Documentary · 1970s
15 shows17 sequences
2 sequencesFamily Feud
1976–ABC / SyndicationDocumentary
Survey says — two families, a buzzer, and a theme rearranged for every host since Richard Dawson.
- Season 1
- Season 35
2 sequencesThe Price Is Right
1972–CBSDocumentary
"Come on down" — the longest-running game show in American television, opening the same way for fifty years.
- Season 1
- Season 36
1 sequenceMonday Night Football
1970–ABCDocumentary
The programme that moved American football into primetime, and gave it a fanfare to arrive on.
- Season 2
1 sequenceSoul Train
1971–2006SyndicationDocumentary
An animated locomotive pulling into a city drawn in airbrush — the longest-running first-run syndicated show in American history opens like a record sleeve.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThe World at War
1973–1974ITV (Thames)Documentary
Thames Television's twenty-six part history of the Second World War, still the benchmark for the form.
- Season 1
1 sequenceNBC Nightly News
1970–NBCDocumentary
Fourteen seconds of brass and a rotating globe, which is what a network evening bulletin has been reduced to.
- Season 47
1 sequenceThe Old Grey Whistle Test
1971–1988BBC TwoDocumentary
The serious music programme to Top of the Pops' singles chart, with a harmonica riff and a star-kicker cartoon.
- Season 1
1 sequenceA Question of Sport
1970–2023BBC OneDocumentary
The longest-running sports quiz on television, with a picture board and a what-happened-next round.
- Season 20
1 sequenceLife on Earth
1979BBC TwoDocumentary
The series that invented the modern natural history film, and the template for everything Attenborough made afterwards.
- Season 1
1 sequenceConnections
1978BBC OneDocumentary
James Burke tracing one invention to another across centuries, in a structure the titles set up before he says a word.
- Season 1
1 sequenceAustin City Limits
1974–PBSDocumentary
The longest-running music programme in American television, opening on a painted Austin skyline that is not quite the real one.
- Season 20
1 sequenceThe Ascent of Man
1973BBC TwoDocumentary
Jacob Bronowski on science as a human activity, made as the BBC's answer to its own Civilisation.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThe Krypton Factor
1977–1995ITVDocumentary
A general knowledge round, an assault course and a mental agility test, opening on a rotating wireframe grid that was expensive in 1977.
- Season 1
1 sequenceSki Sunday
1978–BBC TwoDocumentary
A downhill run cut to Pop Looks Bach, and a theme that in Britain means winter rather than skiing.
- Season 43
1 sequenceBlankety Blank
1979–1990BBC OneDocumentary
A panel game with a deliberately worthless prize, and a microphone shaped like a fishing rod.
- Season 1