Family Ties. When I was a child this was the show to watch. The adults in my life couldn't stop yammering about it. Thirty years later and about the only thing people remember about Family Ties is that in one episode Tom Hanks played a drunk who tried to get a buzz by chugging down an entire bottle of vanilla extract.
shareTwilight zone
shareIt certainly isn't "Game of Thrones" though they still have "TZ" marathons twice a year ... which is more than I can say about almost any other show made before 1990.
"Dallas" and "Dynasty." So big in the '80s. So quickly discarded once they went off the air.
Didn't they try to resurrect Dallas? Or maybe that's the wrong word - I guess they call it a re-boot nowadays.
shareThey tried to resurrect both. Which is odd since it didn't seem like there was much of a groundswell for either to return.
"Beverly Hills 90210" and "Melrose Place" are others.
"Mash" and "Cheers." I can't imagine anyone under 40 binging these shows on a regular basis.
shareAround the early 1980's MASH was everywhere in syndication. Probably the first I saw run in two hour blocks when every other half hour show only got a half per day. It looks pretty dated today and the production values don't hold up.
shareYou're right. Every station seemed to have "Mash" on at some point. Nowadays, the only place you find "Mash," and all the other washed-up shows, is MeTV.
My friend croft had to be joking because TZ doesn’t come close to “all but forgotten about”. Quite the opposite.
shareAlong with "Monty Python" and "Star Trek" I would definitely put "TZ" among the handful of pre-1990s television that still has a following -- even among millennials, a notoriously fickle demographic a lot of these shows just can't seem to attract.
shareYes. I would definitely say that TZ still has a huge following ..... apparently not in Romania though.
As for shows that were huge in their day, but are now all but forgotten, I'd submit for your approval, The Greatest American Hero. It was short lived, but a big hit at the time. The theme song alone, was a hit. I still like listening to it.
Most people don't quite remember it. I do recall the year that SyFy actually had the audacity to change it's 4th of July marathon from The Twilight Zone to The Greatest American Hero. We IMDb'ers were extremely PISSSSSSSSed! (this was back when I had cable tv, so it's been a while)
Most folks who looked forward to the TZ marathon were saying, What the Hell is this Happy Crappy!
Any other time, I would have welcomed TGAH, but not when it cut into binge watching TZ. I didn't even own my DVD collection yet! SYFy caught Hell that year!
The Greatest American Hero airs on cable TV in the USA on the Heroes & Icons (H&I) channel, on Saturdays at 10am and 11am.
shareI don't have cable. We have an antenna on our roof. We get 14 channels. One of them just happens to be Heroes & Icons.😊
It's an affiliate of one of our local tv channels. I have watched TGAH on Saturday mornings now and then. One of my favorites of the 80s. Many folks either don't remember it or never saw it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb4C7vSByMM
I couldn't resist. I really do like the song and the opening credits are good too.
Great song. Best part of the show.
I too would have been appalled if they replaced "TZ" with "Great American Hero." The "TZ" Marathon should never be replaced ... period. With that said, if SyFy is ever hell-bent on pulling that crap again, at least have the decency to replace "TZ" with something somewhat similar ... like, say, "The Outer Limits" (a great, innovative show that deserves more recognition than it receives).
Love The Outer Limits! Another choice would be Alfred Hitchcock Presents!
The Greatest American Hero was a fun show. You can't take that away.
I'm not sure about your age or memory, but William Katt, the star of that show played a teacher. Mr.Hinkley. During the first season, President Reagan was shot and wounded by a Hinkley.
Immediately after that???? The character's last name was changed.
Interesting. I had no idea.
"Great American Hero" was a charming show. But its theme, IMHO, was in a whole other league.
They're releasing The Outer Limits for the first time on Blu-Ray at the end of the month. I'm very pumped. Conrad Hall's moody cinematography -- probably the best in TV history -- will finally get the treatment it deserves.
