I Love Lucy was most likely the top sitcom of the first decade of television in the United States. Near the end it morphed into the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour and its final episode aired April 1, 1960. Exactly 2½ years later Lucy was back with a new sitcom, The Lucy Show. The new show enjoyed great success through the 60's just as I Love Lucy did during the 50's. Its first season, 1962-1963, it was the #2 rated sitcom (behind The Beverly Hillbillies). It was also rated #2 during its 6th and final season (behind the Andy Griffith Show) of 1967-1968. In fact, 3 of the top 4 sitcoms that season aired back-to-back-to-back Monday nights on CBS: Lucy Show, Andy Griffith, Family Affair.
Lucy was back that autumn with a new show called Here's Lucy and that also enjoyed a six year run. During it's 3rd season (1970-1971) it was the #1 rated sitcom on American television.
As I recall, this show started off as a family type of thing with her former I Love Lucy co-star Vivian Vance and kids, etc., then about halfway through its run it changed formats and was centered around Lucy's job at a bank and no kids.
The Lucy Show
The Phil Silvers Show, sometimes known in syndication as Sgt. Bilko or just Bilko, was a successful and pioneering sitcom in the late 1950's. The Phil Silvers Show featured a large cast and was one of the first sitcoms to not revolve around a family/friends. The only other "workplace" comedy that comes to mind prior to Bilko was Our Miss Brooks which partially took place at a high school but rarely ever showed the teachers actually teaching. Starring Phil Silvers as Sgt. Ernie Bilko who ran the motor pool and gambling operations at Fort Baxter, Kansas (relocated to Camp Fremont, California for the final season). Originally called You'll Never Get Rich, the name was switched to Phil Silvers Show after the 6th episode. It was the 6th highest rated sitcom its first season (behind I Love Lucy, December Bride, The Honeymooners, The Life Of Riley and the Burns & Allen Show).
For its second season it ranked as the #3 sitcom behind I Love Lucy and December Bride. I don't know how it ranked for its last two seasons. In 1957-1958 the top 4 sitcoms were The Danny Thomas Show, December Bride, The Gale Storm Show and Father Knows Best. In 1958-1959 the top 4 sitcoms were The Danny Thomas Show, The Real McCoys, Father Knows Best and the Ann Southern Show.
The Phil Silvers Show was filmed in New York City and was created by Nat Hiken who later did Car 54 Where Are You? Joe E. Ross, one of the stars of Car 54, was also a cast member of Phil Silvers as was Beatrice Pons who played his wife in both shows. The other main star of Car 54, Fred Gwynne, made his TV debut on Phil Silvers. Paul Douglas played Col. Hall who was usually Bilko's foil or victim of his many schemes. Dick Van Dyke made his TV debut in a couple episodes as did Alan Alda in one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phil_Silvers_Show
Lost In Space ran for 3 television seasons, airing 83 episodes between September 1965 and March 1968. Starring Guy Williams of Zorro fame, June Lockhart of Lassie fame, Mark Goddard (who went to high school with a bunch of guys I used to work with), Angela Cartwright (of the Danny Thomas Show), Billy Mumy (child actor that turns up in guest appearances in a lot of 60's shows), Jonathan Harris (The Third Man, The Bill Dana Show) and Marta Kristen.
Lost In Space
The Man From U.N.C.L.E. is another of the many 1960's espionage drama's. This one also had a touch of "SpyFi" at times, much like the Bond films, and was created with input from the man himself: Ian Fleming. Starring Robert Vaughn as Napoleon Solo and David McCallum as Russian Illya Kuryakin, it produced 105 episodes that aired between September 1964 and January 1968. It spun off The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. for the 1966-1967 TV season (29 episodes) which wouldn't be very noteworthy today, but in 1966 was certainly a bit groundbreaking. "Man" was very popular during its first two seasons, but by the third season it had a lot of competition from other espionage shows and the producers decided to inject more humor into the scripts which didn't work out very well and the show lost its popularity and favor with an audience that was discovering new shows like Mission: Impossible and I Spy.
