classic television Archives - Retro Reminiscing Video and Pictures

F Troop

There’s no special birthday or anniversary behind today’s Ken Berry clips. They just happened to come up, and after seeing him in Mayberry R.F.D., it seemed only right to go back to the role that first made him a television star, Captain Wilton Parmenter on F Troop

Parmenter was a well-meaning but accident-prone officer who became a Civil War hero completely by mistake after his sneezes were misunderstood as orders to charge. From there, he was placed in command of Fort Courage, where Sergeant O’Rourke and Corporal Agarn ran their own questionable business deals while trying to keep the captain out of trouble

Ken Berry’s background as a singer and dancer helped make his falls, reactions and physical comedy look effortless. Before F Troop, he served in the Army with Leonard Nimoy and later became part of Desilu’s talent-development program after attracting the attention of Lucille Ball.

Melody Patterson was only 15 when she auditioned for Wrangler Jane after claiming she was 18, although she had turned 16 by the time filming began. Jane could ride and shoot better than most of Fort Courage’s soldiers, but Captain Parmenter somehow remained completely unaware that she was in love with him.

And then there was that unforgettable opening theme. William Lava composed the music and Irving Taylor wrote the lyrics, creating a song that quickly explained how Parmenter accidentally became a hero and ended up commanding F Troop. It was almost a miniature episode before the show even began.

F Troop lasted only two seasons, from 1965 through 1967, but Ken Berry, Forrest Tucker, Larry Storch, Frank de Kova and Melody Patterson created the kind of cast chemistry that kept the show popular through decades of reruns

Mayberry R.F.D.

How many of you kept watching Mayberry after Andy Griffith left? Mayberry R.F.D. continued the familiar small-town setting, but shifted the focus to farmer and town councilman Sam Jones, played by Ken Berry, and his young son Mike

The series still included many familiar faces, including Aunt Bee, Goober, Howard and Emmett. Its first episode even featured the long-awaited wedding of Andy Taylor and Helen Crump, giving longtime viewers a proper goodbye before the new chapter began

What may surprise many of us is how successful the show remained. Mayberry R.F.D. ranked among television’s top ten during its first two seasons and was still number 15 when CBS canceled it as part of the network’s move away from rural programming

This short clip also reminds us of the days when sponsors like Sanka and Post were announced as part of the program itself. Did Mayberry still feel the same to you after Andy left, or was something important missing?

CBS Sunday Nights 1978

This short CBS promo was advertising a surprisingly historic Sunday night on March 19, 1978. All in the Family said goodbye to Mike and Gloria as regular characters, Alice welcomed country star Jerry Reed as himself, and The Carol Burnett Show featured Steve Lawrence and Bernadette Peters in a musical salute to Cole Porter

The three programs represented an incredible stretch of television history. All in the Family aired from 1971 to 1979, Alice from 1976 to 1985 and The Carol Burnett Show from 1967 to 1978. Carol’s series was nearing its emotional finale, while CBS was still using Archie Bunker and Alice Hyatt to build one of Sunday television’s strongest comedy blocks

Even the music carried impressive credentials. Broadway composers Charles Strouse and Lee Adams created “Those Were the Days,” Linda Lavin sang an Alice theme written by David Shire and the Bergmans, and Carol’s familiar closing song was written by her husband and producer, Joe Hamilton

CBS Sports Spectacular

Do you remember when CBS Sports Spectacular could fill an afternoon with sports we rarely saw anywhere else? This short promo is a perfect example, jumping from championship boxing and roaring NHRA dragsters to the brand-new World’s Strongest Man competition

Carlos Palomino was defending his welterweight title, Shirley Muldowney had just become the first woman to win an NHRA Top Fuel championship, and future Incredible Hulk star Lou Ferrigno was testing his strength against athletes from several different sports

What made CBS Sports Spectacular so much fun was never knowing what might come next. It could feature a major championship one week and something completely unusual the next. Long before we had cable sports channels running around the clock, programs like this introduced us to athletes, competitions and entire sports we might never have discovered otherwise

Did you watch CBS Sports Spectacular regularly, or did you usually tune in only when a favorite sport was featured?

Alfred Hitchcock Presents

“Good evening.” With those two words, Alfred Hitchcock welcomed viewers into a weekly world of murder, mystery, suspense and wonderfully dark humor.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents premiered on CBS in 1955 and ran for seven seasons as a half-hour anthology. In 1962, it expanded into The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, continuing for three more seasons until 1965. Each episode told a separate story, usually ending with an unexpected twist or a criminal discovering that the perfect crime was not quite perfect.

The opening became almost as famous as the stories. Hitchcock stepped into a simple outline of his unmistakable profile while Charles Gounod’s “Funeral March of a Marionette” played. Hitchcock had drawn the nine-stroke caricature himself.

Although he introduced every program, Hitchcock directed only 17 episodes of the original half-hour series. Producers Joan Harrison and Norman Lloyd helped select stories, writers, directors and actors who could deliver a complete suspense film in less than 30 minutes.

The television series also influenced Hitchcock’s movies. He later used members of the show’s experienced television crew to make Psycho, helping him film quickly and economically while creating one of the most famous thrillers ever made.

Did the theme music make you uneasy before Hitchcock even said, “Good evening”?

Emergency! Inspired a Generation of First Responders

How many of our viewers became EMTs, first responders or entered another medical field because of the television show Emergency!?

