Here are two clips from a self-congratulatory special that CBS did in 1978. This one starts with Mary Tyler Moore singing a song all about shows that appeared on CBS. It was written at a time when all the advertising research told the networks that they had to sell their programming with the word "family."
If you listen to the lyrics and considered what shows and stars were mentioned and which ones weren't, you might guess it was written by a gay man who thought the biggest stars were the ones who'd appeared on Broadway — and you'd be right. It was Jerry Herman and some of the couplets are pretty darned clever. At one point, there's a clip from My Favorite Martian and a lyric that goes, "Mr. Walston with antenna…" Quick: Guess what Mr. Herman rhymed with that…
As you can see, the excerpt ends with the beginning of a big parade of everyone they could round up who'd ever been on a regular series on CBS…except Merv Griffin, who claimed they omitted him because someone at the network was sore at him for beating them in a business deal. But don't worry: Here's the clip of that parade. Notice that some of those folks apparently weren't there for the big taping so they were edited in — Bill Cosby and the Smothers Brothers, for example. And it's all announced by the voice of the robot from Lost in Space, Dick Tufeld…