The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
Gilligan's Island was a 1964-1967 sitcom starring Bob Denver, Alan Hale Jr., Tina Louise, Dawn Wells, Jim Backus, Russell Johnson and Natalie Schafer. It was an escapist show about 7 people marooned on an uncharted island somewhere in the middle of nowhere and their attempts to survive and be rescued. It produced 98 episodes and was cancelled last minute resulting in the cast never being rescued. It remained very popular in syndication years after it came to an end. During its first season Gilligan's Island was aired at 8:30 Saturday evenings on CBS opposite Lawrence Welk and the short lived Dennis Weaver / Harry Morgan comedy-drama Kentucky Jones. (Preceding Kentucky Jones those evenings was the Adventures of Mr. Magoo who was voiced by Gilligan's cast member Jim Backus.) It was the 9th highest rated sitcom that season behind Bewitched, Gomer Pyle, Andy Griffith, Dick Van Dyke, The Lucy Show, The Beverly Hillbillies, My Three Sons and Petticoat Junction.
It's second season, 1965-1966, found it aired on Thursday evenings at 8 opposite The Donna Reed Show and Daniel Boone. It was produced in color that season and was the 11th highest rated sitcom behind Gomer Pyle, The Lucy Show, Andy Griffith, The Beverly Hillbillies, Bewitched, Hogan's Heroes, Green Acres, My Three Suns, Get Smart, and the Dick Van Dyke Show.
It's third and final season found it moved once again, this time to Monday evenings at 7:30 opposite The Iron Horse and The Monkees. It was not rated in the top 12 sitcoms that season.
Apparently, Gilligan's Island was cancelled "last minute" just before the 4th season was about to go into production, when the president of the network and his wife wanted their favorite show moved to the Gilligan's time slot.
Gilligan's Island
Bewitched was a US sitcom that originally aired from September 1964 to March 1972. Starring Elizabeth Montgomery as a witch with supernatural powers that marries a mortal who wants her to also live as a mortal and not use her powers. Hmm..makes you kind of wonder, doesn't it? The show enjoyed success for the first 5 of its 8 seasons ranking as the #1 US sitcom and #2 overall during it's first season of 1964-1965. It was one of many escapist shows popular during that period. Mr. Ed, My Favorite Martian, My Living Doll, The Munsters, The Addams Family, Gilligan's Island, My Mother The Car, I Dream Of Jeannie are just some of the escapist comedy shows from the mid-60's. It dropped to 5th most popular comedy (tied with The Beverly Hillbillies) it's second season falling behind Gomer Pyle, The Lucy Show, Batman and Andy Griffith.
For Season 3 it remained tied with the Beverly Hillbillies and behind Andy Griffith, The Lucy Show and Green Acres.
Season 4 saw it drop to #6 comedy behind Andy Griffith, The Lucy Show, Gomer Pyle, Family Affair and the Beverly Hillbillies.
During these years, long before the age of home recording, it had a great advantage in that it had little competition in its time slot. During its first season it aired opposite the game show Password and the second half of Dr. Kildare. Its second season it aired opposite the CBS Thursday Night Movie and the second half of Laredo. For its third season CBS still ran the movie with the second half of NBC's Star Trek replacing Laredo. Keep in mind, Star Trek became a much more popular show in its afterlife than it ever was originally.
For its 4th season ABC ran a Thursday night lineup of Batman - The Flying Nun - Bewitched - That Girl - Peyton Place and Bewitched ran opposite the last 3rd of the 90 min. Cimmaron Strip and NBC had a new show in the slot - Ironside.
Anyway, after the 5th season Dick York left the show for health reasons, he was replaced by Dick Sargent, and the show carried on another 3 seasons but fell off the radar in terms of popularity.
In the late 60's the US was going through rapid change and that effected TV as well.
The first two seasons (Discs 1 - 5 minus 1 ep) were shot in black and white. The episodes on these discs are colorized, but if you're a purist and want the original black and white, that is not a problem.
Bewitched
