The BEST shows of 1979
Every show that aired an episode in 1979, ranked
We've compiled the average episode rating for every TV show episode aired in 1979 to compile this list of best shows!
#1 - Knots Landing
Hoping to ride the crest of its success with Dallas, CBS spun off this series featuring the black sheep of the Ewing Family, Gary Ewing. Gary was a weakened reformed alcoholic who had deserted his wife Valene Ewing, and then remarried her and moved to Southern California to escape the formidable nature of life with the Ewings in Dallas. All the equals in this series lived on the same cul-de-sac in the quiet little community of Knots Landing. In addition to being neighbors, their lives intertwined in other ways. Gary worked for Sid Fairgate, owner of Knots Landing Motors, the local classic car dealership. Sid and his wife Karen Fairgate had three teenage children: Eric Fairgate, Michael Fairgate, and Diana Fairgate. The other two couples on the cul-de-sac were young recording executive Kenny Ward and his attractive wife, Ginger, and Richard and Laura Avery.
View Episode Rankings#3 - Mobile Suit Gundam
September through December in the year Universal Century 0079 the Principality of Zeon invents a gigantic human-shaped weapon called the Mobile Suit and begins its war for independence against the Earth Federation. Amuro Ray becomes the pilot of Gundam, a prototype developed by Federation Force. Through his battles against the ace pilot of Zeon, Char Aznable, and the bitter trials of the war, he becomes aware of his uniqueness as a NewType...
View Episode Rankings#4 - Mind Your Language
Set in a London College Of Further Education the series focused on the activities of the Evening Classes, in particular – English as a Foreign Language, as taught by Mr Jeremy Brown whose class was a motley crew of foreigners, most of who could barely speak English. The comedy comes from the students inability to grasp the basic command of English. This leads to misunderstanding of words and terms causing all manner of disagreements and cultural differences.
View Episode Rankings#5 - Fawlty Towers
Hotel owner Basil Fawlty's incompetence, short fuse, and arrogance form a combination that ensures accidents and trouble are never far away.
View Episode Rankings#6 - Last of the Summer Wine
Last of the Summer Wine is an affectionate comedy about people in the autumn of their years. The series is the world's longest-running sitcom, having clocked up 31 series and numerous Christmas specials during its run.
View Episode Rankings#7 - Emergency!
Emergency! is a reality-based show that takes a good look at what goes on in the daily lives of the fire department and hospital work, and everyday life-and-happenings. The series focuses on two locations: LA Fire Station 51 with paramedics John Gage and Roy DeSoto, and Rampart General Hospital with Doctors Kelly Brackett and Joe Early and Nurse Dixie McCall. Another work of Jack Webb's Mark VII Limited, the show was based on the paramedic program that started in Los Angeles, California in 1969. Produced in cooperation with the Los Angeles County Fire Department and Department of Hospitals, it is well-regarded for its realism. Senator Alan Cranston actually praised the show for informing the public about the value of funding such programs!
View Episode Rankings#8 - The Muppet Show
The Muppet Show is a British-American television program produced by puppeteer Jim Henson and featuring Muppets. After two pilot episodes were produced in 1974 and 1975, the show premiered on September 5, 1976, and five series were produced until March 15, 1981, lasting 120 episodes. The program shows a vaudeville- or music hall-style song-and-dance variety show, as well as glimpses behind the scenes of such a show. Kermit the Frog stars as a showrunner who tries to keep control of the antics of the other Muppet characters (and his temper), as well as keep the guest stars happy. The show was known for outrageous physical slapstick, sometimes absurdist comedy, and humorous parodies. Each episode also featured a human guest star. As the show's popularity rose, many celebrities were eager to perform with the Muppets on television and in film.
View Episode Rankings#9 - The Waltons
In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, during the Great Depression, the Walton family makes its small income from its saw mill on Walton's Mountain. The story is told through the eyes of John Boy, who wants to be a novelist and go to college. The saga follows the family through depression and war, through growing up, school, courtship, marriage, employment, birth, aging, illness and death.
View Episode Rankings#10 - Are You Being Served?
