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Apr 11, 2024 · 1950s: The Postwar Boom. Over 3K TV viewers have voted on the 60+ shows on Best TV Shows From The 1950s, Ranked. Current Top 3: The Twilight Zone, I Love Lucy, Looney Tunes.
- Ed Gross
- ‘Your Show of Shows’ (1950-1954) Still heralded as one of the best variety shows ever made, it stars Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca, with a number of regular performers, among them Carl Reiner (who would go on to create The Dick Van Dyke Show).
- ‘The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show’ (1950-1958) Also known as The Burns and Allen Show, it features husband-and-wife comedy team George Burns and Gracie Allen, who began working together in Vaudeville, enjoyed great success on radio and transferred their show to television.
- ‘The Jack Benny Program’ (1950-1965) Like George Burns, Jack Benny brought his radio show to television (spending many years performing on both at the same time).
- ‘The Alan Young Show’ (1950-1953) Before he became best friends with that talking horse, Mister Ed, Alan Young hosted his own variety show featuring musical guests and comic skits.
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- Drama: ‘Bah, Humbug!’
- Variety/Comedy: ‘Listen to Your Uncle Miltie’
- Westerns: ‘Hi-Yo Silver! Away!’
- Sitcoms: ‘Lucy, You Got Some ‘Splainin’ to Do!’
- Science Fiction: ‘Next Stop, The Twilight Zone’
- Game & Quiz Shows: Want A Pie in The Face with That Scandal?
- Children’s: ‘It’s Howdy Doody Time!’
- Crime: ‘The Story You Are About to See Is true.’
Early on, TV beamed dramatic plays normally seen only on Broadway stages right into people’s living rooms. Kraft Television Theatre (1947-58), Pulitzer Prize Playhouse(1950-52) and other showcases presented live telecasts of new original plays and well-known works like "A Christmas Carol" and "Wuthering Heights." Some derided these plays as “amateu...
Comedy in early TV started off with a bang when entertainer Milton Berle brought vaudeville’s frenetic mix of music, comedy, animals and jugglers straight into people’s living rooms with the “Texaco Star Theater” variety show. Funnyman Berle, who usually opened the show dressed in outrageous costumes, made it a laugh-out-loud smash hit. Movie ticke...
The American West became a popular backdrop for early TV—and a showcase for what TIME magazine called Hollywood’s “he-manly specimens.” “Hopalong Cassidy” and “The Lone Ranger” (both 1949-57) led a long line of pistol-packing, small-screen frontier heroes whose job was to help sheriffs vanquish villains. The shows may have been mostly shot on Calif...
Situation comedies—or sitcoms—blossomed in these years. Many, like “Amos ‘n’ Andy” (1951-53), originated on radio; some, like “The Honeymooners” (1955), began as skits on variety shows. Most series centered around families, like “Mama” (1949-57), “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” (1952-66) and “Father Knows Best” (1954-60). “I Love Lucy” (1951-...
Creators of early science fiction shows worked to pioneer special effects. In the low-budget “Captain Video and His Video Rangers” (1949-55), the first popular sci-fi show, characters were superimposed onto cheap sets using reflective lighting, considered cutting edge at the time. Just months later, two other groundbreaking series—"Tom Corbett, Spa...
High-stakes quiz shows were must-see TV in the 1950s. Viewers tested their knowledge or watched contestants chosen from the studio audience solve puzzles or face wacky challenges to win money or prizes from the sponsors. At their peak, 22 game and quiz shows aired weekly. “Truth or Consequences” (1950-58) had already been on radio for 10 years befo...
Pioneering children’s TV focused on making kids laugh, but the most popular shows appealed to adults as well. In the sock puppet world of “Kukla, Fran and Ollie” (1947-57), comedian and singer Fran Allison ad-libbed and bantered with Ollie, the moody, one-tooth dragon, and other characters performed by puppeteer and show creator Burr Tillstrom. Acc...
Most early TV crime shows basically adapted the murder and mayhem of radio crime dramas to the small screen—but with haunting black-and-white visuals upping the suspense. “Martin Kane, Private Eye” (1949-54) vowed to “crack the case wide open” on live television while pitching the sponsor’s pipe tobacco and cigarettes. The film-noir style “Man Agai...
- Iván Román
20 titles. 1. I Love Lucy (1951–1957) TV-Y | 30 min | Comedy, Family. 8.5. Rate. The wife of a band leader constantly tries to become a star - in spite of her having no talent, and gets herself (along with her best friend) into the funniest predicaments. Stars: Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, William Frawley.
Top 10 1950s TV Shows. What were the most popular TV shows in the 1950s? The most-watched television shows, from 1950 to 1959, were: Texaco Star Theatre (1950) Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts (1951) I Love Lucy (1952) I Love Lucy (1953) I Love Lucy (1954) The $64,000 Question (1955) I Love Lucy (1956) Gunsmoke (1957) Gunsmoke (1958) Gunsmoke ...
The Lone Ranger is a western TV series that aired on ABC from 1949 until 1957 about the adventures about a cowboy and his faithful Indian companion, Tonto, the daring and resourceful masked rider of the plains led the fight for law and order in the early West. This was by far the highest-rated television program on ABC in the early 1950s and ...
Jul 10, 2023 · 4 Gunsmoke (1955-1975) Directed by Norman Macdonnell, written by John Meston, and set in Dodge City, Kansas, in the 1870s, the highly popular Gunsmoke, like many shows from that decade, started on ...
