What OLD series/movies are you watching? *Spoilers welcome!*

[Accidental Retiree]

I’ve started the 1975 “Poldark” series on Acorn.

 

[Qs Laptop]

It is outstanding. I recently watched a few. And the theme song is beyond iconic, definitely in the top 10 recognizable themes in TV history, especially now that it lives in re-arranged form in the movies.

Yes, I went through the entire series about a year ago.

 

[Qs Laptop]

My wife and I have been binging ER. She watched it religiously when I was deployed. I'd seen some, but have enjoyed watching the entire series. Up to Season 11 now.

Watching ER sounds like a good idea. Right now my wife and I are watching "The Good Wife", currently halfway through S2. While hardly an old series it is pretty good, although the legal maneuverings are giving way to more soap opera content.

 

[FiveDriver]

If we're talking about old movies, Turner Classic had a great one last night -- a classic noir film.

Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan and Ed Begley starring in "Odds Against Tomorrow" set in mid-50's New York City. This was Harry's picture all the way -- He produced it and hand-picked Robert Wise to direct it.

The young Belafonte sizzled across the screen in this movie. His antagonist Robert Ryan (bad Police Captain in The Godfather) rode Harry hard on screen....off screen they were good friends.

This film was introduced last night by Shari Belafonte, in an interview just months after her father passed away.

I'm ashamed to say I had not seen nor heard of this classic noir until 8pm last night. THank You TCM for presenting this movie uncut with no commercials.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odds_Against_Tomorrow

 

[DrRoy]

Northern Exposure.

 

[JoeWras]

Specifically watched two old sci fi movies:

"2001: A Space Odyssey"
"Close Encounters of the Third Kind"

"2001" continues to impress. Kubrick and Clarke hit so much right. Sure, there are some stale company logos that one could critique. There are a few minor other technical glitches. But man, Kubrick got so much correct it is scary. Facetime? It's there. iPads? There. Alexa/Siri? Yep. And so much more.

One has to remember he was depicting space, and even what the Earth looks like before we had the experience.

The part that's still evolving is our relationship with A.I., and alarmingly, the HAL situation may be becoming truer than ever. At the time this was filmed, robots and computers always had mechanical voices, frequently with teletype sound effects. Kubrick hit it out of the park by depicting it as a calm, friendly voice. Probably the biggest weakness of this movie was the hippie stargate sequence. It has been said that saved the movie because once word went around, it made for a great experience after dropping acid or shrooms. Attendance increased as the weeks went on, especially late night showings. Who knows? I think the sequence is way over-produced.

I could go on and on, like about the massive rotating set, but I better stop.

So then we have "Close Encounters." I wish I could say this movie has held up, and on many levels it has, but on others it has not. This movie has roots directly in "2001" (as told by Spielberg himself), and even shares the same tech effects wiz, Douglas Trumbull. But... The story. The "obsessive imprinting" part of the story bothered me at the time, and bothers me more today. Spielberg is even quoted as saying "He shouldn't have left his family" and would do it differently today.

Yet, what I like about Spielberg is that he intentionally imprinted the 70s on this movie. We have a time capsule of 70s culture, right down to the old Budweiser jingle that played on TV and radio for over a decade. He also unfortunately imprinted Big Hollywood on this movie, like it or not, by the lack of a diverse cast. Perhaps I'm seeing it from the lens of today, and that's a good point. Again, it reflects thoughts in Hollywood. We were still at a time when Asians did goofy sci fi or martial arts films, "blacksploitation" was a thing, and Big Hollywood was very white. There was also a Cold War going on, and it shows.

Overall, the movie is impressive, but could have been tightened up on some of the story lines. I don't think such a slow pace would survive the box office today. That may not be a good thing, either.

 

[Dtail]

How about this guy?

View attachment 46483

Butch Patrick who played Eddie Munster at a signing show, as part of a car show.
My brother loves him and we attended one in FLA.