This comedy series, which follows the exploits of employees at London's fictional "Grace Brothers" department store, is full of sexual innuendo, slapstick, visual gags, and double entendres. Much of the show's humor parodies Britain's class system, and many of the show's characters are based on stereotypes of the period, including the effeminate Mr. Humphries and the rich, but stingy, store owner.
View Episode Rankings#11 - Three's Company
A man pretends to be gay in order to share an apartment with two women in this legendary bedroom farce.
View Episode Rankings#12 - Taxi
Taxi's success was due to its excellent writing, Burrows's award-winning directing using his innovative four-camera technique, and its largely unknown but talented cast. Danny DeVito's Louie DePalma soon became one of the most despised men on television--possibly the most unredeemable and worthless louse of a character ever to reside on the small screen. Andy Kaufman's foreign mechanic Latka Gravas provided over-the-top comedy within an ensemble emphasizing subtle character humor.
View Episode Rankings#13 - The Dukes of Hazzard
Cousins Bo and Luke Duke and their car "General Lee", assisted by Cousin Daisy and Uncle Jesse, have a running battle with the authorities of Hazzard County (Boss Hogg and Sheriff Coltrane), plus a string of ne'er-do-wells often backed by the scheming Hogg.
View Episode Rankings#14 - All Creatures Great and Small
In the mid-1930s James Herriot, who recently graduated from the veterinary college in Glasgow, finds work in the rustic Yorkshire Dales of Northern England. This heartwarming drama chronicles his encounters with the locals and the animals they depend on. Based on the semi-autobiographical novels of James Alfred Wight, OBE, who wrote under the pseudonym James Herriot.
View Episode Rankings#15 - All in the Family
Legendary and controversial series focused on conservative working stiff Archie Bunker fighting the tide of social change and dealing with flighty wife Edith, daughter Gloria and left-leaning son-in-law Michael Stivic.
View Episode Rankings#16 - Barney Miller
Hal Linden stars in the title role as a NYPD captain in charge of a squad of oddball detectives and even stranger criminals.
View Episode Rankings#17 - Blake's 7
Seven very different individuals with one common connection: they are all escaped prisoners sentenced to live out the rest of their lives on Cygnus Alpha, a barren and sparsely populated prison planet far from Earth, by a corrupt totalitarian government known as the Terran Federation. Blake, a former resistance leader who had his memories suppressed by the Federation, must now try to hold together his assorted crew of criminals and others. They have control over a very powerful, but mysterious spaceship they call the Liberator. Together they try to bring down the corrupt and tyrannical Federation.
View Episode Rankings#18 - Good Times
The Evans family scratches and survives in their tough South Side Chicago ghetto. Esther Rolle and John Amos star as parents Florida and James, with "dyn-o-mite" breakout comedy star Jimmie Walker as J.J., the oldest of the three Evans children.
View Episode Rankings#19 - Saturday Night Live
Each week, a famous guest host appears in sketches and parodies alongside a roster of up-and-coming comedians. A popular musical guest, short films, and Weekend Update - a recurring satirical newscast - form the backbone of one of the most influential and culturally significant TV shows in history.
View Episode Rankings#20 - Little House on the Prairie
Based upon the best selling "Little House" series of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The show follows the lives of a simple farming family, the Ingalls, who settle into a quaint little house near the small town of Walnut Grove during the late 1800s. The majority of the shows were narrated by Laura and the series follows her from when she and her family arrive in Walnut Grove until her adulthood with Almanzo Wilder, with whom she starts a family of her own.
View Episode Rankings#21 - Soap
Sisters Mary Campbell and Jessica Tate lead soap-opera lives with their crazy families.
View Episode Rankings#22 - Mork & Mindy
A wacky alien comes to Earth to study its residents and the life of the human woman he boards with is never the same.
View Episode Rankings#23 - This Old House
This Old House celebrates the fusion on old world craftsmanship and modern technology. Each season features two renovation projects. Project One traditionally consists of eighteen or more so episodes and is filmed in Massachusetts. Project Two is taped in a different region of the country to highlight the variety of American architectural styles and renovation issues.
