Kate Mulgrew as Mrs. Columbo
The 1970s were a turning point for American television, a time when creators began pushing the limitations of content restrictions and established storytelling forms. Comedies like Saturday Night Live embraced edgier, more provocative humor, while dramas steadily grew in sophistication and maturity.
It was a decade that transformed the world of TV, producing countless classics that still resonate with audiences today. But even though many of those shows — Charlie's Angels, The Muppet Show, and Three's Company, to name a few — remain culturally relevant, there are many others that have since faded from popular memory. In their day, these shows drew huge audiences, topped Nielsen ratings, and ran for multiple seasons, so their disappearance from the cultural conversation isn’t necessarily a reflection of their quality; it’s just the unfortunate consequence of time’s inexorable march. So why not take a step back through the decades with us and rediscover these once-legendary gems? Read on to discover our handpicked selection of the greatest ‘70s shows that barely anyone remembers anymore. 1 ‘Mrs. Columbo’ Created by Richard Alan Simmons, Mrs. Columbo is a spin-off of the ever-popular crime series Columbo that focuses on Lt. Columbo’s wife, who is anonymous in the original series but known as Kate in the spin-off. Starring Kate Mulgrew in the titular role, Mrs. Columbo follows Kate, a news reporter with investigative skills, as she helps solve crimes while raising her daughter as a single mother. The series also stars Lili Haydn, Henry Jones, and Don Stroud in various roles, but it does not feature any cast members from Columbo. Despite being attached to a television hit like Columbo, Mrs. Columbo struggled with visibility and ratings. Even renaming the titular character and the series itself did not help the show succeed, and it was canceled after a short run of just 13 episodes, eventually becoming largely forgotten. But Mrs. Columbo will always remain a nostalgic piece of '70s television history, and it’s also remembered for Mulgrew, who later became much better known for her work on Star Trek: Voyager. 2 ‘Barnaby Jones’ A detective television series developed by Edward Hume and starring Buddy Ebsen as the titular protagonist, Barnaby Jones is a direct spin-off of Cannon, also developed by Hume. It follows the titular retired detective, who returns to work after his son’s death, reopening his private detective agency with his widowed daughter-in-law, Betty , and solving odd cases around Los Angeles. Later seasons focus on Betty and Barnaby’s cousin, J.R. Jones , handling most of the detective work. The show’s guest stars include several familiar and popular actors of the time, alongside newcomers who later became well-known, like Sean Penn, Ed Harris, Jonathan Banks, and Don Johnson. Running for eight seasons, Barnaby Jones was a CBS staple in its time, garnering popularity for its compelling mysteries and Ebsen’s portrayal of a dignified, mature detective. The series is noted for going beyond straightforward PI work and exploring more nuanced plot arcs of the main characters, like Barnaby and Betty’s shared grief and their evolving father-daughter dynamic. Unfortunately, Barnaby Jones never achieved the memorability of its rival shows like Columbo, Kojak, or Starsky & Hutch, and was quickly forgotten after its end. 3 ‘Adam-12’ Following the success of Dragnet, Jack Webb teamed up with Robert A. Cinader to create Adam-12, a police procedural drama series. The show explores the lives and work of Los Angeles Police Department police officers, following veteran officer Pete Malloy and his rookie partner, Jim Reed, as they cruise the streets of LA, keeping the city free of crime and criminals. Martin Milner and Kent McCord star as officers Malloy and Reed, respectively, with William Boyett, Gary Crosby, Jo Ann Pflug, and William Elliott in key roles, as well as real-life LAPD dispatcher Shaaron Claridge playing herself. Like Dragnet and other police dramas by Webb, Adam-12 was produced in cooperation with real LAPD officers, which helped make the series more realistic in its depiction of police procedures. While the narrative does include personal story arcs of Reed and Malloy, the crime drama remains mostly focused on hardcore police work, showcasing the department’s professionalism. Even though Adam-12 did not achieve the same level of success as its predecessor and has been largely forgotten, it garnered considerable popularity during its run and became a cultural touchstone alongside Dragnet and Emergency!Show Do You Belong In? Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn't write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for. 🤠Yellowstone 🛢️Landman 👑Tulsa King ⚖️Mayor of Kingstown FIND YOUR WORLD → QUESTION 1 / 10POWER 01 Where does your power come from? In Sheridan's world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind. ALand, legacy, and a name that's been feared and respected for generations. BKnowing the deal better than anyone else in the room — and being willing to walk away first. CReputation. I've earned it the hard way, and everyone in the room knows it. DBeing the only person both sides will talk to. That makes me indispensable — and dangerous. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 2 / 10LOYALTY 02 Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan's universe is always absolute — and always costly. AFamily — blood or chosen. The ranch, the name, the people who carry it with me. BThe company — or whoever's signing the cheques. Loyalty follows the contract. CMy crew. The men who stood with me when it counted — I don't abandon them for anything. DMy community — even when my community is a powder keg and I'm the only thing stopping it from blowing. