Fifty's TV Shows

The TV We Grew Up On

Pictured above in all their glory are some of the stars of TV shows when we were kids: Memories of John Cameron Swayze, Ozzie & Harriet, The Honeymooners, Arthur Godfrey, The Millionaire, Kukla, Fran & Ollie, Perry Mason, Roy Rogers & Dale Evans, Milton Berle, Dinah Shore, Leave It To Beaver & Broderick Crawford.

How about some of yours? Click Here and let us know about them.

Bill - Wjp50@aol.com

There was another Saturday morning show I used to watch that I'm trying to find info about. I seem to recall it was about a Captain Zero, who could time travel. Not to be confused with Captain Midnight who flew a plane that looked like an X-1 and who had an assistant, Ichabod Mudd. Anyone else recall that show?

John Cherry - jfcherry@cox.net

I remember Winky Dink. I lived in Norfolk, VA when I was 3-5 yrs old and I watched him every time he was on. Don't have my Captain Midnight decoder ring any more, but wish I did. Anyone out there know how to find out the names of the cast of the Captain Midnight TV Show???? Thanks.

P.S. To Barb Madden. I watched all the shows you named and more. Thanks for the trip down memory lane....

Sandy

I, too, enjoyed all the old TV shows.......Fury, Froggie, Engineer Bill, Sheriff John, I Married Joan, My Little Margie, Wagon Train, Raw Hide, Leave It To Beaver, Queen For A Day, Beat The Clock, American Bandstand and so many more. My family thinks I'm crazy because I like to watch them. I also like all the oldies but goodies music. It was just a more pleasant time then, not that there weren't bad times. I don't really care for the shows on TV now. Anyway I buy all the old movies, tv shows and cartoons I can find, I've have over 100 DVDs, so I watch them.

Richard - Rclinch2@aol.com

Does anyone remember I Remember Momma starring Irene Dunn, set back in the early 1900s? I liked the episode especially around Christmas, when the family went out to the barn at midnight to hear the animals talk. And by the way Diane, I watched Buella every week.

John Smith - jacksm@optonline.net

On mornings I didn't go to school I'd watch re-runs of My Little Margie and Topper. After they were over The Sandy Becker Show would come on in New York on Channel 5. I know much, like where I left my car keys, but I remember WNEW, Channel 5's address as something like 205 East Sixty-Second Street, New York, NY from entering contests and sending in drawings. Hawaiian Eye, 77 Sunset Strip, Yancy Derringer, Sugarfoot. ("Sugarfoot, Sugarfoot, easy lopin' cattle ropin' Sugarfoot"), Cheyenne ("Cheyenne, Cheyenne, where will you be campin' tonight? Lonely Man, Cheyenne will your heart stay free and bright?")

Barbara - Joediffie54@aol.com

My favorite shows were Paladin, Wyatt Earp, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Sky King. I wish they were still on. I do get to watch Wyatt Earp on Saturdays for 2 hours. It should be on more.

Tom Henderson - hendy@laughlin.net
Here's a few shows I didn't see mentioned:

1) The Ralph Carroll Show - on every weekday at 6:30 PM, and sponsered (in part) by Lou Rappaport's House of a 1000 Items. The show was on WNBF, out of Binghamton. You had to adjust the aluminum foil on the antenna wire to get it clearly. He always closed the show with this message:
"if you see someone without a smile, give them one of yours."

2) Fashions for My Lady with A. Murphy Drazen. Mondays at 7:00 PM on WNBF out of Binghamton. Every kid in the world hated this show. Ladies in dresses. Boring !!!

3) The Voice of Firestone - Mondays at 7:30 PM. What !!!! We gotta listen to opera??

4) Finally, a good show - The Tales of Wells Fargo, starring Dale Robertson. Great show for it's time. My dad and I always watched this one.

5) Then - The Restless Gun, starring John Payne. Another "horse opera" as my dad used to call all cowboy shows.

That's the Monday night line-up for WNBF back in the fifties. Jog your memories?

Thanx for a wonderful site for an Elmira fifties kid.

Bill Davies - ashn06@dsl.pipex.com

Does anyone remember a program called The Inner Sanctum? I think it was approx 1958 - 1960 ish and on quite late at night and was quite frightening, as I remember, to a kid of ten. I've asked loads of people but they all think I'm making it up. Please let me know I didn't dream it.

Sandy Stowell - sandystowell@adelphia.net
I am looking for a copy of Queen for a Day 1955 or 56. My 85 year old mother was on this program.

Susan - susan.jack@comcast.net
How about The Stranger? "Into every life there comes a stranger who leaves his mark and then passes on." I don't remember the actor.

Kathryn McCullough - katmc@earthlink.net
Just came across your site. What a trip down memory lane!