Robert Culp, as I'm sure you're well aware, frequently starred on "The Outer Limits." Of the three episodes he did -- all of which are excellent -- I think I like "Corpus Earthling" the most (scheming rocks, after all, are hard to top).
Thank you for the info on The Outer Limits.
Robert Culp is a favorite actor. He truly was great. So many good roles in TV shows. I Spy as Scotty, was just one of his earliest starring roles
I enjoyed his guest starring appearances on Columbo. He was fantastic!
As for William Katt, we all knew him from Brian DePalma's Carrie.
We also discovered that he was Barbara Hale's son..... She, of Perry Mason /Della Street fame. In later years, Katt appeared in many of the late 80's /early 90's reboot episodes as Paul Drake Jr.
I found him funny and charming as The Greatest American Hero.
My son watch the original series recently and he just loved it.
shareHe definitely doesn't represent the norm. I used to watch "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" religiously as a kid in the '90s and my friends, utterly repulsed by the existence of black and white television, used to regard me as though I had taken leave of my senses or something.
shareThat's great he watched it. Kids should watch old TV. Some of it - like "Mash" -- has plenty to offer.
share Dallas. Dynasty. It would have helped me land a hot girl when I was much younger and these shows were still on the air. She was interested in those kinds of shows and due to schedule I was around her for two hours each week. My stubborn nature won out so I had no talking point to further a conversation. Not like things would have gone very far with her anyways.
This may seem sacri-religious but you hear very little about Seinfeld anymore and not a whole lot on these boards where like minded people can discuss such a show.
Laugh track-infested TV like "Seinfeld" is quickly going the way of the pay phone. Plus, our increasingly multi-cultural society no doubt finds "Seinfield," with its all white characters and their ridiculous, hard-to-relate-to "problems," baffling. I give "Seinfeld" another ten, fifteen years before it's as obsolete as "Family Ties" is now.
"Felicity" was the sudser I bravely stomached all so I could impress a girl I was at the time deeply infatuated with. As it turned out, all the hours of "Felicity" I gritted my teeth through never paid off: the object of my affections had her eye on someone else all along.
Oh no, white people on tv! Oh no, sitcoms that are lighthearted! What torture tv must have been for you before 2010.
I really find it pretentious to just dismiss tv shows with laugh tracks. Luckily, the format is still alive and kicking!
Even in the '90s, when laugh tracks were all rage, I found them off-putting. I see no reason why people can't just edit them out of "classics" like "Friends" and "Seinfeld"; it would certainly make them, for my money anyway, more tolerable. Then again, I've watched shows like "Big Bang Theory" and "Friends" on YouTube, with their laugh tracks eliminated, and its eerie and downright painful how dependent on this stale gimmick these shows are (half of the things the characters say, without a laugh track to back them up, are not funny in the least).
I have no problem with an all-white cast. I can't say the same about our multicultural-minded zeitgeist; it does not cotton to media that fails to reflect its values. And "Seinfeld"' no longer reflects contemporary values; its time came and went long ago. And, increasingly, the only people that will be watching "Seinfeld" will be the people nostalgic for "Seinfeld"'s time.
The scripts of shows like Friends and Seinfeld rely on audience interaction, one-liners, punch-lines, quick humour and spontaneity. You can't just take them and turn them into single camera shows. And come on, watching those shows without the laugh track is just silly, it takes away the whole context. I've never found myself laughing louder at a sitcom without a laugh track than at a sitcom with a track. Either the joke is funny or it's not. It's very much possible for different kinds of sitcoms to coexist. What they should stop doing is add annoying fake laughter.
I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners didn't reflect the values of the 60s and 70s, but people stil enjoyed those shows long after. People's personal values are not necessarily the same as those promoted by the mainstream media.
I was never a fan of fake sounding laugh tracks.But Seinfeld i still watch in reruns and still enjoy.I think you missed the point of the show.Their problems were meant to be ridiculous and hard to relate to.That was the whole gimmick of the show.It was a show about nothing.It took everyday mundane observations,blew them ridiculously out of proportion and built entire episodes around them.It was meant to be ridiculous.
