13 Iconic TV Shows Turning 50 in 2026, From ‘Family Feud’ to ‘Laverne & Shirley’

Sometimes it feels like you pay for a bunch of streaming services today, but there’s still nothing to watch. So why not grab some inspiration from years past and celebrate the 50th anniversaries of these classic shows?

Family Feud
Three’s Company
The Muppet Show
Charlie’s Angels
Laverne & Shirley
SCTV
Alice
What’s Happening!!
The Gong Show
Quincy, M.E.
Dolly
The Bionic Woman
The Captain and Tennille

Family Feud

It’s become a staple for game shows over the years, and you can easily find the latest version of the show hosted by Steve Harvey. But Family Feud made its debut in 1976 with Richard Dawson as the host of the show, and it’s still going strong in its 50th year.

Three’s Company

Three’s Company starred John Ritter, Joyce DeWitt, and Suzanne Somers as three roommates, and the hijinks they got into living together and dealing with their landlords. Ritter and DeWitt stayed for the run of the show, while Somers was replaced by Priscilla Barnes after several seasons.

The Muppet Show

Who knew a puppet frog hosting a fictional variety show could be so popular? But that’s what happened to Kermit the Frog, who hosted The Muppet Show while trying to get a handle on the comedic craziness backstage. The show also featured plenty of guest stars, including actors such as Julie Andrews and Candace Bergen, as well as an eclectic mix of musicians from Johnny Cash to Alice Cooper and Dizzy Gillespie.

Charlie’s Angels

Sure, there were movies starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu, but the original Charlie’s Angels is the most iconic. The series debuted in 1976, with Kate Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and Jaclyn Smith as a trio of women working as detectives with assignments given to them by the mysterious Charlie.

Laverne & Shirley

The titular characters of Laverne & Shirley did it their way to try and make all their dreams come true as roommates working for a brewery in Milwaukee in the late 1950s. The show, starring Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams, was a spinoff of the widely popular Happy Days. The characters of Laverne and Shirley originally debuted on that show as friends of Henry Winkler’s character Fonzie.

SCTV

Great shows of 1976 weren’t just limited to the U.S. In Canada, SCTV landed on the airwaves as a Canadian sketch show that highlighted talented comedians in the Great White North. The show launched the careers of actors such as John Candy, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, and Rick Moranis.

Alice

Phoenix, Arizona, was the home to a greasy-spoon diner where comedy ensued in the sitcom Alice, which started in 1976. The show featured Linda Lavin as the title character, a waitress at the diner trying to raise her son while dealing with her co-workers.

What’s Happening!!

The groundbreaking What’s Happening!! followed the lives of three Black teenage boys in South Central Los Angeles, which gave it a unique perspective among shows at the time. Ernest Thomas, who played Roger, described the show with: “Even though Good Times was out there and Jeffersons and Sanford and Son [were on], it wasn’t the youth. What’s Happening!! was these three teenagers, which I think had an impact on all cultures.”

The Gong Show

Another game show that made its way to the airways in 1976 was The Gong Show, featuring amateur talents showing off their skills for a panel of judges. But beware, because if you weren’t good, one of the three celebrity judges would pick up the mallet and strike a gong, effectively striking you out of the competition.

Quincy, M.E.

Legendary actor Jack Klugman led the cast of Quincy, M.E., as a coroner who investigated suspicious deaths. Klugman’s character worked for the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office and was based on a real-life medical examiner there, who also served as a consultant on the show.

Dolly

Dolly Parton showed up on American televisions in 1976 with her self-titled variety show, which filmed its episodes at the Opryland Studios at the Grand Old Opry in Nashville. Episodes included guests like Kenny Rogers, Linda Ronstadt, and Emmylou Harris.

Parton went on to collaborate with her guests: Ronstadt and Harris joined Parton to found the group Trio while Parton famously dueted with Rogers on the hit “Islands in the Stream.”

The Bionic Woman

Lindsay Wagner starred as the Bionic Woman, a female cyborg who takes on spy missions after recovering from a bionic rejection. The show was a spinoff of the popular Six Million Dollar Man, and Lee Majors, the star of that show, made several guest appearances on it.

The Captain and Tennille

Husband-and-wife singing duo Captain and Tennille (real names Daryl Dragon and Toni Tennille) had already found success in the 1970s with hit singles such as “Love Will Keep Us Together” when they starred in their own variety series, which debuted in 1976. The show only lasted 20 episodes before being cancelled a year later.