Television in the Soviet Union was not color or black and white. It was mostly gray. But against this impersonal background those few TV programs that the Soviet TV viewer really loved looked all the brighter.
By today's standards, Soviet television was a rather sad picture. And the point is not in the ridiculous number of television channels (in most settlements there was only one for a long time), and not in the absence of sophisticated television studios and vivid special effects, but, rather, in the ideology of all Soviet mass media. And, nevertheless, the Soviet people had their favorite popular TV programs.
This may be evidenced by the fact that some popular TV programs from the Soviet past can be seen even now on Russian television channels. This is a game show “What? Where? When?”, Children's“Good night, kids”, student KVN, musical“Morning mail”and“Song of the Year”.
Humorous and youth
Humorous television programs were very popular in the Soviet Union. Probably the most rated of them was the show "Zucchini 13 Chairs". The participation of such popular actors as Andrei Mironov, Spartak Mishulin, Olga Aroseva, Zinovy Vysokovsky created the atmosphere of a kind of television theater of miniatures. They say that Secretary General Brezhnev himself was very fond of this program.
Such a funny program as "Around Laughter" also had a good success among viewers. It was conducted by the famous parodist poet Alexander Ivanov. And to this day, very popular satirical writers have performed in it: Mikhail Zadornov, Arkady Arkanov, Semyon Altov and others.
Youth television programs "Come on girls!" and Come on guys! " gathered a multi-million audience of TV viewers from TV screens. Their participants (ordinary Soviet girls and ordinary Soviet guys) competed in various competitions throughout the program. All of them were certainly very beautiful and charming. And, despite the youth orientation, these Soviet "TV shows" were watched by people of all ages.
Stage on Soviet television
But there were not many musical programs with the participation of Soviet pop performers. Weekly "Morning Mail" and monthly "Song of the Year" - that's probably all. Attempts were made, however, to create other programs of the pop genre, but they existed, as a rule, not for a long time and did not enjoy great success.
As for foreign pop performers, they were given one forty-minute monthly program "Melodies and Rhythms of Foreign Stage". It was performed, however, mainly by representatives of the fraternal socialist countries, but Boney M and ABBA could sometimes be seen.
The New Year's "Blue Light" is worth mentioning separately. For the Soviet people, he was as indispensable a New Year's attribute as Soviet champagne or Olivier salad. For several hours in a row, TV viewers were congratulated on the New Year and entertained by the best domestic pop performers.
With the beginning of perestroika in the USSR, new, hitherto unseen, popular TV programs have significantly increased. But that was a completely different story.
