TV Shows from the 1950s

I Love Lucy, starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, premiered on CBS in 1951 and ran for 6 seasons with 181 episodes. It was the most-watched show in America for 4 of its 6 seasons and was the first sitcom filmed before a live studio audience using a 3-camera setup, a production method that became the standard for decades. The Twilight Zone, created and hosted by Rod Serling, premiered on CBS in 1959 and ran for 5 seasons with 156 episodes. The anthology series used science fiction and fantasy as vehicles for social commentary, and its twist endings became a template that genre television still follows. Gunsmoke, the CBS western starring James Arness, premiered in 1955 and ran for 20 seasons through 1975, holding the record as the longest-running primetime live-action series in U.S. history until Law & Order tied it in 2010. Plex shows you where each of these titles is currently streaming, so you can check availability across services from a single search.

The Honeymooners, starring Jackie Gleason and Art Carney, premiered as a standalone series on CBS in 1955 after originating as a sketch on Gleason's variety show. The "Classic 39" episodes are among the most iconic half-hours in comedy history, and the show's portrayal of working-class Brooklyn life influenced sitcoms for generations. Dragnet, the police procedural starring and created by Jack Webb, premiered in 1951 and ran for 8 seasons on NBC, establishing many of the conventions of the cop show genre. Leave It to Beaver, the CBS/ABC family sitcom, premiered in 1957 and ran for 6 seasons, becoming one of the defining depictions of suburban American family life in the postwar era. Alfred Hitchcock Presents, the CBS/NBC anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock, premiered in 1955 and ran for 7 seasons with 268 episodes, bringing the filmmaker's signature suspense to a weekly television audience. Plex displays audience ratings and streaming availability for all of these titles.

The 1950s was the decade in which television became a mass medium in American households. At the start of the decade, roughly 9% of U.S. homes had a television set. By 1959, that number had risen to nearly 90%. I Love Lucy established production techniques, from the multi-camera studio shoot to the rerun model, that defined how sitcoms were made for the next 50 years. Anthology series like The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and Playhouse 90 demonstrated that television could produce self-contained dramatic works with literary ambitions. Westerns dominated the ratings, with Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will Travel, and Wagon Train all ranking among the most-watched shows of the late 1950s. Plex catalogs titles from every genre of 1950s programming, so you can explore the full range of what the medium's first decade of mass adoption produced.

Plex organizes the 1950s collection by premiere date and includes every series that debuted between 1950 and 1959. Each listing shows the synopsis, cast, audience rating, and streaming availability. You can scroll the full collection or use genre filters to narrow results. If something catches your eye, tap the Watchlist button to save it, and Plex will show you which services currently carry the title.

Plex's free, ad-supported library includes a rotating selection of TV series, and some 1950s titles appear in the free catalog depending on licensing. The free lineup rotates, so availability for any given title may change. Beyond the free catalog, Plex tracks availability across every streaming platform it covers, so you can see every way to watch a title from a single listing.