For folks who grew up in the 1970s, television was a wildly different place than it is now. Not only was it an era of some truly wild sci-fi adventures on the small screen, but fantasy was having its moment as well. With a blend of supernatural mystery, some elements of sci-fi, and some truly great animation, fantasy television of that era offered viewers a completely unique and vibrantly entertaining experience that not only kept audiences hooked but helped inspire the next generation of creators as well.
Of course, over the years, shows have come and gone and people don’t talk about some of the great fantasy shows of the 1970s and 1980s anymore, but here are seven that kids during that era all remember. Some of these series were wildly popular in their day while others were less so, but they all were great examples of the truly delightful era of television that is unlike anything we have now.
7) H.R. Pufnstuf
H.R. Pufnstuf might be the absolute definition of 1970s fantasy television, though its originally run only lasted from September 6, 1969, to December 27, 1969. Created by Sid and Marty Krofft, the live-action, life-sized puppet program broadcast 17 episodes during that time on NBC, but it proved to be so popular, that the network kept reruns on the schedule until September 1971 when it then moved, in rerun form, to ABC between 1972 and 1973, and then became a staple of syndication until 1985.
H.R. Pufnstuf was the story of a boy named Jimmy who ends up stranded on Living Island with a magical talking flute named Freddy. He encounters various fantastical talking creatures and is constantly in battle with the evil witch, Witchiepoo, who wanted the talking flute. The show is strange, surreal and psychedelic and has long had influence on children’s television. Interestingly, the series also influenced McDonald’s classic McDonaldland characters, leading to a federal lawsuit against the fast-food chain — a lawsuit that the Kroffts won.
6) Dark Shadows
Like H.R. Pufnstuf, Dark Shadows is technically a series that debuted in the 1960s, but the series did run in the early 1970s and gained significant popularity in the early 1980s due to reruns and syndication — and was even so popular that it ended up getting a remake in 1991 and a 2012 film by Tim Burton. It’s a show that not only does every 1970s kid recall it, but plenty of kids from other decades probably knows this one, too.
Dark Shadows is technically a gothic soap opera that aired daytime on ABC and followed the various trials, tribulations, and romances of the Collins family, who live in a town plagued by supernatural occurrences. The show featured vampires, witches, warlocks, werewolves, zombies, ghosts, parallel universes, time travel, and even some man-made monsters. It was melodramatic and gave us one of television’s great vampire characters, Barnabas Collins. While Dark Shadows as a soap opera, it also notably treated its supernatural characters with a great deal of nuance and layering, making this a weird, but surprisingly good series.
5) Amazing Stories
Running from 1985 to 1987, Amazing Stories was created by none other than Steven Spielberg so right out of the gate, you know this is going to be a good one. Technically, the anthology series covered a range of genres, including horror as well as fantasy, but fantasy was one of the main ones and every episode was just so very good and featured some pretty big names, including Martin Scorsese, Burt Reynolds, Brad Bird, and Clint Eastwood.
There’s really not a great way to describe Amazing Stories other than to say it was extremely high quality. Every episode was a different story and every episode was top notch. Of the two seasons of episodes, there are a few that stand out, including “Santa ’85” and “Remote Control Man.” The series did get a reboot in 2020 on ABC, but the original is still the best here.
4) Dungeons & Dragons
While Satanic Panic brought quite a bit of negative attention to Dungeons & Dragons in the 1980s, it also didn’t entirely stop the RPG’s popularity and it certainly didn’t stop one of the great television gems of the early 1980s: the animated Dungeons & Dragons series. Focusing on a group of six friends who are transported to the realm of Dungeons & Dragons and must find their way home with the help of the Dungeon Master (they’re literally playing D&D, y’all), the series has largely been forgotten now, but it was a big deal at the time.
The series was a little controversial for its time, not because it wasn’t a good series or because of the Satanic Panic of it all, but because the show featured an unusual amount of violence in terms of children’s television for the era. One episode, “The Dragon’s Graveyard”, was almost canceled entirely because the characters discussed killing their nemesis. Still, it was a popular series and an all-time great.
3) The Storyteller
Another anthology series, The Storyteller is a live action/puppet series from the legendary Jim Henson that originally aired in 1987. Each episode retold a classic story — one season focused mostly on lesser-known Eastern European fairy tales and fables while the other was more centered on Greek myth. Every episode featured the framing device of an elderly man telling stories to his talking dog.
Like just about everything Henson did, The Storyteller is beautifully done in terms of its production and puppetry but also has that slightly unnerving quality to it. It makes for an interesting juxtaposition with the overall delivery of the stories themselves giving the series something of what we might today call a cozy vibe that is also just a little weird. It’s a delightful series.
2) Down to Earth
Most people don’t think of sitcoms when they think of fantasy series, but that’s what Down to Earth was. In Down to Earth, free-spirited Ethel MacDoogan suffered fatal accident in the 1920s and spends 60 years in Heaven waiting for a chance to earn her wings. She gets sent to help the Preston family in the 1980s to do exactly that, becoming part of their family as a housekeeper though she’s comically clueless about modern day life.
It’s a somewhat silly series, but overall very charming. What’s unique about it is that, while most fantasy leans into dragons and magic, Down to Earth is much more wholesome. A helpful angel in training is just the sort of fantasy light that makes for enjoyable mainstream entertainment — which is what Down to Earth was.
1) He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
Image Courtesy of Filmation
There was really only one possible series that could be at the top of this list and its He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. The animated series, which ran from 1983 to 1985, had massive cultural impact and is still popular even today — we are getting a live-action movie, after all.
Everything about He-Man is great. You have a high fantasy setting, superhero-style characters, quality animation, and some pretty great storylines as well. The series has been rebooted a few times, but nothing quite lives up to the original and while there are elements that feel a little dated now, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe is peak fantasy television from the 1970s and the 1980s.
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