User Reviews

I remember this show so well. It was on Thursday nights after James at 15-16 which was another one I never missed. I can remember a few lines of the theme song...........we're all the class of 65, we're really glad to be alive. Every week the host who graduated from the school in 1965 and was now a teacher would have the yearbook in his hands. He would start off by showing their picture in the book and then go briefly into what they were doing now. Then the story would start. I always wondered why TV land or one of the other stations does not do a series of great but forgotten shows. The vaults are full of them. I loved anthology shows but sadly they seem to be a relic of the past.

This show came out when I was about 12, and I remember being glued to the TV every week waiting for it to come on: #1 because I had a HUGE crush on Tony Bill (he was the host of the show, and, I believe, the producer and director -- and maybe writer?) and, #2 because I loved the idea of seeing how people evolved over the years from high school to adulthood. I remember the quality of writing was fantastic, the stories were interesting and compelling, and the acting heartfelt. This was an emotionally packed show about real people in realistic situations that stood out amidst all of the cool dude cop shows (Kojak, Baretta, Rockford Files, Starsky and Hutch, Harry-O, etc.) that were so popular at the time. I'd love to view it again to see if it holds up as well now as it has in my memory.

I have always thought of this TV show every time I meet someone who finished high school in 1965. I married someone who finished high school in 1965; his college roommate and he had the same birthday (8/14/1947) and was our best man on 8/19/2000.

It is interesting how people change 10 years out of high school.

When my mother was 10 years out of high school, she had excelled in college at UNC-Chapel Hill and Converse College and had been elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She trained as a high school teacher just as her own mother had been a high school teacher. She was the Head of the Ashley Hall School History Department in 1959-1960 and loved living in Charleston, SC.

When my father was 10 years out of high school, he was not elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He had graduated from Harvard Law School and gone to Officer Candidate School to become a Navy JAG officer in Newport, RI in 1956.

My parents married on November 30, 1957 in my mother's hometown as my mother had made a decision that she wouldn't marry until she was 25 years old.

This was an engaging anthology program which came on NBC on Thursdays the summer of 1977. Each week we followed the lives of different members of the high school Class of '65. I still remember some of the episodes: A girl becomes a semi-successful folk singer; two buddies try to open a restaurant in the desert where a highway will go through; and Richard Hatch (from "Battlestar Galactica") played a ne'er-do-well. I would love to find this on DVD, or at least on TVLand. It's lifespan was short but it gave me many fond memories along with other great 70's television like "Rockford Files."

This was one of those "drop what you're doing and watch" kind of shows. Each week the viewer could get involved with the life of one of the '65 grads. The stores were sometimes funny, serious, heart-warming, and never boring. In the one season it was on, it made quite an impression on me. Probably because I was a '65 graduate, myself. It kind of hit home. It's too bad TV isn't like this anymore. Rather than quality shows, we're hammered with just another reality offering. If you like celebrity trout fishing, well power to you, but it's too bad people these days can't be treated to something like "What Really Happened To The Class of '65." It was great TV, and I think would hold up in re-runs. I miss this show a lot.

I loved this anthology & would love to see it again. I bought the book when it came out in the early 70's. I think I read it several times; it was that good. Of course the anthology was fiction but the book was wasn't. I do wonder what became of that group of people who were featured in the book. They'd all be around 74 now?

I loved this show, I'm so glad others remember it also. My favorite episode was Don Johnson as the retuning Vietnam Vet. I remember he sang a song to the girl but can't remember who she was. Anyway I was hooked fan of Don Johnson till today 2019. The whole series was great I could relate to the other characers, maybe because I graduated in 1968. Please someone out in TV land, telln us you can stream this show or find away to buy or rent it.

This was a wonderful show that only lasted a season but it is still in my memory. It was an anthology drama with a different story every week. Some of the stories were a little more sad than others but all in all, this was a great show. I can't believe that out of all of the garbage in reruns out there, this show seems to have just vanished. I wish it would show up somewhere...cable or video or something. It was just too good to not be seen again.

One of my favorite tv shows when it was on. Heartbreaking when it got canceled. I always thought some intelligent television producers would find a way to update it and bring it back. Hollywood seems to only remake hits instead of shows like this which would be a wealth of personal drama, comedy and pathos. I can't even find this show on reruns. So sad.

So many episodes that struck home with me even though I graduated in the year of 1979. Really a great dramedy.

Please bring it back!

The guest stars alone make this worth watching on reruns again and again.

10/10

If there is some intelligent producer out there looking for a tv series idea. Check this one out.

I also recall this as being a summer series, although IMDb lists the it as being 'released" in December. As a high school kid, I loved the concept, and remember being quite moved by one particular episode. A girl who was part of a popular clique in high school, ends up in some kind of job assisting the poor. When she runs into these same friends again years later, she can no longer relate to them, due to their cruelty toward somebody she had brought (to a reunion?). I, too, would love to see this again. Perhaps it was a mid-season replacement starting in Dec. 77, and then was repeated in the summer of 78? Our family owned a cabin in the mountains, and we would spend a month there each summer. I remember that, during the summer this was broadcast, our TV died and I had to find a neighboring cabin with a TV, to make sure I didn't miss an episode.

Update 2010: My 30th reunion this year - would love to see this series.

I fondly remember sitting enraptured in front of the TV while holding my first baby. I thoroughly enjoyed the concept of peeking into classmates lives ten years after graduation. I'd like to do that too! It was also a show that I didn't have to worry about covering my son's eyes or ears while watching. I really love that I can see some of today's (& yesterday's) mega stars and remember the first time I saw them on the "Class of 65". Annette O'Toole became one of my all time favorite actresses after seeing her on this show. The young Don Johnson as an injured returning Nam Vetran was heart touching and he was so hot back then too. I'll have to do some digging, but I seem to recall a young John Ritter and maybe John Denver making appearances too. Yes, I would also love a summer of "65" reruns, as apposed to the 100+ channels of reruns of crime dramas.

There were some episodes of this series that featured the lovely actress Meredith Baxter Birney in one, John Rubinstein in another with Jessica Walter. However, the titles of these episodes escapes me. Anyway, it was a great series even though short-lived. I do believe that if this series had moved to another night, it might have survived a little bit longer. It seems like over the last several decades, NBC has let high quality programs just vanish, never to be seen or heard of again. Too bad the same NBC President responsible for salvaging "Hill Street Blues", "Cheers" and "St. Elsewhere" wasn't around to save this series. Perhaps a VHS or DVD would be nice, but since it was so short with very limited episodes, that's probably highly unlikely.

What Really Happened To The Class Of '65 was broadcast here in Holland in the summer of 1978 I believe. Such a shame there was never a re-run, I still remember the episodes fondly. I vividly remember the episode about the Vietnam veteran who went on a swimming challenge, was that character played by a young Don Johnson? Is there anyone who has this stuff on videotapes? If so, please upload them somewhere so we can see them again! About the theme song: there is a download to be found on venicecentral.com where the band Venice sings this song, but I'm not sure if it's the original recording from the series. But hearing this song sure brought back memories.

My favorite episode was when Don Johnson played a backwoods boy who had been to war, and one of the classmates was a do-gooder Peace Corps type rich girl who had to look inside herself due to the encounters with Don Johnson's character. She is in the Appalchia area, apparently, doing service work. I don't know the name of the episode, though. Can anyone fill in missing info?

This was a great show to me because the class was a little older than I, and I found it very interesting examining these lives ten or so years later. I didn't remember some of your information, so I am going back to check it out again. Dana Plato and Tony Bill? Wow!

Cosie3 mwerner@wcnet.org