More than one billion Colorforms sets have been sold since the ’50s. They started with basic geometric shapes, then moved on to branded playsets.
television
Take tic-tac-toe, toss in nine celebrities, stir in some questions and add fabulous prizes. What do you get? The original Hollywood Squares game show!
While boxes of Jell-O pudding pops may be but a memory, we can still remember their glory days through these magazine ads and TV commercials!
The Banana Splits Adventure Hour lasted only 31 episodes, but its funky psychedelia had a lasting impact. Take a look – and a listen!
While television hardly needed another cop series, ‘Starsky and Hutch’ was one of the better reasons to turn on a TV back in the ’70s. Here’s why.
Here Come The Brides was an hour-long comedy/Western TV series set in Seattle in the 1870s about a family of loggers who brought in 100 women as potential brides. The show launched Bobby Sherman and David Soul as teen idols.
For decades, it was considered inappropriate for TV or movies to show a married couple sharing a bed. But did married couples really sleep in separate beds back in the ’50s?
While she was known to millions as Carol on The Brady Bunch, Florence Henderson had a vibrant, successful career as both an actress and singer.
Anyone obsessed with vintage Strawberry Shortcake probably dreamed of these pieces of sugary sweet delight featuring their favorite gal – dolls and toys, of course, but also bedding, wallpaper, roller skates and more.
What were popular ’50s floors like? They might have bold stripes, checkerboard squares, or many other classic and creative ideas. Take a look back!
Many critics were surprised that the ‘Emergency!’ TV show was a success. One factor for sure: actors Randy Mantooth and Kevin Tighe, who played paramedics John Gage and Roy DeSoto, made indelible impressions on viewers.
In one of the stranger television concepts in history, Sally Field played the title role of The Flying Nun – the 90-pound Sister Bertrille, who could use her starched cornette to take to the skies if the wind was just right.
Here, look back at 14 brands and varieties of crunchy and smooth vintage peanut butter goodness from the last 120-plus years, including popular favorites as well as once-famous spreadables that are now gone.
Since 1952, Mad Magazine has poked fun at everything from Superman to Yoda, M*A*S*H to hippies. But it’s about more than humor – it’s big business, too.
When the Disney Channel started in 1983, it was a cable subscription service with shows like Mousercise and Mickey Mouse Club, along with many of the famous Disney movies. See some of the schedules and more here!
Take a look back at some of the most popular vintage 1970s cereals that we loved – including many discontinued products we still miss. (And don’t forget about the free toys that were inside kids’ cereal boxes!)
Bald, Tootsie Pop-snacking Kojak was the king of the police procedural on TV, from 1973 through 1978. Here’s a look back!
‘All in the Family’ was a huge hit TV show that aired on CBS from 1971 to 1979, and was number 1 in the Nielsen ratings from 1971 to 1976. Find out about the series here, and see the famous opening credits, too!
Based on the famous books, The Hardy Boys-Nancy Drew Mysteries TV series debuted in 1977, starring Parker Stevenson & Shaun Cassidy as the brothers Frank & Joe, and Pamela Sue Martin as Nancy.
Somewhere in that golden haze after Sesame Street, there was a little TV show called New Zoo Revue. Take a look back to that oh-so-retro kids’ show here!
No longer do superheroes zip through the air. They’re complex, abnormal, alienated and schizoid. They are the heroes of today’s college campuses, the new escape mechanisms for 10-year-olds, and the grist for social psychologists a generation from now.
Who invented television? Unfortunately for anyone looking for a quick answer, the first TV sets weren’t made by one single person — there were several inventors who were incredibly important to its creation and evolution. Here’s a look!
When you look back at how people talked about and used computers in the 1960s, it’s easy to get a feel for how exciting the technological advances were at the time. It was a whole new wild frontier.
CHiPS, a light-hearted one-hour action-adventure series, follows the exploits of a pair of young California Highway Patrol motorcycle officers on the busy Los Angeles freeways, and their encounters with the infinite variety of people who drive there.
About H. R. Pufnstuf, the completely wacky vintage kids’ TV show – plus the opening credits & lyrics
There were only 17 episodes made of H. R. Pufnstuf, but the kitschy kiddie TV show earned its cult status through reruns that aired through the ’70s and into the ’80s. Here’s a look back!
The Monkees may have been a prefab TV band, but there was nothing made up about their real-world success. Here’s a look back!
