Hey, I Remember This Show: The Flying Nun

The original opening for the oddest sitcom I ever saw. The funny thing is that when I watched this show as a kid, it never occurred to me to question the logic of the show's premise. In fact, I remember being disappointed whenever Sally Field's character went a whole episode without flying.

Hey, I Remember This Show: M*A*S*H

In honor of the late Harry Morgan.

Hey, I Remember This Show: The Patty Duke Show

Given the type of things actress Patty Duke has said about her teenage years in her autobiography, it seems like a sick joke for me to have any fond memories of this show. But at least I still find the theme to be catchy. And if nothing else, this show's existence in my own childhood might explain my own obsession with female cousins and for that matter, the fact that I once fell head over heels for a woman named Cathy. Of course, if the Cathy in question had looked anything like Patty Duke, that would be strange, but fortunately, she didn't.

As for the real-life Patty Duke, I wish for her sake that life had been as pleasant for her off-screen as it seemed to be on-screen. But that was not to be.

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: Karen

From 1964, it's one of the last black-and-white TV sitcoms ever to be produced. Plus it's one of the few such sitcoms to have a theme song sung by the Beach Boys.

Despite all that and a young cast member who looks surprisingly like Lost in Space's Angela Cartwright, the show never did too good in syndication, which might explain why so few members of my generation have ever heard of it. Hopefully, someone back in the day liked it, right?

Hey, I Remember This Show: Taxi

In honor of the late Jeff Conaway.

Hey, I Remember This Show: Family Affair

A fifth season intro for the one Brian Keith TV show everyone remembers -- a show even more popular in its day than The Brian Keith Show (the latter being a 1970s sitcom remembered only by a few oldtimers like yours truly). There is a lot of things I could say about this show but since one of the cast members died young, perhaps the most charitable thing I could say is that this show was often watched in my household as I was growing up but not always fondly remembered. Perhaps that was because it would be eventually eclipsed by yet another TV show which featured a young female character named Buffy. Or perhaps because it was eventually replaced in my siblings' affections by another family sitcom: The Brady Bunch.

Hey, I Remember This Show: The Partridge Family

Remember when it was hip for even white people to have large families? Remember what most woman on TV who did not have a husband to go along with their children were either widowed or divorced? Remember when it was considered hip for even wild-eyed freaky hippie types to actually get married before they started having kids? Yeah, I know. I'm getting into Grandpa Simpson territory now...

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: How I Met Your Mother

Wait a minute. They based an entire TV show on a premise that should have lasted maybe ten to fifteen minutes, tops? Just how special was this mom?

Hey, I Remember This Show: Petticoat Junction

The original opening and closing credits from one of the most famous train-related sitcoms of all time. It says something about how young I was when I first saw this series that I never thought to ask what those three women were doing in the water tower until I was much, much older. And given that it was supposed to be a family show, it's just as well I never thought about it too much when I was younger. Though, for the record, it should be noted that the cast members in question have admitted in interviews that they were actually fully clothed during the filming of that famous intro. So shame on all of you who thought differently.

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: Greg the Bunny

Frankly, I'm not sure I want to remember this one even though some of its cast members are a lot more famous now. Definitely NSFW.

Hey, I Remember This Show: The Brady Bunch

A more successful version of the blended family theme than Accidental Family. In fact, this is probably one of the most famous sitcoms -- for better or worse -- of the 1970s. It does not hurt that its blended family theme seemed to anticipate the big divorce epidemic of the mid-1970s when divorce became more and more common in American society and a lot of real-life families had to learn how to blend like the Bradys. Not that the Bradys were a product of divorce. In fact, there seemed to be times on the original show when the writers forgot that both parents had been married before and that the father was a widower and the mother a widow. But maybe that was my imagination.

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: Accidental Family

No, Michael Medved fans, that title doesn't mean what you think it does. The family in this show is formed when widower Jerry Van Dyke ends up sharing his farm with his son, divorced mother Lois Nettleton and Nettleton's daughter. It seems quite conservative by today's standards though judging from its quick disappearance from prime time after the 1967-1968 season, it apparently wasn't conservative enough.

Hey, I Remember This Show: All in the Family

Based on one of the few British comedies to never turn up on PBS or BBC America, this sitcom was very easily one of the most politically controversial TV shows of the early 1970s, attracting strong criticism from both liberals and conservatives. So naturally it turned out to be the most racially and politically influential show of my generation. Call me shameless if you will, but I, for one, happen to think that was a good thing. Most people of my generation may not have grown up to be like Mike and Gloria Stivic but they generally considered themselves damned if they were going to be anything like lead character Archie Bunker.

Hey, I Remember This Show: Julia

It may be hard for some younger folks to believe this now in an era in which African-American women frequently play doctors and lawyers but this show was considered quite progressive in some quarters when it debuted back in 1968. (Then again, it was considered too apolitical in other quarters but that's a subject for another time.) In any event, this is the TV show which made actress Diahann Carroll a star and proved that TV shows which did not present African-Americans in stereotypical roles could be successful.

Then again my last girlfriend was a CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) so I tend to be biased in favor of shows like this.

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: The Beulah Show

The opening credits and a brief excerpt from The Beulah Show, one of the first sitcoms to star an African-American actress. Ethel Waters would play the title role from 1950 to 1951, only to later quit the role and be replaced, first by Hattie McDaniel and later by Louise Beavers. And yes, that is actress Butterfly McQueen from Gone with the Wind playing the role of Beulah's friend Oriole.

Hey, I Remember This Show: The Mary Tyler Moore Show

One would think a TV show set in Minnesota would have more winter scenes in its opening credits, but in this case, apparently not. Not that an acute lack of said scenes kept this show from having one of the most famous TV intros of the 1970s.

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: Good Morning, World

A year-long sitcom which is most famous today for being the first TV show Goldie Hawn did before she was "discovered" on Laugh-In. Oddly enough, the only other cast members who haven't faded long since into pop culture oblivion are Ronnie Schell -- who was more famous for his role as Duke Slater on Gomer Pyle -- and Billy De Wolfe -- who would become more famous for his work on The Doris Day Show.

If nothing else, the show is yet more proof that even in the days when everyone watched primetime TV, critically praised shows weren't always succesful.

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: The Second Hundred Years

And the award for oddest premise ever given to a 1967 sitcom goes to...

Hey, I Don't Remember This Show: Gloria

Speak of the devil...It's Burgess Meredith. And the mysteriously named Jo deWinter, whose name makes her sound like an Alfred Hitchcock character. Then, of course, there's poor Sally Struthers, struggling to make the best of what looks to have been one of the more forgettable spinoffs from the hit CBS sitcom All in the Family. Apparently this show didn't last long because I don't even remember hearing about it, much less watching an episode.

Hey, I Remember This Show: Leave It to Beaver

In honor of the late Barbara Billingley, it's the second season intro from the TV show for which she is most famous.