Allow me to continue, briefly, on the theme of popular culture of 1973.

Put another way, what did we watch on television?

Admit it, you did watch some prime-time television.  It's not like you were studying every night. Or, went out on dates all the time (in my case, any of the time).

You may have trouble convincing the kids about what television was like "back then." We had five channels: 2, 4, 7, 17 and 29, plus whatever we could get from Canada.  Cable was for the people in the sticks. ESPN didn't exist until 1979.

So here's the top 10 programs of 1972-73, which to this day are keeping TV Land and Nick at Nite filled with programming:

1. All in the Family
2. Sanford and Son
3. Hawaii Five-O
4. Maude
5. Bridget Loves Bernie
6. The NBC Sunday Mystery Movie
7. The Mary Tyler Moore Show
8. Gunsmoke
9. The Wonderful World of Disney
10. Ironside

I think you'll recognize most of the shows there.  "Bridget Loves Bernie" was a sit-com that was tucked in-between a couple of CBS' powerhouse shows.  The ratings were good, but everyone thought the show itself was less than awesome, and it died a quiet death. One of the stars was Meredith Baxter, who later became Michael J. Fox's mom on "Family Ties."  She actually married her co-star from "Bridget...," David Birney.  The marriage lasted longer than the show.

The NBC Sunday Mystery Movie had three different revolving elements, such as "McMillan and Wife," "McCloud" and "Columbo."

The rest of the top 20:

11. Adam 12
12. The Flip Wilson Show
13. Marcus Welby, M.D.
14. Cannon
15. Here's Lucy
16. The Bob Newhart Show
17. ABC Tuesday Movie of the Week
18. Monday Night Football
19. The Partridge Family
20. The Waltons

If you are looking for "M*A*S*H," it didn't make the top 30 until the following season. A time change helped it move up in the ratings.