The BEST shows of 1962
Every show that aired an episode in 1962, ranked
We've compiled the average episode rating for every TV show episode aired in 1962 to compile this list of best shows!
#1 - Tom and Jerry
This is all the Tom and Jerry shorts, from 1940 to 1967. The first 114 are from the Hanna-Barbera era (1940 – 1958), the next 13 are from the Gene Deitch era (1960 – 1962), and the last 34 are from the Chuck Jones era (1963 – 1967).
View Episode Rankings#2 - Leave It to Beaver
Leave It to Beaver is a 1950s and 1960s family-oriented American television situation comedy about an inquisitive but often naive boy named Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver and his adventures at home, in school, and around his suburban neighborhood. The show has attained an iconic status in the United States, with the Cleavers exemplifying the idealized suburban family of the mid-twentieth century. One of the first primetime sitcom series filmed from a child's point-of-view, the show was created by Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher, two radio and early television writers, who found inspiration for the show's characters, plots, and dialogue in the lives, experiences, and conversations of their own children. Like several television dramas and sitcoms of the late fifties and early sixties (Lassie and My Three Sons, for example), Leave It to Beaver is a glimpse at middle-class, American boyhood. A typical episode features Beaver getting into some sort of trouble and facing his parents for reprimand and correction.
View Episode Rankings#3 - The Saint
Simon Templar is The Saint - adored by women, feared by his adversaries and a constant thorn in the side of police forces everywhere. A smooth-talking adventurer, the Saint goes in where angels fear to tread. Always where the action is, he courts danger with a smile, but his charm can sometimes be a lethal weapon. The Saint is always on a mission of mercy or intrigue, with a beautiful woman close at hand. He's Sir Lancelot without armor. A formidable enemy, an unwavering friend.
View Episode Rankings#4 - Have Gun, Will Travel
Professional gunfighter Paladin was a West Point graduate who, after the Civil War, settled into San Francisco's Hotel Carlton were he awaited responses to his business card: over the picture of a chess knight "Have Gun – Will Travel ... Wire Paladin San Francisco."
View Episode Rankings#5 - The Lucy Show
After a five season run on I Love Lucy, Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance return to the small screen in The Lucy Show. This time they play a pair of widows, Lucy Carmichael and Vivian Bagley, living together as best friends with their children Chris and Jerry Carmichael and Jerry Bagley in Danfield, N.Y.
View Episode Rankings#6 - The Beverly Hillbillies
The Beverly Hillbillies is among the most successful comedies in American television history, and remains one of the few sitcoms to involve serial plotlines. It centered around Jed Clampett, a simple backwoods mountaineer who becomes a millionaire when oil is discovered on his property and then moves his family to Beverly Hills. The fish-out-of-water farce ran for nine seasons.
View Episode Rankings#7 - Combat!
This WWII show centered on the lives of the men from King Company. For 5 1/2 years the men of King Co. faced the enemy starting with the landing on Omaha Beach-D Day June 6, 1944. You see how they evolved from a squad of men to a family.
View Episode Rankings#8 - The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
A continuation of the dramatic anthology series hosted by the master of suspense and mystery. When the series "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" was revived in 1962, the name was changed but the format stayed fairly true to the original. In each episode, viewers would be strung along with the story, never knowing which way the final twist would turn.
View Episode Rankings#9 - Rawhide
Gil Favor is trail boss of a continuous cattle drive; he is assisted by Rowdy Yates. The crew runs into characters and adventures along the way. Rawhide was a television western series that aired on the U.S. network CBS from 1959 to 1966. The show starred Eric Fleming and launched the career of Clint Eastwood. The series ran for eight seasons on the CBS network from January 9, 1959 to January 4, 1966, with a total of 217 episodes, all filmed and broadcast in black and white. Rawhide was the fourth longest-running American TV western.
View Episode Rankings#10 - The Flintstones
The Flintstones is about a modern stone-age family, set in the prehistoric times. There's Fred, the meat-loving, bowling-playing fat man, Wilma, his wife who loves to cook and Pebbles, their cute baby daughter. Their next door neighbors are Barney, Fred's best friend, Betty, Barney's wife who always loves to hang out with Wilma, and their baby son Bamm-Bamm who is incredibly strong. The two families risk prehistoric danger or wild antics as they struggle to live normal lives.
View Episode Rankings#11 - Wagon Train
Wagon Train followed the trials and tribulations of pioneering families as they set out from the East to carve out a new life in the West soon after the American Civil War. For some of the travelers it was a happy ending, but not for all, which only heightened the drama along the way.
View Episode Rankings#12 - The Avengers
"Always keep your bowler on in time of stress, and watch out for diabolical masterminds." [Mrs Peel] The Avengers is one of the most popular and beloved television series of all time. Its outrageous blend of wit and style and its unique mix of the fantasy and spy genres, coupled with the marvellous characters of John Steed and Emma Peel make it one of television's great classics.
