40 Classic '70s TV Shows That Are Now Really Uncomfortable To Watch

Think back to the age of ‘70s TV. You’ll remember bright colors, big hair, uncomplicated plots, and lots of pretty people. But now… times have changed. Looking back on the most talked-about shows of the era, some of them weren’t that good; in fact, some of them were downright problematic. Let’s take a look at the worst offenders, which range from “I suppose it’s alright” to “What were they thinking?”

40. Dog And Cat (1977)

Before Kim Basinger was super-famous, she was the female lead in a 1977 show titled Dog and Cat. Why was it called that when no animals were involved? Well, that was the slightly wince-worthy name for male-female law enforcement partnerships back then. The show was described as “repulsive” by The New York Times newspaper that year and it vanished after less than two months.

39. Supertrain (1979)

Have some pity for NBC, the network behind Supertrain. It spent enormous amounts of money on the show, making it the most expensive American series of all time back in 1979. And it was all for nothing, because Supertrain was such a massive flop it almost brought financial ruin upon the entire business. Millions of dollars down the train drain.

38. I Dream Of Jeannie (1965-1970)

I Dream of Jeannie was a big hit in its day – it ran from 1965 to 1970 – but some elements of it haven’t aged well. Like the fact that Jeannie is beholden to the astronaut who found her and has to call him “Master,” for example. Some find the whole thing very sexist, although Barbara Eden herself doesn’t agree.

37. Co-Ed Fever (1979)

The ’70s saw the rise of the “jiggle show” – programs which were created for pretty much no reason other than to show off beautiful girls in as little clothing as the network would allow. One of these was Co-Ed Fever, which pushed the concept about as far as it would go. Viewer complaints and censorship ensured it was ditched after one episode.

36. Holmes And Yoyo (1976-1977)

“Cop and robot partner” shows were popular during the ’70s, but Holmes and Yoyo wins the prize for the weirdest one of all. A detective, naturally named after the most famous fictional detective of all time, teamed up with an android named Gregory “Yoyo” Yoyonovich to fight crime. It wasn’t popular.

35. The Odd Couple (1970–1975)

The word “couple” may have been in the title, but TV executives were determined to clarify that no, the two male main characters weren’t romantically involved. In fact, they went out of their way to make that clear, ensuring a catch-up intro was included in the first season just so no-one thought any hanky-panky between the guys was going on. Oh, so painfully awkward.

34. Josie And The Pussycats (1970 - 1972)

Kids’ TV in the ’70s was a very different beast to how it is now. Take the show Josie and the Pussycats for example, the characters of which have actually survived in various formats right up to the present day. The show was actually pretty good diversity-wise, but why did they have to wear such skimpy, “sexy” outfits?

33. The Benny Hill Show (1969-1989)

Everyone remembers the Benny Hill theme song, but they might not remember how cringeworthy it got when Hill performed with his cast of scantily-clad young women. Fast-forward to 2017 and a “Benny Hill style fun run” set to take place in Cardiff was canceled after being slammed as sexist.

32. Me And The Chimp (1972)

This show from 1972 delivered exactly what it promised – a man adopted a chimp and had various misadventures with him. Not only was it a completely terrible show, there’s growing evidence these days that having primates act out funny scenes on camera actually qualifies as animal mistreatment.

31. Bewitched (1964-1972)

The portrayal of gender roles in Bewitched has sparked debate for years. It was considered quite a progressive, feminist show when it first aired… but modern women have pointed out, why does Samantha submit to Darrin so much when she’s the one with magical powers? Why’s she so happy to be a housewife? That discussion might make a rewatch a little uncomfortable.

30. Are You Being Served? (1972-1985)

The BBC sitcom Are You Being Served? is an interesting British classic. Some elements involving the social issues of the time haven’t aged well at all – but others actually have. The ongoing double entendre about one female character’s cat makes the show a truly awkward one to watch with younger children, though.

29. Here’s Lucy (1968-1974)

There could be nothing whatsoever objectionable about Lucille Ball’s Here’s Lucy, right? Well, there wouldn’t have been had history gone a different way. One episode of the show, 1973’s The Big Game, features as a guest star O.J. Simpson. And unfortunately, it gives the whole half-hour a problematic vibe to say the least.

28. Mr. T And Tina (1979)

No, not that Mr. T. Mr. T and Tina was a spinoff of the show Welcome Back, Kotter and it starred none other than Pat Morita. It dealt with a culture clash between Morita’s Taro Takahashi and his children’s governess Tina, played by Susan Blanchard. Unfortunately, it was considered to be generally not very good and laden with characters representing little more than dialled-in lazy clichés.

