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Comedy · 1950s

The 1950s account for 13 of the 654 comedy shows here, and 13 opening sequences.

CBS carries the most, with seven.

13 shows13 sequences

Still from the opening titles of I Love Lucy1 sequence

I Love Lucy

1951–1957CBSComedy

A satin heart on a cigarette-brand backdrop — a title card that exists because the sponsor paid for it, and which outlived the sponsor by seventy years.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The Honeymooners1 sequence

The Honeymooners

1955–1956CBSComedy

A moon over Brooklyn and an orchestra — the sitcom that most American sitcoms since are a variation on, in thirty-nine episodes.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet1 sequence

The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet

1952–1966ABCComedy

A real family playing themselves for fourteen years, which is the longest-running live-action sitcom in American television.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Father Knows Best1 sequence

Father Knows Best

1954–1960CBS / NBCComedy

The Anderson family of Springfield, and the series the phrase came from.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The Danny Thomas Show1 sequence

The Danny Thomas Show

1953–1964ABC / CBSComedy

Eleven years of a nightclub comedian's home life, and the series The Andy Griffith Show was spun out of.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Romper Room1 sequence

Romper Room

1953–1994SyndicationComedy

A franchised preschool programme licensed to local stations, each with its own hostess and the same magic mirror.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The Donna Reed Show1 sequence

The Donna Reed Show

1958–1966ABCComedy

A sitcom its star produced herself, which is why the mother in it has a job the plot takes seriously.

  • Season 8
Still from the opening titles of The Phil Silvers Show1 sequence

The Phil Silvers Show

1955–1959CBSComedy

A military march for a sergeant running every racket on the base — the ancestor of every workplace comedy about a charming fraud.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Our Miss Brooks1 sequence

Our Miss Brooks

1952–1956CBSComedy

Eve Arden as a high-school English teacher, in a radio transfer that ran on both media at once.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Hancock's Half Hour1 sequence

Hancock's Half Hour

1956–1961BBCComedy

Galton and Simpson's radio series moved to television, and the point at which British sitcom stopped being a variety turn.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show1 sequence

The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show

1950–1958CBSComedy

A sitcom in which the husband watches the rest of the episode on a television in his study and comments on it — thirty years before anyone called that postmodern.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Mr Squiggle1 sequence

Mr Squiggle

1959–1999ABC (Australia)Comedy

A marionette from the moon with a pencil for a nose, turning children's scribbles into drawings for forty years.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The Colgate Comedy Hour1 sequence

The Colgate Comedy Hour

1950–1955NBCComedy

A live variety hour with a different star each week, made to take the audience off Ed Sullivan.

  • Season 4