View Episode Rankings#24 - The Facts of Life
Charlotte Rae stars as a dietician and house mother at a private girls' boarding school, watching over students Blair, Tootie, Natalie and Jo.
View Episode Rankings#25 - Starsky & Hutch
Tough Starsky and educated Hutch are plainclothes cops taking on dope dealers, muggers and other thugs, aided by their red 1974 Torino and informant Huggy Bear. Both bachelors' private lives play as interweaving threads in the drama. This was TV's coolest buddy cop show, fueled by full-throttle car chases, offbeat humour, colourful characters and a hip vibe.
View Episode Rankings#26 - Battlestar Galactica
When the 12 Colonies of Man are wiped out by a cybernetic race called the Cylons, Commander Adama and the crew of the Battlestar Galactica lead a ragtag fleet of human survivors in search of a "mythical planet" called Earth.
View Episode Rankings#27 - El Chavo del 8
A Mexican boy (El Chavo) lives in a bairro of the City of Mexico, inside a barrel located in the city. He explores, in a comical way, the plots in which the children are involved, mainly face to face with his friends and vizinhos such as Quico, la Chilindrina, Dom Ramón, among others.
View Episode Rankings#28 - The Rockford Files
Emmy® winner James Garner stars as the offbeat Jim Rockford, an ex-con-turned-private-investigator who would rather fish than fight but whose instinct on closed cases is more golden than his classic Pontiac Firebird. From his mobile home in Malibu, this wisecracking private eye takes you on the cases of the lost and the dispossessed, chasing down seemingly long-dead clues in the sun-baked streets and seamy alleys of Los Angeles.
View Episode Rankings#29 - M*A*S*H
The 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital is stuck in the middle of the Korean war. With little help from the circumstances they find themselves in, they are forced to make their own fun. Fond of practical jokes and revenge, the doctors, nurses, administrators, and soldiers often find ways of making wartime life bearable.
View Episode Rankings#30 - WKRP in Cincinnati
A cast of odd characters must run a struggling Cincinnati radio station.
View Episode Rankings#31 - CHiPs
Lighthearted look at the adventures of two Highway Patrol officers in Los Angeles. The main characters are Jon Baker and Frank Poncherello, two motorcycle officers always on the street to save lives.
View Episode Rankings#32 - Dallas
The world's first mega-soap, and one of the most popular ever produced, Dallas had it all. Beautiful women, expensive cars, and men playing Monopoly with real buildings. Famous for one of the best cliffhangers in TV history, as the world asked "Who shot J.R.?" A slow-burner to begin with, Dallas hit its stride in the 2nd season, with long storylines and expert character development. Dallas ruled the airwaves in the 1980's.
View Episode Rankings#33 - The Jeffersons
A black couple, headed up by opinionated loud-mouth George Jefferson, moves from a modest Queens neighborhood to deluxe apartment in Manhattan's ritzy East Side.
View Episode Rankings#35 - Doctor Who
The Doctor, a mysterious traveller in space and time, travels in his ship, the TARDIS. The TARDIS can take him and his companions anywhere in time and space. Inevitably he finds evil at work wherever he goes...
View Episode Rankings#36 - Tales of the Unexpected
Tales Of The Unexpected is a British television series originally aired between 1979 and 1988, made by Anglia Television for ITV. The series was an anthology of different tales. Initially episodes were based on the short stories collected in the books Tales of the Unexpected, Kiss Kiss and Someone Like You by Roald Dahl. The stories were sometimes sinister, sometimes wryly comedic, and usually had a twist ending. The upbeat theme music for the series was written by the prolific film and television composer Ron Grainer.
View Episode Rankings#38 - Wonder Woman
Save the world? That’s a man’s job. Then along comes star-spangled WONDER WOMAN with her bullet-deflecting bracelets and golden lariat to set everyone straight.
