Are you comfortable on that sofa? good! Let’s take a trip. Forget about your slim Ultra HD television and 20 other smart products you own. Close your eyes and let’s remember getting up off the sofa to turn a dial, wangling rabbit ears around to get a better signal, and banging on the side of the TV to correct the horizontal hold. If you have no idea what I am talking about then you’re probably a millennial. Allow me to explain. Those were all the things we had to do simply to watch a TV show. Don’t get me started on the effort it took to see a ball game all the way through. So put down that Tide Pod! This is TV Land, and we have arrived.

We’ve arrived back in the days when the anticipation of a half-hour sitcom made the day glow a little brighter, and pass a little faster it seemed – when evenings weren’t underscored by the sounds of phones dinging and pinging every 5 seconds and the urge to check email. In those days, all problems could wait until tomorrow morning after the eight o’clock shows started in the evening.

A number of those shows revolved around family businesses. We remember many of those businesses fondly still some four decades later when many real businesses around at the time are long forgotten. Anyone remember Gimbels? Woolworths?

Here are five of those family businesses that stand out from the pack as being central to the shows and their characters:

5. Sanford and Son Junkyard – Because somewhere in that junkyard sits Grandmaster Flash acetate records and Alexander Graham Bell’s original telephone. Plus, you get to watch Fred have a heart attack every time someone haggled a price.

4. The Jefferson’s Dry Cleaner – What business on this trip through TV Land is different from all the others? Jefferson’s Dry Cleaners is the answer. Why? Because of the five businesses on this list, this one is a mystery. No set was ever made and no scene was ever filmed inside a Jefferson’s Dry Cleaners (it was a chain of stores). Yet, this business was pivotal to the Jefferson’s story arc. It was their way out of poverty in Queens to the Upper East Side of New York. It might as well be pointed out as a bit of trivia that the apartments on The Jeffersons, Good Times, and The Bob Newhart Show were all exactly alike because all three shows were filmed on the same soundstage.

3. Mel’s Dinner – I remember truck stops in the 1970s and as you pulled in there used to be all these nice ladies lining the entry . . . well, that’s not exactly a reason to love Mel’s Diner, but we all know Flo’s had one hell of a past. That said, there’s nothing more any of us would like to do in TV Land than stop in at Mel’s for lunch and a nice plate of food poisoning. And there’s one thing that tops off the Mel experience – when a piece of Flo’s gum gets stuck on your shoe on the way out.

2. The Soup Nazi on Seinfeld – We won’t actually get to eat here, because there will be, “No soup for you!”. But for this soup stand it’s really all about the ambiance anyway, and the weird treatment New Yorkers will put up with to eat at someplace trendy.

1. Krusty Krab on Spongebob Squarepants – We end our journey with dinner at the Krusty Krab. Let’s keep our eyes out and see if Mr. Krab doesn’t leave that recipe for Krabby Patty sandwiches out on a table. We can grab it and make bank selling it to Plankton.

Family business is the cornerstone of the American Dream and the idea of the possibility of owning your own dream made these shows some of America’s favorites. Establishing and operating a business, small or large, is a great challenge and requires “heart”. Getting your business found today is not as simple as turning on the TV. Utilizing experts that understand today’s methods of marketing may keep your business from ending up in Sanford and Son Junkyard or you getting taken to the Jefferson’s Dry Cleaner.