List of shows from the network era

Television of the network era:

Wide World of Sports , an ABC program.

M*A*S*H , a CBS program.

Star Trek , an NBC program.

Soul Train , a syndicated program.

The following article consist of shows/programs that aired during the network era of American television from the early 1950s to the mid-late 1980s. ^[1]

1950s

• Dennis the Menace ^[2]
• The Ed Sullivan Show ^[3]
• I Love Lucy ^[4]
• The Lawrence Welk Show ^[5]

1960s

• Batman ^[2]
• The Beverly Hillbillies ^{[6] [3]}
• Bewitched ^[7]
• The Brady Bunch ^[8]
• A Charlie Brown Christmas ^[9]
• Dark Shadows ^[10]
• The Fugitive ^[3]
• General Hospital ^[11]
• Green Acres ^[12]
• The Green Hornet ^[2]
• Hee Haw ^[5]
• Hulabaloo ^[5]
• I Dream of Jeannie ^[7]
• Julia ^[13]
• The Patty Duke Show ^[2]
• Shindig! ^[5]
• Star Trek ^[14]
• The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson ^[5]
• Wide World of Sports ^{[15] [16]}

1970s

• All in the Family ^{[6] [17] [9]}
• The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman ^[9]
• The Bob Newhart Show ^[17]
• Brian's Song ^{[16] [18]}
• The Carol Burnett Show ^[17]
• Charlie's Angels ^{[12] [19]}
• Columbo ^[3]
• Dallas ^{[20] [3] [9]}
• Duel ^[18]
• Fantasy Island ^[12]
• Go Ask Alice ^[18]
• Happy Days ^{[6] [19]}
• The Jeffersons ^[13]
• Jesus of Nazareth ^[9]
• Laverne and Shirley ^{[6] [19]}
• The Love Boat ^[12]
• The Mary Tyler Moore Show ^[17]
• M*A*S*H ^[17]
• McCloud ^[3]
• The Midnight Special ^[5]
• Monday Night Football ^{[20] [16]}
• Mork and Mindy ^[19]
• Pink Lady and Jeff ^[21]
• The Rockfield Files ^[20]
• Roots ^{[3] [13] [16] [9]}
• Saturday Night Live ^[19]
• The Six Million Dollar Man ^[19]
• Someone's Watching Me! ^[22]
• Soul Train ^{[5] [13]}
• The Spell ^[22]
• Starsky and Hutch ^[19]
• Three's Company ^[12]

1980s

• ALF ^[23]
• Cagney & Lacey ^[21]
• Cheers ^[21]
• The Cosby Show ^{[6] [21]}
• The Day After ^{[21] [9]}
• An Early Frost ^[9]
• The Highwayman ^[24]
• Knight Rider ^[23]
• L.A. Law ^[21]
• Hill Street Blues ^[21]
• Late Night with David Letterman ^[5]
• Manimal ^[21]
• Moonlighting ^[21]
• Special Bulletin ^[25]
• St. Elsewhere ^[21]
• thirtysomething ^[21]
• Wheel of Fortune ^[21]
• The Wonder Years ^[21]

References

1. What Is U.S. Television Now? on JSTOR
2. Project MUSE - Batman versus The Green Hornet
3. The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge, Second Edition - Google Books (ch."Television Programming in the Network Era")
4. "5 ways "I Love Lucy" transformed television". www.pbs.org. Retrieved March 13, 2025.
5. 50 Years of Haw, Welk, and Soul|The Saturday Evening Post
6. Blockbuster TV - Google Books
7. Visual Style in Two Network Era Sitcoms|Published in Journal of Cultural Analytics
8. "The Brady Bunch" premieres|September 26, 1969|HISTORY
9. The hidden costs of 'peak TV'|America Magazine
10. TV Sound in the Network Era, 1952-1984 - Google Books
11. Her Stories: Daytime Soap Opera and US Television History on JSTOR
12. A Companion to the History of American Broadcasting - Google Books (ch."The Classic Network Era in Television, 1950s-1970s")
13. Black TV: Five Decades of Groundbreaking Television from Soul Train to Black-ish and Beyond on Amazon.com
14. NBC: America’s Network - De Gruyter
15. UCI Podcast: A history lesson in sports television - UCI News
16. Book Review: ABC Sports: The Rise and Fall of Network Sports Television - Media Industries
17. CBS Saturday Night Lineup 1973: The Best TV Ever|Woman's World
18. 'ABC Movie of the Week': 'From 'Brian's Song' to 'The Night Stalker'|Closer Weekly
19. TELEVISION ENTERS THE 80'S - The Washington Post
20. The Classic Network Era in Television 1950s–1970s - A Companion to the History of American Broadcasting - Wiley Online Library
21. THE '80S WERE BIG FOR TV - The Washington Post
22. The Criterion Channel's October 2024 Lineup|Current|The Criterion Collection
23. 8 dusty, forgotten Westerns from 1980s television - MeTV
24. Down Under the Influence: 'The Highwayman' » We Are Cult
25. Television History, the Peabody and Cultural Memory - Google Books (pg.215)