5 Beloved ’70s Sitcoms That Don’t Hold Up Today – TVLine

It’s no secret that sitcoms held a beloved place in television during the 1970s. Throughout the historic decade, audiences could not get enough of “Good Times,” “Happy Days,” and “M.A.S.H.” But as beloved as many sitcoms were during the era, they don’t all hold up the way they used to.

Television shows will always be products of their times. At a time when topics like desegregation and feminism were only just being openly discussed, a lot of jokes and characterization back then would not land the same way today. The outdated humor that built a lot of those sitcoms would not be appreciated by most television audiences today. 

With that in mind, here is a list of five classic sitcoms from the 1970s that simply do not hold up anymore. While the entries on this list are important pieces of television history, they have not withstood the test of time.

One of John Ritter’s most memorable roles was Jack Tripper, a cook sharing an apartment with his roommates Janet Wood (Joyce DeWitt) and Chrissy Snow (Suzanne Somers). That concept alone is not alien in today’s society, but that was a different case in the 1970s. As such, Jack pretended to be gay so his landlord Mr. Stanley Roper (Norman Fell) would allow an unmarried man to live with two women on his property. 

It’s easy to see why this sitcom does not hold up today. A man living platonically with two women is nowhere near as scandalous as it was in the 1970s. The “gay panic” that defined Mr. Roper is also outdated in the current era of wider LGBTQ acceptance and pride. 

Jack’s requirement to “act gay” whenever his landlord is around is also rooted in stereotypes — speaking with a lisp and limping his wrists. In one episode, Mr. Roper wakes up in Jack’s bed and immediately panics at the notion that he was in bed with a gay man. Jack even refers to himself as a “Tinkerbell” during this. Obviously, casually offensive humor like this doesn’t play well in modern sitcoms. 

Few television viewers of the 1970s could turn on “Sanford and Son” without whistling its distinctive theme song from Quincy Jones. The NBC sitcom centered on the short-tempered and sarcastic Fred Sanford (Redd Foxx), who co-owned a Los Angeles junk yard with his son Lamont Sanford (Demond Wilson).

Fred’s brash, cantankerous, and bigoted behavior was on par with other angry sitcom fathers like Archie Bunker (Carroll O’Connor). One of his running gags was his constant clashing with his Puerto Rican neighbor Julio Fuentes (Gregory Sierra), whom he’d frequently subject to ethnic insults. 

“Sanford and Son” is noteworthy for featuring two black actors in starring roles. But that representation was hardly reflected in the white writers’ room. The cast even stepped in sometimes to correct the writing. According to Emmy Magazine, series writer Ted Bergman spoke of a scrapped scene that depicted Fred playing Monopoly with his friend Grady Wilson (Whitman Mayo). “Redd said, ‘Black people don’t play Monopoly,'” Bergman recalled.

 Eventually, prominent black writers like Richard Pryor provided episode scripts.

For better or worse, “The Dukes of Hazzard” is one of those shows that simply did not age well. It’s nearly impossible to think about this CBS series without picturing the giant Confederate flag on the roof of the Duke boys’ Dodge Charger. That is the primary reason the series isn’t very relevant today.

It centered on the antics and schemes of Bo Duke (John Schneider) and Luke Duke (Tom Wopat), two cousins on probation for running moonshine for their Uncle Jess (Denver Pyle). 

The cousins’ car, appropriately named the General Lee, appears in all but one episode of the series. While it was iconic for the show, its wide Confederate flag carries more controversy today. Its frequent display by extremist and supremacist groups has largely defined its representation today, despite counterarguments that it merely represents Southern pride. As such, prominent groups such as Black Lives Matter have condemned the flag. 

There are currently no free streaming options for the series, and its original stars have spoken out over the General Lee’s controversy.

With his trademark afro and moustache, Gabe Kaplan is instantly recognizable as the titular educator on ABC’s “Welcome Back, Kotter.” The classic sitcom featured Kaplan in the role of Gabe Kotter, a teacher who returns to teach the remedial class (dubbed “Sweathogs”) at the Brooklyn high school he graduated from. The series also starred John Travolta in his breakout role as Vinnie Barbarino, one of Kotter’s students.

The show was something of a double-edged sword — it featured a racially diverse cast, but most of the humor centered on ethnic stereotypes and outdated portrayals. This includes a Jewish, Puerto Rican student named Juan Epstein (Robert Hegyes) who is portrayed as a quintessential “tough guy.” However, Juan’s mixed ethnic background was nonetheless groundbreaking for the television era.

The fact that the racially diverse Sweathogs were written specifically as a remedial class drew controversy even when it premiered. The series premiered at a time when mandated desegregation in schools was still underway. Boston’s ABC affiliate even briefly banned the show, believing that a “non-scholastic” cast might be a negative influence on local students. 

Despite tragically passing away at only 22, Freddie Prinze left behind a legacy that included NBC’s “Chico and the Man.” He played Chico Rodriguez, a Mexican-American mechanic, for three of the show’s four seasons before his passing. 

The series centered on Chico and his boss Ed Brown (Jack Albertson), a cantankerous bigot who owns an aging garage. As the series progressed, the two significantly warmed up to each other. While it was the first U.S. television series to feature a Mexican-American lead character, it is not without problems. 

Much of the issue centers on Prinze’s background, as he was not Mexican-American, but of Puerto Rican and Hungarian descent. This, as well as the lack of Latin American writers, even drew protests from organizations like the Teatro Nacional de Aztlán (TENAZ).

Casting someone who has a Puerto Rican background to play a Chicano character simply because he looks the part is seen by many as a reduction of Chicano identity. The show attempted to remedy this by having Chico describe himself as Mexican and Puerto Rican, with some Hungarian ties, but that wouldn’t fly today.