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 In the 1970s, TV Producers turned from the excess of violence
seen in drama series' of the 60s, to seek other ways of
stimulating the audience.
First off the mark was ABC's The Six Million Dollar Man,
about the cyborg, Colonel Steve Austin, who could perform
incredible feats of strength and speed.
Realism gave way to
fantasy and its success spawned imitators like The Bionic Woman,
Wonder Woman, Spiderman, and The Incredible Hulk,
all of which downplayed violence for displays of muscles and
gimmicks.
One of the surprise hits of the early 70s was Emergency!,
an hour-long weekly drama that followed the events at a Los
Angeles hospital, as well as a neighbouring fire department.
But
nothing beat good old-fashioned family values in these turbulent
times, and Little House On The Prairie, a heart-warming
(some would say sick-making) series about a rural family, had them
by the wagonload.
In Britain, drama in the 1970s moved away from the experiments
of the 1960s into safer territory. For example, apart from Play
for Today, original TV drama was replaced with period and
novel-based serials. These included such series as The Six
Wives of Henry VIII and Upstairs Downstairs.
On the soap front Yorkshire TV produced a rural daytime serial,
Emmerdale Farm which began in 1972 and became increasingly
popular as Emmerdale. The BBC also experimented with an all
black soap (written by a black author), Empire Road
(1978-79).
Featured as a regular instalment of The NBC Mystery Movie,
Peter Falk's Columbo was one of the most popular detectives
in the 1970s. Decked out in a ratty raincoat and wrinkled suit,
Columbo's mind was as sharp as his appearance was dishevelled.
Half the fun of the show was seeing him toy with the criminals who
almost never took him seriously.
In the UK, Euston Films Limited (a wholly owned subsidiary of
Thames TV) developed a portfolio of crime programs for the ITV
network, including Van Der Valk and the brilliant The
Sweeney. Series from other commercial companies included The
Professionals (London Weekend Television) and two grittily realistic and much
applauded serials made by the BBC, Gangsters and the
four-part Law and Order.
 British TV comedy was king during the Seventies, serving up
shows like Are You Being Served?, Citizen Smith, Fawlty
Towers, Porridge, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, Rising
Damp, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, The
Liver Birds and The Last of the Summer Wine. There was
also the zany The Goodies and the perennially popular The
Two Ronnies. But British comedy would never be the same again
after Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Continuing in the anti-war vein of its filmic namesake,
M*A*S*H (starring Alan Alda as Army surgeon Hawkeye Pierce)
proved incredibly popular with viewers in the US and around the
world, proving that programs with pronounced liberal themes could
still be hugely successful.
Viewers regularly tuned in to The Sonny & Cher Comedy
Hour to see what Cher would (or wouldn't) be wearing.
Originally introduced as a summer replacement variety show, the
highly rated series gave the duo's career a new lease of
life.
In Britain, the flagship on the light entertainment front was
undoubtedly Bruce Forsyth's Generation Game, a very popular
format which continued on and off for many years (as did the chat
show Parkinson featuring Michael Parkinson, who only
finally retired in 2008).
Other notable British light-entertainment shows of the decade
included the long running That's Life, Jim'll Fix It
and Blankety Blank. There were quiz shows ranging from the
long-running Mastermind (where contestants simply compete
for a title by answering complex general knowledge questions and
obscure questions about specialist areas of knowledge) through Sale
of the Century to the banal Mr and Mrs .
In the days before Nickelodeon, kids anticipated every Saturday
morning like it was Christmas. This was our time!
Three of the most popular new kids shows in the 70s were all
about people (or animals) in rock bands; Josie and the
Pussycats, animated forerunners of bands like The Go-Go's and
The Bangles; Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp, a live-action spy
spoof starring a cast of chimpanzees who also played in a band
called the Evolution Revolution; and The Partridge Family,
a sitcom about a family that decided to form a rock band.
In the grand tradition of The Monkees, The Partridge
Family (based on real-life family pop group The Cowsills)
actually had several chart hits, including I Think I Love You.
David Cassidy, who played the family's eldest son and lead singer,
was featured regularly in teenybopper magazines like 16 and
Tiger Beat.
In England in 1972, the government scrapped all restrictions on
TV and Radio broadcasting hours. All channels had been restricted
to about 3,300 hours a year plus time for educational, religious
and outside broadcasts.
The move was ostensibly to compensate ITV for not getting a
second channel (in order to compete with BBC1 and BBC2). The
ruling on American shows and old movies remained, with a maximum
quota of 14% of total air time.
The nation was also split on the subject of TV breakfast shows.
Thames Television in London wanted them but the rest of the nation
did not. The year 1973 ended with the "three day week"
and television once more closing down at 10:30pm in order to save
electricity during a nation-wide industrial dispute - In February
1974 (with a general election looming) the curfew was lifted once
again.
One of the television highpoints of the seventies was the 1974
wedding of HRH Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips at
Westminster Abbey. The home television audience reached 25 million
with more than 530 million people throughout the world seeing the
transmission through either live relays or delayed broadcasts.
While the coronation broadcast in 1953 boosted the sales of TV
sets in the UK, this Royal Wedding can be considered partly
responsible for the increase in sales of colour television sets.
Similar colour TV sales increases were also credited to the
transmissions of the Queen's Silver Jubilee in June 1977 when
outdoor broadcast units showed the Queen lighting a bonfire at
Windsor to start a nation-wide chain of bonfires and covered the
Queen's drive to St Paul's Cathedral and her walkabout in the City
of London.
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