What "old" series are you watching?

[W2R]

Frank is watching "Mannix" because it is free on youtube. He loves it! As you all know I don't watch much TV, but I watched a couple of episodes with him on my TV. It didn't cost me a cent to do that.

My father, who died in 1980, loved Mannix back when it was new. So, when the theme song starts to play at the beginning of an episode, I remember him.

 

[KarlH]

We have been watching the original star trek lately, and for a while were streaming The Saint, with a very young roger moore. I also tried re watching some of the original Doby Gillis series, but it was a bit less entertaining. We are still limited to whats available on netflix and prime. No cable at our house.

 

[Qs Laptop]

MeTV also does the Johnny Carson show which I am enjoying...he was much better at making fun of political issues than the current lot of late night entertainers.

Yes! When I do my rowing machine exercising I put on "The Best of Carson" from Peacock streaming network. I'm currently in early 1981, just after Reagan became President but before he was shot. Carson is the master of deadpan joke delivery and you're right, his political jokes are awesome. Plus, they trigger nostalgia for me as I remember where I was and what I was doing at the particular time in history.

I can remember from the late 80's when Carson mercilessly needled Jim and Tammy Baker and also Col. Oliver North and his secretary, Fawn Hall. Can't wait to get to those episodes.

 

[Qs Laptop]

I went through all the old Mission Impossible seasons a couple of years ago. They still hold up pretty good today. I remember an episode that had William Shatner. In fact, the same company that produced Mission Impossible also did Star Trek so there was a lot of actors crossing over to the other show. Of course, Leonard Nimoy had a regular role in MI as Paris, after Martin Landau left the show.

There was a reboot of Mission Impossible in the late 80's, starring Peter Graves. I'll be kind and just say it wasn't terrible.

I used to love Man from U.N.C.L.E. when I was a kid. I've watched a couple of the episodes recently, and I thought they were pretty dumb. One particular episode I watched had Leonard Nimoy and Werner Klemperer (Col. Klink from Hogan's Heroes) in it. I thought the recent Man from U.N.C.L.E. movie was entertaining.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Yes! When I do my rowing machine exercising I put on "The Best of Carson" from Peacock streaming network. I'm currently in early 1981, just after Reagan became President but before he was shot. Carson is the master of deadpan joke delivery and you're right, his political jokes are awesome. Plus, they trigger nostalgia for me as I remember where I was and what I was doing at the particular time in history.

I can remember from the late 80's when Carson mercilessly needled Jim and Tammy Baker and also Col. Oliver North and his secretary, Fawn Hall. Can't wait to get to those episodes.

I like the way MeTV does the shows...they broadcast on the same date that they originally aired (like tonight will be 11/6/88). It was fun to watch them running up to the '88 election. A few days ago, James Garner was on it and was reading quotes from the book "The Portable Curmudgeon" by Jon Winokur (who a few years later helped write Garner's and later Burt Reynold's autobiographies). They were funny enough that I went out and bought the book!

 

[scrabbler1]

I like the way MeTV does the shows...they broadcast on the same date that they originally aired (like tonight will be 11/6/88). It was fun to watch them running up to the '88 election. A few days ago, James Garner was on it and was reading quotes from the book "The Portable Curmudgeon" by Jon Winokur (who a few years later helped write Garner's and later Burt Reynold's autobiographies). They were funny enough that I went out and bought the book!

Has MeTV been airing many old Carson shows which included musical guests? I remember reading how AntennaTV could not air nearly any of those episodes (and there are lots of them) because it was too costly to pay for the rights to show the musicians playing their songs, even 30 years later. Once in a while, I see a rerun on AntennaTV which had a musical guest. But that has been rare.

 

[Birdie Num Nums]

If you're talking about old series that I haven't seen before, I'm now up to Season 7 of "Dexter." Great acting, especially by Michael Hall, the lead. Got Season 8 (the final season) on order at my local library (it's been on hold for months now).

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Has MeTV been airing many old Carson shows which included musical guests? I remember reading how AntennaTV could not air nearly any of those episodes (and there are lots of them) because it was too costly to pay for the rights to show the musicians playing their songs, even 30 years later. Once in a while, I see a rerun on AntennaTV which had a musical guest. But that has been rare.

Come to think of it, I don't think so. I know musical rights has been a thorn in a lot of sides these days, so I could see it being an issue.

 

[deserat]

The original "All Creatures, Great and Small" with Robert Harvey; Miss Marple with Joan Hickson; Babylon 5; Battlestar Galactica -more recent series; Brideshead Revisited; Original Morse and Lewis

US-Frasier is hilarious and insightful; I liked Northern Exposure when it was on; China Beach, although I rewatched a few years ago and it has aged a bit; original Magnum PI- before I moved to Germany this time, I had found the local channels with old US TV series-I love Tom Selleck in Blue Bloods and find him handsome, but had forgotten how amazingly handsome he was when doing Magnum-oh my. Quantum Leap was mentioned-another good one.

 

[pacergal]

So many memories listed here!
Thanks for the thread, you are giving me some new/old series to watch again.
I have been trying to focus on comedy for a while--Frasier, Cheers, I love Lucy, etc.

 

[cbo111]

The beauty of all these old shows is the complete absence of smart phones. It drives me crazy watching current tv shows, where the characters are constantly fiddling with their phones. Its like the phone is really a main character!

 

[Birdie Num Nums]

Today, for me, "The King of Queens" (1998-2007) is my favorite comedy TV series of that era. Top-notch writing and acting. Great fun!

 

[garyt]

I totally agree but, and this is likely just my age talking, I still enjoy most of the oldies. Almost entirely on nostalgia grounds. My father was in the Philadelphia Highway Patrol and I remember watching "10-4! 10-4!" Highway Patrol sitting on the floor in front of the large B&W TV with the big sheet of glass on it. Ditto many other oldies. Like eating grandma's chicken soup. Comfort food.

