Who are these crime show characters using the telephone in the 1970s?
Do these faces ring a bell?
Do you miss using telephones? Not the flat computers in your pocket, we're talking actual telephones. A handset attached to a heavy base with a curly cord. A rotary dial or plastic buttons to push. An actual metal bell that rings inside a molded plastic body.
The 1970s were truly the peak era of curly-corded telephones. At least, they were affordable and ubiquitous enough for everyone to have one — if not two or three. And it was the era just before cordless phones took off in the 1980s with their retractable antennae.
Perhaps this explains why just about every publicity shot for a TV crime show depicted its main character talking into the phone. These heroes solved crimes through connections and wit, not mere fists.
We gathered a bunch of pictures of '70s television characters talking on the phone. See if you can recognize them all!
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Does his face ring a bell?
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In 1973–74, he played this character named Griff. But you know him best from which Western?
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Detectives on telephones even appeared on the boxes for board games.
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Who is this fellow on the telephone?
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Police on the phone could be funny, too.
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This couple hardly had communication problems.
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As Banacek in the '70s, he had a car phone. He later appeared in which '80s action show?
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Here are the stars of 'Baretta' and 'Mobile One.' What do they have in common?
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Even Hanna-Barbera got into the detectives-on-telephones action with this cartoon.
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You certainly know Burt Reynolds, but do you know the character he played from 1970–71?
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Ron Leibman won an Emmy for playing this title character.
