How long it survives in syndication is usually the true test regarding whether or not a show is really a timeless classic that's going stick in the pop culture for years onward. But at the time of its original network run, there are shows everyone seemed to love when they were new and would watch week to week or binge when new.

How long it survives in syndication is usually the true test regarding whether or not a show is really a timeless classic that's going stick in the pop culture for years onward. But at the time of its original network run, there are shows everyone seemed to love when they were new and would watch week to week or binge when new.

Really?? How many people would have binge-watched "The Andy Griffith Show" back in 1960? Wasn't it on only once a week?

Really?? How many people would have binge-watched "The Andy Griffith Show" back in 1960? Wasn't it on only once a week?

Well, if people are binge-watching The Andy Griffith Show today, then don't you think that's one testament to its enduring (https://www.quora.com/Why-do-so-many-TV-networks-still-broadcast-the-Andy-Griffith-show-despite-the-show-being-60-years-old-How-is-the-show-still-so-massively-popular-on-TV) longevity in the public consciousness. I never said that people were actually binge-watching TV shows back in 1960s. I'm saying that the show (http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-popularity-of-andy-griffith-show.html) is still (https://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-Andy-Griffith-Show-still-so-popular-today-where-I-live-it-s-currently-being-rerun-on-3-channels-when-other-60s-shows-have-been-forgotten) being discovered and consumed with the benefits (https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/why-the-andy-griffith-show-got-pulled-from-netflix-in-2020.html/#:~:text=Part%20of%20the%20success%20was,that's%20still%20almost%20unheard%20of.) of new media today.

I binge watched Andy Griffith just before the pandemic. I don't think there were tv show marathons in the 60s and 70s - the closest you'd get is a movie or 2 in a row from the same actor.

In the 1960s some of the most popular shows were also rerun on network daytime M-F prior to syndication once they had enough episodes - this included at various times The Andy Griffith Show (renamed Andy of Mayberry), I Love Lucy, The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, Bewitched, Father Knows Best, and The Donna Reed Show (and surely more, but those I recall specifically).

In the 1960s some of the most popular shows were also rerun on network daytime M-F prior to syndication once they had enough episodes - this included at various times The Andy Griffith Show (renamed Andy of Mayberry), I Love Lucy, The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, Bewitched, Father Knows Best, and The Donna Reed Show (and surely more, but those I recall specifically).

Petticoat Junction was never rerun on network daytime; however, all of the others mentioned were.

In the 1960s some of the most popular shows were also rerun on network daytime M-F prior to syndication once they had enough episodes - this included at various times The Andy Griffith Show (renamed Andy of Mayberry), I Love Lucy, The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, Bewitched, Father Knows Best, and The Donna Reed Show (and surely more, but those I recall specifically).

And the modern version of that is rerunning for many years on cable and local TV. Think Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, BBT, Two and a Half Men...

The king of all that is probably Andy because it's been through both versions. To a slightly lesser degree so have the color episodes of Bewitched.