Naturally, “All in the Family” immediately comes to mind when you think of producer Norman Lear, who on July 27th celebrates his milestone 100th birthday. As do “Sanford and Son,” “Maude”, “Good Times”, “The Jeffersons”, “One Day at a Time” (both the original and the remake), and other TV entries.

Picture it…Wednesday, September 22, 1976. There were three broadcast networks: ABC, CBS and NBC. There was no FOX or cable. And streaming? It wasn’t in anyone’s vocabulary. Yet, there was always something of note to watch on television.

It’s no mystery as to why detective shows were so exceedingly popular in the 1970s. These stories offered us suspense and an escape from the mundane concerns of everyday life. They challenged us, prompting us to wonder if we possessed the cool head and critical thinking skills required for the job. If needed, could we unravel a messy crime? Under the right circumstances, could we pull off wearing a fedora and sunglasses indoors? 

If you were a kid in the 1950s, you were probably watching Westerns on television. Cowboys dominated the medium’s earliest days, with thrilling tales of handsome heroes and black-hatted bad guys captivating younger viewers. But, as the decade progressed, producers increasingly sought to appeal to viewers of all ages with recognizable characters — both historical and fictional. 

“Female private detectives?” a man asks incredulously on a 1976 episode of Charlie’s Angels.

The 1970s is generally considered the Golden Age of Detective Shows, with a parade of mostly male sleuths in rumpled suits dispatching bad guys night after night. But Hart to Hart, which debuted at the tail end of the decade, flipped the script on an increasingly predictable format. Episodes didn’t end in jail, or the police station, or the morgue. They ended in the bedroom.  “We were doing a love story,” co-star Robert Wagner said in a 2005 interview. “The action and adventure was...