Greatest Television Programs: #90-81

By Sylvia Gurinsky

YesterTube continues a look at the Top 100 television programs of all time with numbers 90 to 81:

90. Elvis: Aloha From Hawaii (NBC, 1973): The first television program ever shown live around the world via satellite showed The King still at his best, performing a lot of his hits and raising money for charity besides.

89. Rich Man, Poor Man (ABC, 1976): Based on Irwin Shaw's novel, this mini-series about the Jordache family made many stars (including leads Nick Nolte and Peter Strauss) and kicked off America's love affair with the mini-series.

88. Moonlighting (ABC, 1985-89): The detective show starring Cybill Shepard and an up-and-coming Bruce Willis harked back to old-fashioned detective movies at its peak - including a black-and-white salute, and even a tribute to William Shakespeare. Allyce Beasley added to the fun as the rhyming secretary Agnes DiPesto.

87. The Lawrence Welk Show (Various, 1955-81): America's longest running music show (still shown on PBS today). Critics called it corn, but bandleader Welk latched on to a fundamental rule: Let talented singers perform songs people like to hear, the way they like to hear them.

86. The French Chef (PBS, 1962-73): A star - and a new form of television- was born when chef and author Julia Child took her recipes to PBS. Never has watching someone cooking been more fun - and tasty.

85. Wild Kingdom (Syndicated, 1963-85): Also known as "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom," the show - with hosts Marlon Perkins and Jim Fowler - launched viewers' up-close-and-personal relationship with animals.

84. American Masters (PBS, Since 1985): PBS' excellent continuing salutes to everyone who has been anyone in American culture. Always a program to look forward to, no matter who the subject.

83. The American Experience (PBS, Since 1987): This program, whose subjects have included wars, storms, illnesses, crises, presidents and so forth, provides more insight about our past in a two-hour episode than watching a whole year of The History Channel.

82. Get Smart (NBC, 1965-69; CBS, 1969-70): Would you believe that this spoof of spy shows and films might have led to the creation of cellphones (fortunately not from shoes)? Don Adams was terrific as the bumbling (but successful) Agent 86, Maxwell Smart. Sometimes it seems the scenes are not too far from reality.

81. 1960 Presidential Debates: For better or worse, the 1960 debates between presidential nominees John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon opened up new debates about substance versus style and political image making. Today's debates are nothing but theater, but the nominees had something to say back then.

See you next week. Until then, Happy Viewing!