27. All In The Family (1971-1976)

All in the Family was groundbreaking for its day, and it won plenty of critical acclaim. But there’s always the problem of Archie Bunker. You’re not supposed to sympathize with him, but his rants can make the show super-difficult to watch. Chances are, if the show was made today it’d take a different tack.

26. All That Glitters (1977)

All That Glitters had an interesting premise, at least. It presented a world where gender norms were flipped – the women had all the power and the men were subservient. It didn’t really work, though. The Wall Street Journal newspaper wrote at the time, “The satire focuses not on the way real, recognizable people behave, but on stereotypes and clichés about masculine and feminine attitudes.”

25. The Amazing Spider-Man (1977)

There have been many incarnations of “The Amazing Spider-Man” across different media – but this is not one of the better ones. The trouble was, it ignored everything that made the comic so great. If you were expecting Dr. Octopus or Mary Jane Watson, you weren’t in luck. Spider-Man didn’t even have his trademark wit and remained completely silent in costume. Come on!

24. The American Girls (1978)

The American Girls came along midway through the run of Charlie’s Angels, and perhaps predictably it only managed to feel like a cheap rip-off of the better-known show. Two beautiful young news reporters, played by Debra Clinger and Priscilla Barnes, traveled the country seeking stories and fighting crime – and that was pretty much it. It relied purely on the attractiveness of its leads, and it showed. 

23. Bearcats! (1971)

Bearcats! was a Western, but it was set in 1914. This unusual move might have helped it, because it allowed the characters to have some fun with WWI-era tanks and the like. But there were arguments behind the scenes about what the show should actually be, with star Rod Taylor wanting one thing and the writers wanting another. And why did it need the exclamation mark in the title?

22. Mrs. Columbo (1979)

When Columbo was at its height, the powers-that-be demanded a spinoff about his unseen wife – despite the writers really not wanting to go there. When the Columbo people stormed out, NBC did the project anyway with actress Kate Mulgrew. It wasn’t good. If the show hadn’t been canceled so quickly, a plan had apparently been hatched to have Peter Falk’s Columbo denouncing Mulgrew’s character as an impostor.

21. Gemini Man (1976)

Sci-fi show Gemini Man, loosely based on the classic 1897 novel The Invisible Man, generally suffered from a lack of originality. Watch it now, and it just seems terribly derivative. Unfortunately, it appears that was also the case when it first debuted in 1976. It did badly in the ratings and was cancelled after a mere five episodes had aired.

20. In The Beginning (1978)

In the Beginning, starring McLean Stevenson and Priscilla Lopez, billed itself as a “religious comedy.” And generally, that’s a very hard combination to get right. Add that to the fact that the social issues tackled were even harder to get right in a comedy context, and it’s maybe not surprising it only lasted five episodes.

19. David Cassidy: Man Undercover (1978-1979)

David Cassidy was so famous in the ’70s that his name just had to be in the title when he got his own show. In David Cassidy: Man Undercover David Cassidy played not himself but a police officer named Dan Shay. Shouldn’t it have been called Dan Shay: Man Undercover then? Oh well, never mind. It’s still an intriguing slice of ’70s cringe.

18. Flying High (1978)

How 1978’s Flying High came into being is a story in itself. It starred three beautiful women – Connie Sellecca, Pat Klous and Kathryn Witt – but they had little acting experience and were cast purely on looks. In a super-sleazy interview with The Washington Post newspaper that year, producer Mark Carliner talked about how he “wanted three girls who turned me on as a man, but who were also not threatening to women.” The show was immediately slammed for sexism. 

17. Scooby-Doo And Scrappy-Doo (1979–1983)

Scooby-Doo was still popular in 1979, but boy was it repetitive. So the showrunners decided to mix it up, but they did so in the worst way possible: introducing Scrappy-Doo, an annoying and endlessly hateable little dog. Do you know how many things have to go wrong to get whole generations of kids to loathe a puppy?

16. Where Do I Sit? (1971)

Peter Cook’s chat/sketch show Where Do I Sit? should have been wildly successful considering who was involved. It… wasn’t. Cook was sometimes drunk, the guests were openly bored, and inexplicably Cook got to sing in every episode despite having no talent for it. It lasted three episodes, and it is impossible to watch without wincing.

15. Police Woman (1974–1978)

Police Woman was the favorite TV show of President Ford, believe it or not. But the appeal was lead actress Angie Dickinson rather than the scripts, and she knew it. In 1978 she lamented to People magazine that she was tired of scenes “where the phone rings while I’m taking a bath” and would “prefer scripts where the sensuality is pouring out naturally for the whole 60 minutes.”

14. Dusty’s Trail (1973-1974)

Dusty’s Trail was, alas, simply a worse version of Gilligan’s Island. Both shows starred Bob Denver and both focused on a group of people with clashing personalities trapped together in a difficult situation. Except that while the former show was considered really good, Dusty’s Island was not. In fact it went down in television history as a particularly cringe-worthy bad sitcom.