As an adult, two shows I find almost painful to watch (OK, but I watch them anyway) and wonder why they have such ongoing cultural gravitas, are The Twilight Zone and Colombo.

Maybe I can give TTZ a bit of a pass because in those days we didn't have all the science we do today and the general public was even more in the dark about it. But as far as Sci-Fi, the "Sci" is embarrassingly vapid, dopey, comic book level, and that makes the "Fi" part just plane dumb because the it relies on the Sci part being plausible. It comes across more like children's fantasy stories nowadays.

And almost everything Colombo does is either illegal, and was even back then, or he's repeatedly out of jurisdiction. No real PD would operate that way. And if he's a Lt. doesn't he have an office with "regular" cops reporting to him like Van Buren in "Law & Order"? Why is he always going over people's houses and asking questions? It's called harassment. Either take him downtown or fill out the report and call it a day.

No I get it, I still watch some of it too. To me, the really old stuff is kind of so bad it's good . I mean stuff from the 50's and real early 60's. It's stuff from the 70's and 80's that tends to be really bad .

 

[cyber888]

The UFO TV series with Commander Striker, Moon Base, and that Submarine with a Jet .. it's on Roku TV. I forgot about that TV series, but watched it back then. The female leader actress of the UFO TV series is actually the mom of Benedict Cumberbatch.

I'm also watching My Favorite Martian with Billy Bixby and Ray Walston on Roku TV. And they have the old Batman & Robin with Adam West and Burt Ward

https://images.search.yahoo.com/sea...bbbd--ufo-tv-series-serie-tv.jpg&action=click

 

[GalaxyBoy]

IMHO The Britts just seem to do Police Procedural dramas better, and more realistically. They do not have all the Granny restrictions on what to show and what to say, that the "Non Paid" US media outlets have to deal with. Prime Suspect and Silent Witness being great examples,

Amen!

Among other shows, we've been watching Scott and Bailey on Britbox. It's nice that they don't have NCIS' McGee to simply go tappy-tappity-tap, "OK, I'm now hacked into the super secret computer network and there's your killer." OTOH, all the Brits have to do is check the CCTV and they have pics of the killer's car. There was an article in my Apple News feed today from the Atlantic discussing the difference with Brit procedurals.

I found it here: Why British Police Shows Are Better

Our "old" show lately is "All Creatures Great and Small" from 1978. It's been remade and will air on PBS in the US starting in January, I believe.

Everyone talks about today being the "golden age." Not sure I agree. I find the gore off-putting, and too many shows spend their resources on special effects at the expense of character development and plot, IMHO.

 

[skipro33]

The old black and white Andy Griffith Show Mayberry RFD. That Barney! What a hoot!

 

[Birdie Num Nums]

The old black and white Andy Griffith Show Mayberry RFD. That Barney! What a hoot!

You might notice that during Season 1, Andy has a thicker Southern drawl and plays for laughs himself. Griffith said later, during at least one interview, that he realized this wasn't quite working and that he should instead play the straight man to all the other odd, comedic characters of the show. So, for Season 2 onward, he lightened up on the drawl and became more of the "straight man."

 

[scrabbler1]

The beauty of all these old shows is the complete absence of smart phones. It drives me crazy watching current tv shows, where the characters are constantly fiddling with their phones. Its like the phone is really a main character!

It almost seems quaint whenever I watch an old show which has rotary phones. Even Charlie's Angels, which had corded car phones, might have appeared ahead of its time. In the original Law & Order TV series, the older, early 1990s episodes showed frequent use of pay phones by the cops and others, as cell phones were hardly a commonplace until later in the 1990s, awhen the cops began carrying them around.

 

[EastWest Gal]

Perry Mason. It’s funny you mentioned phones. In the show, anyone makes a phone call, they have the number memorized. And Perry gets calls wherever he goes. How do they find him at a client’s house?

 

[Time2]

I have watched quite a few 'Highway Patrol' episodes with Broderick Crawford. The eposides are on Youtube.
This one has a young Clint Eastwood.

 

[Midpack]

May not qualify as "old" but:

• We resumed watching Killing Eve with season 3, just became available on Hulu (season 1 & 2 were already there)
• We just finished season 1 & 2 of Fargo series on FX/Hulu. We expect to watch seasons 3 & 4 too.

Both are very hard to categorize to us. Killing Eve is a dark detective drama, Fargo (the series) is a very odd dark comedy?

 

[Time2]

I just ran across this 1959

'The Mike Wallace Interview' of Rod Serling, If you didn't know Rod Serling, he tells some interesting stories about censorship of program material. A few highlights,

Censorship of dramatizing any social theme,
Good story about a Racial theme that got softened until it no longer told the story.
Censorship by sponsors,
Corrupting influence of Holly wood and big money.
Taking your own course.
Somethings have changed for the positive, some haven't changed at all.

 

[ownyourfuture]

Watch Colombo whenever it's on, but only the episodes from the 70s.
The 'new ones' which I believe ran from the late 80s to mid 90s aren't nearly as good in my opinion.

 

[Chuckanut]

The Millionaire always fascinated me. This was back in the 50's when a million dollars really bought the good life for the rest of your life. It's amazed me that some people with a million dollars could see huge improvement in their life, and others were plunged into even greater depths of misery. It also was interesting to see how some actors were already type cast so very early in their careers. For example, Deforest Kelley played a doctor in one episode.

 

[Birdie Num Nums]

Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts

Right now the Decades TV channel, which I get OTA, is showing back-to-back episodes of the "Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts." Fun watching those ~50-some-year-old shows.