked it #8 in its list of the 60 greatest game shows ever.
Pebble Mill was a re-launched version of the 1970s daily chat show Pebble Mill (also known as Pebble Mill At One for a while) which aired on BBC1 in the United Kingdom. The series premiered on October 14, 1991. The show was a mixture of celebrity guests and music. Alan Titchmarsh was a presenter on the show throughout it's complete run. Other presenters included Judi Spiers, Gloria Hunniford and Ross King.
Tiswas was a Saturday morning children's British television series which ran from 5 January 1974 to 3 April 1982 and was produced for the ITV network by ATV Network Limited. It was created by ATV continuity announcer Peter Tomlinson following a test period in 1973 when he tried out a few competitions and daft stuff between the programmes.
All That is a comedy sketch show that premiered in 1994. It features a talented group of young performers who engage in various humorous situations, parodies, and sketches. The show incorporates elements of variety shows and includes popular comedic segments such as celebrity impersonations and spoofs. With its signature green slime and laugh track, All That has become a classic in the world of sketch comedy.
What's My Line? is a comedic game show that aired in the 1950s and 1960s. The show featured a celebrity panel who would try to guess the identity of mystery guests by asking them yes-or-no questions. The guests would often have unique occupations or backgrounds, and sometimes wore masks or were blindfolded to conceal their identities. The show became known for its signature phrase, 'Is it bigger than a breadbox?' and its iconic panelists, including famous actresses, actors, and movie stars. What's My Line? was a popular quiz show that combined comedy, trivia, and entertainment, making it a memorable part of television history.
Crossroads is a British television soap opera set in a fictional motel near Birmingham, England. Created by Hazel Adair and Peter Ling, the commercial ITV network originally broadcast the series between 1964 and 1988. Produced by ATV and later by Central it became a byword for cheap production values, particularly in the 1970s and early 1980s. The series was revived in a glossier version by Carlton Television in 2001, but was again cancelled in 2003. The original theme tune was composed by Tony Hatch, and notably covered by Paul McCartney & Wings on their 1975 album Venus and Mars. A new version, which was first aired in 1987 when the series was relaunched as Crossroads, Kings Oak, was composed by Raf Ravenscroft and Max Early.
Callan, a former army officer, works as a hitman for a secretive government agency. He is uncomfortable with the violence and moral ambiguity of his job, and often finds himself caught between loyalty to his superiors and his own conscience. As he carries out various missions, Callan must navigate a complex web of conspiracy and manipulation while facing personal moral dilemmas.
No 73, later re-titled 7T3, was a British 1980s children's TV show produced by Television South for the ITV network. It was broadcast live on Saturday mornings and ran from 1982 to 1988. The show starred, amongst others, Sandi Toksvig, Neil Buchanan, Andrea Arnold, Kim Goody and Richard Waites. When Television South won the contract to provide ITV coverage for the South of England in 1980, the first thing they set up was a children's department. A team put together with a background in theatre and drama, soon decided to produce a Saturday morning show that differed from the usual Tiswas and Saturday Superstore formula: This show would feature actors in character as hosts, performing their own comedic storyline around the usual guests, music videos, competitions and cartoons. Much of the show was improvised, and a whole week of rehearsals plus an extensive dress rehearsal on Friday preceded each live broadcast on Saturday morning.
Comedy Playhouse is a long-running British anthology series of one-off unrelated sitcoms that aired for 120 episodes from 1961 to 1975. Many episodes later graduated to their own series, including Steptoe and Son, Till Death Us Do Part, All Gas and Gaiters, The Liver Birds, Are You Being Served? and Last of the Summer Wine, which is the world's longest running sitcom, having run from January 1973 to August 2010.