I was born in 1970, and I spent a lot of my youth sitting in front of the TV. Not all the time, mind you, but a decent amount of it, and it’s hard to say that it didn’t pay off at least somewhat, since I stand before you as someone who’s more or less made his living for the last decade and a half as a result of a love of television that blossomed in the ‘70s.
That said, I also spent the ‘70s in my pre-teens, so when I look back on that period of time, the shows that still stand strong in my mind are the ones that caught the attention of a boy who never met an insane premise that he couldn’t embrace as perfectly reasonable for the duration of 30 - 60 minutes.
I therefore present to you a dozen shows from the ‘70s that only lasted for a single season and yet made enough of an impact on me at the time that I have never, ever forgotten them. Since there’s every likelihood that you’ve never even heard of some of these, I’ve also included the TVGuide.com synopsis for each series. Prepare to roll your eyes…and in the midst of your preparations, just be aware that you could be doing so up to a dozen times.
Last but not least, I have not in most of these cases gone back and revisited full episodes of these shows to see if they’re even remotely as good as I remember them as being when I was less than 10 years old, but I will admit that the process of putting together this piece has resulted in the discovery of near-complete runs of a couple of these series on YouTube. If you’re interested in having me do full pieces on any of these programs, let me know, and if you’re a paid subscriber… Well, God help me, then I might actually do it!
This decade was Very TRAIN Heavy. Even Logan's Run has a train in it. And two John Schuck vehicles! I remember many of them but for me, Planet of the Apes was the king of the single season 70's shows.
Ha! Cliffhangers! Curious that it only lasted two months because I still have clear memories of regularly discussing it with friends during recess. I'd have sworn it lasted a full season of playground talk. At any rate, it was really popular with the ten-year-old crowd.
My memories of Holmes and Yoyo and the Man From Atlantis are much more sketchy (chiefly Patrick Duffy's webbed hands and feet when he was in water). I know I watched at least a few episodes of each, but that's about it.