I still love the old shows of the 50's and 60's. I was born in 1962 so I wasn't around except for reruns of 50's shows. TVland shows a lot of old shows (I love lucy, Andy griffith, Beaver). They all still hold water beleive it or not. I think it's in part to the fact these were "family values" shows. They dealt with some issues but were family oriented. Lucy especially is still hilarious after all these years. You can see why she was a comedic genius that people like Carol Burnett emulated later.

TV wasn't widely used in the town I lived in as a teen in the 50's. I remember my best friend's Mom won a console TV in a contest and I was allowed to watch Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will Travel and Studio One. Then in the later 50's our family got out own TV and we would watch every show we could, in black and white, sometimes snowy, sometimes fluttery - we didn't care!

Seeing people watching b/w tv in the sixties on Mad Men was fun. You know,it was a big deal when that NBC Peacock introduced color TV to an obsessed nation. There were lots of live shows in those days. But, the broadcasts of the Kennedy Assasination tape over and over and the live on camera killing of Lee Harvey Oswald, brought the world into our living rooms and things were never the same...

I was born in 1958 and I do still love the shows from when I was a child. "Bewitched" is my fave.

The sitcoms and dramas of the 50's and 60's were better written. Better jokes, better plots, more suspenseful, depending on the genre. TV fare today uses vulgar language matched by vulgar values. No longer family fare on TV. No longer "must see" TV or appointment television. Broadcast TV today is poorly done and not enjoyable to watch. That is why the market share is dwindling, and viewers are seeking out cable, video rentals, or NPR. Where are the writers?

I was born in 1952 so remember most of the 50s and 60s shows (the ones I was allowed to stay up and watch; some of the good ones were on too late for me.) While there are a ton of "classic" shows from the times, there were also some real stinkers. And there were great shows in the 70s and 80s - and even some today (er, um, I'm thinking of a little thing called Mad Men.)

If folks are searching out cable rather than network today, remember there was no alternative back then. Almost everything broadcast in the early days HAD to suit the family, sometimes to ridiculous lengths. I mean, Rob and Laura Petrie were young and crazy in love with each other but slept in twin beds? Lucy couldn't announce she was pregnant (on the show) even when she was 9 months along and out to yon. And in the home there was one set - in the living room - three stations if you were lucky, and a limited time for broadcasts. It was not 24/7. So you got lots of variety and comedy with a smattering of drama in the form of westerns, service shows (Combat!), and the occasional high-brow cultural program. You could choose between Queen for a Day and Amateur Hour or Playhouse 90. Early variety shows were mostly vaudeville brought (barely) up to date - plate spinners anyone? The most successful was The Ed Sullivan Show, where you'd get a pop number by Perry Como followed by the Banana Man followed by Beverly Sills and ending with a knife-throwing act (not Ed Ames.)

"Funny" never goes out of style: it's timeless.:)

And Auburn Annie is right: TV was more or less a "one size fits all" format suitable for all ages.

And what doesn't exist anymore: the TV theme song.

Television in the 50's and 60's had more moral content. The family could watch together and enjoy themselves as a unit. It's not that things were not going on, somethings were left private and should be. The shows today are very much over the top, nothing left to the imagination, it's all thrown out there. He's doing it, she's doing it let's all do it and get the kids! This doesn't give children the opportunity to develope naturally without that extreme pressure. They already have enough peer pressure and then you expose them to all those things at once. So many things are projected to them on television they just act out what they see and believe that it's morally and sociably alright. They don't know if they should take their lunch to school or a condom and a gun. Call me a square or old fashion, but if the proper content of shows were written for children today they would be trying to act like children and not like wacked out charcters they are watching on TV today. Theme songs you can forget that, all you get is noise.

Sunday nights my family was glued to Bonanza. That was one show that was never missed. There was no man more honorable than Pa Cartright.

Dr. Kildaire was my Dr. McDreamy back in those days. So many shows that had great stories and great acting.

Dragnet was a great detective show. We all loved Andy and Opie Taylor of course. Andy was a man right up there with Pa Cartright. I remember the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. Let's see, the list goes on and on.