21 Jump Street was a cop show that debuted in 1987, and immediately found an audience: teenagers, especially girls. That was fair, since the show was about police officers who pretended to be teens. Johnny Depp was the series’ breakout star.
For the many fans of minty vintage McDonald’s Shamrock Shakes, here you can see some old television commercials for the cold green stuff from the 1970s and 1980s! PS: They weren’t always mint-flavored.
The Foundations were a band that burst onto the music scene in the late 1960s with a fantastic soul sound that was straight out of Motown. Except it wasn’t.
What was the Partridge Family TV series about? In an eggshell: Five siblings made the big-time playing rock ‘n’ roll music, and, led by their mom, toured the country. Squabbles, catchy tunes and hijinks ensued.
On this 1982 sitcom, the Square Pegs were Patty Greene (a young Sarah Jessica Parker) and Lauren Hutchinson (Amy Linker). Patty was the smart, skinny, nearsighted one; Lauren was the one with baby fat and braces. The round hole was Weemawee High School.
The Waltons was a story of a large family living in Virginia during the Great Depression. The classic TV show originally aired from 1972 through 1981. Find out what the cast thought of the program here.
This vintage ad featured the tagline ‘I had a headache this big… and it’s got Excedrin written all over it.’ That sentence ended up becoming one of the most enduring slogans of the eighties.
‘Sliders’ was a sci-fi TV show that told the story of four adventurers who discover a passageway between dimensions that transported them to parallel worlds.
While the stars were still aligning for her first big acting role, young Mariska Hargitay, daughter of the legendary Jayne Mansfield, took on other jobs.
Hot buttered Cheerios – a quick, easy snack made with Cheerios cereal. Make a bowl right now, and you’ve got Hot Buttered Os – plus 5 variations to try.
The ’80s hit song ‘Fish Heads’ didn’t just sound strange, but it was co-created by vintage ‘Lost in Space’ TV show actor Billy Mumy. Find out more here!
Buddy Holly was one of rock and roll’s early pioneers. He remains influential to this day, despite his untimely death in a plane crash. Here’s a look back at his career!
The Godfather of Soul. Mr Dynamite. The Hardest Working Man in Show Business. Whatever you called him, James Brown was a music legend who released hit records in four different decades.
The ’70s TV classic ‘Match Game’ redefined the modern game show. It went against convention, appealed to a younger, hipper audience and ushered in a new era of television.
The Love Boat sailed from ABC into American homes for nine seasons, from 1977 until 1986. The hour-long dramedy/sitcom was a favorite of viewers and critics alike – so come remember it here!
Remember vintage TV dinners — shiny foil trays filled with delicious-looking dinner delights, waiting in the freezer for a special night? Plus find out the history of TV dinners!
On TV, the I Dream of Jeannie bottle was magical – from the pretty painted outside to the plush, jeweled interior. Find out about the wizardry that made it work!
Check out these vintage Tiger Beat magazines to see who teens were screaming about and obsessing over back in the seventies – decades before there were Kardashians and BTS.
Let’s look back at the popular sitcom The Facts of Life – meet the actresses, hear that catchy theme song one more time, and get the lyrics for the hit show’s opening credits!
The original Gilligan’s Island pilot had three actors who were cut before the series began, a slightly different name, and a completely different theme song. Get the scoop here!
After launching their career in the ’60s, in the early ’70s, Sonny and Cher turned to television, and to everyone’s surprise, they were a huge hit – leading to adventures both good and bad.
Back in the seventies, the vintage soap operas ‘Another World’ & ‘Days of Our Lives’ escaped the short half-hour program format, and were the first to hit the airwaves in one hour blocks.
For those who have not seen it, ‘The A Team’ is a straightforward piledriver of a show, a blue-collar ‘Mission Impossible’ without the finesse. Here’s a TV show review from 1983!
Cheap store-bought vintage Halloween costumes like these were all the rage in the ’70s. But how did the finished product compare to their TV show inspiration? We took a look, and the results were nothing short of scary.
Charlie Brown? Check. Grinch? Yep. You can also see how Johnny Depp, Elvira, Martin Lawrence & Tom Hanks got into the holiday spirit years ago on these vintage Halloween TV specials.
Dynamite magazine was published from 1974-1992, and delivered a little bit of pop culture to kids’ mailboxes all across the US. Here’s a look back!
