Starring Fred Dryer, Stepfanie Kramer, Charles Hallahan, John Amos.
Created by Frank Lupo.

This long running television police drama took a stiff hand with lawbreakers, as the perpetrators more often than not ended up dead by the final scene. This was a quintissential Los Angeles show with many famous landmarks seen amid the action, and the Season 5 opening credits were no exception. As the opening music concluded, we saw a shot of Hunter standing confidently overlooking the Hollywood basin from the top of Mt. Lee, with the Hollywood Sign just below him at his feet.

(Contributed by Marcel Pazzin)

Starring Adam Mills, Lynda Wiesmeier and Veronica Hart.
Directed by Lem Amero.

The Sign makes frequent brief appearances in this made-for-tv comedy about a wild party that takes place in a film producer’s Hollywood mansion. While there is an earthquake and aftershocks in this movie, it’s played for comic effect, so the Sign and the characters are all spared.

(Contributed by Dave Grubka of Buffalo, NY)

(Contributed by Duff Ferguson)

Starring Lee Majors, Douglas Barr, Heather Thomas.
Created by Glen A. Larson.

The Fall Guy was a new leading man role for television hunk and former Six Million Dollar Man Lee Majors, playing a stunt man who undertakes dangerous side jobs as a bounty hunter. It was a case of art imitating art, in that the stunts performed in catching the bad guys often mirrored the stunts that Majors had performed earlier in the show during his “day job.” Featuring large in this action was his special-built Ford pickup truck which made numerous death defying jumps in the course of duty and became a hit toy with fans of the show.

The opening credits were a virtual moving slide show of Hollywood landmarks, including a nice show of the Sign from what appears to be a Gower Street vantage point.

(Contributed by Marcel Pazzin)

Starring Carol Burnett, Tim Conway, Vicki Lawrence, Harvey Korman.

This show ran for over 250 episodes, including one where Carol duets in a medley of popular movie themes with Eydie Gorme. At the end of the 10 minute segment, they suddenly transport from the soundstage to the base of the Hollywood Sign, singing their final notes as a helicopter shot pulls away to reveal the whole mountainside. The Sign shows its considerable wear: graffiti, patchy paint, and missing sections are clearly visible. A fascinating time capsule, as this was less than a year before the Sign was reconstructed in 1978.

Laverne & Shirley (credited as Laverne De Fazio & Shirley Feeney in the first season) is an American television sitcom that ran on ABC from January 27, 1976 to May 10, 1983. It starred Penny Marshall as Laverne De Fazio and Cindy Williams as Shirley Feeney, single roommates who worked as bottlecappers in a fictitious Milwaukee brewery called “Shotz Brewery.”

The show was a spin-off from Happy Days, as the two lead characters were originally introduced on that series as acquaintances of Fonzie. Set in roughly the same time period as Happy Days, the Laverne & Shirley timeline started in approximately 1958, when the series began, through 1967, when the series ended.

The Hollywood Sign is seen in the opening credits of this long running sitcom starting with the 6th season (’80-’81).

(Contributed by Joe G. from Kentwood, Michigan)

Starring James Garner, Noah Beery Jr., Joe Santos, Gretchen Corbett, Stuart Margolin.
Created by Roy Huggins and Stephen J. Cannell.

NBC’s popular private investigator show (starring the charismatic James Garner) has remained in constant syndication from its original airing in 1974. The title character was unique in the pantheon of little screen detectives, being an ex-con (albeit a falsely accused one) who lived in a brokendown trailer at the ocean in LA, chasing minor cases and avoiding bill collectors.

Famously, every episode begins with a short, wry telephone answering machine message that changes with every episode (incidentally, an answering machine was quite a novelty in 1974). Just after the message ends, a quick montage of Los Angeles sights flashes by, including a somewhat creaky looking pre-restoration Hollywood Sign.

(Contributed by Paul Hennessy)

Starring Robert Reed, Florence Henderson, Barry Williams, Maureen McCormick.
Created by Sherwood Schwartz.
Directed by Richard Michaels.

In the fifth and final season, episode 17 “Welcome Aboard” gives us a peek at the Hollywood Sign in the early 70s. It can be seen midway through the episode as the Brady gang goes on a tour of Paramount Studios, where they enter through the Bronson Gate revealing the Hollywood Sign in the background.

(Contributed by Dustin Stultz of Middletown, Ohio)

Starring Peter Falk.
Created by Richard Levinson, William Link.

The iconic show that popularized the detective drama format on television didn’t visit the Hollywood Sign until 1998, when it was shown in the episode “Ashes to Ashes.” Early in the episode, a grieving widow is shown pouring her husband’s ashes at the Sign.

(Contributed by Peter Mikkelsen, Denmark)

Starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz.
Directed by Ralph Levy.

When the Ricardo’s moved to Hollywood to bolster Ricky’s career, the Sign is visible on the backdrop to their hotel room.

(Contributed by Jim Pinard)