Dilip Prabhavalkar was simply amazing as Chimanrao, with Bal Karve playing the interesting character of Gundyabhau. The serial was based on the ever popular book series by C.V. Even today, it is probably the gold standard for Marathi comedy serials. ‘Chimanrao Ani Gundyabhau’ – This was probably one of the first (if not the first) Marathi serials on Mumbai Doordarshan. The program was light and funny, and was one of the stars of the week.

‘Gajra’ – This was a weekly program focussing on a variety of small skits that were very well made. Marathi programming was quite prominent in those days, prior to the ‘National Programming’ invasion from Delhi around the time of the 1982 Asiad Games. Here is a list of TV programs that come to mind… Infact my earliest memory of watching TV is the 1974 India England tour, when Tony Greg was the England captain. Cricket matches were one exception when programming was available all day. There were some real good international programs as well. Essentially, majority of the programming was developed by the Mumbai Doordarshan Studios in Worli. There were no ‘commercially’ produced shows. Throughout the 70s, the programming was limited to a few evening hours.

The reach of this programming was soon extended to Pune, via the Sinhagad fort transmission tower. The production and broadcasting organization was known as ‘Mumbai Doordarshan’ (Doordarshan = Remote/Distant View). Television made its debut in Mumbai in the early 1970s. Hoping that readers will contribute further to this list, as well as share their thoughts around these programs. This blogpost is an attempt to simply list the programs, serials, characters and advertisements from those Black & White TV days. I am talking about the late 1970s and early 1980s. Can you imagine Television programs for about 4 hours a day, with only one channel to choose from? Well that was a reality not that long back.

Dd sahyadri marathi drama