@sneakypete
Prime had the other Lucy show which I did watch. The color one? It wasn’t as good, imho.
@Gefn Almost none of the shows we enjoyed from the 50's to the 70's are worth watching these days. We are more demanding now than we were back then. Looking back,it seems like we were more interested in being distracted than entertained. There are a rare few,like The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents,that were real jewels back then and still are,but damn few. It was all "formula tv".
True confession time. "I HATED the I Love Lucy Show" to the point I would make snide comments and walk out of any house it was playing. Same thing with the old Jackie Gleason Show. Most depressing damn thing I ever saw,then or now. Have no idea how or why it became a hit,other that tv shows were such a novelty back then that anything put on the air became a hit BECAUSE it was no the air.
Oh,and another one of my kid favs was "Kraft Playhouse 90". Actually remember seeing the Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof live,and on our black and white tv when I was maybe 6. Stayed up late to watch it. I remember this because it was the first thing I ever saw on tv that really impressed me.
I also saw a play or a 2 or 3 hour drama (could it have been anything BUT a drama?) of Les Miserables around the same time. Scared the hell out of me,and made me check out the Victor Hugo novel from the library.
Groucho was and still is a favorite,too. His old "You bet your life" afternoon talk show (he did most of the talking) was hysterical. He must have driven the censors back in the 50's nuts.
Yeah,I was a weird kid.
LOTS of good stuff came on Playhouse 90.
Shows like that were the exception,though. Norm was stuff like soap operas that made you want to slash your wrists. Stuff like I Love Lucy,The Red Skelton Show, and The Ed Sullivan Show,which was probably the biggest hit of every week.
Slim pickings.