Photo montage of popular items from 1972.

TV Shows

Films

Singles

Albums

Books

Highest Rated TV Shows

(1972–73 season)
  1. All in the Family (season 3) CBS
  2. Sanford and Son (season 2) NBC
  3. Hawaii Five-O (season 5) CBS
  4. Maude (season 1) CBS
  5. Bridget Loves Bernie (season 1) CBS
  6. The NBC Sunday Mystery Movie (season 2) NBC
  7. The Mary Tyler Moore Show (season 3) CBS
  8. Gunsmoke (season 18) CBS
  9. The Wonderful World of Disney (season 19) NBC
  10. Ironside (season 6) NBC

Top Grossing Films

(Domestic box office, in 1972 dollars)
  1. The Godfather—$133,698,921
  2. The Poseidon Adventure—$93,300,000
  3. What’s Up Doc?—$57,142,740
  4. Deliverance—$46,122,355
  5. Deep Throat—$45,000,000
  6. Jeremiah Johnson—$44,693,786
  7. Cabaret—$41,326,446
  8. The Getaway—$36,734,619
  9. Last Tango in Paris—$36,144,824
  10. Lady Sings the Blues—$19,726,490

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Top Singles

  1. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, Roberta Flack
  2. Alone Again (Naturally), Gilbert O’Sullivan
  3. American Pie, Don McLean
  4. Without You, Harry Nilsson
  5. The Candy Man, Sammy Davis Jr.
  6. I Gotcha, Joe Tex
  7. Lean on Me, Bill Withers
  8. Baby Don’t Get Hooked on Me, Mac Davis
  9. Brand New Key, Melanie
  10. Daddy Don’t You Walk So Fast, Wayne Newton

Top Albums

  1. Harvest, Neil Young
  2. Tapestry, Carole King
  3. American Pie, Don McLean
  4. Teaser and the Firecat, Cat Stevens
  5. Hot Rocks 1964-1971, The Rolling Stones
  6. Killer, Alice Cooper
  7. First Take, Roberta Flack
  8. America, America
  9. Music, Carole King
  10. Madman Across the Water, Elton John

Books

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Bestselling Fiction

  1. Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Richard Bach
  2. August 1914, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
  3. The Odessa File, Frederick Forsyth
  4. The Day of the Jackal, Frederick Forsyth
  5. The Word, Irving Wallace
  6. The Winds of War, Herman Wouk
  7. Captains and the Kings, Taylor Caldwell
  8. Two from Galilee, Marjorie Holmes
  9. My Name Is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok
  10. Semi-Tough, Dan Jenkins

Bestselling nonfiction

  1. The Living Bible, Kenneth Taylor
  2. I’m OK, You’re OK, Thomas Harris
  3. Open Marriage, Nena and George O’Neill
  4. Harry S. Truman, Margaret Truman
  5. Dr. Atkins’ Diet Revolution, Robert C. Atkin
  6. Better Homes and Gardens Menu Cook Book
  7. The Peter Prescription, Laurence J. Peter
  8. A World Beyond, Ruth Montgomery
  9. Journey to Ixtlan, Carlos Castaneda
  10. Better Homes and Gardens Low-Calorie Desserts

Chart Sources: TV shows: CTVA-The Classic TV Archive/Nielsen Ratings; Films: The Numbers (Movie Business website); singles: Billboard, Year-End Charts, Hot 100 Songs; albums: Billboard, Year-End Charts, Billboard 200 Albums; fiction: Literary Hub/Publishers Weekly; Non-fiction: Literary Hub/Publishers Weekly. Credits record: Guy Aceto Collection; TV: NBCUniversal via Getty Images; Books: Historynet archives; Godfather Photo 12/Alamy: Albums: Guy Aceto colection

This article appeared in the Autumn 2022 issue of Vietnam magazine.

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