The Twilight Zone

The Twilight Zone was a pioneering anthology series from writer Rod Serling that embraced drama, science fiction, psychological thrillers, mystery, horror, suspense, fantasy and the kitchen sink. Running on CBS from October 1959 to June 1964, it featured some episodes that are now considered television classics. Many well known faces appeared on the Twilight Zone. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twilight_Zone#Television_history

The Outer Limits

The Outer Limits was an anthology series of mostly Sci Fi stories that ran for 49 episodes between September 1963 and January 1965. Sometimes viewed as ABC's answer to CBS' The Twilight Zone, but at that time TZ was coming to an end. TZ had more of a drama theme similar to Alfred Hitchcock Presents and One Step Beyond while Outer Limits was much edgier and pushed the boundaries a bit more. Reportedly, it was a major influence on Gene Roddenberry as he developed Star Trek. 

Personally, I recall Outer Limits much better than the others not only for its content, but the fact it was on early in the evening where the others were on late. In the days of one-TV households control of time slots were usually a battle between kids and parents with a compromise point of around 9pm. During the final TZ season it was not only on late, but opposite ABC's The Farmer's Daughter which was a popular show. Inger Stevens, anyone?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Outer_Limits_(1963_TV_series)

The Munsters

The Munsters was a family sitcom / monster movie satire in the mid-60's. Starring Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster, Yvonne DeCarlo as Lily and Al Lewis as Grandpa. The Harvard-educated Gwynne had just come off his successful starring role in Car 54 Where Are You? which Al Lewis was also in. DeCarlo had appeared in several big movie productions in the 50's. A few weeks after the final episode aired a Munsters movie, Munsters Go Home, was released and this was the only time we saw them in color. The show was produced by writers Bob Mosher and Joe Connelly who found earlier success with The Amos 'n' Andy Show and Leave It To Beaver.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Munsters

One Step Beyond

One Step Beyond was an anthology series of both US and UK produced mystery, horror, supernatural and drama stories. It ran on ABC from January 1959 to July 1961.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Step_Beyond_%28TV_series%29

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052442/episodes

The Addams Family

The Addams Family was a sitcom that enjoyed a 2 season (64 episodes) run in the mid-60's.

First appearing as a cartoon in The New Yorker in the late 1930's, the television show was the first time the characters would be brought to live-action.

The Addams Family was a black comedy featuring many elements of the macabre and bizarre situations. I can't really think of any earlier shows of this type so it may have been the first. It did share a level of satire with many of the Marx Brothers films and the reason for that is the show was the brainchild of producer Nat Perrin who was also the writer of some of the Marx Brothers films.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Addams_Family_%28TV_series%29

Gidget

Gidget was a family sitcom that ran for 32 episodes during the 1965-1966 TV season. Gidget, a combination of "girl" and "midget", began life as a book in 1957. Several more "Gidget" novels followed and in 1959 it hit the silver screen with Sandra Dee in the role of Gidget. Two more films followed in the early 60's each with a different cast. The television version featured Sally Field as Gidget and Don Porter as her father. Not a bad 60's American sitcom by any means, but as is so often the case in Hollywood, by the time the TV show appeared it was about 5 years behind the times. You can almost imagine the target audience asking their much older siblings "is that what it was like when you were a kid?" That might not be an issue these days, but between the late 50's and early 70's "things" changed rapidly and often.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gidget_%28TV_series%29

Car 54 Where Are You?

Car 54 Where Are You? was a sitcom about a police precinct in The Bronx, New York City. It lasted two seasons, 1961 -1963, producing 60 episodes. The main focus of the series was on the escapades of Officers Toody and Muldoon who patrolled in Car 54. Officer Gunther Toody, played by Joe E. Ross, ws a familiar face to many from his appearances on the Phil Silvers Show (Bilko) in the 50's. Following Car 54 Ross would appear as a "caveman" opposite Imogene Coca in It's About Time. Officer Francis Muldoon was played by Fred Gwynne who would follow up Car 54 as Herman Munster in The Munsters. 

This was one of the last shows in that era to be produced in New York City (Patty Duke Show Seasons 1 & 2 as well) as most work was being shifted to Hollywood. Because it was filmed in New York City it featured many of the NY-based stable of actors in guest appearances. In episode 9 Maureen Stapleton appears as a gypsy. One of few actors to win a Tony, an Emmy and an Oscar (and the first to be nominated for all three in the same year), in her later years she a friend of my wife and daughter, so we'll be sure to watch that in a few weeks on the 50th anniversary of the original broadcast.

Car 54 Where Are You?

The Patty Duke Show

The Patty Duke Show was a popular family sitcom that ran for three seasons (104 episodes), 1963 - 1966. Starring Patty Duke as both teenager Patty Lane and her same-age worldly cousin Cathy Lane. The Lane family were well-off and resided in the Brooklyn Heights section of New York City. There was a younger brother, Ross and her parents were played by William Schallert and the late Jean Byron, both of whom played teachers on Dobie Gillis. At the time I never gave much thought to the production challenges they must have faced in producing this show, and now, nearly 50 years on, I must say they pulled it off quite nicely.

There was a young lady who worked through the entire course of the show as a body double for "the girls" and never received a single credit. Even in the recent documentaries her name was never mentioned. Can you imagine being a young person and appearing on a famous TV show every week and never being able to make that claim? There was one episode where they panned the camera a little too slowly and caught the face of this young lady. She's on the right below while playing Cathy's double "back-to-the-camera". So here's to you kid, whoever you were.

Patty Duke's son Sean gained immortal celebrity status for his role as Sam in the 3 Lord of the Rings films.

And typical of the times, during the run of the show Patty Duke also had a couple of hit pop records.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Patty_Duke_Show

Maverick

Western movies were a big thing in the US during the time when a day or night at the theater meant a big feature film, a couple of b-movies, a serial, some cartoons and newsreels. When television started making an impact on the entertainment business a number of film and serial characters were developed into TV shows. The Lone Ranger, Rin Tin Tin, Hopalong Cassidy, for example. Most of these shows were more popular with the younger crowd, but they weren't necessarily produced with that intent.

On Tuesday night, Sept. 6, 1955, at 8:30 on ABC, the first episode of The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp was aired and 4 nights later, at 10pm on CBS, Gunsmoke was launched. This kicked off the era of evening adult western dramas and very rapidly they accounted for a healthy percentage of the prime time programming.

Maverick hit the little screen in September 1957. Originally starring James Garner as Brett Maverick, the production team found that it sometimes took longer than a week to produce one episode so they added Jack Kelly as brother Bart Maverick, split the production team and began rotating "Brett" and "Bart" as leads. In 1960 Garner left the show so they added cousin Beau Maverick played by Roger Moore. The ratings began to slide so they added another Maverick, this time brother Brent played by Robert Colbert.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maverick_%28TV_series%29