Television During the '70s

If there was one word to describe television during the 1970s that word would be cheese. The very definition of the boob tube was evident during this decade as television programmers turned to implausible, high-concept sitcoms and variety shows to entertain audiences. Shows like The Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family, The Love Boat, Charlie's Angels, Three's Company and others were innocuously silly and shallow, but offered audiences wearied by the war in Vietnam, civil unrest, and the Watergate scandal to, like their 1960s counterparts, escape from reality. The King of Cheese was undoubtably executive producer Aaron Spelling. Responsible for such shows as The Love Boat and Charlie's Angels, Spelling's series traded on cheesecake sexuality and conventional stories that were easily resolved at the end of each episode. Spelling created a formula that proved popular during the decade and was replicated by other TV shows such as the ABC sitcom Three's Company, which perfected the situational comedy and laugh tracks conventions. PBS, founded in 1969, offered an alternative to the cheese by featuring educational and informational programming for a discerning public. Shows like Masterpiece Theater and Great Performances brought the arts to primetime and educational fare such as Sesame Street and Electric Company revealed that a balance between entertainment and education could be struck for children's programming.