I’m going to do a lot of mopy whingeing here so if you don’t feel like it, I understand. Old guys whining, “It was better in the old days” is a load of crap. It sucked in the old days. We just didn’t know it.
I’m talking about Science Fiction television. I’m talking about the 1970s. The number one show in 1970 was Marcus Welby, M.D. 1971 to 1975 was All in the Family. 1976 saw that change to Happy Days. 1977-1979 it was Laverne & Shirley. On this list of the top shows of the 1970s only one has a fantastic element: Kolchak the Night Stalker. It lasted one season.
If you’d like to read the rest, please check out Monster 2: From the Pages of Dark Worlds Quarterly.
Mmmm yeah, but no.
Or better, yeah but a qualified no.
For two reasons:
1. Good 70s shows emphasized story and characterization because they simply did not have the ability to deliver the affects available today, while today, story is weak in favor of the gosh wow visuals. Pound for pound, Star Trek TOS puts most of today’s CGI wonderfests to shame (not to mention not hardly ever seeing a story arc that hasn’t been retread since the 50s
And, many of those 70s shows that tried to emulate or bottle the Trek magic (it was in syndication in the 70s) were utter drek based on stupid ideas (space 1999) or poorly executed (Starlost) or we’re just plain bad (galactica)