Throughout the 1870s, Burnand maintained a prodigious output. For the stage he wrote 55 pieces, ranging from burlesques to pantomimes, farces and extravaganzas. He was the sole author of most of them, but worked on a few with Thomas German Reed, J. L. Molloy, Henry Pottinger Stephens and even with H. J. Byron. His stage pieces of the 1870s included "Poll and Partner Joe" (1871), "Penelope Anne" (1871; a sequel to "Cox and Box"), "The Miller and His Man" (1873; "a Christmas drawing room extravaganza" with songs by Sullivan), "Artful Cards" (1877), "Proof" (1878), "Dora and Diplunacy" (1878, a burlesque of Clement Scott's "Diplomacy", an adaptation of Sardou's "Dora"), "The Forty Thieves" (1878; a charity collaboration among four playwrights, including Byron and Gilbert), "Our Club" (1878) and another frequently revived hit, "Betsy" (1879). He provided a burlesque of "Robbing Roy" to the Gaiety Theatre in 1879. Burnand's prolific writing came at some cost in quality. A biographer wrote that he "was a facile and slapdash writer. False rhymes and awkward rhythms occur frequently in his verse, and his favourite devices included puns, topical references and slang."