Classic Television

[RochesterRob]

  It seems that the "what are you watching" thread is more oriented towards current material so maybe there should be one for older programming.  Covering the period from the early 1950's through the 1990's.  Discuss your favorite show.  Critique a show you may dislike.  Discuss television from a production or industry standpoint.  

  Likes : Star Trek TOS

              All in the Family

              Hill Street Blues

 

  Shows that my attitude has changed on but still generally like :

              MASH

              Happy Days

 

  Shows that are interesting from an industry standpoint :

             Batman

 

  Guilty pleasure shows :

             Black Sheep Squadron

 

  Episodes that define the series.  Episodes that make you feel that everybody in production was getting ready to jump ship to another project.

[Ann]

Likes that I still enjoy today and will watch when they come on TV:

1960s: Star Trek 
1970s: WKRP (I own the series on dvd, and will pop it in whenever I need a laugh)
1980s:  Newhart
1990s: Frazier 

Lots of shows that did not age well for me:
● M*A*S*H - was fine until it went all SJW
● Friends - I got bored after season 5, and will not even watch a rerun
● Rosanne - hilarious at the time but now? Meh

Real Classic TV that is like an old friend:
● Leave it to Beaver
● Ozzie & Harriet 
● Bonanza

Classic TV I never liked:
● I Love Lucy
● The Honeymooners 

[RochesterRob]

3 minutes ago, Ann said:

Likes that I still enjoy today and will watch when they come on TV:

1960s: Star Trek 
1970s: WKRP (I own the series on dvd, and will pop it in whenever I need a laugh)
1980s:  Newhart
1990s: Frazier 

Lots of shows that did not age well for me:
● M*A*S*H - was fine until it went all SLW
● Friends - I got bored after season 5, and will not even watch a rerun
● Rosanne - hilarious at the time but now? Meh

Real Classic TV that is like an old friend:
● Leave it to Beaver
● Ozzie & Harriet 
● Bonanza

Classic TV I never liked:
● I Love Lucy
● The Honeymooners 

  Roseanne seems like it is small in terms of profile today.  Saturday at the mall.  Saturday with Dan's buddies fixing a 20 year old pick up truck.  None of of those things relates to most Americans any more.  BTW Dan's one buddy was played by William Sadler who hails from Orchard Park and appeared in the second Die Hard movie.

 

  A lot of problems with MASH which killed it for me as a teen by 1980.  I can still watch the first few seasons as I think it best shows a non-military attitude that could actually happen.

 

  Not much for Bonanza as a kid but got interested in it as an adult.  Interesting for examining 1960's story writing.

 

  I was not much for ILL but she wrote the book for sitcoms and is another native WNY'r.  

 

  Honeymooners was an acquired taste and an early example of a network going after a personality to drive ratings.  Gleason seldom rehearsed.

 

  Newhart and Frasier are excellent series.

[Chef Jim]

I'll post more on this when I have time. But the wife and I were HUGE MASH fans. When we watch it now the bleeding heart liberal story lines are horrible to take.  When Trapper John was replaced by BJ it was a rapid decent downhill.  

[snafu]

9 hours ago, Ann said:

Classic TV I never liked:
● I Love Lucy
● The Honeymooners 

 

I like both those shows.

 

 

[Robs House]

Favorite Nick at Night sitcoms: Mr. Ed and Car 54 Where are You.

 

 

70s show I was probably to young for and hated: MASH

 

Favorite obscure 80s Comedy: Sledgehammer

 

Best show getting dumped on in this thread: The Honeymooners.

 

Show that I loved in the 90s but wouldn't watch today: Quantum Leap.

 

Show that made me hor..., er, I mean stimulated when I was home alone in my early teens: Hey Dude

[3rdnlng]

On 10/20/2020 at 1:50 PM, RochesterRob said:

  Roseanne seems like it is small in terms of profile today.  Saturday at the mall.  Saturday with Dan's buddies fixing a 20 year old pick up truck.  None of of those things relates to most Americans any more.  BTW Dan's one buddy was played by William Sadler who hails from Orchard Park and appeared in the second Die Hard movie.

