1950s/60s TV Shows That Were Truly Ahead Of Their Time

[Mad Mac]

In an earlier thread I mentioned Lassie. The TV series ran from 1954 to 1974 and seven Lassie movies were released from 1943-1951. So when a show came on recently about the ten best animals in movies I was astonished Lassie did not get a mention! Nor did The Biscuit Eater from 1940. At least Old Yeller 1957 made the list. Google 10 best and still no Lassie. It's as if the world did not begin until after WWII. The exception was Bambi from 1942 which leaped through the time warp with re-releases.

[Mad Mac]

The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin 1954-1959 was a favorite of mine. Named for a German Shepherd rescued by an American soldier in WWI who subsequently became a silent movie film sensation. Now that was before my time.

[JD Spydo]

The wisecracking talking horse, Mister Ed, 1961-1966.

Yeah and don't forget where they got the idea for "Mr. Ed">> that came about from the old "Francis The Talking Mule" movies. And those were pretty funny. I've seen two of them and they were great for the 40s and 50s.

That is the pitts about Lassie not getting mentioned for Hall Of Fame celebrity animals. A friend of mine who worked in Hollywood for a couple of years told me he met one of the Lassie trainers while he worked there. He said there was a total of 7 dogs who played Lassie throughout the years.

Also the show Lassie was sprung off of the original TV series known as "Jeff's Collie">> and you can't find one out of 50 people who are aware of that for some strange reason.

[willc]

Not to get away from the spirit of the thread, but does anyone listen to replays of the old radio shows? I know, in my neck of the woods, that AM 900 out of Toronto broadcasts them from around 9 pm on. Nights are the only time I can pick it up.

I love the old radio programs.
The Shadow, Dragnet, Suspense, Box 13, and Johnny Dollar are some of my favorites.
As a kid I remember listening to Jack Benny and Groucho Marx on the late night college rotation.

Radio done right really can be way better than tv imo.

[Mad Mac]

Fibber McGee and Molly was another radio show. One of them alway had to open that hall closet.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday night.
A variety show today wouldn't make it.

[JD Spydo]

Fibber McGee and Molly was another radio show. One of them alway had to open that hall closet.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday night.
A variety show today wouldn't make it.

I used to have some of those tapes of them. But the ones that made me laugh until my gut hurt was the two dozen tapes of "Amos & Andy" that a good friend gave me some time back. Those guys were even funnier than the Marx Brothers if you can believe that.
I think all of those were well before the 1960s however. But "Amos & Andy" were truly hilarious

[James Y]

Sadly, I heard that Peggy Lipton died a couple months ago.

https://youtu.be/CZiPijyoDGs

Jim

[JD Spydo]

Sadly, I heard that Peggy Lipton died a couple months ago.

There was just a plethora of classic TV shows from 1969 to about 1973. And the Mod Squad was truly one of them. It was one of my favorite cop shows during that time. But when Miami Vice came out in the 80s I quickly forgot about it>> because in my opinion Miami Vice was truly the best cop show ever IMO.
Yeah Peggy Lipton did die here recently I heard.
It came out about the same time that Room 222 and All In the Family hit the airwaves. Didn't really like either one of those two at all but they did come out about the same time period.
I still like watching re-runs of any of the old Irwin Allen science fiction shows. The Time Tunnel is still one of my favs to this day. Also Land of the Giants is another one from that time period that I still like watching the re-runs of. Also Harlan Ellison who just died recently did some really intriguing science fiction shows. The Canadian classic of his called "The Star Lost" comes to mind and I would love to get tapes of that old Sci Fi show.

[bearrowland]

Mod Squad was awesome!!

[James Y]

Mod Squad was awesome!!

As a kid I enjoyed it too! Although I haven't seen it at all since around 1971; remembering it and looking up the intro on YouTube was the first time I've seen it in 48 years!!! And seeing it again brought back a bunch of memories.

Sadly, I heard that Peggy Lipton died a couple months ago.

There was just a plethora of classic TV shows from 1969 to about 1973. And the Mod Squad was truly one of them. It was one of my favorite cop shows during that time. But when Miami Vice came out in the 80s I quickly forgot about it>> because in my opinion Miami Vice was truly the best cop show ever IMO.
Yeah Peggy Lipton did die here recently I heard.
It came out about the same time that Room 222 and All In the Family hit the airwaves. Didn't really like either one of those two at all but they did come out about the same time period.
I still like watching re-runs of any of the old Irwin Allen science fiction shows. The Time Tunnel is still one of my favs to this day. Also Land of the Giants is another one from that time period that I still like watching the re-runs of. Also Harlan Ellison who just died recently did some really intriguing science fiction shows. The Canadian classic of his called "The Star Lost" comes to mind and I would love to get tapes of that old Sci Fi show.

