The 1970s. Which way does your mind take you when you reminisce your classic favourites from such a breakthrough decade of TV, or to consider the retro stars of their time if you’re more Millennial and Gen Z than the Baby Boomers and Gen Xers of the day?
This article almost turned from what we hoped would be an educational guide into a series of gasps and exclamations and OMGs, drifting back in time to a different type of TV. Just chatting all things 70s TV provided a huge urge to dig back into the past—in front of a much larger screen than the one with the keyboard attached to it.
The minute we started looking seriously into the shows that the 1970s gave us, it turned into a mesmerising trip down memory lane for those of us with a little more grey growing through than we like to admit.
There are still so many great shows from the 70s available to access. Some have aged better than others, admittedly—but even those hold a charm that you can’t reproduce today. They were different times. It was different TV—by a mile.
We’re going to jump right in here and say it doesn’t look like anyone can touch Amazon Prime for the massive selection of TV shows available from every decade. When it comes to classic TV shows throughout most eras, Prime has almost all of them. That said, whether you’ll find them in your country, or they’re only available in another region, well, that’s where the fun and games start.
Depending on how you like your classic 70s TV, there are masses of British shows that are much loved and regularly revisited. With an abundance of streamers in the UK, it’s a strong option for dipping one’s toes in down memory lane. Yet, there are still plenty of US options building up their back-catalogues of the same, easier licensable content.
Our happiest surprise was finding one of the biggest, classic TV shows to launch in the 70s was on Disney+ (Disney Plus). That came as quite a shock to us until we realised what it was. On further inspection, however, Disney Plus has far more historical content than you’d think.
We took a dive into Reelgood’s database of 70s TV shows to see just what the big favourites are according to their fans and those of IMDb.
The highest scoring show from the 70s, according to their data, was The Muppet Show. No argument from us there. You can also see why we were surprised to see Disney+ make it into this piece. Don’t fret, though, The Muppet Show back catalogue is available on plenty of other services if you’re not currently a subscriber.
Next came Saturday Night Live, SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE! There has been a glorious 46 seasons with over 700 episodes to date, with its late-night comic culture starting way back in 1975. You can grab your share of its early 1970s seasons from Hulu, Fubo, Peackock, as well as a few others.
Next on Reelgood’s list came Columbo, a show that kicked off in 1971 and ran as long as Peter Faulk managed to carry the role of the dizzy detective—all the way until 2003. The earliest seasons are all yours over on Peacock. It’s part of their free content, too, so no subscription necessary for that little slice of 70s splendour.
After those three taking the top slots (on both ReelGood and IMDb), close in pursuit comes Battlestar Galactica, All in the Family, Three’s Company, Night Gallery, Jesus of Nazareth, Space: 1999 and, of course, Dallas.
There’s a ton of great TV on Hulu, and there’s a generous selection of it stemming from the seventies.
The Brady Bunch, Star Trek, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bionic Woman, M*A*S*H, The Waltons … need I go on? You’ll also find what is often considered the highlight cult show of the 1970s topping polls and lists far and wide—Hawaii Five-0.
There are plenty of British classics to glean too: Fawlty Towers is there, as is Porridge, All Creatures Great and Small, and Blake’s 7 (a little treat for you Brit-loving sci-fi buffs).
Peacock shows almost all of the favourite shows as listed by Reelgood. Seriously, if you wanted to soak up a 70s weekend of TV gluttony, then Peacock could be just the service for you. As well as all the top-scorers, you can go old-school DC and Marvel with Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman and Bill Bixby’s and Lou Ferrigno’s Incredible Hulk.
Other honourable mentions to add to your viewing lists should include Kung Fu, Buck Rogers, The Dukes of Hazzard, Fantasy Island, and Soap! Who could forget the brilliance of Soap’s slapstick, super-paced quirky comedy? Just genius and so ahead of its time.
Given the nature of what we do here at StreamLocator, we’re big fans of everything TV, movies, sports, and more—as long as it comes through our screens from any corner of the globe. When we were looking into the types of programs we could use to break up our typical binges—let’s face it, we’ve all watched far more TV than we usually would over the past pandemic year—we found a great piece on BestLife that gave us just what we were looking for.
Their escape into the 1970s was just the change of pace we needed, and their selection was spot on.
But we didn’t stop there; it just got us hungry for more. More recently, we found this excellent list of the Best British Sitcoms of the 70s on Ranker. If you ever needed a list to help you work your way through some hilarious historic UK TV, this is as good a place to start as any. There isn’t a title on their list that isn’t chock-full of classic comedy, as well as the most famous faces of their day portraying characters many of us will never forget.
There are plenty from the list on the popular British streamers, including iPlayer, ITV Hub, and it’s also worth a dig through UKTV Play for their selection.
…you know what to do. All the TV shows you could ever want are out there for the taking—as long as you can access the streaming services that show them.
If you need access to Peacock or Hulu, yet you live in the UK or Europe, then we’ve got you covered. If your favourite shows are all over the iPlayer or only available in the UK’s Amazon Prime catalogue, and you live in the US or Canada, well, we’ve got you too.
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