Syndication

86 shows, 103 sequences, oldest first.

22 of these moved between networks during their run and appear under each one.

1 sequence

The Cisco Kid

1950–1956SyndicationDrama

The first television series filmed in colour, three years before anyone in America could receive it.

Season 1

1 sequence

Truth or Consequences

1950–1988CBS / NBC / SyndicationDocumentary

A radio stunt show that reached television in 1950 and persuaded a New Mexico town to rename itself after it.

Season 1

1 sequence

The Lawrence Welk Show

1951–1982ABC / SyndicationDocumentary

Champagne music, bubbles in the titles, and thirty-one years of the same band leader counting in.

Season 1

1 sequence

The Adventures of Superman

1952–1958SyndicationSci-Fi

"Faster than a speeding bullet" — the narration that defined the character for a generation before any film did.

Season 1

1 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

1 sequence

Highway Patrol

1955–1959SyndicationCrime

Broderick Crawford saying "Ten-four" into a car radio, which entered the language from here.

Season 1

1 sequence

Sea Hunt

1958–1961SyndicationDrama

Lloyd Bridges as a freelance diver, and the most successful syndicated series of its decade.

Season 1

1 sequence

The Huckleberry Hound Show

1958–1961SyndicationAnimation

The first animated series to win an Emmy, and the show Yogi Bear was a supporting segment in.

Season 1

1 sequence

The Quick Draw McGraw Show

1959–1962SyndicationAnimation

A horse sheriff who cannot shoot, with Snooper and Blabber and Augie Doggie filling out the half hour.

Season 1

1 sequence

Davey and Goliath

1960–1975SyndicationAnimation

A boy and his talking dog, stop-motion, funded by the Lutheran church and animated by the Gumby studio.

Season 1

1 sequence

The Yogi Bear Show

1961–1962SyndicationAnimation

The supporting character given his own half hour, and a pic-a-nic basket that outlasted the studio.

Season 1

1 sequence

Roger Ramjet

1965–1969SyndicationAnimation

A five-minute cartoon about a pilot who takes a pill for twenty seconds of super strength, drawn as cheaply as that sounds.

Season 1

1 sequence

Speed Racer

1967–1968SyndicationAnimation

Mach GoGoGo dubbed into English at speed, and the anime that got there before anyone called it that.

Season 1

1 sequence

Hee Haw

1969–1993CBS / SyndicationComedy

Country music and cornfield jokes, cancelled by CBS in the rural purge and then outliving it in syndication by twenty years.

Season 1

1 sequence

Soul 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

2 sequences

Family Feud

1976–ABC / SyndicationDocumentary

Survey says — two families, a buzzer, and a theme rearranged for every host since Richard Dawson.

Season 1
Season 35

1 sequence

The Muppet Show

1976–1981ITV / SyndicationComedy

An opening that changes every week by design: Statler and Waldorf get a new heckle, Gonzo gets a new way to fail the closing note, and the arch fills with whoever is in that episode.

Season 1

1 sequence

Battle of the Planets

1978–1980SyndicationAnimation

Gatchaman recut for America with a robot added to explain away the footage that was cut.

Season 1

2 sequences

It's a Living

1980–1989ABC / SyndicationComedy

Waitresses at a restaurant on the thirteenth floor, cancelled by ABC and revived in syndication.

Season 1
Season 2

1 sequence

Solid Gold

1980–1988SyndicationDocumentary

The weekly chart countdown as a dance routine, with its own troupe named after it.

Season 1

1 sequence

Too Close for Comfort

1980–1987ABC / SyndicationComedy

A cartoonist whose grown daughters move into the flat downstairs, which is the entire problem.

Season 1

1 sequence

Elvira's Movie Macabre

1981–1986SyndicationHorror

A horror host wrapped around public-domain films, and the character that outlasted every film she introduced.

Season 4

1 sequence

The $50,000 Pyramid

1981SyndicationDocumentary

One year of the Pyramid format at its highest stake, between the $20,000 and $25,000 versions.

Season 1

1 sequence

Fame

1982–1987NBC / SyndicationDrama

The film continued at the High School of Performing Arts, with a cast who did their own dancing.

Season 1

1 sequence

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

1983–1985SyndicationAnimation

A man holding a sword above his head announcing that he has the power, at a volume that defined an entire decade of toy advertising.

Season 1

1 sequence

Inspector Gadget

1983–1986SyndicationAnimation

A Peter Sellers impression with helicopter arms, and a theme that is In the Hall of the Mountain King with the serial numbers filed off.

