1962: Walter Cronkite becomes the anchor of The CBS Evening News. Johnny Carson takes over as the host of The Tonight Show. The Rose Bowl is the first coast to coast color television broadcast of a college football game. Notable TV premieres of the year: The Jetsons (ABC), The Beverly Hillbillies (CBS), and The Lucy Show (CBS). Notable TV finales of the year: Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
And these were the top 20 shows of 1961-62.
Top 20 Prime Time Broadcast Programs, October 1961-April 1962:
|
RANK |
PROGRAM |
NETWORK |
|
HH RATING |
HH SHARE |
|
1 |
Wagon Train |
NBC |
32.1 |
53 |
|
|
2 |
Bonanza |
NBC |
30.0 |
46 |
|
|
3 |
Gunsmoke |
CBS |
28.3 |
47 |
|
|
4 |
Hazel |
NBC |
27.7 |
45 |
|
|
5 |
Perry Mason |
CBS |
27.3 |
45 |
|
|
6 |
The Red Skelton Show |
CBS |
27.1 |
42 |
|
|
7 |
The Andy Griffith Show |
CBS |
27.0 |
42 |
|
|
8 |
The Danny Thomas Show |
CBS |
26.1 |
40 |
|
|
9 |
Dr. Kildare |
NBC |
25.6 |
40 |
|
|
10 |
Candid Camera |
CBS |
25.5 |
45 |
|
|
11 |
My Three Sons |
ABC |
24.7 |
38 |
|
|
12 |
The Garry Moore Show |
CBS |
24.6 |
48 |
|
|
13 |
Rawhide |
CBS |
24.5 |
42 |
|
|
14 |
The Real McCoys |
ABC |
24.2 |
38 |
|
|
15 |
Lassie |
CBS |
24.0 |
42 |
|
|
16 |
Sing Along With Mitch |
NBC |
24.0 |
46 |
|
|
17 |
Dennis The Menace |
CBS |
23.8 |
38 |
|
|
17 |
Gunsmoke |
CBS |
23.8 |
43 |
|
|
19 |
Ben Casey |
ABC |
23.7 |
44 |
|
|
20 |
The Ed Sullivan Show |
CBS |
23.5 |
36 |
For a bit of perspective, the top rated show this season, Tuesday's American Idol, Season To Date HH rating is 16.1 and its share is 24.
While I was around in '62, I was perfecting my walking skills, not watching much television. I Wikipedia-linked the top 5 shows above, plus others I didn't remember for everyone's reference.
1962 was the era of the TV western (5 of 20, Wagon Train, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, x2, and Rawhide) and the variety show (5 of 20, The Red Skelton Show, The Danny Thomas Show, The Garry Moore Show, Sing Along With Mitch, The Ed Sullivan Show)
Five of the top 20 shows were sitcoms. (Hazel, The Andy Griffith Show, My Three Sons, The Real McCoys and Dennis The Menace)
There was just one crime drama (Perry Mason). 173 fewer than CBS has in its schedule this season.
The year included what was perhaps the first "reality" TV series (Candid Camera). Allen Funt, look what you've done to television!
Several of these TV shows began as radio shows, among them Candid Camera and Gunsmoke.
The network v. network competition was also uneven with ABC having only 3 shows in the top 20. NBC had 5 and CBS had 12.
Don't forget that a HH ratings point today means a lot more households than it did in the past.
Wagon Train cast photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2005 Nielsen Media Research, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Taking a little break from mourning Eight Belles. One thing Bill didn’t point out: these are all the shows my mom watched while I was in the womb before breaking out in July, well after May sweeps
I know the theme song for every scripted show in this list. Coincidence?
Which is my favorite? Hard to say. Wagon Train, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Perry Mason, Andy Griffith, My Three Sons and Rawhide are all very special to me. But I think here, without any strong theme from Henry Mancini, you have to default to Lassie and Greensleeves. How can I pick against MOZART! You can’t ever go wrong picking Mozart.
Just a clarifying note: The Lucy Show, Beverly Hillbillies, and the Jetsons all premiered in the fall of 1962, so that is why they are not part of the Top 20 list, which covered the previous season.
Seems to me that “Greensleeves” didn’t become “Lassie”‘s theme until late in the network run, long after she’d dumped Timmy for the forest ranger and then went out on her own. In 1962, they were still using the stock music library theme with the whistling by Raoul Kraushaar.
I have no actual memory of Lassie until it was in reruns. As I recall the setup for that was whistling in the opening theme, and Greensleeves in the closing credits.
Andy Griffith should be at #1
sothe, It was #1, in 1967-68, but we haven't done that year yet
Andy Griffith should be at #1
sothe, It was #1, in 1967-68, but we haven't done that year yet