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 3 / 10CONFLICT 03 Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it's crossed. AQuietly, decisively, and in a way that sends a message to everyone watching. BI outmanoeuvre them legally, financially, and politically before they even know I've moved. CDirectly. Old school. You cross me, you hear about it to your face — and then you deal with the consequences. DI absorb it, calculate the fallout, and find the move that keeps the whole system from collapsing. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 4 / 10SETTING 04 Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan's worlds are as much about place as they are about people. AWide open land — mountains, sky, silence. Somewhere you can see trouble coming from a mile away. BThe oil fields of West Texas — brutal, lucrative, and indifferent to whoever happens to be standing on top of them. CA mid-size city where the rules haven't quite caught up yet — fertile ground for someone with vision and nerve. DA rust-belt town built around a prison — where everyone's life is shaped by what's inside those walls. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 5 / 10MORALITY 05 How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt. AI do what has to be done to protect what's mine. I'll answer for it eventually — but not today. BGrey is just business. The line moves depending on what's at stake, and I move with it. CI have a code — it's not the law's code, but it's mine, and I don't break it. DI've made peace with it. Keeping the peace requires compromises most people don't have the stomach for. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 6 / 10AMBITION 06 What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they're defending. AA way of life that the modern world is doing everything it can to erase. BMy position — and the leverage that comes with being the person everyone needs to close a deal. CRelevance. I've been away, I've been written off — and I'm proving that was a mistake. DWhatever fragile order I've managed to build — because without it, everything burns. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 7 / 10LEADERSHIP 07 How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan's world is never given — it's established, maintained, and constantly tested. ABy example and force of will. People follow me because they believe in what I'm protecting — and because they know what happens if they don't. BThrough negotiation and leverage. I don't need people to like me — I need them to need me. CBy being the smartest, most experienced person in the room and making sure everyone quietly knows it. DBy being the calm centre of a situation that would spiral without me — and accepting that nobody thanks you for it. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 8 / 10OUTSIDERS 08 Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you. AThey'll learn. Or they won't. Either way, the land was here before them and it'll be here after. BI figure out what they want, what they're worth, and whether they're an asset or a problem — fast. CI was the outsider once. I give them a chance — one — to show they understand respect. DNew players destabilise everything I've built. I assess the threat and manage it before it manages me. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 9 / 10COST 09 What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal. AMy family's peace — maybe their innocence. The ranch demands everything, and I've let it take too much. BRelationships, time, any version of a normal life. The job eats everything that isn't nailed down. CYears. Decades in some cases. Time I can't get back — but I'm not done yet. DMy conscience, mostly. And the ability to ever fully trust anyone on either side of the wall. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 10 / 10LEGACY 10 When it's over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan's characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind. AThat I held the line. That the land is still ours and everything I did was worth it. BThat I was the best at what I did and that no deal ever got closed without me at the table. CThat I built something real, somewhere nobody expected it, and I did it on my own terms. DThat I kept the peace when nobody else could — and that the town is still standing because of it. REVEAL MY SHOW → Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In… The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you're complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes. 🤠 Yellowstone 🛢️ Landman 👑 Tulsa King ⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown YELLOWSTONE You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world's indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you're willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family's weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what's yours, you don't escalate — you finish it. You're not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone's world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn't make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it. LANDMAN You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You're a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they'll do to get it. You're not naive enough to think this world is fair. You're smart enough to be the one deciding who it's fair to. TULSA KING You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you're not above reminding people that the two aren't mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they'd be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they're more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don't need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land. MAYOR OF KINGSTOWN You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you're