Can you guess the genre of forgotten 1970s TV shows?

Western or sci-fi? Cartoon or crime drama?

Some of the most influential shows of all time debuted in the 1970s. The decade is iconic for giving us characters like George Jefferson, Greg Brady, Hawkeye Pierce and all of Charlie's Angels.

But what about all those shows that history tends to forget? The decade debuted many short-lived series; some lasted a couple seasons and others just a few episodes. 

Still, with names like Buck Rogers and Hec Ramsey, we think anyone familiar with the era will have a knack for sorting even the most forgotten shows into the correct TV genre.

Or is this quiz perhaps much harder than you might think? Let's find out!
  1. Pick the correct genre for this Seventies show: Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
  2. Pick the correct genre for this Seventies show: Alias Smith and Jones
  3. Pick the correct genre for this Seventies show: B.J. and the Bear
  4. Pick the correct genre for this Seventies show: Barbary Coast
  5. Pick the correct genre for this Seventies show: Harry O
  6. Pick the correct genre for this Seventies show: Big Shamus, Little Shamus
  7. Pick the correct genre for this Seventies show: The Barkleys
  8. Pick the correct genre for this Seventies show: The Dumplings
  9. Pick the correct genre for this Seventies show: The Fantastic Journey
  10. Pick the correct genre for this Seventies show: Hec Ramsey
  11. Pick the correct genre for this Seventies show: Monty Nash
  12. Pick the correct genre for this Seventies show: Dorothy
  13. Pick the correct genre for this Seventies show: Devlin
  14. Pick the correct genre for this Seventies show: Sam

Can you guess the genre of forgotten 1970s TV shows?

Your Result...

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54 Comments

MarkSpeck 43 months ago
13 out of 14. Missed on BJ and the Bear. Yes, it could be funny sometimes, but they did do some dead serious episodes, which is why I said it was a drama and not a comedy.
RJOwles MarkSpeck 24 months ago
Definitely could go either way on that one. I vacillated but chose comedy but it was like a dramady like many of the shows of that time. Just imagine if they had The Fall Guy on the list. Would that be crime, drama, or comedy?
DerekBird 47 months ago
You got 12 out of 14
Groovy! You hit just about every target we gave you! I've never heard of "Sam" and Big John, Little John was probably an NBC show and I was an ABC fan because they had my favorite shows on. Those are the two I got wrong.
KatHat 58 months ago

You got 8 out of 14
Uh-oh, looks like this quiz took you for a ride!
NEVER thought of BJ & The Bear as a comedy (only watched it once, thought it was a crime show)
DerekBird KatHat 47 months ago
No, it was a comedy. It had a chimp in it, do you think that they could pull off a crime drama with a chimp and a big rig?
Pegs 58 months ago
8/14 which surprised me (that I got so many, lol!). Some of us are scratching our heads over the "comedy" classification of BJ & The Bear; I wonder of the writer was thinking of the utterly execrable Me & The Chimp which starred Ted Bessel?

Also, I noticed no mention of Alias Smith & Jones being inspired by (Hell, it was a total rip-off) of Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid.
DerekBird Pegs 47 months ago
One show that they could have used to swerve most people with would have been Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kids.
DerekHarris 58 months ago
Some of the most irrelevant, obscure shows I've NEVER heard of....
djw1120 DerekHarris 58 months ago
9 out of 14
And you're right.
WILD 58 months ago
Sam, Dorothy and The Dumplings were shows that I can't remember ever hearing of before, so I guessed wrong on those, but the rest I got right.
DerekBird WILD 47 months ago
I'd never heard of the either, but I got 2/3 right by guessing they were comedies. I thought Sam was a comedy too, but I got that wrong.
WILD 58 months ago
You got 11 out of 14
Groovy! You hit just about every target we gave you! Devlin was basically Evel Knievel without the license for it to be Evel Knievel. Good show from the early 70s though.
DerekBird WILD 47 months ago
The difference was the kids and that it was set in a circus.
superior43 58 months ago
Fantastic Voyage was about a 'medical team' shrunken to enter the human body in a submarine, to perform brain surgery.
djw1120 superior43 58 months ago
You're right, but the clue was "Fantastic JOURNEY"
djw1120 djw1120 58 months ago
"Fantastic Voyage" was written by the late great sci-fi author Isaac Asimov.
CynthiaFinnegan 58 months ago
I'd have to argue with you about Buck Rogers being "inspired" by Star Wars. Anthony "Buck" Rogers debuted in the pages of the August, 1928 issue of Amazing Stories in a novella titled Armageddon 2419.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_Rogers
WILD CynthiaFinnegan 58 months ago
Buck Rogers was created before almost any of us was born. If anything Buck Rogers inspired George Lucas to create Star Wars.
DerekBird CynthiaFinnegan 47 months ago
Agreed. Maybe the inspiration to have the Buck Rogers TV show was "inspired" by Star Wars in that they green lit the show to take advantage of the Sci-Fi boom created by Star Wars.
nerakr 58 months ago
8/14. But I would disagree with BJ and the Bear's being a comedy.
JeanInTN nerakr 58 months ago
Me, too; I though it was more of a family-oriented light drama.
Joseph nerakr 58 months ago
Yes, as I stated in another post, if BJ And The Bear can be considered a comedy, then so could Emergency! and Bonanza.
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