 

  A lot of problems with MASH which killed it for me as a teen by 1980.  I can still watch the first few seasons as I think it best shows a non-military attitude that could actually happen.

 

  Not much for Bonanza as a kid but got interested in it as an adult.  Interesting for examining 1960's story writing.

 

  I was not much for ILL but she wrote the book for sitcoms and is another native WNY'r.  

 

  Honeymooners was an acquired taste and an early example of a network going after a personality to drive ratings.  Gleason seldom rehearsed.

 

  Newhart and Frasier are excellent series.

My grandfather danced with Lucy when he was in High School in Jamestown. 

[RochesterRob]

On 10/20/2020 at 11:02 PM, Robs House said:

Favorite Nick at Night sitcoms: Mr. Ed and Car 54 Where are You.

 

 

70s show I was probably to young for and hated: MASH

 

Favorite obscure 80s Comedy: Sledgehammer

 

Best show getting dumped on in this thread: The Honeymooners.

 

Show that I loved in the 90s but wouldn't watch today: Quantum Leap.

 

Show that made me hor..., er, I mean stimulated when I was home alone in my early teens: Hey Dude

  Had to look up Hey Dude.  Don't think I've ever seen one second of it.  I see it had Christine Taylor of The Brady Bunch movie in it.  A very naturally beautiful woman.  My wife loved Quantum Leap.  I have never read any Scot Bakula commentary on it but it seems that the character of Sam is an actor's dream in terms of challenges.  Male  actor playing a woman.  Playing a developmentally challenged boy.  

[Robs House]

1 hour ago, RochesterRob said:

  Had to look up Hey Dude.  Don't think I've ever seen one second of it.  I see it had Christine Taylor of The Brady Bunch movie in it.  A very naturally beautiful woman.  My wife loved Quantum Leap.  I have never read any Scot Bakula commentary on it but it seems that the character of Sam is an actor's dream in terms of challenges.  Male  actor playing a woman.  Playing a developmentally challenged boy.  

 

Hey Dude was a cheesy Nickelodeon show ca. 1990. Marsha was nice, but it was the brunette in tight jeans that really did it for me.

[AZ.]

I like all the "old" Star Treks, especially DS9. I only watched the first episode of Star Trek Discovery and hated (among other things) what they did with the Klingons.

 

Ancient guilty pleasures are The Adventures of Superman (especially the first two seasons), the original Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, and The Munsters. 

 

Oldies that I loved are Kolchak: The Night Stalker, All In The Family, and Monty Python's Flying Circus.

 

The X Files are in there somewhere too.

 

If 23 years on television qualifies a show as being a 'classic', then I have to include South Park.

Edited October 22, 2020 by AZ.

[KD in CA]

On 10/20/2020 at 12:19 PM, Chef Jim said:

I'll post more on this when I have time. But the wife and I were HUGE MASH fans. When we watch it now the bleeding heart liberal story lines are horrible to take.  When Trapper John was replaced by BJ it was a rapid decent downhill.  

 

Hawkeye/Trapper vs Frank/Margaret with Henry as the exasperated referee was hilarious TV, but that all ended when that cast broke up.  The shift from edgy comedy to lecturing, sentimental crap was insufferable.

 

Does Seinfeld count as classic TV yet?  I honestly don't watch anything older than that anymore.

[snafu]

I think a typical Saturday night when I was a kid was Star Trek (reruns), followed by Hee Haw, followed by Hockey Night in Canada.

 

Man, I could still live with that.