View Episode Rankings#39 - Diff'rent Strokes
Two orphaned brothers, Arnold & Willis Jackson, are adopted by wealthy Manhattan widower Phillip Drummond when their mother (Drummond's maid) passes away. Along with Drummond's daughter Kimberly & housekeeper Mrs. Garrett, this family sitcom covers topics such as wealth- & racial- inequality. This was Gary Coleman's breakout role as short but sassy Arnold, whose catchphrase "What'choo talkin' 'bout?" became a national trend.
View Episode Rankings#40 - Happy Days
A nostalgic comedy set in 1950s Milwaukee centered on the squeaky-clean Cunningham family and their relationship with Fonzie, a motorcycle-riding Casanova who became a pop-culture phenomenon during the show's heyday in the 1970s.
View Episode Rankings#41 - Lupin III
Probably the most light-hearted and crazy series of all those dedicated to the gentleman thief.
View Episode Rankings#42 - Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
In the year 1987, Air Force captain William "Buck" Rogers tests the Ranger 3 spacecraft. His flight was to last only 5 months, but a meteor storm damages his life-support systems, freezing him solid, and casts Ranger 3 into an orbit which returns it to Earth--over 500 years later. Soon after Buck departs, Earth is devastated by a nuclear war caused by a renegade group of U.S. military officers. In 2491, Buck, who has survived due to the freezing, is revived and tries to adjust to life on 25th-century post-nuclear Earth. In the second season, Buck joins the crew of the Searcher, a starship dispatched to locate former Earth colonies in deep space.
View Episode Rankings#43 - Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo
The adventures of the mystery solving dog and his nephew.
View Episode Rankings#44 - Quincy, M.E.
Quincy, M.E, a man who must have been a nightmare to work with! Quincy was a crusading Medical Examiner in Los Angeles, an expert at his job he was always capable of finding something that everyone else missed. A small clue that would go against all the rest of the evidence in a case and would lead to him arguing with his boss, Asten, and/or the investigating detective, nearly always Monahan. Quincy started of as a straight forward crime series with a difference, it was a M.E. investigating not a police officer or private eye.As the series went from strength to strength the writers, probably with a little push from Klugman, started bringing in stories about social injustice rather than criminal. Most of the time this worked, in fact it is sometimes interesting to see that some of the things highlighted still have not changed even now! Sometimes it came over a little preachy but the show can never be faulted for trying to enlighten the eyes of its viewers.
View Episode Rankings#45 - The Pink Panther
The Pink Panther is a heroic, moral cartoon cat with pink fur and the manners of an English aristocrat. He only becomes flustered or angry at obtuse or offensive humans who try to disrupt his existence, or at troublesome gadgets, rodents, or insects. In most of his cartoons, he stumbles into a difficult situation and stoically endeavors to make the best of it. Episodes of this series feature three theatrical cartoons, two with the Pink Panther, and one featuring the Inspector, a cartoon version of the accident-prone, bumbling French detective, Inspector Clouseau, played in movies by Peter Sellers. The Inspector is often assisted by a Spanish gendarme, Sergeant Deux-Deux, and together they fallibly battle villains of all shapes and sizes in various parts of the world, always on the orders of the long-suffering Surete Commissioner.
View Episode Rankings#46 - Hawaii Five-O
The investigations of Hawaii Five-O, an elite branch of the Hawaii State Police answerable only to the governor and headed by stalwart Steve McGarrett.
View Episode Rankings#47 - Charlie's Angels
What do you get when you have three beautiful crime fighting ladies and a boss that is a total recluse? The most successful series of the 1970's, Charlie's Angels.
View Episode Rankings#48 - Grange Hill
Grange Hill is a British children's soap opera television series originally made by the BBC and portraying life in a typical secondary school. The show began its run on 8 February 1978 on BBC1, and was one of the longest-running programmes on British television when it ended its run on 15 September 2008.
View Episode Rankings#49 - Formula 1
Formula 1 is the highest class of international single-seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and owned by the Formula One Group. Formula One consists of a series of races, known as Grands Prix which take place worldwide on purpose-built circuits and on public roads.
View Episode Rankings#50 - Kamen Rider
A motorcycle-riding hero of justice rises up to fight an evil force, stopping their evil deeds while using their own power against them.
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