Chicago Fire

The most successful of producer Jack Webb's non-Dragnet TV projects, the weekly, half-hour Adam-12 was a realistic, unadorned look at the "working cop." Each episode dealt with a typical day in the lives of two uniformed policeman, assigned to a patrol car in the teeming streets of Los Angeles. Martin Milner was cast as Officer Pete Malloy, a seasoned veteran who in the first episode was teamed with probationary rookie cop Officer Jim Reed, played by Kent McCord. A few very rocky moments notwithstanding, the relationship between Malloy and Reed was never "superior/inferior" but always on an equal basis, with young Jim benefiting mightily from Pete's casual expertise, and Pete in turn being "humanized" by eager-beaver Jim. It was clearly established that the partners were not supermen or paragons. They were both capable of making serious mistakes and errors of judgment, and both could be emotionally affected by their work despite the hard shell they'd had to build around themselves when dealing with a variety of unpleasant "perps." Reversing the usual cop movie cliché, junior partner Reed was married (to wife Jean, played variously by Mikki Jamison and Kristin Harmon), while Malloy was a bachelor. Sent to their various assignments by a never-seen police dispatcher (voice provided by Shaaron Claridge), whose oft-repeated "One Adam 12 -- One Adam 12" became the series' most familiar catch phrase, Reed and Malloy handled cases ranging from the hilarious to the horrendous. Over the years their cop-shop colleagues included Sgt. MacDonald (William Boyett), Officer Ed Wells (Gary Crosby), Officer Jerry Walters (William Stevens), Sgt. Jerry Miller (Jack Hogan), Officer Grant (William Elliott), Officer Woods (Fred Stromsoe), and Officers Brinkman and Green, both played (though not during the same seasons) by utility actor Claude Johnson. Beginning with the series' third season, Jim was no longer a rookie but a full-fledged officer; and at the outset of season four, Malloy was promoted to policeman three, one rank below sergeant. Toward the end of the series the partners occasionally left their usual beat for special assignments in other L.A. districts. Lasting seven seasons and 174 episodes, Adam-12 ran on NBC from September 21, 1968 through August 26, 1974. A new version of Adam-12 was produced for syndication in 1989 with a different cast: Peter Parros as Officer Gus Grant, Ethan Wayne (son of John Wayne) as Officer Matt Doyle, and Miguel Fernandes as Sgt. Harry Santos.

Two family members gain a newfound understanding and respect for each other on their quest to learn more about their family history.

A long-running sitcom about a Park Avenue millionaire who adopts two Harlem orphans after the death of their housekeeper mother. The younger brother, Arnold, was an immediate hit, and the precocious lad's frequent query of his sedate, older brother---'Whatchutalkinbout, Willis?'---entered the pop-culture lexicon. The sitcom, on the air for eight years, spun off 'The Facts of Life.'

The longest (26-1/2 hours), most expensive ($25 million) and most complicated (four directors, five producers, five cinematographers, almost 100 speaking parts, several hundred extras) project made for television up to that time, Centennial was shown in two- and three-hour installments over a period of four months. An adaptation of James Michener's best-selling novel, it told the story of the settling of the American West by looking at the founding of the fictional town of Centennial, Colorado, from the settling of the area in the late 18th century to the present. Emmy-nominated for film editing and art direction, it boasts of sterling performances from Richard Chamberlain as frontiersman Alexander McKeag, Robert Conrad as the French-Canadian trapper Pasquinel, and a surprisingly powerful performance from former football star Alex Karras as compassionate but iron-willed immigrant farmer Hans Brumbaugh.

Bouncy babes and sculpted hunks posed as L.A.'s finest lifeguards in this wildly popular series that was eye candy for both men and women. Although it lasted for only one season on NBC, it became an international hit when it switched over to first-run syndication. In 1999, the action moved from California to Hawaii ('Baywatch Hawaii'). It also produced a spin-off ('Baywatch Nights').

Ben Cartwright and his three sons (by three wives) ride herd over the sprawling Ponderosa spread in 1860s Nevada in one of the most handsomely mounted and beloved series of all time.