the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky's world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You've made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 4 ‘Space Academy’ Created by Allen Ducovny, Space Academy is a sci-fi adventure series about the titular academy located on an asteroid. Established in the"star year" 3732, the academy gathers the most brilliant young minds from across the galaxy to expand and hone their special skills and unique abilities. Space Academy stars several television veterans of its time, like Jonathan Harris of Lost in Space fame, alongside Pamelyn Wanda Ferdin, Ric Carrott, Maggie Cooper, Brian Tochi, Ty Henderson, and Eric Greene, with Erika Scheimer voicing the robot, Peepo. Even though Space Academy ran as a Saturday morning children’s TV show and was quite low-budget, it capitalized on the late 1970s sci-fi boom sparked by the success and popularity of Star Trek and Star Wars. For its time, it was a simple, family-friendly space adventure series with teen characters learning and delivering moral lessons, which attracted a sizable though niche audience. Even if it was easily forgotten over the years, Space Academy was quite popular during its run, appealing to kids and adults alike with its far-fetched intergalactic adventures and themes of diversity, teamwork, and moral growth. 5 ‘The Flip Wilson Show’ Created by and starring actor-comedian Flip Wilson, The Flip Wilson Show is an NBC variety series featuring Wilson playing a variety of characters doing comedy sketches, with celebrity guests and musical performances. One of the last successful variety shows of the '70s, it was noted for the recurring characters that Wilson created, such as the sassy Geraldine Jones and the materialistic Reverend Leroy. Some of the show’s guests include Leonard Nimoy and former NFL quarterback Joe Namath, as well as musicians like Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Aretha Franklin, The Jackson 5, and Stevie Wonder, among many others. The Flip Wilson Show broke new ground in American television, making Flip Wilson the first African American to host a successful weekly, hour-long variety series on network TV. The show won two Emmy Awards out of 18 nominations, with Wilson winning a Golden Globe Award. It was noted for pioneering diverse sketch-comedy formats featuring Black talent, blending musical performances with comedy, and its quirky recurring characters, all of which significantly inspired and paved the way for Saturday Night Live. Though forgotten today, the series was very successful during its run, becoming the nation’s most-watched show according to Nielsen’s ratings. 6 ‘The Streets of San Francisco’ Before he was known as an Oscar-winning actor-producer, Michael Douglas starred in his first major television role in this crime drama series that started as a pilot movie based on Carolyn Weston’s novel Poor, Poor Ophelia. Developed by Edward Hume, The Streets of San Francisco follows a homicide detective duo — veteran Mike and his younger, rookie partner Steve — as they solve complex cases in San Francisco, while navigating their contrasting working style and developing a father-son dynamic. The series features numerous guest stars, including popular contemporary faces and then-new actors who later became famous, like Mark Hamill and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Subscribe for deeper dives into forgotten '70s TV gems Curious for more TV archaeology? Subscribe to the newsletter to get curated rediscoveries of overlooked '70s shows, contextual deep dives, and handpicked recommendations that keep these vintage gems alive—perfect for nostalgia and TV history fans. Get Updates By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime. While the ABC crime drama series might be mostly forgotten today, during its original broadcast, it earned increased viewership with every season for five years, right until Douglas left the show in the final season and Richard Hatch replaced him as Mike’s new partner. The Streets of San Francisco became popular among fans mostly due to the terrific chemistry between Douglas and Malden, but also due to Douglas’s compelling performances in most episodes. The series also earned writer James J. Sweeney an Edgar Award for the Season 4 episode"Requiem for Murder." 7 ‘Here’s Lucy’ Created by Bob O'Brien and Milt Josefsberg, Here’s Lucy is an iconic CBS sitcom starring Lucille Ball, her third and final network sitcom that followed her success with I Love Lucy and The Lucy Show. Here’s Lucy stars Ball as Lucy Hinkley Carter, a widow working at an employment agency with her brother-in-law, Harry, and raising her two teenage children, Kim and Craig. The series stars Ball’s longtime comedy partner and co-star Gale Gordon as Harry, her real-life children Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr. as Kim and Craig, and Mary Jane Croft in a recurring role. Unlike most sitcoms of its time, which were shot on a closed set with added laugh tracks, Here’s Lucy is noted for being filmed with a live audience, an approach that was first popularized by I Love Lucy. The sitcom ran for six successful seasons, with consistently high ratings during its run, but was canceled after its ratings dropped in the fifth season. Even though Here’s Lucy never became as memorable and classic a sitcom as I Love Lucy, it cemented Lucille Ball’s star power on television, becoming an iconic show that influenced many comedy shows of subsequent years. Here's Lucy Like TV-PG Comedy Release Date 1968 - 1974-00-00 Network CBS Directors Herbert Kenwith, George Marshall, Jay Sandrich, Charles Walters, Danny Dayton, Jerry Paris, Ross Martin, Jack Carter Writers Seaman Jacobs, Al Schwartz, Phil Leslie, Bruce Shelly, David Ketchum, Bob Carroll Jr. Cast
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