View Episode Rankings#13 - The Jetsons
The Jetsons is an animated sitcom that was produced by Hanna-Barbera. It was Hanna-Barbera’s Space Age counterpart to The Flintstones, a half-hour family sitcom projecting contemporary American culture and lifestyle into another time period. The Jetsons live in a futuristic utopia in the year 2062 of elaborate robotic contraptions, aliens, holograms, and whimsical inventions.
View Episode Rankings#14 - Perry Mason
There are few actors so closely tied to a persona than Raymond Burr as Perry Mason. This long-running series was built upon Erle Stanley Gardner´s many novels about a brilliant defense lawyer and his staff, that solved many a crime with surprise witnesses and stern cross-examinations.It was the first mystery series to feature chalk or tape outlines to mark the spots where bodies were found. Filmed almost exclusively in the Los Angeles area, Raymond Burr had Gardner's seal of approval in the role. The cases were usually won by way of pivotal confessions of witnesses, solicited by Perry Mason (Burr's) surgeon-like examination or with last-minute, key evidence brought into the courtroom by private investigator, Paul Drake (William Hopper). Della Street (Barbara Hale), Perry´s faithful secretary, was always at Perry's side in the courtroom where hapless Hamilton Burger (William Tallman) was the Los Angeles District Attorney who never seemed to win. As to the myth that Perry Mason never lost, there were 2 episodes where it did occur... but you'll have to watch to find out.The show was revived in 1973-74, with other actors in the familiar roles (Monte Markham as Mason), and then again with the some of the original cast, in a string of feature length TV films from 1985 until Raymond Burr´s death in 1993.
View Episode Rankings#15 - The Rifleman
Widower Lucas McCain can fire a round with his specially modified Winchester in three-tenths of a second. Added to his high moral code and resolve enable him to help Marshal Micah Torrance maintain order in town while raising his son, Mark, on a ranch near North Fork, New Mexico.
View Episode Rankings#16 - The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone was a popular American anthology series. The series was a collection of various tales that range from the tragic to the comedic. They may be scary or just thought-provoking. Most episodes have unexpected endings and a moral lesson. But, no matter what, it's "a journey into a wondrous land, whose boundaries are that of the imagination."
View Episode Rankings#17 - Gunsmoke
Marshal Matt Dillon keeps the peace in the rough and tumble Dodge City.
View Episode Rankings#18 - Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955-1962) was a mystery and suspense anthology hosted by the master of suspense himself - Alfred Hitchcock. Each episode stands alone, delving into horror, comedy, suspense, and the supernatural.
View Episode Rankings#19 - Bonanza
The show chronicles the weekly adventures of the Cartwright family, headed by the thrice-widowed patriarch Ben Cartwright. He had three sons, each by a different wife: the eldest was the urbane architect Adam who built the ranch house; the second was the warm and lovable giant Eric "Hoss"; and the youngest was the hotheaded and impetuous Joseph or "Little Joe". Via exposition and flashback episodes and each wife was accorded a different ethnicity. The family's cook was the Chinese immigrant Hop Sing.
View Episode Rankings#20 - The Dick Van Dyke Show
Considered to be one of television's classics, "The Dick Van Dyke Show" centers on the personal and professional lives of Rob Petrie, a writer for the fictional "Alan Brady Show". The non-stop laughs revolved around Rob's relationships with with fellow writers Buddy Sorrell and Sally Rogers, and producer Mel Cooley. At home, we also got to chuckle (and sometimes cry) over Rob's antics involving his wife, son, and neighbors.
View Episode Rankings#21 - The Andy Griffith Show
Down-home humor and an endearing cast of characters helped make The Andy Griffith Show one of the most beloved comedies in the history of TV. The show centered around widower Andy Taylor, who divided his time between raising his young son Opie, and his job as sheriff of the sleepy North Carolina town, Mayberry. Andy and Opie live with Andy's Aunt Bee, who serves as a surrogate mother to both father and son. Andy's nervous cousin, Barney Fife, is his deputy sheriff whose incompetence is tolerated because Mayberry is virtually crime-free.
View Episode Rankings#22 - The Virginian
The Virginian was the very first 90 minute western on prime-time television, and is about a man, only known as "the Virginian" who served as foreman on the Shiloh Ranch (owned in sequence by Judge Garth, the Grainger brothers, and Col. MacKenzie) in 19th century Medicine Bow, Wyoming. James Drury starred as the title character with the likes of Doug McClure, Lee J. Cobb, John McIntire, and Clu Gulager co-starring. It is in these settings that a variety of stories, much more based on character and relationships than the usual westerns, take place.
View Episode Rankings#23 - My Three Sons
Widower Steve Douglas raises three sons with the help of his father-in-law, and is later aided by the boys' great-uncle. An adopted son, a stepdaughter, wives, and another generation of sons join the loving family in later seasons.
View Episode Rankings#25 - Coronation Street
Follows the lives of the residents of the fictional Coronation Street, located in Greater Manchester, which is made up mainly of working-class people.
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