BRITISH AND U.S. TV SHOWS FROM THE 70S AND 80S

By Mark Nobes

If you lived in the UK during the 1970s and early 80s, then you will, no doubt, remember when we only had three TV channels. Also, in those simpler times BBC1 used to close down at around midnight, but not before the weatherman had given us his final forecast, which was followed by a patriotic blast of the National Anthem. BBC2 used to show pages from Ceefax in the mornings - ah, how times have changed! 

So if you have fond memories of watching Peter Powell presenting Top Of The Pops (with the additional clanking sound of your Mum knitting in the background), then you've definitely landed on the right page!
70s and 80s TV Shows Montage

Of course, there were many shows that were imported from America, and us Brits enjoyed a good deal of those, too.

If you're visiting this site from the U.S. then you'll pleased to see that there is an ever-growing selection of programmes from your country featured here, from Airwolf to Wonder Woman. 

As a child, I grew up with shows such as Starsky And Hutch and The Dukes Of Hazzard, and these two were particular favourites of mine. Maybe that's because I love a good car chase and climbing through car windows! 

So here we have a great selection of video pages featuring TV Shows/Series, TV Characters, Adverts, Game Shows, Kids TV, Cartoons and even TV Channel Idents from the seventies and eighties. Enjoy...

The TV Test Card

Long gone are the days when you needed a test pattern to adjust the picture of your CRT TV set. As a child back in the 70s, I sometimes used to spend quite a number of minutes staring at them wondering what they were for! There were quite a few different ones, and here are a couple to remind you of those golden times;

 

PM5544 Test Card with non-PAL signals
By Zacabeb (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

 

Testcard F.jpg
By unknown, Fair use, Link

This is BBC test card F featuring Carole Hersee and Bubbles the clown.

 

Kojak - 70s TV Series

Kojak sucking his lollipop
We all remember the very distinctive character of Detective Lieutenant Theo Kojak, which was played by Telly Savalas - the bald head, the ubiquitous lollipop and that catchphrase "Who loved ya, baby?".
 
But did you know that his younger brother, George Savalas, played Detective "fatso" Stavros in the series? He also appeared in UK adverts for Wimpy during the 1970s. Sadly, he died on October 2nd 1985 (aged 60) from leukemia.

THE KWICKY KOALA SHOW

This was the last cartoon series from the legendary Tex Avery before his death from liver cancer in 1980. All sixteen episodes ware aired on CBS in the U.S. during 1981 and also on the BBC in the UK. The cartoon was produced by Hanna Barbera Australia.
The Kwicky Koala Show opening title card

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bully's Prize Board on Bullseye - ITV
Zammo
Collection of retro 70s kids TV button badges - Blue Peter, Swap Shop, Magpie and Tiswas
TV Times magazine Sept 1982 ft. Mike Yarwood
TV Times April 1986 ft. Cannon & Ball
Radio Times Sept 1989 ft. Blackadder
Star Trek Annual 1975 ft. Mr. Spock
Swap Shop Logo BBC Car Bumper Sticker