Great kids shows were Fury, My Friend Flicka, Sky King, Lassie of course. TV was pure entertainment and there were usually good moral lessons to be learned on all of them. Davey and Goliath was a great kids show.

I will have to think more on this and add to my list later.

I was born in 1949 and as a kid I looked forward to watching Superman and The Lone Ranger. At that time, I loved those shows but watching them now, I realize just how corny the plots were. On the other hand, the old black and whites of Gunsmoke and Andy Griffith are still intertaining today.

The greatest thing about TV in the 1950s (my town didn't get a TV station until 1953) and 1960s was that everyone watched pretty much the same shows, so there was always someone to talk to about what happened. There were so many great shows on at that time, which was truly the Golden Age of Television, that it really didn't matter which channel you watched, you were sure to be entertained.

Bonanza was created by NBC and RCA to sell color TV sets, and it did.

Keith, I had the same experience in that I loved Superman and The Lone Ranger when I was a kid and now see that the plots were corny, but I also realize that The Lone Ranger had a code of ethics. He never shot anyone except in self defense and he never killed anybody; his victims would be shot in the arm or shoulder or leg. He never took credit for what he did. He did it because it was the right thing to do. Nowadays, The Lone Ranger would be holding press conferences and having a video cam broadcast his escapades in real time.

Gunsmoke and Andy Griffith are entertaining and pertinent today because they addressed the basic human situations everyone faces in growing up and in living daily life. Kids still love Leave It To Beaver, too, even with its sugariness. I have watched a several episodes myself lately and now I see that Beaver wasn't as spoiled as I remember when watching him as a kid. His parents actually punished and admonished him quite a bit, just like at my house. And, just like a real kid, he would try to learn his lesson but end up in hot water again for something else.

Bottom line, I definitely think TV was better then. It was definitely the Golden Age of Televsion. The scripts were in large part written by people who were professional writers and published in literary magazines, wrote broadway plays. Look at the credits of some of those old series and you'll be astounded at the names you recognize. Nowadays, the situation comedies all rely on sex, look at Two and a Half Men, to sell themselves. Just about everything on TV uses sex blatantly and I won't even mention the vulgarity of language and dress on most TV shows. The female characters seem actually proud to be sexual objects. The Women's Revolution was in vain, I guess.

I suppose there is a fine line between using blatant sex and sex appeal to sell things. In my opinion, that line has been cross in modern TV and we should not feign surprise when our middle schoolers start having sex in 5th or 6th grade when they have been exposed to a constant diet of it since infancy. There is nothing wrong with sex or sex appeal, but I do believe TV and other modes of entertainment, exploit the physicality of sex to sell their products. I mean, we all knew Rob and Laura Petrie had a great sex life, even though they slept in twin beds, because of the great acting and dialogue in that series. We didn't need to have it shoved in our faces. A little more dignity on TV would be quite nice.

Oh gee, how did I forget Lone Ranger and Gunsmoke!!! Of course Rob and Laura Petrie were great and then Mary went on to one of the best single women's shows of our time. She was a career girl and lived an exciting life without bedding every guy that came along. Marlo Thomas was also similar in "That Girl". A great single girl in the city show too. Those girls were so nice and wholesome compared to todays sexcapade shows. Marlo's great line was always "Oh, Donald!".
I remember my parents wouldn't let me watch the Dean Martin show because of the "Gold Diggers". Gee, compared to now that was like going to Sunday School. Bob Hope and Perry Como had real entertainment on their variety shows. No "f" words bleeped out, no sex talk, just real talent. I have a 2 year old granddaughter now, and my wish for her future is that she can grow up without all the trash and pressure the kids are exposed to these days. Let her be young and innocent for as long as possible. It's so sad for the kids growing up way too soon now. Of course, my daughter is in her 30's now but her favorite show was Little House on the Prairie. What happened to TV like that? How did we let this happen? Not so long ago "The Wonder Years" showed a somewhat dysfunctional family that overcame whatever problems they had and proved they loved each other every episode. No young love was ever more romantic than Kevin and Winnie's.