Dallas

Dallas - April 1978 to May 1991

In the ranks of prime-time dramas, this was one of the biggest. Dallas, the saga of the Ewing Family, began as a five part mini-series in 1978. Throughout its thirteen seasons, many actors passed through the gates of Southfork.

Dallas was conceived as a show that had plenty of sex and romance for the female audiences, and a lot of cowboy posturing and business intrigue for the male viewers. The formula worked, because by the early 1980's, it was one of the most popular shows in TV history. There were magazine covers galore, a spin-off named Knots Landing about Gary, the middle Ewing son who wasn't seen or heard from much during proceedings at South Fork, and primetime serialization imitators like Dynasty and Falcon Crest.

So for the show that kicked off the nighttime drama trend that's status quo today, we tip those ten-gallon hats and breathe a secret sigh of relief that J.R. was just a fictional character who couldn't manipulate us in real life. Because let's be honest, that guy could have taken most of us down.

Grange Hill

Grange Hill - January 1978 to February 2008

Grange Hill is a British television drama series originally made by the BBC. The show began in 1978 on BBC1 and was one of the longest running programmes on British television. It was created by Phil Redmond, who was also responsible for the Channel 4 dramas Brookside and Hollyoaks; other notable production team members down the years have included producer Colin Cant and script editor Anthony Minghella. The drama is centred on the fictional comprehensive school of Grange Hill in the (equally fictitious) north London called "Northam" (although when filming moved to Liverpool in 2003, it ceased to have any specific location), and follows the lives of the students as they progress through school. It has been said that Phil Redmond based the show on his experiences of working at Grange Park High School, Thatto Heath, St Helens which is coincidentally at the top of a hill. For its first 25 years it was produced in-house by the BBC, but the show is now made independently for the corporation by Lime Pictures, the production house formerly owned by Redmond (and formerly known as Mersey Television) which is the reason for the production move.

Below are the three main intro clips to the show starting with the 1980s, then he 1990's and then the titles from 2000. It has been said that in February 2008, 30 years after the series began the show will be axed from the CBBC.