13. Hello, Larry (1979-1980)

McLean Stevenson didn’t have much luck with sitcoms after M*A*S*H. Hello, Larry was his third failed one, and what a disaster it was. It’s utterly unwatchable now, but it wasn’t exactly highly regarded back then either. In fact it was so bad that Johnny Carson used to roast it on The Tonight Show.

12. McGurk: A Dog’s Life (1979)

You would certainly laugh while watching McGurk: A Dog’s Life – just not for the right reasons. Think more like a shocked, horrified “I can’t believe anyone thought this was a good idea”-type giggle. The show, already poorly written, featured all the actors pretending to be dogs and acting out their scenes in dog costumes. Yes really. Watch this disaster only from behind your fingers.

11. Tabitha (1976-1978)

Tabitha was a spinoff from Bewitched, following the life of Samantha’s daughter. Except… the show had to retcon some important parts of Bewitched in order to get it to work. Suddenly Tabitha was younger than her brother Adam despite having been born first in the original show, and she was magically suddenly an adult in the ’70s despite having been a child where Bewitched left off. Oh, and Elizabeth Montgomery wasn’t in it. There’s a reason it didn’t stand the test of time in the same way as the show that spawned it.

10. The Better Sex (1977-1978)

This game show was a battle of the sexes and little else. But it was clumsily done to say the least. The show opened over clips of the show’s hosts, Bill Anderson and Sarah Purcell, arguing while the narrator intoned, “Women or men, which is the better sex?” It would have no chance of getting on the air today.

9. Saturday Night Live With Howard Cosell (1975-1976)

This show, which predates the SNL you know and love, was so bad even its own director slated it. It was supposed to be a variety show hosted by Howard Cosell, but it seems that no-one had the slightest idea what they were doing. Cosell lacked the necessary charisma to carry the show, the interviews were dull, and the band Labelle even walked out when they were told to only do one song. Its abrupt cancellation did at least leave SNL free to take the name.

8. Magic Mongo (1977-1978)

Magic Mongo is one of those shows you loved as a child but can’t believe what you were thinking as an adult. It followed the adventures of three teenagers who released a genie, the titular Mongo, and used him to fix fairly mundane problems. The acting wasn’t good, the scripts were unoriginal, and it’s hard to imagine it gaining any sort of audience today.

7. Charlie’s Angels (1976-1981)

Charlie’s Angels still has a fanbase today, at least. But it was very much aimed at men and their tastes, despite the presence of strong female action heroes. A quote attributed to Farrah Fawcett perhaps sums it up best: “When the show was number three, I figured it was our acting. When it got to be number one, I decided it could only be because none of us wears a bra.”

6. Three’s A Crowd (1979-1980)

There were some bad game shows in the 1970s. One of the very worst, so bad it’s almost funny, was the show Three’s a Crowd. Its tagline was, believe it or not, “Who knows a man better: his wife or his secretary?” and it seemed actively designed to ruin marriages. Even its creator later regretted it.

5. Little House On The Prairie (1974–1983)

Little House on the Prairie lasted from 1974 to 1983, so it definitely wasn’t unpopular in its day. But while it promoted good ’70s values, it also promoted, well, bad ’70s values. The books it’s based on are actually banned in some schools, though the show is still a nostalgia-fest for many.

4. Dallas (1978-1991)

Dallas, the soap opera to end all soap operas, has some pretty awkward moments if you stop and think about it too much. The writing was so messy it allowed all kinds of stuff to slip under the radar. For example, in the early days of the show Ray and Lucy were lovers, but then a shocking twist revealed Ray was Jock’s son and thus Lucy’s biological uncle. Oops. The writers never mentioned the relationship again, but we all remember.

3. The Amateur’s Guide To Love (1972)

Consider someone making this pitch to a TV studio in the 21st century: A van with hidden cameras travels around and films couples out on the streets whenever they’re getting close to each other. That footage is then aired on television. Sounds unfathomable, right? But that show existed in 1972, and was called The Amateur’s Guide to Love

2. The Brady Bunch (1969–1974)

There are a few ways in which The Brady Bunch hasn’t aired well. Take one episode where Mike says he’d take his sons to a psychiatrist if they ever played with a dollhouse. Utterly nonsensical of course, but what pushes it over the edge is the fact that actor Robert Reed was hiding his homosexuality at the time.

1. The PTL Club (1974–1987)

Not every ’70s show can lay claim to having been a front for stealing money. But that’s what happened with The PTL Club, a Christian TV show hosted by Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye. As it turned out, Bakker was defrauding his fans and he ended up serving eight years in prison for it. And believe it or not, he’s still getting embroiled in fraud cases to this day.