Favorite Black and White Television Show?

[Ptah]

33 votes, 1 pass | Time left: Unlimited
	Perry mason
	3 (9%)
	Flinstones
	2 (6%)
	Dragnet
	0 (0%)
	The Dick Van Dyke Show
	5 (15%)
	The Andy Griffith Show
	7 (21%)
	Twilight Zone
	15 (45%)
	Leave It To Beaver
	0 (0%)
	My Favorite Martian
	1 (3%)
	1 DU member did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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[Efilroft Sul]

1. The Jeffersons

[Buckeye_Democrat]

30. Black and white characters! I get it!

My family loved The Jeffersons when I was a kid! My poor mother had to deal with a mother-in-law who behaved just like Mother Jefferson! My father was her spoiled only child, but he actually couldn't stand to be around her. So my mother would be the one who'd try to help her, and she'd typically get rewarded with insults for doing it.

My mother grew up very poor on a small farm, describing how she went to bed hungry many times as a young girl during the Great Depression. Meanwhile, my father grew up on a 3000-acre farm about 12 miles away. (No, it was never a slave plantation.) Dad could've inherited all of that land, being an only-child, but he didn't want to manage a bunch of hired-help to work the land. So his parents finally gave up on it, selling it for "pennies on the dollar" according to Mom. Then the mother-in-law (my paternal grandmother) later spent most of the money like she was a baroness.

EDIT: I researched my family tree years ago. It was pretty easy in my case because all of my ancestors moved from the Northeastern USA to a farming community in the Midwest after the Revolutionary War, and they all remained there until my parents finally moved away. Anyway, land records showed that my paternal grandparents' large farm was slowly acquired by my paternal great-great-great grandfather when he was a young man. Then he finally got married at age 52... to a woman who was only 24! He later outlived her by a few years too, since she died in her 50's.

[Efilroft Sul]

31. That's a really fascinating story, Buckeye_Democrat!

Thanks for sharing that, and thanks for getting my silly attempt at humor, too!

[Buckeye_Democrat]

32. Thanks.

My paternal grandmother was a white woman, but she dressed and behaved almost exactly like Mother Jefferson! (Especially around my Mom.)

EDIT: Except my grandmother would mispronounce words sometimes, like she'd call a tower a "towa". My older brother used to jokingly say she talked like a Bostonian sometimes. And what did I find out from my genealogical research? Her distant ancestors came from Boston!

Her ancestors were very poor too, like my mother's, but she became high and mighty after marrying my paternal grandfather!

My Dad cried when his mother died, which honestly surprised me because he acted like he detested her when she was alive. He didn't like her pompous attitude, and my grandfather seemingly just tolerated it.

[multigraincracker]

2. Sky King.

[OAITW r.2.0]

7. Loved that show!

In a Bonanza aircraft,,,,always cool.

[Brother Buzz]

25. I liked the Cessna T-50 better

The first Songbird was this 1943 Cessna T-50



Good trivia question: What branch of the service was Sky King in?

[Mike Nelson]

3. I Love Lucy

... didn't know The Flintstones was ever B&W. I think I Love Lucy is the best B&W show...

[FoxNewsSucks]

5. Lucy may have been "best show ever"

I watched nearly all of them when I was a kid, and last month started watching the B&W Lucy Show on Hulu.

[LisaM]

11. I think the old Flintstones were black and white.

I chose "pass" because there are no women listed! (Yes, there are women characters in some of them). There are lots of good shows with women as the lead. Our Miss Brooks, Donna Reed, Hazel, Ann Southern, early Bewitched, and of course Lucy!!

[House of Roberts]

4. The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp.

Have Gun, Will Travel is a close second.

[Squeaky41]

6. B&W Favorite

Life with Elizabeth

[SlimJimmy]

8. Not on the list but I liked the Addams family.

[Tactical Peek]

9. Johnny Jupiter

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Jupiter



And

You'll Never Get Rich/The Phil Silvers Show.

?itok=MPiUM49b

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phil_Silvers_Show

[Floyd R. Turbo]

10. They were all black and white!

We never had a color tv!

[sorcrow]

12. Mr. Ed

Of course.

