Best 1960s TV Series ?

I preferred it in B&W as I thought that gave it more of a gritty , almost film noir quality that suited the bleakness of Kimble's situation.

Great series, though. My dad loved it so I watched it with him every week which is a wonderful memory in itself.

 

Star Trek

Even when it stumbled , the first 2 seasons and a smattering of the 3rd season featured great writing, noble aspirations, and wonderful chemistry between the cast members, especially the "Big Three." .

Also:

The Twilight Zone
The Prisoner
The Avengers

 

This is where my mind goes too.
What do you choose to make the "best" as opposed to a "favorite"

Like you I watched some favorites, "I Dream of Jeannie", "Gilligan's Island", " Scooby Doo", "Johnny Quest" "Leave it to Beaver", "The Addams Family" "The Flintstones" and the like, but were they really the "best" as in filled out, well written and acted stories?...probably not. They were entertaining to me for sure though.

For BEST I would pick "The Twilight Zone" because of the broad range of scripts, drama, action, acting, and so on. While some episodes are clearly better than others, I think they covered the gamut throughout the series.

 

The Fugitive holds the spot of best fro the 60s for me.

Another good one is Perry Mason. Again all black and white....only one episode in color during the entire run. It definitely maintained that classic look and feel throughout.

 

Route 66, great theme tune.

 

Gene Roddenberry’s show before “ Star Trek” dealing with a USMC officer “The Lieutenant “ is quite good. Only lasted one season for several reasons...escalating Vietnam war. Roddenberry pissed off the Corps and NBC having an episode dealing with two Marines who brought their existing racial hatred for each other and tried to enlist the NAACP to get it aired. But in the beginning he had USMC support so there is a big budget with field training, etc. Also fun with all the actors who ended up in Star Trek: star Gary Lockwood, Majel Barrett, Leonard Nimoy (very animated Hollywood producer), Ricardo Montalban, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols

“The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis” had dialogue miles above sitcoms of the day. Personally I wonder if most sitcoms of the 1960s were lame while there were a few surviving good dramas (many of which didn’t do well but at least were tried): Have Gun Will Travel, The Defenders, East Side West Side, Judd for the Defense, Dragnet, Combat. In the 1970s at least some good sitcoms emerged like All in the Family, MASH, Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart while for drama you had to look to PBS Masterpiece Theater and mostly British imports except for the Adams Chronicles

 

Combat! (1962-1967)
Starring Rick Jason and Vic Morrow

Vic Morrow was the coolest actor ever, and father of the fabulous Jennifer Jason Leigh. He was killed in an accident on the set of "The Twilight Zone Movie", during the segment directed by John Landis.
Keropian Bronze Sculpture / Vic Morrow as Sergeant Saunders

Combat! aired 17 years after the end of WWII. It was very realistic. The Germans actually spoke German, which led me to take German language in junior high school just so I could understand what they were saying on my favorite TV show. Unfortunately for me, my German teacher was an ex-Nazi who, admittedly, idolized Hitler and hated Jews. She gave me a D.

The list of actors who guest-starred on Combat! is incredible, including Eddie Albert, Frankie Avalon, Richard Basehart, Beau Bridges, Charles Bronson, James Caan, John Cassavetes, James Coburn, Robert Culp, Robert Duvall, Dwayne Hickman, Dennis Hopper, Jeffrey Hunter, Jack Lord, Lee Marvin, Roddy McDowell, Sal Mineo, Ricardo Montalban, Leonard Nimoy, Mickey Rooney, Bobby Rydell, Albert Salmi, Telly Savalas, Tom Skerritt, Harry Dean Stanton, Dean Stockwell, Frank Sutton, Dennis Weaver, James Whitmore, and Keenan Wynn, among others.

 

Hey "The Time Tunnel" deserves some mention here. Recently bought a box set of its episodes .

 

Rocky and Bullwinkle
Twilight Zone

 

Gunsmoke[for it's realism]...Cheyenne[only Clint Walker could've played this role]...Naked City...Dick Van Dyke Show[Well written comedy]...East Side-West Side[For it's grit and Cecily Tyson].

 

animated series: The Mighty Hercules & Sinbad, Jr. I giggled and jumped up and down like a Beatles fan at a concert whenever these came on Saturday mornings.

 

Agreed. More of my favorites, top of mind:

Twelve O'Clock High (Utilized actual footage of bombing missions and aerial combat). Also, perhaps the best intro and soundtrack of the era IMO...
McHale's Navy
My Three Sons
Lucy
Hogan's Heroes
Flintstones
Jetsons
Andy Griffith, Mayberry - RFD
Green Acres
Petticoat Junction
Smothers Brothers
Laugh-In
Gomer Pyle, USMC

 

My favorites:

The Twilight Zone
The Monkees
F Troop

 

I have to give props to Green Acres as a contender as it’s absurdist comedy holds up very well some 50 years later. Great cast, too.

 

The Prisoner, Doctor Who (what's left of it), At Last The 1948 Show (ditto), Not Only... But Also... (ditto ditto)... well this could get very one-sided for UK telly. I liked Bewitched and The Munsters and those sorts of shows, Car 54, Get Smart, Honey West, Twilight Zone, Star Trek, Land Of The Giants... and I have a strange enjoyment for really silly animal pal shows like Skippy The Bush Kangaroo and Flipper... it was a simpler time, well not really.

 

For comedy;
1st - The Beverly Hillbilly's
2nd - The Andy Griffith Show

 

I was a Combat! fan too.

 

Dick Van Dyke Show.

 

IMO, nothing can touch the greatness of 50's and 60's TV...an incredible wealth of great shows! It's amazing. I would get tired listing them all!

 

Yesterday, for no reason, out of nowhere, this stupid little ditty came into my head after about a 60 year absence.

"Swamp Fox, Swamp Fox, tail on his hat
Nobody knows where the Swamp Fox at.
Swamp Fox, Swamp Fox, hiding in the glen
He runs away to fight again."

This is the theme from the very obscure 1950s-1960 show which aired periodically on The Wonderful Of Disney, starring Leslie Nielsen of all people, in the title role. As I said, it hasn't crossed my consciousness in about 60 years, and what it's doing here now, God only knows.

Lord, I'm smoking too much weed. I blame the pandemic.

 

The greatest 60s series is also tied for greatest all-time...

TZ.

Only Hitchcock matches it, and that was the greatest series of the 50s.

 

TV wise I would say the sixties was better than the fifties & seventies for tv shows.

 

Top Cat

 

Watched them all from Ozzie and Harriet to Ben Casey and Gunsmoke but most fail on close inspection from the 21st century. A few, tho, make the cut, Laugh In, Star Trek, The Fugitive, The Prisoner. Probably some others but it's late