What Really Happened to the Class of '65?

This was one of those "drop what you're doing and watch" kind of shows. Each week the viewer could get involved with the life of one of the '65 grads. The stores were sometimes funny, serious, heart-warming, and never boring. In the one season it was on, it made quite an impression on me. Probably because I was a '65 graduate, myself. It kind of hit home. It's too bad TV isn't like this anymore. Rather than quality shows, we're hammered with just another reality offering. If you like celebrity trout fishing, well power to you, but it's too bad people these days can't be treated to something like "What Really Happened To The Class of '65." It was great TV, and I think would hold up in re-runs. I miss this show a lot.

I remember this show so well. It was on Thursday nights after James at 15-16 which was another one I never missed. I can remember a few lines of the theme song...........we're all the class of 65, we're really glad to be alive. Every week the host who graduated from the school in 1965 and was now a teacher would have the yearbook in his hands. He would start off by showing their picture in the book and then go briefly into what they were doing now. Then the story would start. I always wondered why TV land or one of the other stations does not do a series of great but forgotten shows. The vaults are full of them. I loved anthology shows but sadly they seem to be a relic of the past.

My favorite episode was when Don Johnson played a backwoods boy who had been to war, and one of the classmates was a do-gooder Peace Corps type rich girl who had to look inside herself due to the encounters with Don Johnson's character. She is in the Appalchia area, apparently, doing service work. I don't know the name of the episode, though. Can anyone fill in missing info?

This was a great show to me because the class was a little older than I, and I found it very interesting examining these lives ten or so years later. I didn't remember some of your information, so I am going back to check it out again. Dana Plato and Tony Bill? Wow!

Cosie3 mwerner@wcnet.org

I fondly remember sitting enraptured in front of the TV while holding my first baby. I thoroughly enjoyed the concept of peeking into classmates lives ten years after graduation. I'd like to do that too! It was also a show that I didn't have to worry about covering my son's eyes or ears while watching. I really love that I can see some of today's (& yesterday's) mega stars and remember the first time I saw them on the "Class of 65". Annette O'Toole became one of my all time favorite actresses after seeing her on this show. The young Don Johnson as an injured returning Nam Vetran was heart touching and he was so hot back then too. I'll have to do some digging, but I seem to recall a young John Ritter and maybe John Denver making appearances too. Yes, I would also love a summer of "65" reruns, as apposed to the 100+ channels of reruns of crime dramas.

This was an engaging anthology program which came on NBC on Thursdays the summer of 1977. Each week we followed the lives of different members of the high school Class of '65. I still remember some of the episodes: A girl becomes a semi-successful folk singer; two buddies try to open a restaurant in the desert where a highway will go through; and Richard Hatch (from "Battlestar Galactica") played a ne'er-do-well. I would love to find this on DVD, or at least on TVLand. It's lifespan was short but it gave me many fond memories along with other great 70's television like "Rockford Files."