Season 1

1 sequence

Mama's Family

1983–1990NBC / SyndicationComedy

A Carol Burnett Show sketch given its own house, dropped by NBC and then run for four more years in syndication.

Season 1

1 sequence

Star Search

1983–1995SyndicationDocumentary

The syndicated talent contest that ran twelve years and handed the singing-competition format almost everything Idol later inherited.

Season 1

1 sequence

Tales from the Darkside

1983–1988SyndicationHorror

George Romero's anthology, opened by pastoral countryside that turns to negative while a narrator explains why.

Season 1

1 sequence

Webster

1983–1989ABC / SyndicationComedy

A boy adopted by his late father's team-mate, in the sitcom ABC ran in Diff'rent Strokes' shadow.

Season 1

1 sequence

Charles in Charge

1984–1990CBS / SyndicationComedy

A student paying his rent by minding somebody else's children, in a sitcom CBS cancelled and syndication brought back.

Season 1

1 sequence

Kids Incorporated

1984–1994Syndication / Disney ChannelComedy

A band of children playing covers in a converted warehouse, and where Fergie and Jennifer Love Hewitt both started.

Season 1

1 sequence

Rainbow Brite

1984–1986SyndicationAnimation

A Hallmark character licensed into a cartoon, in the era when the toy came first and the series followed.

Season 1

1 sequence

Voltron: Defender of the Universe

1984–1985SyndicationAnimation

Five lions forming a robot, explained by narration because the animation alone could not carry it — and the sequence is better for the commitment.

Season 1

1 sequence

A Woman of Substance

1985Channel 4 / SyndicationDrama

Barbara Taylor Bradford's servant girl who builds a department store empire, across three nights.

Season 1

1 sequence

G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero

1985–1986SyndicationAnimation

A toy line turned into a war cartoon where nobody is ever hit, and a theme that spells the acronym out.

Season 1

1 sequence

Jem and the Holograms

1985–1988SyndicationAnimation

A record executive with a holographic alter ego, and a series that stopped for a music video every episode.

Season 1

3 sequences

Robotech

1985SyndicationAnimation

Three unrelated Japanese series cut together into one American saga, and the opening is where the seam shows: the same theme and the same establishing pan every week, then a different logo card and a different war.

Season 1
Season 2
Season 3

1 sequence

Small Wonder

1985–1989SyndicationComedy

A robot girl passed off as a daughter, in a syndicated sitcom that few people quite believe existed.

Seasons 1–2

1 sequence

ThunderCats

1985–1989SyndicationAnimation

A sword extending, a cat's eye opening, and a shout — eighties syndication at its most confident.

Season 1

1 sequence

What's Happening Now!!

1985–1988SyndicationComedy

The seventies sitcom revived with the same cast grown up and running the diner.

Season 1

1 sequence

Hollywood Squares

1986–1989SyndicationDocumentary

The noughts-and-crosses game revived for syndication, with nine celebrities stacked in a lit grid.

Season 1

1 sequence

My Little Pony 'n Friends

1986–1987SyndicationAnimation

The Hasbro line's first series, thirty years before the franchise found an audience it had not been aimed at.

Season 1

1 sequence

SilverHawks

1986SyndicationAnimation

ThunderCats moved into space by the same studio, with the same narrator shouting the same way.

Season 1

1 sequence

BraveStarr

1987–1988SyndicationAnimation

Filmation's science-fiction western, and the last series the studio finished before it closed.

Season 1

1 sequence

Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future

1987–1988SyndicationSci-Fi

Live action against computer animation, built so that a toy could shoot at the screen.

Season 1

1 sequence

DuckTales

1987–1990SyndicationAnimation

One of the most durable theme songs ever written for television, over a minute of ducks solving problems with money.

Season 1

1 sequence

Friday the 13th: The Series

1987–1990SyndicationHorror

An antiques shop recovering cursed objects, sharing nothing with the films but a title.

Season 1

1 sequence

Out of This World

1987–1991SyndicationComedy

A girl with an alien father who can stop time by touching her fingertips together.

Season 1

3 sequences

Star Trek: The Next Generation

1987–1994SyndicationSci-Fi

The Enterprise-D passing the camera at warp while Patrick Stewart reads the mission statement. Stately, slow and completely confident — it takes almost a minute and a half before anything happens, and it never once feels the need to hurry.

Season 1
Season 2
Seasons 3–7

1 sequence

Freddy's Nightmares

1988–1990SyndicationHorror

An anthology hosted by Freddy Krueger, made while the films were still coming out and stranger than any of them.