I liked the original Mike Hammer series with Darren McGavin (I think it was from the Fifties). Also remember Peter Diamond.

Watched The Rootie Kazootie Show, Bertie the Bunyip (with Sir Guy de Guy and Fussie and Gussie), and Willie the Worm (with Doy Doy) - Saturday morning kid stuff.

I also remember Frontier Playhouse, loved the Life of Riley . . . ."what a revolting development this is" . . . with Wm. Bendix, Marjorie Something-or-other, Joan Blondell (Riley, Peg, Honeybee) and his sidekick "Jimsy" (Blondell's husband).

Also, I Married Joan with Jim Backus (can't remember who played Joan), and something called Those Whiting Sisters (these little memory glitches are beginning to get on my nerves!).

James Broderick - BroderickJames@msn.com
Too Young To Go Steady - only remember the mother, Joan Bennett

Bluezman (Charlie) - CSMYTH@HVC.RR.COM
Blurbs, mostly from what's left of my memory..."Look! Up in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane it's... "Where in history are we going today, Professor Peabody?"
"I'll tell you as we start up the Wayback Machine." "Who was that masked man?"....
"Hi Yo, Silver!".

"There are eight million stories in the Naked City...This is one of them." "Hey kids, what time is it?" "Hey, Poncho!" "Hey, Cisco!" " 'Have gun will travel,' reads the card of a man..." "Holy mackerel, Andy! We's all got to stick together in dis heah thing...remember, we is brothers in that great fraternity,... The Mystic Knights of the Sea." "His name was Bat, Bat Masterson...." "Cap...tain, Vi..de..o...And his Video Rangers!" "Ceicle?" "Yeah, Beanie" "Plunk your Magic Twanger, Froggie!" "Boing!" (smoke) "Hiya kids, hiya kids, hiya, hiya, hiya!" "....with Ronald Ray-gun." "Brought to you by Twenty Mule Teem Borax" "Welcome to the inner sanctum (sound of creaking door)". "To the moon, Alice, right to the moon!"

If you remember the blurb, you'll remember the show it came from. Hoping that they are happy memories.
P.S. How many of you still drink Ovaltine?

Diane - deezee5200@webtv.net
Does anyone remember watching Sky King on Saturdays? How about even earlier times when there was a show called Buella. Hope I spelled that right! I can't seem to find anyone who remembers that show.

Bob Rocker- ROCKERJBOB@aol.com
some memories from Bob. I still have my Hopalong wrist watch, Captain Midnight decoder but I no longer have the magic TV screen to interact with Winky Dink. Anyone else watch that show?

Michael Brewer - mrbroof@webtv.net
writes to us about his favorites.
The Rifleman, Have Gun Will Travel, The Whirlybirds, and Yancy Derringer were among my favorites.

Clara Underwood - clarabu@bellsouth.net
The Big Story brought to us by White Rain.

Tom Chenevert of Dunstable, Ma - MarkVIILin@aol.com
writes about his favorites:
I liked among all the others previously mentioned on the site State Trooper with Rod Cameron, Boston Blackie with Kent Taylor, Dick Tracy with Ralph Byrd, Sea Hunt with Lloyd Bridges, Tales of Texas Rangers, The Range Rider with Jock Mahoney, Cowboy G-Men with Russell Hayden and Jackie Coogan The Crusader with Brian Keith, The Lineup with Warner Anderson and Tom Tully, The Cisco Kid with Duncan Renaldo, Kit Carson with Bill Wiliams, Wild Bill Hickock with Guy Madison, Wyatt Earp with Hugh OBrien, Meet McGraw with Frank Lovejoy and Mike Hammer with Darren McGavin.

Barb Madden raisnhell@home.com,
writes us about the shows that she enjoyed:
American Bandstand, Route 66, Hawaiian Eye, Maverick, 77 Sunset Strip, Lassie, The Lone Ranger, The Whirly Birds, The Blackhawks, The Real McCoys, Father Knows Best, I Love Lucy, M Squad, Car 54 - Where Are You, The Fugitive, The Flying Doctor, Sea Hunt, The Naked City, The Texas Rangers, Fury, My Friend Flicka, The Howdy Doody Show, The Kraft Mystery Theater, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Have Gun Will Travel, The Donna Reed Show, Zorro, Superman, Queen for a Day (that was a game show) and finally The Twentieth Century, narrated by Walter Cronkite, Wagontrain, and Gunsmoke."In closing I'd like to extend a sincere congrates and kudos to those that have put this web site together. Having grown up in the Fifties, it brings back terrific memories of simpler and more fun times."

What shows do you remember? Let us hear about them and we'll add more to our collection.
Click Here and give us some of your favorite shows of the fifties.