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Warren Hunting Smith Library
How To: Find Television Shows
Using TV Listings
HOW TO | FIND TELEVISION SHOWS
TV schedules and listings help determine what shows were broadcast in what year(s). Listings and schedules might also give you details such as whether a show was broadcast in color or black-and-white, whether it was a first run or a repeat episode, and language details such as closed-captioning.
Keep in mind that the number of television networks and corresponding options has increased dramatically in the last 50 years. Don't be surprised when early schedule grids and listings show only a small number of available viewing options.
TV Guide magazine is "the" source for referencing what aired on television in a given year. The national magazine was typically published on a weekly basis with occasional double issues. Past issues are not easily found online, though there are a couple of options.
TV Guide Cover Gallery
TV Guide magazine has a complete gallery of covers on its website. Cover images represent stars, shows, and trends that were popular, controversial, or otherwise being talked about at that time.
TV Guide Cover Archive
Browse by decade to see which shows, stars, and trends graved the covers of the national magazine.
TV Guide at the Internet Archive
The Internet Archive has some sample issues of TV Guide magazine from across the decades. Browse issues below or select "find more" to see others.
The Internet Archive contains a few sporadic full issues, with probably the most representation from the 1970s and 1980s.
Understanding TV Guide
Other TV Listings
epguides.com | past grids by year
Fall 1970 - Fall 2011. Select a year of interest to display grids listing what aired in the fall of that year. These grids will easily indicate what day of the week a show aired, as well as its typical time slot. Grids default to airings in the central time zone.
epguides.com | chronological lists by year
1946 - 2020. Chronological lists of which shows aired in a given year.
Daytime TV Schedule Archive
1947 - present. Listings of daytime television across the three major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC). Grids are a little more nebulous than with the epguides site (above), as they do not easily indicate time zone referenced.
Finding TV Shows
Where can I find information about older TV shows?
IMDB. If you're not familiar with a show's content, IMDB gives you a summary of the show, including cast, lists of episodes with original air dates, and episode summaries.
Are older TV shows available online?
Yes. There are a variety of streaming sites that offer free access to "classic" television shows and commercials. Perhaps not surprisingly, free viewing options also usually contain ads.
Options include (in alphabetical order):
AdViews (Duke University Libraries)
Internet Archive | Classic TV
Internet Archive | Classic TV Commercials
Peacock (NBC Universal)
Free account required for viewing.
Rerun Century
Shout Factory TV
Tubi TV
URL: https://library.hws.edu/television
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