“Quincy, M.E.” ran from 1976 to 1983 on NBC. Jack Klugman starred as a crime-solving Los Angeles medical examiner. The hour-long series went into syndication and has continued to run. All seasons are available on DVD.
“Alice” is a sitcom that aired from 1976 to 1985 on CBS. It was based on the 1974 film “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.”
Linda Lavin played an unemployed widow with a son who moves from New Jersey to Los Angeles to pursue a singing career. Her car breaks down in Phoenix and she takes a job at a diner.
Reruns of the prime time series aired on CBS daytime from 1980 to 1982. In the fall of 1982, it was syndicated nationwide.
Digital sub-channels and a seemingly insatiable appetite for vintage television series are igniting an explosion of nostalgic programming that goes well beyond I Love Lucy.
To help fill the spinoff channels that major broadcasters created when television went digital in 2009, FremantleMedia North America has reached deep into its library of 40,000 hours of game shows dating back more than four decades and packaged it as Buzzr TV.
“The Bob Newhart Show” made it’s CBS debut on September 16, 1972. The sitcom ran until April 1, 1978. This 1980 ad touts the series’ syndication package. As of 2014, the show continues to air in syndication on the MeTV Network.
In the series, comedian Bob Newhart plays Dr. Bob Hartley, a Chicago psychologist. Suzanne Pleshette plays his wife, Emily. The sitcom splits its focus between Hartley’s home life and work life.
Newhart also starred in “Newhart,” another highly successful sitcom from 1982 to 1990. At the end of the series’ final episode, it’s revealed that the entire series had been a dream in Dr. Hartley’s mind.
According to marketing professors at the University of Arizona, watching repeats is not due to boredom or nostalgia. It’s way more complex. We watch reruns and shell out money for boxed sets because we know what we have seen, and how we will respond to it. Watching “I Love Lucy” 37 times is not the same experience, but 37 different experiences we measure ourselves against. We know what will happen, but how we respond to it emotionally and mentally changes each time.
My Third Parent 