A lively discussion ensued Wednesday on a national radio show, all centered around the question “What is your all-time favorite television show?” It’s one of those questions that, given a moment, will spark some thought from almost anyone.
Since I was on my 35-minute commute to Laurinburg, it gave me time to let the question marinate.
The discussion literally spanned the course of 70 years of television shows and probably covered almost every type — westerns, cartoons, sci-fi, sit-coms, game shows and even sports.
As the discussion continued, callers to the radio station gave their choices for the one television show that, above all others, they would have to make time for.
One was a “Tom & Jerry” fan, while another was all about “The Carol Burnett Show” and another claimed that “I Love Lucy” was their favorite.
There was a caller who said “This Week in Baseball” with Mel Allen was their go-to every Saturday no matter what else was going on, and another said “The Sports Reporters” on ESPN used to be his only TV must.
Of course, there were also callers who really enjoyed the old westerns like “Gunsmoke” and “The Rifleman.”
But it was sit-coms that seemed to attract the most interest — and there have been many over the decades. Quite a few callers tabbed “The Andy Griffith Show” as a fav.
My grandparents would format their evenings around “The Wheel of Fortune” and the “Golden Girls.” Whenever I happened to be visiting and dinner time would roll around, things became very serious in order to time the cooking, serving and eating — dessert included — so that it was all finished by the time that hour of television came around.
My parents weren’t big television watchers, though my mom would carve out enough time in her weekdays to watch “As the World Turns.” If my dad watched television, it was generally sit-coms or the news. He was a big Walter Cronkite fan.
When I was just a little guy, my Saturday morning favorites were “Mighty Mouse” and “The Road Runner” cartoons. As I got older, I started to watch shows like “My Favorite Martian,” “Lost in Space” and “Batman.” As I got into my teen years, the old westerns like “Bonanza” and “Wagon Train” took over.
During high school and college, television for me was relegated to just three things — sports was the most prominent, usually baseball. In college, I somehow fell into a group of guys who gathered every day to watch “The Guiding Light.” Don’t ask me why. I think it was because the character “Cricket” was simply beautiful and we all lived vicariously through the character named “Paul.”
Wow, hadn’t thought about that in 30 years.
The third television show that took hold of me in high school and never let go, even to this day, is “All in the Family.”
Over the past 20 years or so, three television shows have put their hooks in me: “The Big Bang Theory,” which was filled with witty, intelligent humor (but is sadly ending next week), “Survivor,” which offered strategy filled and thought-provoking opportunity (and I’ve never missed a single episode in 38 seasons); and “Last Man Standing,” which comes as close to my all-time favorite any sit-com has — but none of these shows can hold a candle to my all-time fav.
The early to late 1970s were a crucial time for things like race relations, women’s independence and other social issues. “All in the Family” took them all on, and did it both humorously and head on. The show honestly helped shape my outlook on important social issues. I’m still amazed it was allowed to get away with some of the things it did back then.
While I could point out numerous highlights from the show that have stuck with me, the real highlight came in the early 1990s while I was living in Monroe, Georgia. Carroll O’Conner (Archie Bunker in “All in the Family”) was a short distance away in Social Circle, Georgia, filming an episode of “In the Heat of the Night,” a small-town police show. I had the chance to meet and ask O’Conner a couple of questions and, though he wasn’t keen on talking about “All in the Family” by then, he did say “it was the role of a lifetime and he made some lifelong friends.”
Despite watching some episodes of “In the Heat of the Night” — mostly because O’Conner was in it and it was being filmed close to me in Georgia — I still couldn’t separate O’Conner from his role as Archie. Still can’t.
For those and other reasons, it’s always going to be my No. 1 — and every so often, I can catch it on either TVLand or MeTV.
W. Curt Vincent can be reached at 910-506-3023 or [email protected].