Collins - Classic TV Series

Television is often thought of as a trivial medium, but it is also the most powerful medium of our generation. Large corporations see it as the most influential way of advertising their wares while politicians rehearse soundbites, eager to get their message to the voter by the most effective route of all. Most importantly, hundreds of millions of people across the planet use it every day as their chief source of entertainment and information about the outside world. The globalisation of television has meant that the stars of American prime time soaps are recognisable everywhere from Aberdeen to Azerbaiijan and catchphrases from TV shows enter the language and survive long after the shows themselves have disappeared into the ether. This book brings together 100 of those shows and provides information on who made them, when they were shown, what made them popular and who appeared in them. The list is by no means exhaustive but it gathers together a core group of programmes that have burned themselves into our collective memory. Some of them will be familiar favourites, others less so, but all of them are important milestones in the development of a culture which is popular in the truest sense.

This incarnation of the single girl in the city sitcom dealt with the PR woman from Hell, Edina (Eddy), and her best friend Patsy, a glossy magazine writer whose idea of work was to browse through the racks at Harvey Nichols. Patsy got through champagne and vodka in catering-sized quantities and thought cigarettes were as much a part of the daily routine as breathing. Edina wanted to be in with every trend and invariably got it slightly wrong. Her chief problem in life apart from what to wear with a Gaultier corset was her daughter, who rebelled by being eminently sensible and preferring books to Bollinger. There were two further characters: Bubbles, Edinas airhead secretary and Edinas mother, both of whom pulled Edina up short in their different ways.

The run of family-based sitcoms which dominated American TV in the 50s and 60s inevitably produced an antidote in the form of the Addams family, who were as wholesome as a nest of rats. They were headed by Gomez and his black-clad wife Morticia, who would snap the heads off flowers before arranging them in a vase. Their children, Pugsley and Wednesday, were wont to play with toy electric chairs and gallows, and kept spiders as pets. The family retainer was Lurch, a towering man who spoke in a gravelly voice and could have doubled as a funeral director. The extended family included Grandmamma Addams and the midget cousin Itt. The show was turned into a film in 1991, with Angelica Houston as Morticia, which proved successful enough for a sequel to be made two years later.

This was the first successful TV incarnation of the green-garbed archer, Robin of Locksley. In the words of the series rousing theme tune, Robin stole from the rich and gave to the poor when King Richard was away fighting the Crusades and England was in the thrall of evil Prince John. This was media tycoon Lew Grades first hit on both sides of the Atlantic and was filmed in England on a tight budget and even tighter schedules. It featured many guest actors who went on to bigger things, including Jane Asher, Harry H Corbett, Lionel Jeffries, Thora Hird, John Schlesinger and Billie Whitelaw.

A freak success at a time when the TV western was in decline, this series managed to win a place in the ratings because of its roguish humour. Set in the 1890s, it involved the adventures of two heroes who had to remain out of trouble for a year in order to secure their pardon from the governor of Kansas. Their attempts to do so involved the two of them taking on an alias, hence the series title. The drama and humour came from the fact that the pair simply couldnt help themselves when faced with temptation, and with a posse of old partners in crime roaming around the Old West, there were plenty of opportunities to run foul of the law. Peter Duel committed suicide midway through the run and was hastily replaced by Roger Davis.