Regards,
Sorghum Crow

[Mister Ed]

22. Thank you. n/t

[UTUSN]

14. Zorro or Lone Ranger - adding Twilight Zone

[mitch96]

15. My Fav was Groucho Marx show "You bet your life".. It was classic live TV back in the 1950's

My Mom and I would watch it.. She would laugh and I was the clueless little kid...

[LakeArenal]

17. The Buccaneers, Robin Hood, Zorro.

[brush]

18. "Maverick" with James Garner.

[Different Drummer]

36. Loved that one!

MeTV shows reruns of it every Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. and I always watch those.

[brush]

37. He was one of my favorites. The "Rockford Files" was also excellent.

James Garner was also a Democrat. I saved this photo of him during the March on Washington marching holding hands with Dianne Carroll.

[Different Drummer]

42. Loved "The Rockford Files" as well!

James Garner and Frank Gorshin were my two favorite small screen actors.

[Clash City Rocker]

19. The only one I might nominate is the Fugitive

Although the last season of that show were in color.

I chose the Dick Van Dyke show, which I still consider to be the best sitcom ever. But I can respect those who chose the Twilight Zone. I’m still a little amazed that a show like that ran on network TV.

[Meadowoak]

20. The Munsters.

[First Speaker]

21. Twilight Zone, tied with Alfred Hitchcock Presents...

...both had a wonder noirish feel to them...

[Skittles]

23. back in the day, it was Lost in Space

[MiniMe]

24. I was going to say Star Trek because we were late to the color TV "fad"

But it wasn't an option. I remember going over to a friends house and we watched Star Trek in color, and I was amazed.

[ForgedCrank]

26. Twilight Zone

was pretty good, but my all time favorite was one called The Outer Limits.
I loved that show when I was a little kid

[yorkster]

27. Trying to remember 50s show with an observatory.

Seems like it from about the tv era as Sky King...

[yorkster]

33. Captain Midnight

That came back to me as I was drifting off to sleep last night.

[Not Heidi]

28. Hazel

I loved that character.

[Raine]

29. Father Knows Best 🥰 nt

[lpbk2713]

34. Route 66.

Never missed an episode. A lot of future stars appeared on that show.

[Paladin]

43. I watched some "Route 66" shows a few years ago.

The main thing I noticed: How freaking somber the shows were, much more so than what I remembered from watching them originally, as a kid. Must have really had an impact, during the series' 1960-1964 run.

Biggest remembrance: the show set in Austin TX---it was the one where the dark-haired actor (Maharis) loses his sight from a construction accident. I grew up in Austin, and I believe the whole damn town tuned in for that episode. Loss of sight was a popular gimmick in shows back then; as in all the other shows, Maharis regained his sight before the end credits rolled.

[Paladin]

35. Gotta be honest and go with "Twilight Zone."

But honesty makes me admit that "Dragnet" was very tempting. Me and a bunch of old school friends are long-time Joe Friday connoisseurs...

[brush]

38. Your mention of "Dragnet" and Joe Friday made me...

Broderick Crawford in "Highway Patrol."

[Paladin]

39. Bullseye!

As it happens, Broderick Crawford is the other object of our old TV show worship. Always fun to catch a "Highway Patrol" episode (at around 4:30 AM) and try to see how many (if any) of Crawford's words are remotely intelligible.

Our children and grandchildren just don't know what they're missing...

[Conjuay]

40. All

our TV shows were in monochrome, even “The Wonderful World of Color”.

[malthaussen]

41. Probably "Combat!" although it was in color its last season.

Didn't watch "Twilight Zone" much, I was very unhip when I was six.

-- Mal

[bikebloke]

44. The Fugitive

Tied with The Twilight Zone.

[ificandream]

45. I love The Fugitive too. And Highway Patrol.

The final two episodes of The Fugitive were a little disappointing but overall this was a great show.

[Not Heidi]

46. Hazel.

Followed closely by Andy Griffith. I loved Barney Fife . . . always armed - with a single bullet in his shirt pocket. He was an endearing character.

But not as much as Shirley Booth's Hazel. I loved her. I was a kid, but I remember her and I loved her.

Edit: she was the recipient of three Tonys, two Emmys, and an Oscar. Despite being the star of a banal (I hate to use that word) sitcom, she was a serious and talented actress.