In other words, shows "high concept"/fantasy shows like Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, and Gilligan's Island and/or "rural" shows like The Andy Griffith Show and Petticoat Junction vs. Norman Lear fueled "socially conscious" shows like All in the Family. The Jeffersons, and Maude.

Which do you prefer?

I prefer the "irrelevant" 60s shows. Norman Lear sucks!

I like both.

I liked them both. They both have their place in the television landscape.

Give the the 60's. Norman Lear had an agenda and thought because he had access to making TV that he was somehow qualified to push his social views and "push the envelope" just because it was "relevant".

Not that there were not excellent episodes of All In The Family but the preachy tone got in the way too often. Lear is highly over-rated anyone could have "pushed the envelope" if the network allowed it. I still think the "rural purge" at CBS was to make way for a pulpit of liberalism.

Depends on what I'm in the mood for.

I like both.

Oh, I vastly preferred the older shows that avoided the "relevance" kick. Probably because I was always already well-read on bearing social issues, politics, ideologies and such, courtesy the newspapers and various periodicals. The very LAST thing I wanted was to turn on a sitcom or drama show, and have to encounter such grating topics there as well. If anything, the main reason I'd tune in to television shows to begin with was to GET AWAY from all that. It didn't help matters that whenever a series delved into such issues, it was always in a slanted and insufferably manipulative manner. A massive turn-off for me.

The 60s shows above aimed to be funny, and they all hit that mark for at least a few seasons.

This says it all. Most '60s sitcoms had a very simple yet very important goal in mind: to make you laugh. They were intended to be only realistic enough to draw you into the story and then enjoy the ludicrous stuff that followed. They weren't trying to change the world, but rather to give you a pleasant escape from your stressful life, and most succeeded brilliantly in that respect.

I don't really have anything against '70s shows (I have several favorites from that decade), but at the same time, I believe the Rural Purge was a massive mistake.

I'm pretty certain (not 100% sure), that by the second half of the 60's, less people were watching TV than the first half. It is because so much stuff was happening in the real world that was not addressed in the 60's sitcoms, so not as many people were watching.

I was very young when TV sitcoms started to get more serious, so at the time I preferred the silly 60's sitcoms. But I can see the 70's sitcoms more being more popular with adults.

As for Norman Lear's sitcoms, only AITF was a hit all the way through. Viewers started to tire of both Maude and Good Times halfway though the show's run. The Jefferson's ended up being just another comedy, probably because it premiered closer to the 2nd half of the 1970's.

Give me the Norman Lear shows of the 70's. Kudos to the 60's shows for being more wholesome, but overall they're just not funny to me. All In The Family on the other hand is the greatest sitcom ever produced in my opinion.

I like both.

No contest. The 60s shows were both better and funnier.

I like 'em both, but I guess it depends what mood I'm in.

Both were good to me. It just depends what I feel like.

This says it all. Most '60s sitcoms had a very simple yet very important goal in mind: to make you laugh. They were intended to be only realistic enough to draw you into the story and then enjoy the ludicrous stuff that followed. They weren't trying to change the world, but rather to give you a pleasant escape from your stressful life, and most succeeded brilliantly in that respect.

I don't really have anything against '70s shows (I have several favorites from that decade), but at the same time, I believe the Rural Purge was a massive mistake.

I think that the shows of the '70s were reactionary to how (and not to get too political) the the '60s and early part of the '70s were. This was arguably the most tumultuous time in America during the 20th century. Also, sitcoms (in particular, from the Screen Gems (https://thiswastv.com/2012/09/25/1970s-fun-flops-bridget-loves-bernie/) group) for a lack of a better word, felt kind of artificial (http://boomerbust-scooter63.blogspot.com/2009/04/videotaped-vs-filmed-sitcoms.html).

Not surprisingly, I enjoy both the 60s "irrelevant" shows and the 70s "relevant" shows. It depends on how I am feeling each day. Like today, I've been watching a lot of those 50s and 60s "irrelevant" shows. Tomorrow, I may watch more relevant shows like All In The Family or Good Times

Both eras deserve to hold a place in history, but I'm not really a fan of either, compared to when I was a kid.

I think it's because the genre evolved so much, but a lot of the 60s sitcoms bore me to tears. They're kinda formulaic, even though people love how "wholesome" they are. I tried watching Hazel, and thought the writing was horrible and the plots made very little sense. Product of its era.

As for Norman Lear, his shows were groundbreaking, and broke the monotony of the 60s sitcoms, but they don't hold up very well. I got tired of being beaten over the head with social commentary and preachy dialogue. That said, I realized that although I'm pretty liberal, I found Mike Stivic more obnoxious than Archie Bunker.

But even the 90s sitcoms are dated. Shows finally became more three-dimensional with the writing and character development in the last decade or so, and it's refreshing in a way.

FWIW, it's from before the 60s, but I do still enjoy I Love Lucy.

I liked the relevant 70s better.

The reason for this is that the writing was horrible and the plots made very little sense. There's 43 shows with their own subforum in the 1960s forum. Hazel might make the top 35 of those.

Much better writing in 60s shows can be found in The Addams Family, Andy Griffith, Beverly Hillbillies, Bewitched, Dick van Dyke, Get Smart, Green Acres, Jack Benny, Dobie Gillis, and Mister Ed .
Very true. I do enjoy DVD and Get Smart. Haven't watched Dobie Gillis in years, but I did like it when it was on Nick at Nite.