The Electric Company (1971-77) This public TV kids show focused on language, grammar and spelling, being something of a nexts step up from Sesame Street. I watched it some at home, but it was also appointment viewing for the whole of my second grade class. It served as an early showcase for the talent of Morgan Freeman, and Rita Moreno, who had already made a pretty big name for herself, was a regular cast member, too. Did you ever watch any particular TV shows in school for schooling purposes?

Petticoat Junction (1963-70) This sitcom was unique in that it shared settings and characters with a couple of other, probably better-remembered shows: The Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres. It was neither audacious--though perhaps as critically reviled--as the former nor strangely paranoid as the latter, but it was still plenty funny, though arguably the underdog of the three series. Like its sister programs, country music & comedy revue Hee Haw and maybe other shows at the dawn of the 1970's, it was purged from the CBS network schedule in its banishment of rural-themed programming to make more room for purportedly socially conscious fare such as All In The Family (NOT a fair trade-off in my estimation). Anyway, do you ever root for underdogs?

The Bill Cosby Show (1969-71) After Cosby's run on the detective show I Spy but before a short-lived variety show and the longer-lived Fat Albert And The Cosby Kids cartoon series, he starred as a high school teacher/coach in this sitcom that, uniquely for its time, was filmed without studio audience nor laugh track. The show's theme tune, composed by Quincy Jones with vocals by Cosby, was likely the funkiest music I'd probably knowingly heard before I entered grade school. Cosby would turn out to be a monstrous sex criminal in later years, but I don't think it's necessary to throw out his worthwhile entertanment because he turned out to be a horrible person in other regards. Are you similarly able to seperate a performer's personality--and criminal history--from his or her artistry?

Makin' It (1979) I've not seen the movie Saturday Night Fever, but from what I've read, it seems pretty depressing. However, that flick's setting--discotheque culture as experienced by single, heterosexual Italian-Americans in New Jersey--was transferred to the background for a situation comedy that didn't last long as a TV series as its theme song did on the US pop singles and disco play charts. The show's producers may have thought having Ellen Travolta, sister of Sat. Night Fever star John Travolta, in its cast as a coup; but the main star and singer of its theme is David Naugton, whose highest-profile work before this show was as the Dr Pepper pitchman who encouraged soda drinkers to "be a Pepper." Can you think of anyone else who has starred in any commercials and went on to greater success?

The Ugliest Girl In Town (1968-69) It was the era of fashion models with almost boyish figures, like Twiggy. So, why not exploit that zeitgeist with a sitcom about a man who dressed up as a hippie for his brother's photo shoot, gets mistaken for a woman in those pictures by an English modeling agency exec, and flies to London to become a fashionista sensation as he dons drag to "become" a gal named Timmie? Theres a bit more to the series' premise, but suffice it to say that 1)only 17 of the 20 filmed episodes have ever been aired (at least seven may be seen in full on YouTube), and 2)hopes were high enough for ithe show'ssuccess that a record of its theme was issued commercially. Per Wikpedia, the program was named the 18th worst ever TV series of among 50 listed in a 2002 TV Guide poll. However good or not it may be, do you think a show such as this could run on broadcast TV, a cable channel and/or a streaming service nowadays?