 

[FiveDriver]

Specifically watched two old sci fi movies:

"2001: A Space Odyssey"
"Close Encounters of the Third Kind"

"2001" continues to impress. Kubrick and Clarke hit so much right. Sure, there are some stale company logos that one could critique. There are a few minor other technical glitches. But man, Kubrick got so much correct it is scary. Facetime? It's there. iPads? There. Alexa/Siri? Yep. And so much more.

One has to remember he was depicting space, and even what the Earth looks like before we had the experience.

You have to remember how visually stunning the Space Odyssey was when it was released in 1968. Before that, Space Movies were mostly like Buck Rogers serials featuring toy rockets on strings with sparklers coming out the tailpipe. This movie put you In Space.

I just wish the beginning scenes with the Apes had some subtitles or narration.....I'm still not sure exactly what that was supposed to be, some 55 years later.

 

[JoeWras]

You have to remember how visually stunning the Space Odyssey was when it was released in 1968.

It's stunning today!

 

[Qs Laptop]

Butch Patrick who played Eddie Munster at a signing show, as part of a car show.
My brother loves him and we attended one in FLA.

You are correct!

 

[Pointby2]

Our old show we use as a filler would be Psych. It's light and funny just what we need before bedtime.

 

[Phroig]

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, with Liz Taylor and Richard Burton.

 

[Qs Laptop]

It's stunning today!

l saw 2001: A Space Odyssey on a wide screen in 70mm film when it came out in 1968. I was 10 years old at the time, very much into the space race, and was awestruck by the film. I then saw the movie a couple more times in my teens as the local library played it for free over several summers.

I got the 4K Dolbyvision blu-ray a couple weeks ago. Am going to watch it soon. I guarantee it will look stunning.

 

[Deansgg]

I Love Lucy ....

 

[sengsational]

You can watch Alfred Hitchcock TV series for free from some web site that has bunches of old stuff. I like it better than OTA stuff because there aren't commercials. Even if you time shift, you still need to skip.

 

[JoeWras]

You can watch Alfred Hitchcock TV series for free from some web site that has bunches of old stuff. I like it better than OTA stuff because there aren't commercials. Even if you time shift, you still need to skip.

Funny you mention this! I wanted an old non-comedy last night, and pulled up a random episode from 1960 on the Roku channel. There were 3 commercial breaks, each less than 30 seconds. It was kind of funny because old Hitch loved to make fun of commercials in his intros, and Roku didn't comply and place a commercial where he said it would be.

The episode was only so-so. It featured Dick York in an episode that could be considered proto-Bewitched since the subject matter involved some unknown magic that apparently caused him to shift time by 2 years.

 

[Andre1969]

Funny you mention this! I wanted an old non-comedy last night, and pulled up a random episode from 1960 on the Roku channel. There were 3 commercial breaks, each less than 30 seconds. It was kind of funny because old Hitch loved to make fun of commercials in his intros, and Roku didn't comply and place a commercial where he said it would be.

The episode was only so-so. It featured Dick York in an episode that could be considered proto-Bewitched since the subject matter involved some unknown magic that apparently caused him to shift time by 2 years.

Another advantage to streaming, or DVD, compared to over the air is that usually the streaming/DVD are the original, uncut episodes. So not only do you have to deal with commercials with OTA, you have to deal with more commercials and less content. The typical half hour show these days has 9-10 minutes of commercials. Back in the 1950's and 1960's it was only something like 3-4 minutes.

Some of those streaming services, while they make you watch commercials, at least give you the entire episode, rather than one chopped down to squeeze more commercials into a specific 30 or 60 minute time slot.

Interestingly though, there's one station, Sundance I think, that shows old Columbo episodes. Back in the day, I believe Columbo episodes were meant to fit in either a 90 minute, or 120 minute time slot. However, whenever I see them now, it looks like they have something like 105 or 135 minutes blocked out for it. So that's making me think they're showing the entire episode, rather than one that's been cut down for more commercials. Sure, you still get the more commercials, but they just pad the running time.

