Tune in, turn on, drop out. That '60s counterculture catch phrase is more likely these days to evoke an evening on the sofa with the tube than a mind-expanding trip of consciousness-raising or cultural opposition.
But the tedium isn't the message. At least not the only message. Ironically, even from the sofa, you're prone to see characters who embody ideals and lifestyles outside the mainstream.
Over the years, countercultural characters have turned up in the unlikeliest spot-prime time TV-calling attention to marginalized (or demonized) topics like the sexual revolution, alternative medicine, and progressive politics.

Maynard G. Krebs, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959-63)
TV's original, like, beatnik, Maynard G. Krebs (Bob Denver, who later played the title role in Gilligan's Island) was a surprisingly anti-establishment voice of slacker insouciance in the 'I like Ike' era. While his good buddy Dobie was chasing skirts and pathetically trying to fit into the button-down world, scruffy Maynard was bashing bongos, dodging work, and coyly critiquing the establishment-all the while spewing hepcat slanguage (Ya dig, Daddio?). Given to praising jazz greats like Thelonious Monk and Dizzy Gillespie, Maynard made it hip to be beat for millions of mainstream kids who otherwise might never have heard of Ferlinghetti or Kerouac.

Oliver Wendell Douglas, Green Acres (1965-71)
Going back to the land was anything but bland when Oliver (Eddie Albert) and Lisa (Eva Gabor) moved from a Manhattan penthouse to a Hooterville hen house. Initially as clueless as any utopian hippie farmer, Oliver had his own spin on being one with the earth. Absurdly insisting on wearing suits to do the chores, city slicker Oliver was given to spontaneous romanticized orations about Yankee farmer self-reliance (complete with fife player) and found himself surrounded by comic manifestations of what Marx termed rural idiocy. More than just The Beverly Hillbillies in reverse, Oliver and crew created some seriously silly absurdist theater in the fallow corny fields of prime time.

Lincoln 'Linc' Hayes, The Mod Squad (1968-73)
The original undercover brother, black militant cop Linc was the superbad third of The Mod Squad. The three were wayward, painfully relevant youths who came around to the right side of the law-working for the Man, but only to help the Kids. Seen alongside his hippie-dippy cohorts (Pete and Julie), reformed Watts rioter Linc (Clarence Williams III) seems like a real revolutionary. With his groovy shades, hip threads, and high-rise Afro, Linc is one of the coolest dudes in TV history. He was often heard spouting over-the-top lines like 'He's a soul brother. I don't fink on soul brothers.' Or his all-purpose signature line: 'Solid!'