DAILY DIRT: What if Archie Bunker and Ted Baxter had been cast together?

If I could have been a regular on any of the following 1970s shows it would have been “Knots Landing,” and I would have been cast as Donna Mills’ love interest — every week … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 873 of The Daily Dirt.

1. When it came to TV shows, the 1970s kind of gets lost in the shuffle.

It was actually a pretty solid decade.

Looking back, here are my top 10 shows from the decade I got my first color television set (yes, it was big deal back then), got married (for the first time) and attended my first Rod Stewart concert:

• 1. “All in the Family”: Has there ever been a more prominent lead figure in any TV series — comedy, drama or otherwise — than Archie Bunker?
• 2. “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”: The second-most perfect cast in TV history, behind only those involved in our No. 1 show. I always wished that somehow Ted Baxter and Archie Bunker could have been scripted together. Can you imagine what some of those conversations would have been like? (The more I think about it, wouldn’t Ted have been perfect for Meathead’s dad on “All in the Family?”)
• 3. “Knots Landing”: This classic night-time soap opera did not start until late December 1979, but that made it eligible … and besides, these are my rankings so I am the boss. And, yes, I still love Donna Mills.
• 4. “Kojak”: Who loves ya, baby? Arguably the grittiest TV cop show of the entire decade.
• 5. “Starsky and Hutch”: And let’s not forget the best informant ever, Huggy Bear.
• 6. “Charlie’s Angels”: The highlight of every Tuesday night on ABC.
• 7. “M*A*S*H”: I never really grew attached to this program until it reached syndication years later.
• 8. “Happy Days”: Yes, the show was incredibly predictable and not really that funny, but the theme song remains one of the best ever.
• 9. “Gunsmoke”: While TV’s greatest western did not end its historic run until 1975, the 1970s were far from its best years. Still, it was worth tuning in each week to see what dumb thing Festus would do.
• 10. “The Streets of San Francisco”: Without this show, the world would have never known Michael Douglas.

2. Just when you thought we could not possibly have anything else to share about Taylor Swift — voila!

Here is a sampling of the strict rules any member of her staff must agree to:

• Her employees “have to be pretty”. She uses them as “wallpaper”. Staff members must also be in great shape.
• She will not drink any other kind of coffee besides Grande Iced Caramel Latte with two Sweet ‘N Lows.
• Every employee must love cats.
• Her assistants should never bring her a Pepsi. Taylor is 100 percent Team Coke. In fact, all Pepsi products are banned in the Swift compound.
• She maintains the right to veto any new boyfriends of her “girl gang”.

3. This week’s best of “Found on Facebook” from The Daily Dirt editors:

• “Husbands, if your wife does something wrong, just explain to her how your mom did it. She will appreciate your advice and strive to do it was your mom did.”
• “Why are they called dental x-rays and not ‘tooth pics?'”
• “It was a lot more fun being 20 in the 70s than being 70 in the 20s.”
• “There are enough restaurants in New York City for one person to eat out every night for 54 years and never visit the same place twice.”
• “Save the Earth, it’s the only planet with chocolate.”

Steve Thought O’ The Day

I’m pretty sure I couldn’t make it on Taylor’s staff.

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. He got lost coming back from Beardstown this week. Beardstown!