Poem 10: When It Was Black and White (and Rarely Off-color)

Joe Pivetti's Poetry, Haiku and Poesy: Poem 10

When It Was Black and White (and Rarely Off-color)

Ed Sullivan's really big shoe was strong out of the gate
With 23 years of star-lit vignettes that first burst out in 1948.
Desilu had a Ball from 1951 to 1957
But rerunning I Love Lucy has never ended.
You might have got caught up in a Drag Net
When Joe Friday worked '51 to '59 to meet the threat.
Ralph threatened Alice with a trip to the moon in 1952
But The Honeymooners stayed together until the end of the '55 duo.
Superman passed as Clark Kent, in disguise at The Daily Planet,
When all the while he was an illegal alien on the '52 to '58 set.
Marshall Dillon filled the air with Gun Smoke
for 20 years from his first arrest of a 1955 cow poke.
Ward and Julienne Cleaver would Leave It to Beaver
Or Wally (not Eddie Haskell) in 1957 and for 6 more years.
Have Gun - Will Travel featured Richard Boone as Paladin,
Who roamed the '57 to '63 span as a knight without armor in a savage land.
Gardner's Perry Mason broke stonewalling under oath from 1957 to 1966
While Drake and Della Street's investigations helped build cases brick by brick.
Brett, Bart and Beau gave the family of Maverick a bad name
Playing river boat poker from '57 to '62 and winning almost every game.
From '59 to '63 you might have said "hey Maynard" to beatniks
(And Gilligan) because of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis epics.
In '65 KAOS was out to Get Smart and to take CONTROL without "do-do-doings",
But "missed by that much", so that by '70 agents 86 and 99 were married with twins.
I Dream of Jeannie was a Major Nelson show with a 1965 uncorking event,
And with the help of Major Healy and Dr. Bellows it lasted until a 1970 engagement.

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