I don't know if I had a favorite cop show. Mod Squad was up there, but later I also liked Baretta (Beretta?). During most of the '80s, I wasn't watching a lot of TV, as I was doing a lot of other stuff. And of course when I moved to Taiwan, I didn't watch TV at all, unless there was a TV mounted on the wall of a restaurant. My favorite "crime" show was an unusual one that came much later: 'Millennium', starring Lance Henriksen. That was in the late '90s. But it wasn't really a 'cop' show.

I didn't like All in the Family, Maude, Good Times, etc., very much, either. Back then, I didn't realize that the Archie Bunker character was a commentary on a racist guy, and basically how dumb he actually was; I just thought it was glorifying that type of person. I later read somewhere where Carroll O'Connor said that the Archie Bunker was basically a moron, but as a kid, I always associated him with the character.

Jim

[JD Spydo]

Jim I couldn't agree with you more when the sitcoms became total trash from the mid 70s onward. Now in the 60s we truly had funny sitcoms but in the 70s & 80s most of them changed to raw sewage. I hated Archie Bunker because I had rednecks in my family that reminded me of him. To them wife and kid beating along with adultery and drunkenness were all sports that they excelled in. The nation has had some positive changes in that problem area of domestic abuse but it's still a horrible problem in many homes today.
But other than Miami Vice the 80s didn't have a lot to offer me. It was about 86 and I got cable for the first time and for about a year I was addicted to the new Discovery Channel which later became kind of a weird channel>> but it was great in the early days.
I found out what that Science Fiction, outer space show that Martin Landau starred in. It was called "Space": 1999. In some ways it was even better than the original Star Trek.
Also there was another 1960s show that was along those same lines>> it was called "The Invaders". It was on right before the Time Tunnel which to this day is still one of my all time favorite Science Fiction shows. Irwin Allen and Harlan Ellison both had some great Sci Fi shows.

[James Y]

Jim I couldn't agree with you more when the sitcoms became total trash from the mid 70s onward. Now in the 60s we truly had funny sitcoms but in the 70s & 80s most of them changed to raw sewage. I hated Archie Bunker because I had rednecks in my family that reminded me of him. To them wife and kid beating along with adultery and drunkenness were all sports that they excelled in. The nation has had some positive changes in that problem area of domestic abuse but it's still a horrible problem in many homes today.
But other than Miami Vice the 80s didn't have a lot to offer me. It was about 86 and I got cable for the first time and for about a year I was addicted to the new Discovery Channel which later became kind of a weird channel>> but it was great in the early days.
I found out what that Science Fiction, outer space show that Martin Landau starred in. It was called "Space": 1999. In some ways it was even better than the original Star Trek.
Also there was another 1960s show that was along those same lines>> it was called "The Invaders". It was on right before the Time Tunnel which to this day is still one of my all time favorite Science Fiction shows. Irwin Allen and Harlan Ellison both had some great Sci Fi shows.

3

Joe:

I never heard of Space: 1999 or Time Tunnel. Thanks for mentioning them. I do vaguely remember The Invaders.

This isn't a TV show, but one of my favorite horror/sci-fi movies is Quartermass and the Pit (AKA Five Million Years to Earth). It's the 1967 movie I'm talking about. I believe there was also a BBC TV series of the same title back in the '50s, which I've never seen. The movie had a really creepy vibe to it, and it seemed to combine sci-fi/Martian stuff with the paranormal. Unfortunately, it's been decades since I've seen it, and it's exceedingly hard to find on DVD today, but it left a hell of an impression on me. IMO, it was way ahead of its time. I think it was done by Hammer Films, which made most of the great British horror films of the 1950s into the '70s.

Jim

[Mad Mac]

Five Million Years to Earth was on TCM recently. They have a series this month on science fiction movies from the 50s and 60s. I'm watching the 1953 War of the Worlds right now that I recorded July 9.

[Mad Mac]

Now that we've gravitated toward science fiction movies from the 1950s and 60s, the very first one I can remember seeing was the 1958 The Blob with a young "Steven" McQueen. Really scared me then but it's downright funny now.

[JD Spydo]

Now that we've gravitated toward science fiction movies from the 1950s and 60s, the very first one I can remember seeing was the 1958 The Blob with a young "Steven" McQueen. Really scared me then but it's downright funny now.

OK Mad Mac I remember two 1960s/early 70s Science Fiction movies that would even be timely in our present time. One being "The Andromeda Strain" and the other is called "The Satan Bug">> those were really creepy in the late 60s and actually gave me the creeps as a young person more than the horror flicks did. Those were movies about "bio-weapons" and how easy it would be to launch them this very day. Also on a humorous note Don Johnson's ( Miami Vice fame) first movie was called "A Boy & His Dog">> it was Sci Fi but really funny too>> especially with a really young Don Johnson

And Jim the show "Space 1999" which starred Martin Landau has a lot of episodes on YT. It ran from 1975 to 1978 I think it was. It was kind of a cross between Star Trek and the Outer Limits. That other Canadian Science Fiction Show that I really liked i.e. "The STARLOST" also has full episodes on YT. In two episodes of the "THE STARLOST" the old Star Trek cast member Walter Koenig ( Mr. Chekov) was in two episodes (the Alien Oro) and ( The Return of Oro). I actually enjoy the Starlost more in this present time than I did in the 70s. I watched two episodes just yesterday.

