This week, instead of looking back at a single year’s top shows, I thought it would be interesting to look at the waxing and waning of the different networks and their competition over the past 48 years and try to characterize the different eras of US network television.

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1960: John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon debate live in the first Presidential debates to be broadcast on television. It’s also the first year that television is broadcast in New Zealand.

Notable TV premieres of the year: My Three Sons (ABC), The Flintstones (ABC), and The Andy Griffith Show (CBS). Notable TV finales of the year: Howdy Doody.

Top 20 Prime Time Broadcast Programs, October 1959 – April 1960:

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1987: The Fox TV Network makes its prime-time debut.

Notable TV premieres of the year: Married With Children… (Fox), Full House (ABC), A Different World (NBC), and thirtysomething (ABC). Notable TV finales of the year: The A-Team (1983-87), Remington Steele (1982-87), Fame (1982-87), and Hill Street Blues (1981-87).

Top 20 Prime Time Broadcast Programs, September 1986- April 1987:

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1967: The inagural Super Bowl is telecast on both CBS and NBC. The Rolling Stones appear on The Ed Sullivan Show.

In an event that predates the birth of most Jericho fans, as well as their 21st century escapades: the long-running western Gunsmoke is renewed for the fall 1967 season, after widespread viewer protest. After CBS planned to cancel the aging Saturday-night series, outcry as far up as the United States Congress led the network to move Gunsmoke to the early evening on Mondays. To make room,Gilligan’s Island, which had been renewed for next season, is canceled.

Notable TV premieres of the year: The Flying Nun (ABC), The Carol Burnett Show (CBS), Mannix (CBS), Ironside (NBC). Notable TV finales of the year: What’s My Line?, and Gilligan’s Island.

Top 20 Prime Time Broadcast Programs, October 1966-April 1967:

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1997: The Simpsons passes The Flintstones as the longest running prime-time animated series. Bryant Gumbel leaves the Today Show.

Notable TV premieres of the year: South Park (Comedy Central), King of the Hill (Fox), Just Shoot Me! (NBC), Buffy The Vampire Slayer (WB), Ally McBeal (Fox). Notable TV finales of the year: Married…With Children, Martin, Coach, and Rosanne.

Top 20 Prime Time Broadcast Programs, September 1996-May 1997:

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1962: Walter Cronkite becomes the anchor of The CBS Evening News. Johnny Carson takes over as the host of The Tonight Show. The Rose Bowl is the first coast to coast color television broadcast of a college football game. Notable TV premieres of the year: The Jetsons (ABC), The Beverly Hillbillies (CBS), and The Lucy Show (CBS). Notable TV finales of the year: Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

And these were the top 20 shows of 1961-62.

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2002, The first season of American Idol in the US. Other Notable TV premieres of the year: The Bachelor (ABC), Monk (USA), CSI:MIami (CBS), Without A Trace (CBS), Around The Horn (ESPN). Notable TV finales of the year: The X-Files, Ally McBeal, and Spin City. Fox News Channel overtook CNN as the #1 cable news network in the US. General Hospital airs its 10,000th episode.

Considering how far back in TV history we’ve looked so far, what surprised me most about 2002’s top 20 list wasn’t how much things had stayed the same, but how much they’d changed in just 6 years.
Top 20 Prime Time Broadcast Programs, September 2001-May 2002:

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1972, HBO was launched. Notable TV premieres of the year: Sanford & Son (NBC), Emergency! (NBC), Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids (CBS), The Bob Newhart Show (CBS), M*A*S*H (CBS), Kung Fu (ABC), The Waltons (CBS), and Maude (CBS). It’s the year that TV Guide stops using a “C” to denote color programs and begins using a “BW” to denote black & white programs.

Top 20 Prime Time Broadcast Programs, October 1971-April 1972:

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