Variety

1 9 7 8 - 1 9 8 0 (USA) This spoof of beauty pageants (created by the production company of Chuck Barris and aired on NBC) saw six female contestants compete in categories of poise and...

1 9 7 3 - 1 9 7 6 (USA) 4270 x 30 minute episodes "Keep your eye on this spot! You are about to see one celebrity and one contestant step into this circle with a chance...

1 9 5 5 - 1 9 5 8 (USA) Before the quiz show scandal of the late 1950s, The $64,000 Question was a high-stakes, nail-biting, ratings-topping game show phenomenon. Sponsored by the Revlon lipstick company it was the first...

1 9 9 1 - 1 9 9 3 (UK) 14 x 60 minute episodes This black talent contest - a clone of the talent shows held at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, New York - was produced...

1 9 7 8 - 1 9 8 7 (UK) 180 x 60 minute episodes Ted Rogers and Dusty Bin (a robotic dustbin with a face on the front) appeared in this bizarre game show from Yorkshire Television,...

1 9 7 4 - 1 9 7 5 (UK) 40 x 30 minute episodes Following the demise of children's TV pop show Lift Off With Ayshea, Granada producer Muriel Young returned with 45, aimed at a slightly older audience...

1 9 7 0 - Current (UK) Fresh from the studio soccer game Quiz Ball, David Vine first introduced A Question Of Sport at 6:20 pm on Monday 5 January 1970 with captains Henry Cooper (the boxer) and Cliff Morgan (from...

1 9 6 6 (UK) A Whole Scene Going was the first real teenage lifestyle programme with features on Carnaby Street fashions, the London club scene and package holidays in Italy. This 30-minute weekly programme was the brainchild...

1 9 5 6 - 1 9 5 7 (UK) BBC entertainment in which Alan Melville strung together sketches, songs, parodies and guest appearances to a different letter of the alphabet each week. Derived originally from a published...

1 9 8 4 - 1 9 8 5 (USA) One year after the debut of NBC's Friday Night Videos (network television's first attempt to respond to the popularity of cable television's MTV), this was ABC's entry into the...

1 9 6 6 - 1 9 6 7 (USA) 26 x 60 minute episodes ABC presented this series of original television productions in a noble but failed attempt to revive the TV anthology drama series, so...

1 9 5 2 - 1 9 5 4 (UK) Following on the success of London Town, Richard Dimbleby presented About Britain - a similar series presenting "journeys to people and places of yesterday and today". Episodes included 'The Lake District', 'Scotland...

1 9 6 0 - 1 9 6 1 (USA) 138 x 30 minute episodes Contestants, chosen from studio audience members, were placed opposite each other and presented with clues concerning incidents in their past lives in this...

1 9 5 1 - 1 9 5 8 (UK) About The Home was an essential part of afternoon viewing for many British women in the 1950s. The long-running programme was designed to help housewives improve their domestic skills...

1 9 6 1 - 1 9 6 2 (UK) 26 x 25 minute episodes "Right answers win letters. Letters build words. Words win cash (and cars)" This word-based quiz show was produced by Associated-Rediffusion and hosted by...

A now-forgotten alternative to the commercial break in the early days of British commercial television was the Advertising Magazine (or 'Admag') in which performers were allowed to extol the virtues of various products during the...

1 9 8 0 - 1 9 8 6 (UK) Three people are stranded on a planet on the far side of the galaxy. In order to return to earth they must first locate a crystal to...

1 9 8 2 - 2 0 0 5 (Australia) The continued allegiance of Australian TV aerobicists to hi-energy disco music is a wonderful thing. Long after the rest of the world moved on from Hazel Dean...

1 9 5 0 - 1 9 5 3 (USA) In 1950, when network television was still in its infancy in the US and radio ruled supreme as America's favourite home entertainment medium, a young Canadian comedian...

1 9 7 2 - 1 9 7 3 (UK) 13 x episodes British native, but long-term American resident Alistair Cooke hosted this long-running documentary on the development of the United States from before Columbus, through the colonial...