Like any popular long-running show, the cast of Happy Days underwent several changes as the series ran on. Scott Baio, for instance, was added to the cast in the fourth season as Fonzie’s cousin Chachi, while Ron Howard would leave the show in the eighth season. The show also featured notable guest appearances by a young Tom Hanks and Robin Williams as an alien named Mork. That particular episode became so popular that Williams went on to headline his own show, Mork and Mindy.

After its cancellation in 1984, many members of the cast of Happy Days went on to find success in other fields, most notably Ron Howard (Richie Cunningham), who would quit acting to become a top Hollywood director, and Henry Winkler (the Fonz), who produced the hit series MacGyver, as well as writing a series of children’s books, and continues to act today. Other cast members, such as Marion Ross (who played the Cunningham matriarch Marion) and Tom Bosley (father Howard Cunningham), continued to enjoy flourishing acting careers on the small screen. The series itself still attracts new fans through syndicated reruns worldwide.

Set in the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in South Korea during the Korean War, the cast of M*A*S*H featured an exceptional ensemble of actors, playing some of the most memorable characters ever to appear on TV. The cast was led by Alan Alda as Dr. “Hawkeye” Pierce and Wayne Rogers as Dr. “Trapper” John McIntyre, whose irreverent antics frequently put them in opposition with various military authority figures, most notably Senior Nurse “Hot Lips” Houlihan (Loretta Swit) and Dr. Frank Burns (Larry Linville). Also playing a key role was McLean Stevenson, as the camp’s commander Col. Henry Blake, who genially watched over the goings-on in the camp and frequently intervened to prevent Hawkeye and Trapper John from being court-marshaled.

The cast of M*A*S*H would undergo many changes as the series ran on, although Alda stayed for the entirety of its eleven-season run, eventually going on to play a more important role creatively behind the scenes, as he would direct and write several key episodes. He would eventually be nominated a record 25 times for his work on the series, and would win five times as actor, writer and director. The series itself remains extremely popular in syndicated reruns, more than twenty-five years after it left the airwaves.

The cast of The Brady Bunch have reportedly remained close friends after the series ended, and have even remained in close touch with each other. This was highlighted in Christopher Knight’s (middle son Peter) reality series My Fair Brady, when Knight invited some of his former co-stars, such as Barry Williams and Susan Olsen, to his wedding party, and spent most of the time hanging out with them.

The success of the series in reruns also ensured that the Brady characters would remain popular, and there were several follow-up series and specials featuring original members of the cast of the Brady Bunch. The series also inspired a pair of big-screen movies featuring the original characters now played by new actors, and a second sequel that was made for TV. While The Brady Bunch was underappreciated by the critics during its initial run, it remains popular among a whole generation of fans who grew up children of divorce and envied the Brady’s perfect nuclear family.

On the other hand, other situation comedies of the decade continued to feature idealized families, such as the Cunninghams of Happy Days and the Bradys of The Brady Bunch. These fictional TV families undoubtedly resonated with a whole generation of children who grew up in single-parent households or had to care for themselves as both parents were forced to work to make ends meet. The seventies also saw the debut of the educational program Sesame Street, which provided the first major showcase for Jim Henson’s Muppets.

Another major trend in 1970s TV shows was the popularity of cop and detective shows, such as Charlie’s Angels, Hawaii Five-O, Kojak, The Rockford Files and Starsky and Hutch. While many of these shows were gritty dramas that focused on the more realistic side of police work, others took a more light-hearted approach that emphasized humor and sexuality. The decade also saw the birth of a new television format: the mini-series, which featured stories told over a limited number of episodes. Popular mini-series of the time included Rich Man, Poor Man, Holocaust and Centennial; the most successful, however, was undoubtedly Roots, whose final episodes were watched by over 70% of the total viewing audience, or 130 million viewers.