Little Black Book

A single character⁠—⁠usually male⁠—⁠has a "little black book" where he keeps names and numbers of women.

Sanford and Son

Appearances

• Get Smart: Season 3, episode 16, "The Little Black Book: Part 1" (1968). Max's old army buddy, Sid, comes to town and asks Max to find him a date. Max tells him to look in his "little black book."
• The Odd Couple: Season 2, episode 2, "Felix's Wife's Boyfriend" (1971). Nancy's single brother is in town and looking for a date, so Oscar calls all the women in his little black book, but no one's available.
• Sanford and Son: Season 1, episode 7, "A Pad for Lamont" (1972). Lamont finally gets his own place, and to celebrate, he decides to get a date by calling some of the women in his little black book.
• The Odd Couple: Season 3, episode 19, "My Strife in Court" (1973). Oscar has four tickets to a Broadway show. He invites Felix and Miriam to go with him, but he still has to find a date, so he calls some numbers in his little black book.
• The Mary Tyler Moore Show: Season 4, episode 22, "Lou's Second Date" (1974). The station manager invites Lou to a formal dinner and tells him he has to bring a date, but newly-separated Lou has no idea where to find one. Ted offers to help by leafing through his little black book, in which the women are rated with Christmas Seals because, as Murray says, "he's too cheap to buy gold stars."
• The Bob Newhart Show: Season 4, episode 19, "My Boy Guillermo" (1976). Jerry feels lonely because he hasn't had a serious relationship since he left his ex, Courtney, in Tahiti, so he takes out his little black book and calls one of the women in it to ask her for a date.
• The Bob Newhart Show: Season 5, episode 3, "Some of My Best Friends Are..." (1976). When Bob digs his old tuxedo out of the storage room, Emily finds his little black book from college in the pocket and leafs through it. She finds the names of women with stars and exclamation points next to their names and questions Bob about what they mean.
• Welcome Back, Kotter: Season 1, episode 14, "The Longest Weekend" (1976). Mr. Kotter is out of sorts because Julie went away for the weekend. When the Sweathogs ask him what's wrong, he says it's the first time he and Julie have been "separated." Vinnie assumes they're getting divorced, so he busts out his little black book to find a new girl for Mr. Kotter.
• Welcome Back, Kotter: Season 2, episode 4, "The Fight" (1976). Mr. Kotter gives the Sweathogs an assignment to show the class their most prized possessions, and Vinnie brings in his little black book and explains what the letters next to each girl's name mean.
• Mork & Mindy: Season 3, episode 16, "Mork the Swinging Single" (1981). When Mindy goes out on a date, leaving Mork home alone, Remo tells him to "get out the little black book." Mork hands him his address book, which is full of feminine names like "Lola" and "Stephanie," but Mork explains that they're all kids from the daycare center where he works.
• Cheers: Season 1, episode 15, "Father Knows Last" (1983). When Sam's date cancels because she "fell off her shoes," he cracks open his little black book to find the number of another woman, but to his surprise, he finds out she joined a convent.
• Cheers: Season 2, episode 7, "Old Flames" (1983). Diane finds out that Sam still has his little black book even though he's in a relationship with her, and she wants him to get rid of it.
• Cheers: Season 4, episode 4, "The Groom Wore Clearasil" (1985). Carla asks Sam to talk to her son, Anthony, who is preoccupied with his girlfriend. Same shows Anthony his little black book and calls a few women to show him what a great life he lives as a single man.
• Cheers: Season 5, episode 11, "The Book of Samuel" (1986). While Sam is on vacation, Woody's old girlfriend from Indiana stops by with her new fiance, and Woody doesn't want her to know that he's unattached, so Diane tells them that Woody has a girlfriend, and of course they want to meet her. To find someone to play his girlfriend, Woody looks through Sam's little black book and calls the number for "Desiree," who turns out to be Sam's housekeeper.
• It's a Living: Season 6, episode 17, "My Little Red Book" (1989). Sonny finds a little black book full of women's names and numbers in the restaurant, and he calls one of the women in the book for a date, but the book turns out to belong to a trio of spies from Bulgaria, and Sonny gets in trouble when he accidentally says the secret passphrase, "What's your sign?"
• Cheers: Season 8, episode 14, "What is... Cliff Clavin?" (1990). Sam's little black book is missing, and women keep calling him complaining that he stood them up.
• Wings: Season 2, episode 19, "All in the Family" (1991). Helen tries to look up a number in Joe's little black book, and he suspiciously grabs it from her and locks it inside a drawer so she can't read it.
• Frasier: Season 2, episode 3, "The Matchmaker" (1994). Daphne is depressed because her love life is nonexistent, so Frasier decides to find her a man. When he tells Roz, she takes out her little black book and starts naming possible dates.