The 100 Greatest Moments In Television: 1950s

PERRY MASON DEBUTS: ''THE CASE OF THE RESTLESS REDHEAD''
Sept. 21, 1957
He won every case but one, yet the near infallibility of CBS' Perry Mason — played with bullheaded gravitas by Raymond Burr — endeared him to, rather than alienated him from, his audience. No subsequent lawyer show could get away with Mason's courtroom perfect record: From The Defenders to L.A. Law to The Practice, the bar (and times) became progressively more ethically challenged. ''We tried to do an anti-Mason with L.A. Law,'' recalls producer Steven Bochco, ''but that doesn't mean we didn't respect the hell out of its storytelling, its use of courtroom suspense, and Raymond Burr's tremendously authoritative performance.'' Rank 38

THE NFL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Dec. 28, 1958
Forty years ago, on a third-and-goal from the one yard line, Baltimore Colt fullback Alan Ameche plowed into the end zone to score the winning touchdown in overtime against the New York Giants in a heart-stopping NFL championship game. Which is why those who watched it on NBC that day hailed it as ''the greatest game ever played''; which is why even though title games had been televised since 1951, this was the contest that sealed the union between the NFL and TV; which is why Colts Hall of Fame defensive tackle Art Donovan now says: ''We were at the right place at the right time. Baseball was around, but people were tired of watching guys tightening their gloves and scratching their asses every time they swung. TV was ready for football.'' It's also why about a billion viewers worldwide spent 1999's Super Bowl Sunday watching Cher sing the national anthem and $1.6 million 30-second commercials, making the event the most lucrative programming in the history of the medium. Any questions? Rank 14

THE TWILIGHT ZONE DEBUTS
Oct. 2, 1959
Ratings were middling. Sponsors were scarce. No surprise, really: Zone creator Rod Serling told stories that were ironic, disturbing, anything but conventional. He did, however, inspire a generation of TV writers with his refusal to dumb down. ''What I most admire,'' says X-Files exec producer Frank Spotnitz, "is how fearless Serling and his writers were. They never pandered and were never afraid to be as smart as they could be.'' Rank 81

THE QUIZ SHOW SCANDAL
Nov. 2, 1959
It was the lowest point in the history of television (and that includes the debut of Studs). Charles Van Doren, an aristocratic egghead who became TV's first instant celebrity as a champion on NBC's quiz show Twenty-One, fessed up to the House of Representatives: Game shows were a sham. Fixed. Rigged. His admission had immediate repercussions: Reputations were destroyed; most quiz shows were yanked off the air (rarely to appear in prime time again); and industry-wide reforms took hold (the scandal not only ended advertiser control of show content — a holdover from radio days — it prompted the formal division between news and entertainment). The whole mess started thanks to whistle-blowing contestant Herb Stempel, who now boasts that ''lawyers call the regulatory stuff Stempel Laws — like no canned laughter unless you let people know it. I am proud of that.'' Some have argued the scandal also had a more insidious ripple — a growing national mistrust that foreshadowed Watergate and Vietnam. Rank 21

No. 1 Shows
1951 TEXACO STAR THEATRE*
1952 ARTHUR GODFREY'S TALENT SCOUTS
1953 I LOVE LUCY
1954 I LOVE LUCY
1955 I LOVE LUCY
1956 $64,000 QUESTION
1957 I LOVE LUCY
1958 GUNSMOKE
1959 GUNSMOKE

*Seasons began the previous year