What "old" series are you watching?

[Jeb-NY]

My Dad ran a TV Sales & Service business in the 50s and 60s so we had a very early color set. They were so hard to keep adjusted we had a B&W we watched most of the time since there was only one or two color shows a week on and the Thanksgiving and New Year parades.

Once I was out on my own I didn't buy a color TV till late 70s. We decided we need to because our young son was watching Sesame Street and they were yelling out colors and he was pointing to grey spots and saying blue, red, ....

[folivier]

FYI, we had an early color tv set with a remote! When you pressed a button on the clicker a motor would move the channel selector or volume knob around in a circle.
The remote actually had small tuning forks inside to send out an inaudible sound. Yeah, I was one of those who had to take things apart to see how they worked.
Oh yeah, we only had 3 stations to watch so the remote thing was more a gimmick.

[O2Bfree]

My parents' first TV remote clicker made an audible click. The TV also responded to other sounds, for example it'd turn on if you tossed a set of keys onto the bed just right.

We had a remote control antenna too, the kind where you turned the dial on the box on your TV to the direction you wanted, then a small motor attached to the antenna pole step-turned the antenna around, ker-chunk, ker-chunk, ker-chunk.

[Car-Guy]

(Close to the truth) Our remote quit working at one point and I think I created the first Alexa (voice activated) back in the 80's. I actually had two of them... Neither were named Alexa but they would turn the TV on and off, change the channels and adjust the volume on command... The older model (DW) didn't work nearly as well as the younger one (DD). However, both quit responding after a few weeks so I was forced to get another one (TV).

[Nemo2]

Is it time to change the thread title to Reminiscences of Antiquated Equipment?

[Birdie Num Nums]

Quote:

Originally Posted by UnrealizedPotential IMO after Don Knotts left the show it went downhill from there. He was on a few color episodes, but I believe that was after he had already left the show and thereafter made sporadic appearances. It seemed boring after he left, the fun was gone.

Funny thing is, the show was still a hit even after Knotts left. (It was #1 1967/68, per this TV history book I have in my hands.) Andy Griffith just grew tired of the role in 1968, so the series evolved into "Mayberry RFD"--with its first episode having Andy marry Helen and moving on, and Aunt Bee then moving in with the Ken Berry character's family.

"Mayberry RFD" was still a top series during its three-year run. It was #4 during the 1968/69 & 1969/70 seasons; and #15 during 1970/71. But CBS then did its infamous cancellation of countless "rural" TV series (even popular ones) around 1971/72 in an effort to become more "hip" with the younger audience.

[UnrealizedPotential]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Birdie Num Nums Funny thing is, the show was still a hit even after Knotts left. (It was #1 1967/68, per this TV history book I have in my hands.) Andy Griffith just grew tired of the role in 1968, so the series evolved into "Mayberry RFD"--with its first episode having Andy marry Helen and moving on, and Aunt Bee then moving in with the Ken Berry character's family. "Mayberry RFD" was still a top series during its three-year run. It was #4 during the 1968/69 & 1969/70 seasons; and #15 during 1970/71. But CBS then did its infamous cancellation of countless "rural" TV series (even popular ones) around 1971/72 in an effort to become more "hip" with the younger audience.

I am very surprised at that. For me anyways, after Knotts left the show was never the same.

[Yoheadden]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stepford Depends on your definition of old. We've been on a detective series binge of late: The Closer, Mentalist, Monk. This was after exhausting several similarly themed British series which we prefer: Prime Suspect, DCI Banks, etc. If this pandemic keeps on for much longer we may run out.

We really enjoyed The Mentalist when that was on.

Recently just watched all of The Little Rascals and Honey Mooners. Jackie Gleason was one of the best :-)

Also more recent shows, King of Queens & Rules of Engagement.

[Time2]

I recently watched several episodes of 'The Pretender' although it's a youngster at only 20 years old.

[Christine]

Quote:

Originally Posted by UnrealizedPotential Online try " Uncle Earl's classic TV. It's free to use.

Thank you for this - one of the few that isn't blocked for us foreigners.

[Jeb-NY]

I am collecting episodes of Pretender and Highlander with Plex to rewatch but waiting for a few more episodes to fill in. Unfortunately they only play once a week so it takes awhile to get them all. Some other shows in my collection play 6 to 50 times a week and they don't take long to get a full set recorded to start watching. Love Plex. I currently have about 5TB of old TV and Movies stacked up on Plex for future viewing and you can skip commercials.

[Birdie Num Nums]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CoolRich59 I don't know if it counts as "old, but I started watching Game of Thrones this week.

I suppose "old" can mean TV series that are no longer being produced--especially if you had never watched them before now. If so, I recently have been watching and enjoying many rerun episodes of "Modern Family." For some reason, I never watched it before, catching only snippets of it while it was being first broadcast.

[GalaxyBoy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by harllee I love the black and white Andy Griffith shows--but once they converted to color they are no good.

Heh! You beat me to posting this. How true.

I also recall when shows were subtitled "IN COLOR" and the NBC Peacock station ID with the slogan "in living color." Not that we could tell at home; Dad was seriously into LBYM long before we ever heard that term. We were watching the old black and white set he bought in the 50's until the mid-70s when he probably couldn't get the various tubes any more. Remember having to warm up the TV?

[harllee]

I don't like the old classic black and white movies (like "Holiday Inn") that were "colorized." I wonder if any old TV shows were colorized.

[folivier]

The old Carol Burnett show, used to enjoy seeing how long Harvey Corman could go without cracking up at Tim Conway.

[Time2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by harllee I don't like the old classic black and white movies (like "Holiday Inn") that were "colorized." I wonder if any old TV shows were colorized.

It looks to me like at least some of the Bonanza episodes were colorized.

[razztazz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Time2 It looks to me like at least some of the Bonanza episodes were colorized.

Bonanza was all color from the very first episode. RCA owned NBC at the time and wanted a showcase to titillate people into buying color TV's which, at the time, were mostly made by RCA.

There have been some B&W shows that were colorized. One I can think of was McHale's Navy. Nearly all of them had some "Angle" for the colorization. McHale's Navy=lots of tropical / outdoorsy scenery. Looks better in color. Wasted in B&W. Same with Adventures in Paradise. Of course none of these found a market or the appreciation of TV viewers. There are even several Three Stooges shorts that are colorized but you never ever see them. Stooge fans have become some sort of "classic cinema Purists" a la Turner Classic Movies watchers.

[Birdie Num Nums]

Quote:

Originally Posted by harllee I don't like the old classic black and white movies (like "Holiday Inn") that were "colorized." I wonder if any old TV shows were colorized.

Turner colorized the early B&W episodes of "Gilligan's Isle"--which was another one of those TV series that converted to color 1965/66.

[tuckeverlasting]

Not on the topic of color vs B&W, but The Dick van Dyke Show and Bob Newhart are two more great shows I am not sure have been mentioned. BTW both these stars are still living!

[UnrealizedPotential]

I like "Beyond belief:fact or fiction" with Jonathan Frakes. It's just very good. It's usually like 4 or perhaps 5 stories that are highlighted and at the end of the show it's revealed which ones are true and which are fiction. It's a well done show. It's on Pluto tv.