The series premiered on January 15, 1972, and followed Los Angeles County firefighter-paramedics Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto as they treated patients before rushing them to Rampart General Hospital. Randolph Mantooth and Kevin Tighe starred as Johnny and Roy, while Julie London, Bobby Troup and Robert Fuller played the hospital staff.

When Emergency! premiered, North America reportedly had only 12 paramedic units. Just four years later, about half of Americans lived within 10 minutes of paramedic care. The show introduced millions of viewers to defibrillation, intravenous medication and radio contact with emergency-room doctors, helping the public understand and support modern emergency medical services.

The series ran for six seasons and produced 122 episodes, followed by six television movies. Station 51 was played by the real Los Angeles County Fire Station 127, and the original Squad 51 remains preserved today.

National EMT and Paramedic Appreciation Day is observed on April 15, while National EMS Week is held each May. Chime in and let us honor you! Tell us where you serve, and feel free to brag about your station, department or hospital.

The Invaders

Architect David Vincent took a wrong turn one night and discovered something terrifying: aliens were already living among us. That discovery launched The Invaders, an eerie ABC science-fiction series starring Roy Thinnes that began in 1967.

The aliens looked human, but a stiff, crooked little finger could sometimes reveal their true identity. They had no pulse, could not bleed and glowed red before disintegrating when killed, destroying any proof Vincent found.

My mom and I used to watch this show together. Seeing it again brings her back to life, even for just a moment, and reminds me how television shows can become tied to some of our most treasured memories.

Produced by Quinn Martin, the man behind The Fugitive, the series followed Vincent as he tried to convince a skeptical world that the invasion was real. With its haunting Dominic Frontiere theme and constant feeling of paranoia, The Invaders became one of the most memorable science-fiction shows of the 1960s.

Did you watch The Invaders, and does an old television show ever bring someone special back to you for a moment?

Marcus Welby

Long before television doctors relied on dramatic emergencies and high-tech machines, Dr. Marcus Welby was the calm, caring family physician who knew his patients personally and still made house calls. Robert Young played Welby alongside James Brolin as the younger Dr. Steven Kiley, giving viewers two generations of medicine working side by side.

The show’s instrumental theme was composed by Leonard Rosenman and is generally known simply as the Marcus Welby, M.D. theme. Welby was also remembered for making his rounds in a series of light-blue Chrysler sedans, including the beautiful 1969 Chrysler 300 used during the first season.

What memories does this show bring?

The Rifleman

If you grew up on TV westerns, The Rifleman was one of the shows that stood out right from the opening.

The series premiered on ABC on Tuesday, September 30, 1958, and ran until April 8, 1963. It aired for five seasons, with 168 black-and-white episodes, starring Chuck Connors as Lucas McCain and Johnny Crawford as his son, Mark.

The story was set in the fictional town of North Fork, New Mexico Territory, where Lucas McCain was a widowed rancher raising his son while also helping keep order when trouble came to town. He was not the sheriff, but with that specially modified Winchester rifle, he was usually the man everyone looked to when things got dangerous.

What made the show different was the father-and-son relationship. Yes, there were outlaws, gunfights, cattlemen, drifters, and plenty of western action, but at the center of it was Lucas trying to raise Mark with a strong sense of right and wrong. For a half-hour western, it often had a lot of heart.

And then there was that opening. Lucas McCain walking into the street and firing that rifle so fast it almost became the show’s signature before the story even began. If you watched it as a kid, that image stayed with you.

The Rifleman had the action kids wanted, but it also had a moral lesson built into many episodes. Lucas was tough, but he was also a father first. That gave the show something a little different from the usual shoot-’em-up western.

Did you watch The Rifleman when it first aired, or did you catch it later in reruns? And were you more interested in the fast rifle, or the way Lucas and Mark stuck together?

The Cisco Kid: One of TV’s First Color Westerns

Before television westerns filled the schedule in the 1950s, The Cisco Kid was already riding into living rooms.

The TV series began in 1950 and ran until 1956, starring Duncan Renaldo as Cisco and Leo Carrillo as his cheerful sidekick, Pancho. It was a syndicated show, so unlike a regular network series, the exact day and time could vary depending on the local station. The commonly listed television debut is Tuesday, September 5, 1950. The series ran for 156 half-hour episodes.

Cisco and Pancho were not the usual stiff western heroes. They had charm, humor, and a Robin Hood quality. They often helped people who were being cheated, bullied, or ignored by corrupt officials. The show was especially popular with children, who loved the horses, the action, the jokes between Cisco and Pancho, and the feeling that the good guys would always ride away smiling.

One thing that made The Cisco Kid stand out is that it was filmed in color, even though most families watching in the early 1950s were still seeing it on black-and-white television sets. That helped the show live on in reruns for years, especially once color TV became more common.

And of course, many people remember the playful ending: “Oh, Cisco!” “Oh, Pancho!” followed by the two riding off together. It was light, fun, and easy for kids to imitate.

Looking back, The Cisco Kid had the feel of an early TV western made for young viewers: simple stories, clear villains, loyal friends, fast horses, and a hero who could outsmart the bad guys without losing his smile.

Did you watch The Cisco Kid when it first aired, or did you catch it later in reruns? And did you ever find yourself saying, “Oh, Cisco!” or “Oh, Pancho!”?