Quality Family Shows to Watch with the Family

Leave it to Beaver
Family Ties
All of the ones B mentioned
My kids are a little older and we love Columbo, Twilight Zone, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents

Love the ones that have been mentioned!

Home Improvement is a favorite older one around here.

I Dream of Jeannie are a couple of others we've watched Bewitched.

We love Seinfeld, but it isn't appropriate for all ages.

Chopped is a show on the food network that my 10yo and I enjoy.

I agree with TF completely!!

A few more to round out your 'oldie but goodie' viewing:

The Twilight Zone (the B & W ones)
The Dick Van Dyke Show
Mash
The Donna Reed Show

**I KNOW there are more, but due to my advanced years, I am having a brain cramp**

I will add more as I think of them!

Best!

Are you specifically looking for older shows?

Andy Griffith, Brady Bunch, Adams family, Cosby Show, Lucy, Leave it to Beaver. That is all I can think of off the top of my head. I am sure google would have reviews.

We love Big Bang Theory, The Discovery Channel with Airplane Repo and the Alaskan series, Wheel of Fortune, Shark Tank, Undercover Boss

I don't have children at home to watch but I love Criminal Minds and the new Stalker show.

We love Chopped on Food Network! My 9 y.o. gets a kick out of coming up with ideas for how he would use the basket ingredients. (You do have to watch out for the occasional mild curse word, but nothing too bad.)

Our family show is The Walking Dead, but my kids are 9 and 12. We also like Big Bang Theory and Modern Family.

Here are some older ones I loved as a kid:
Wonder Years
Small Wonder (you know, the one with Vicki the robot!)
Clarissa Explains it All
Silver Spoons
Family Ties (though, there aren't any little kids on the show)
Cosby Show (I know, I know...)

My little sisters who loved Boy Meets World and 7th Heaven (I was a little old for those) also liked Even Stevens and Lizzie McGuire.

My kids and I (4 and 7) like the talent shows and Survivor and Amazing Race.

I can't believe no one has mentions the Walton's yet............

My kids love Mr. Ed. They watch it with dad while I do schoolwork. I can hear the tougher one ask if they can 'watch that talking horse show'
I used to love watching The Golden Girls, MASH, and Hogens Heros with my grandma. I also remember looking forward to the weekends when I could watch the Anne of Green Gables TV series on PBS.
I also was going to recommend the Wonder Years-that was a good one!

IMO, it's sad that the controversy about Cosby himself has pulled reruns of The Cosby Show off the air. It was a good show, and touched on a lot of important topics.

I second The Wonder Years and Home Improvement.

I would also look beyond sitcoms and consider shows like How It's Made, and MythBusters and Brain Games. My DD loves shows that tell you how things get done and science and what little kid doesn't like things that blow up?

I've been wondering about getting I Love Lucy dvd's. I watched that as a young kid...

Any and all of the Star Trek series!
Emergency!
The Dick Van Dyke Show
Mash
Adam 12
Hogan's Heroes
Bewitched
I Love Lucy
The Bob Newhart Show (the one in Chicago with Emily)
Newhart (the one in Vermont with Joanna and Larry, Darryl and Darryl)
The Carol Burnett Show

We watch a lot of the history channel, HGTV, Sherlock and The Walking Dead (no my daughter doesn't watch that but the rest of us do). We don't really watch anything that is on the regular primetime networks.

Some of old shows mentioned are good, but they all seem so unrealistic. Problems are not solved in 30 to 60 minutes (it would be nice if they were). Lately my daughter likes watching Mr. Stampy Cat or his friends on YouTube, it's a Minecraft thing.

My daughter, going on 14, discovered MASH over the summer and loves it so we've been getting DVDs and watching it a lot. She's really into shows with complex and interesting characters and that's what she adores about it; however, It's definitely not for younger kids, though, and maybe not even for your 11-year-old (there's a lot of sexual innuendo which, while tame by today's standards, could still be too much for a younger kid. My daughter is really mature and handles medical issues, dying characters, blood etc. just fine but still gets uncomfortable around anything too openly sexual. And that's just fine by me!)

Your kids ages 8 and 11 might like Mythbusters. The younger ones might be pretty bored by it or just want to see things blow up and then they're done with it. But the older kids may like the detailed setups for the various stunts. Preview some episodes since sometimes the banter gets a touch inappropriate for the youngest kids.

Andy Griffith is a great show even for very young kids. So are really old black and white ones like Dennis the Menace and Leave It to Beaver -- though by eight and 11, kids are probably going to see those latter two shows as eye-rollingly dull, but the smaller ones would like them, especially Dennis. Andy Griffith will work for older kids, I think, since there are characters they'll especially like (and they may want to ape Barney Fife!).

See if you can locate the more recent but truly, truly wonderful kids' show Wishbone, about a literature-loving dog. It's delighful as Wishbone imagines himself into a lot of classic tales! I used to watch it years before I had a child --I'd come home from work and unwind with Wishbone, no kid needed for enjoyment! It can be hard to find but your library kids' DVD section may have it, or you may be able to order it. Really great, and doesn't hit kids over the head with literature but does give them a fun introduction.

My 12 year old loves "The Rifleman." Also, "I Dream of Jeannie."

One of the great things that you get to look forward to when your kids get older is that you can watch some really good, funny, interesting things with them even then. My oldest son is 16 and one of the things we connect on is our shared love the late-night Comedy Central line up. He watches after school or in the evening on demand because he's in bed when they air but we watch The Daily Show, Colbert, and @midnight pretty regularly.

With the younger kids (our youngest is 8) we watch MythBusters, Ghost Adventures, some of the talent shows, Dirty Jobs, Top Gear, etc. My younger boys also LOVE Full House, which surprised me but it is a great show.

The Partridge Family
I Dream Of Jeannie
Mr. Ed
The Cosby Show
All in the Family
Bewitched
Andy Griffith

GOOD FOR YOU for taking the time to have your kids see FABULOUS TV !!!

VERY FEW of today's tv shows/movies have good morals and values like the shows we have all posted !!!

The Brady Bunch is such a HEALTHY show....I went back and watched a few of the episodes a few months back. The parents are truly parents in the show...When a problem arises, the parents assist in the problem solving---Unlike ICarly!
That was a terrible show!

With my six year old, we have watched and he has enjoyed (all on Amazon Prime, Netflix, or Hulu):

ALF
Warehouse 13 (not a family show but enjoyable for adults and the kiddo)
Eureka (not my favorite but ok)
Last Man Standing (Tim Allen)
Master Chef Junior (cooking competition with 8-12 yr olds)
Popular Mechanics For Kids (it's not bad for a kids learning show)

I agree that Mythbusters and Dirty Jobs are great shows that get us talking as a family. And learning together as well.

Well, I know what you mean. It used to be that the 7 - 8 p.m. prime time slot was more family showish. Not so anymore. The Middle is OK as far as what's currently on. My girls also like to watch the cooking competition shows and will sometimes tell me I could go on and win, lol (you may not want to watch Hells Kitchen though, Ramsey can be kind of rough). The older shows are already mentioned, if I think of another one I'll add to it. I don't think ALF was mentioned and it's on Netflix, I just don't remember liking that show all that much though.

Girl Meets World is awesome! My 5 year old and I have been watching it. (The modern spin off of Boy Meets World with Cory and Topanga's kids).

Anne of Green Gables is a good series, so is Christy.