 

 

 

[RochesterRob]

  I just could not take it.  I like MacGyver as a character on a show but I could not bring myself to watch one of the Landers Sisters as a "rock and roll" star.  I had to switch over to Adam 12 just in time to see Dick Van Dyke's Rosemarie thinking that she had a rattlesnake in her travel bag.  Turns out it was an electric tooth brush.  In 1972?  God bless Jack Webb for that diversion.  I guess I'm watching Nash Bridges later with the Elvis Costello inspired Frankie Dwyer.  I was in SF once as an early teen back in the 1970's and that was enough for me.  Later I will watch one of the poorer efforts of Season 1 for Star Trek in Court Martial.  At least it taught me how to have fun on a rainy day as a kid imagining working in a Jeffries Tube.  At least I am not paying for television to see what other dreck is on.  

Edited March 3, 2021 by RochesterRob

[devnull]

Star Trek TOS, TNG, DS9, even Voyager.  I'd throw Enterprise in there too, except that started just outside the 1990s window

 

Stargate SG1 (started in the 90s)

 

South Park (started in the 90s)

Simpsons (classic Simpsons, not that new garbage)

Ren and Stimpy

 

Twilight Zone

Outer Limits

 

Married with Children

Police Squad

 

Sopranos

 

Blackadder

Edited March 4, 2021 by devnull

[CarpetCrawler]

We're missing these:

 

The Dick Van Dyke Show

 

The Avengers

 

Sanford And Son

 

Columbo

 

The Odd Couple

 

Cheers

[devnull]

8 hours ago, CarpetCrawler said:

We're missing these:

 

The Dick Van Dyke Show

 

 

[Just Jack]

On 10/20/2020 at 11:02 PM, Robs House said:

Favorite obscure 80s Comedy: Sledgehammer

 

 

I remember it, lasted only two seasons if I remember correctly. 

 

[Taro T]

WKRP in Cincinnati and SOAP were 2 of the funniest shows in TV history and still get a kick out of both.  Both ended their runs way too soon.  (Both only lasted 4 seasons,)

 

Cheers has to be my favorite long running show (11 seasons and 200+ episodes count as a long run IMHO).  Liked the rest of the "Best Night of TV on TV" as well.  At least the early seasons of all those shows, but they definitely all (except for HSB) went downhill after the 1st few years.  (Cosby Show, Buffalo Bill, Family Ties, Night Court, & Hill Street Blues.  Well, HSB went downhill when it was replaced by LA Law. )

 

As a kid, probably saw every Gilligan's Island rerun at least 20 times and every Star Trek rerun nearly that often.  Watched a lot of Match Game '7x after school as a kid until they moved it's start time to be too early while we were still in school.  Get Smart reruns were fun too.

 

For dramas, Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere were both great.  Only have the 1st season of St. Elsewhere on DVD.  Need to get the rest of it one of these days.

 

In the 90's, it was Bundy's (aka Married with Children) though that series definitely had a couple of clunker seasons (when they had 7 living with them and when Peg was preggers specifically).  In the Aughts liked My Name is Earl.

 

A few others from childhood were Barney Miller, The Odd Couple, and the Rockford Files.

 

Liked M*A*S*H and most of the Norman Lear series as a kid, but except for the 1st ~5 seasons of M*A*S*H can't say any of them hold up well.

 

Channel 29 showed some other non-US syndicated shows that were fun too - Dave Allen at Large and Bizarre (which is where the Super Dave Osborne character started out).

[Foxx]

The wife has the frndly app. They must have all the old shows from the 60's. Lately, all I ever hear coming out of the Dogs Room is the theme song for Hazel...

 

[Taro T]

17 minutes ago, Foxx said:

The wife has the frndly app. They must have all the old shows from the 60's. Lately, all I ever hear coming out of the Dogs Room is the theme song for Hazel...

 

 

That might be my 1st time hearing Mrs. Santa Claus' theme song.  Never watched that show.

 

My go to Nick at Nite show was the Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.  Had never seen that one before it ended up on late night TV.  It was well written and had a great cast - a whole lot of actors and actresses that ended up stars in the later 60's and 70's were classmates of Dobie and Maynard.