All in the Family

Perhaps the quintessentially comforting '50s sitcom, about the Anderson family---rock-steady Jim, sensible wife Margaret, and their kids Betty, Bud and Kathy---in the Midwestern town of Springfield. The series was adapted from a radio program, also starring Robert Young, that began in 1949. When CBS canceled the show in 1955, fan protests led to NBC picking it up and nurturing it into a hit. In fact, repeats aired in prime time for three years after the production of its last original episode.

A widow and her three daughters (and Uncle Joe, who's a-movin' kinda slow) run the Shady Rest Hotel in Hooterville, whose clientele consists mainly of passengers on the spur line of an almost-defunct railroad.

Two waitresses in a small Brooklyn diner try to make a cupcake business fly off the ground. Caroline and Max came from opposite economic backgrounds growing up, but fate brought them together to become coworkers, roommates, friends, and business partners. Their diminutive employer Han allows them to use a vacant backroom in the diner to start their cupcake shop.

A suburban Chicago family is pestered by nerdy, nosy neighbor Steve Urkel in this long-running spin-off of 'Perfect Strangers' (Harriette Winslow was the wisecracking elevator operator at the newspaper where Larry and Balki worked). Originally, Urkel was a supporting character but he quickly emerged as a breakout star whose shenanigans came to dominate the sitcom.

The pilot for the long-running CBS sitcom The Andy Griffith Show was seen on February 15, 1960, as an episode of The Danny Thomas Show, "Danny Meets Andy Griffith." As originally conceived, Andy Taylor (Andy Griffith) was not only the sheriff of the sleepy North Carolina town of Mayberry, but he was also the mayor, justice of the peace, and newspaper editor. Child actor Ronny Howard (who, as Ron Howard, would in adulthood enjoy a spectacularly successful career as a film director) was seen in the pilot as the widowed Andy's son Opie, but Frances Bavier played an entirely different role than she would in the actual series, while Frank Cady rather than Hal Smith was cast as town drunk Otis Campbell. While there would be changes in concept and casting, the laid-back character of Andy Taylor "clicked" with TV audiences, ensuring that The Andy Griffith Show would join the Monday night CBS lineup come October 3, 1960. Introduced as regulars during season one were of course Andy Griffith, Ronny Howard, and Frances Bavier (now as Aunt Bee, housekeeper for Andy and Opie Taylor), with the significant and salutary addition of Don Knotts as Andy's tightly wound deputy Barney Fife. The rapport between Andy and Barney contributed mightily to the series' success during its shakedown season, with nominal leading character Andy often voluntarily taking a back seat to Barney's overzealous antics. Subsequent additions to the cast included Jim Nabors as bucolic gas station attendant Gomer Pyle (later spun off into his own series, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.); George Lindsey as Gomer's cousin, Goober Pyle; Howard McNear as dithery barber Floyd Lawson; and Hal Smith as the aforementioned Otis Campbell. Taking advantage of Andy Taylor's widower status, the series' writers tried to pair the character off with a number of eligible young ladies, beginning in the first season with Elinor Donahue as drugstore sales clerk Ellie Walker. But only when Aneta Corsaut joined the cast as Opie's schoolteacher Helen Crump did Andy find the "right" girl. Indeed, Andy and Helen would become engaged during the series' final season. Conversely, Barney Fife had but one steady girlfriend, Thelma Lou, played by Betty Lynn. Don Knotts left the series at the outset of its sixth season (the show switched from black-and-white to color at the same time); it was explained that Barney had accepted a deputy position in Raleigh, permitting Knotts to make a handful of memorable return guest appearances. Barney was briefly replaced by Deputy Warren Ferguson, played by Jack Burns; later on, Goober Pyle became Andy's unofficial deputy. The post-Don Knotts episodes brought forth several other new recurring characters: Jack Dodson as town clerk Howard Sprague, Paul Hartman as handyman Emmet Clark, and Hope Summers as Aunt Bee's best friend, Clara. During the Emmy-winning series' eighth season, Andy Griffith decided to leave the show. At this point, Ken Berry was added to the cast as widowed farmer and later town councilman Sam Jones, with Buddy Foster as Sam's son Mike and Arlene Golonka as Sam's girlfriend, Millie Hutchins. After the final telecast of The Andy Griffith Show on September 16, 1968, the series continued for three additional seasons under the title Mayberry RFD, with Ken Berry taking over as star and with most of the familiar Andy Griffith Show supporting characters still in attendance. One of the most consistently popular sitcoms of all time, The Andy Griffith Show lasted 249 half-hour episodes, and also spawned the high-rated 1986 TV movie Return to Mayberry.

One of TV's most durable and wholesome sitcoms is about widower Steve Douglas and his boys, who shared a house with their maternal grandfather, and later, their crotchety uncle. The series was originally scheduled to be a vehicle for the Lennon Sisters of 'Lawrence Welk Show' fame. Characters came and went, but this was an endearing, highly rated series throughout its 1960-72 run; when it moved from ABC to CBS in 1965, Mike, the eldest, was written out, and replaced by adopted son Ernie.