Season 1

1 sequence

Monsters

1988–1991SyndicationHorror

A half-hour anthology from the Tales from the Darkside producers, with a creature in every episode and a budget for none of them.

Season 1

1 sequence

Superboy

1988–1992SyndicationSci-Fi

Clark Kent at university in Florida, made for syndication while the films were between instalments.

Season 1

1 sequence

War of the Worlds

1988–1990SyndicationSci-Fi

A sequel to the 1953 film in which the aliens were never defeated, only dormant.

Season 1

1 sequence

American Gladiators

1989–1996SyndicationDocumentary

Members of the public running an assault course against professional athletes in lycra, in a format that outlived its own slot by decades.

Season 1

1 sequence

Baywatch

1989–2001NBC / SyndicationDrama

Los Angeles County lifeguards, and at its peak the most-watched television programme on Earth.

Season 1

1 sequence

The New Adventures of He-Man

1989–1990SyndicationAnimation

He-Man moved off Eternia into space, with a redesigned cast and almost none of the original's iconography.

Season 1

1 sequence

Tiny Toon Adventures

1990–1995Syndication / Fox KidsAnimation

A patter song naming the entire cast, which the series' successor Animaniacs would take further still.

Season 1

1 sequence

Forever Knight

1992–1996CBS / SyndicationHorror

A vampire working homicide nights in Toronto, introduced with narration explaining the arrangement every week.

Season 1

1 sequence

Highlander: The Series

1992–1998SyndicationSci-Fi

Queen's 'Princes of the Universe' over swordplay and lightning, and a narration explaining immortality every week for six years.

Season 1

1 sequence

Renegade

1992–1997Syndication / USA NetworkCrime

A framed policeman on a motorcycle, made for syndication by the people who made The A-Team.

Season 1

5 sequences

Babylon 5

1993–1998Syndication / TNTSci-Fi

Five seasons, five openings, and each one changes who is allowed to speak. The monologue passes from the station's first commander to his successor to his second-in-command, then splinters across the whole cast, then stops being a monologue at all.

Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
and 2 more

1 sequence

Bill Nye the Science Guy

1993–1998PBS / SyndicationDocumentary

Science for children at the speed of a music video, with a theme that shouts the presenter's name.

Season 1

1 sequence

Mighty Max

1993–1994SyndicationAnimation

A toy line turned into a series with Tim Curry and Richard Moll in it, and a body count.

Season 1

2 sequences

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

1993–1999SyndicationSci-Fi

A title sequence that starts still and learns to move. The station hangs motionless in the early years; by the war it is surrounded by traffic, which is the whole arc of the show in ninety seconds.

Seasons 1–3
Seasons 4–7

1 sequence

VeggieTales

1993–2015SyndicationAnimation

Bible stories told by vegetables, made on desktop computers in Chicago before any studio would have paid for it.

Season 1

1 sequence

Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad

1994–1995SyndicationSci-Fi

A garage band's keyboard player digitised into a computer to fight what lives there, adapted from Denkou Choujin Gridman.

Season 1

1 sequence

Sweet Valley High

1994–1997Syndication / UPNDrama

The paperback series about twin sisters, adapted for television with real twins.

Season 1

1 sequence

Viper

1994–1999NBC / SyndicationCrime

A car that converts into an armoured attack vehicle, cancelled by NBC and revived for syndication.

Season 1

1 sequence

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys

1995–1999SyndicationDrama

A narrated mythological premise delivered with total conviction over New Zealand hillsides.

Season 1

1 sequence

Skysurfer Strike Force

1995–1996SyndicationAnimation

Five pilots on energy surfboards, from the syndication block that ran opposite the Saban shows.

Season 1

1 sequence

Xena: Warrior Princess

1995–2001SyndicationDrama

A narrated mythological premise and a war cry, from the spinoff that comprehensively outgrew Hercules.

Season 1

3 sequences

Beast Wars: Transformers

1996–1999Syndication / YTVAnimation

Transformers rebuilt in computer graphics on a fraction of the budget, which is why everybody is an animal.

Season 1
Season 2
Season 3

1 sequence

Judge Judy

1996–2021SyndicationDocumentary

Small claims heard by a former family court judge who lets almost nobody finish a sentence.

Season 1

3 sequences

Earth: Final Conflict

1997–2002SyndicationSci-Fi

Developed from Gene Roddenberry's notes after his death, and it shows in the titles: benign-looking aliens, civic architecture and a great deal of blue, all arranged to look like a press release rather than an invasion.