The Starlost was written by Sci Fi genius Harlan Ellison who had a lot of them to his credits.

[James Y]

Five Million Years to Earth was on TCM recently. They have a series this month on science fiction movies from the 50s and 60s. I'm watching the 1953 War of the Worlds right now that I recorded July 9.

The 1953 War of the World's was one of my favorites as a kid. I saw it again recently, and it holds up today. And thanks for the heads-up about TCM.

Jim

[James Y]

Now that we've gravitated toward science fiction movies from the 1950s and 60s, the very first one I can remember seeing was the 1958 The Blob with a young "Steven" McQueen. Really scared me then but it's downright funny now.

And Jim the show "Space 1999" which starred Martin Landau has a lot of episodes on YT. It ran from 1975 to 1978 I think it was. It was kind of a cross between Star Trek and the Outer Limits. That other Canadian Science Fiction Show that I really liked i.e. "The STARLOST" also has full episodes on YT. In two episodes of the "THE STARLOST" the old Star Trek cast member Walter Koenig ( Mr. Chekov) was in two episodes (the Alien Oro) and ( The Return of Oro). I actually enjoy the Starlost more in this present time than I did in the 70s. I watched two episodes just yesterday.

The Starlost was written by Sci Fi genius Harlan Ellison who had a lot of them to his credits.

Thanks, Joe. That sounds very interesting.

One movie I never hear much about is the 1966 movie "Queen of Blood" (AKA Planet of Blood). It starred John Saxon, Florence Marly, Dennis Hopper, and Basil Rathbone. I read somewhere that it was an inspiration for Ridley Scott's Alien (1979). When I saw Queen of Blood as a kid in the early '70s, I remember getting a chill up my spine near the end, when the alien 'vampire' queen is stalking the spaceship. IMO, it was way ahead of its time. It was a low-budget movie, but as I remember it, the story and pacing were excellent.

Jim

[Ankerson]

Jim I couldn't agree with you more when the sitcoms became total trash from the mid 70s onward. Now in the 60s we truly had funny sitcoms but in the 70s & 80s most of them changed to raw sewage. I hated Archie Bunker because I had rednecks in my family that reminded me of him. To them wife and kid beating along with adultery and drunkenness were all sports that they excelled in. The nation has had some positive changes in that problem area of domestic abuse but it's still a horrible problem in many homes today.
But other than Miami Vice the 80s didn't have a lot to offer me. It was about 86 and I got cable for the first time and for about a year I was addicted to the new Discovery Channel which later became kind of a weird channel>> but it was great in the early days.
I found out what that Science Fiction, outer space show that Martin Landau starred in. It was called "Space": 1999. In some ways it was even better than the original Star Trek.
Also there was another 1960s show that was along those same lines>> it was called "The Invaders". It was on right before the Time Tunnel which to this day is still one of my all time favorite Science Fiction shows. Irwin Allen and Harlan Ellison both had some great Sci Fi shows.

Used to watch Space 1999.

There was another one too that I used to watch, but I can't remember the name of it.

[Mad Mac]

A Boy and His Dog reminded me of the controversial albeit 1971 A Clockwork Orange.

[JD Spydo]

A Boy and His Dog reminded me of the controversial albeit 1971 A Clockwork Orange.

That still just cracks me up that a young, crazy version of Don Johnson of Miami Vice fame could play two diametrically different roles like that and really do good at both of them. I remember when that movie was shown back in the mid 70s. There were just a few select, special theaters that would even show that movie. The big movie house chains wouldn't touch it with a 50 foot pole. However they jumped all over the CLOCKWORK ORANGE you mentioned.>> just goes to show you how much influence that Stanley Kubrick had in his day.

Before you said that I really never thought of those movies having stuff in common but the more I think about I do believe you are on to something for sure. But those two Sci Fi movies I mentioned were also movies that the big movie houses didn't show. You had to see The Andromeda Strain and The Satan Bug both at privately owned theaters. But there were a lot of movies like that in the late 60s to the late 70s. Both of those movies could have been either in the Sci Fi or Horror genres either one. Because those two movies on bio weapons which sadly could be a very possible reality in our present time really gave me the creeps like few other movies did.

But Don Johnson in that movie "A Boy And His Dog" was just not something you would expect to see him in at all. He sure never did anything like that again It was sick humor in a way but it was also something that could be possible if times got really bad>> but I guess you could also put "The Road Warrior" in that same genre too.