Comet TV used to show Rod Serling's Night Gallery, and they did the same thing. Now, the Night Gallery was originally an hour long for the first two seasons, and 30 minutes for the third. When it went into syndication originally, those hour long episodes were cut in half. The typical hour long episode usually had three short stories in it, sometimes four even, so they had to do some jiggling for the syndication. Sometimes the episode order was moved around, so they could squeeze two shorter stories into a half hour. Sometimes a longer story was padded and drawn out (and not always successfully). Anyway, Comet gave the Night Gallery something like a 33 or 35 minute time slot. So again, you got sort of a nice compromise. You still had to put up with all the commercial time of today (or speed through it at least), but at least you got to see the entire episode.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Funny you mention this! I wanted an old non-comedy last night, and pulled up a random episode from 1960 on the Roku channel. There were 3 commercial breaks, each less than 30 seconds. It was kind of funny because old Hitch loved to make fun of commercials in his intros, and Roku didn't comply and place a commercial where he said it would be.

The episode was only so-so. It featured Dick York in an episode that could be considered proto-Bewitched since the subject matter involved some unknown magic that apparently caused him to shift time by 2 years.

When I was going through the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episodes I quickly learned to consult the IMDB ratings. If the episode was at least a 7.0 I would watch it, if it didn't make it to 7.0, I would take a pass, unless there was a particular actor/actress in it that caught my attention.

If this is the Dick York episode with the baseball cards, it got a 7.0. I agree that it was only so-so with the twist at the end kind of flaccid.

 

[easysurfer]

Might be nothing but old series to watch soon if there is an actors strike to go along with the writers strike.

Watched news this morning and they said if there is a strike, may be a lot of reruns and more reality tv. Just what we need, more reality tv .

 

[Time2]

Don't like Festus? Who could not appreciate this:

I was waiting for that right eye to close down just a little bit, he finally gave the look at 1:52 . Just something Ken Curtis added to that character.

 

[Time2]

This goes back a ways - how many grew up watching Sky King? I sure did, and that was a "must not miss" show. I just stumbled across a bunch of the shows on youtube. They have some of the earlier shows with the Cessna T-50 "Bamboo Bomber" and then later the more modern Cessna 310.

I rewatched some "HighWay Patrol" with Broderick Crawford on youtube a while back.

Another one I liked as a kid was "Have Gun, will Travel" with Richard Boone.

 

[Time2]

I've also listened to most of the Gunsmoke radio series, where Chester Goode is known as Chester Proudfoot and is played by a different actor.

I also listen to the Gunsmoke radio program, doc is played by Howard McNear. If you listen to many old radio programs he was in a lot of them. McNear went on play Floyd the barber in the The Andy Griffith Show. Also the Marshall was played by William Conrad who later played the lead in Cannon, the TV show.

If you listen to Gunsmoke, you have probably noted how they changed Kitty's character from "that kind of women" to the standup bar owner on the TV show.

 

[Birdie Num Nums]

William Conrad (also starred in Jake and the Fatman) was also the narrator of my favorite drama of the mid-1960s: The Fugitive (starring David Janssen).

 

[Qs Laptop]

I also listen to the Gunsmoke radio program, doc is played by Howard McNear. If you listen to many old radio programs he was in a lot of them. McNear went on play Floyd the barber in the The Andy Griffith Show. Also the Marshall was played by William Conrad who later played the lead in Cannon, the TV show.

Yep. Also, the town drunk, Louie Pheeters, played by James Nusser, is a frequent character voice on the radio shows. I think he plays Moss Grimmick, the horse stable owner frequently, as well as a ton of other characters.

If you listen to Gunsmoke, you have probably noted how they changed Kitty's character from "that kind of women" to the standup bar owner on the TV show.

Yes, I have noticed. Although on the radio show she was also the (part) owner of the Long Branch Saloon. Her voice on the radio show is quite enticing sounding.

 

[Qs Laptop]

I was waiting for that right eye to close down just a little bit, he finally gave the look at 1:52 . Just something Ken Curtis added to that character.

Speaking of actors that played characters on Gunsmoke, Ken Curtis was in several early year Gunsmoke episodes playing characters not at all like Festus. One time I was watching a late 50's TV episode and suddenly it dawned on me that the actor was Ken Curtis. I quickly confirmed via IMDB. The guy could definitely act and he was also quite a singer.