Longest-Running TV Shows, 8-10
Here is the rest of our list of longest-running TV shows, beginning with My Three Sons.8. My Three Sons (1960-1972)
For 380 episodes and 12 seasons, Americans stepped into the world of widower Steve Douglas and -- you guessed it -- his three sons: Mike, Robbie, and Chip. When Mike left the show after the 1965 season, a younger boy named Ernie was adopted so that the title would still work! Uncle Charley moved in to help with cooking, cleaning, and homework. Fred MacMurray, who played the father, was also a star of Disney movies, so in order for him to do both, he shot all of his My Three Sons scenes for an entire season at once. The rest of the scenes were shot later and the episodes were then pieced together. But as the boys grew and their hairstyles changed, this arrangement caused problems with continuity.
9. Dallas (1978-1991)
You'd think life on a Texas oil ranch and mansion named "Southfork" would be sublime, but not so for this feuding bunch. For 357 episodes, Dallas revolved around the wealthy Ewing family -- oil baron and patriarch Jock Ewing; his wife, Miss Ellie; and their sons, JR, Bobby, and black sheep Gary. When JR was shot in the finale of the third season, "Who Shot JR?" mania swept across the country -- and much of the world. But viewers had to wait until four episodes into the new season to find out who pulled the trigger. The episode titled "Who Done It?" was the second-most-watched show in the history of television.
10. Knots Landing (1979-1993)
These were the original desperate housewives. (In fact, Nicollette Sheridan was among the cast!) The show's premise centered on Gary Ewing (from Dallas) and his lovely bumpkin wife, Valene, who moved to California. Their neighbors included a host of dysfunctional families and through marriages, affairs, births, stolen babies, murders, novels, new business enterprises, and even a televangelist brother, this show kept viewers watching for 344 episodes.
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS:
Helen Davies, Marjorie Dorfman, Mary Fons, Deborah Hawkins, Martin Hintz, Linnea Lundgren, David Priess, Julia Clark Robinson, Paul Seaburn, Heidi Stevens, and Steve Theunissen