And i'm all for a multicultural society but there's absolutely nothing wrong with a show that's predominantly one race or another.
I don't necessarily agree with the current zeitgeist. I'm just saying shows that fail to reflect it, like "Seinfeld," usually fall by the wayside.
And I like "Seinfeld"'s manifesto -- a show about nothing was refreshing. I just find its efficacy severely undermined by the insipid audience laughter. Modern sitcoms like "Arrested Development" are better of without it.
I never watched Seinfeld when it was on, but a few years
back when it debuted on NetFlix I went through the whole
series. It is pretty good, very funny. It is memorable.
I thought the stuff like All In The Family and related shows
were pretty memorable. But a lot of the sensibilities of the
time are obscure today.
To be fair, AITF is like 48 years old. It's bound to have obsolete themes. ;)
shareAlly McBeal. I hated that show, but everyone seemed to be talking about it.
shareI had a love/hate relationship with that show. Loved some of the characters, but *not* Ally, who I found annoying in the extreme.
shareAlly was loathsome in almost every conceivable way. Only Don Draper comes close in contemptibility.
shareMe too. I loved the theme song and hated the show.
shareYou didn't like (most of) the characters? Or the music, in addition to the theme song? I've forgotten the theme song and now have to go Google it because it'll bug me!
shareJust kidding. I only saw a couple of episodes and enjoyed them. From what little I remember, I liked the John character.
shareThe Biscuit! He was great. Definitely the most endearing character on the show. ... Again I was going to make a list of all the great characters, and again end up with everyone *except* Ally.
shareAh! Now I remember. It just took reading its title.
shareI seldom watched Ally McBeal, but our son liked it. This is all that I remember about that show....
Talk about creepy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rx88NMh-YRs&
LA Law. I loved it at the time, but it hasn't aged well. Caught a few episodes on YouTube or somewhere a few years ago and now don't know why I liked it so much.
shareSame thing with me and NYPD Blue, Miami Vice and Hill Street Blues. These shows mesmerized me once. Now, I'm like you: I don't understand what I ever saw in them. They're so hammy, and cartoonish, and without much merit beyond the unintentional hilarity they provide.
share[deleted]
"Now, the new cop and court shows are focusing on contemporary issues of today and the perspective of the earlier hits seem to lose their edge because shows have changed so much since they were originally on the air."
That's true of a lot of shows. The shows who relied on that aspect are likely doomed to drift off into the annals of time, because they become less and less relevant.
Moonlighting - Loved it! Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd chewing the scenery. Barely remember anything about it though other than their separate offices and that they were private investigators.
Northern Exposure - One of my all-time favorites! Would love to rewatch the entire series. Gave me a favorite quote: "You put two and two together, and got 22."
Tried to watch "Moonlighting" a few years back and only made it to episode three or four before Willis' mugging became unbearable.
share[deleted]
Can't say I hear much about "Xena" or "Hercules" nowadays.
"How I Met Your Mother." Already that show is fading into oblivion.
[deleted]
I liked both shows. I wish more people like me existed.
share[deleted]
It didn't happen with "Star Trek." There were at one time in the '90s four peacefully co-existing "Star Trek" programs ... maybe more. Heck, I lost count. I'm sure there's a trekkie amongst us who can set me straight.
share[deleted]
It seems to me that of these "Star Trek" shows -- and again, correct me if I'm wrong -- that TNG is the only one that still gets talked about nowadays.
share[deleted]
[deleted]
[deleted]
I don't think if "Firefly" went for five seasons, with its quality steadily declining, that it would be quite the cult item it is currently.
share"I never got into the show. When I did tune in it had its funny moments."
Same for me, which is pretty much how I felt about Friends, too, although I've now seen many more Friends episodes than HIMYM.
"Friends" to me always seemed like more of a fantasy than "Lord of the Rings" and "Star Wars" ever were. I still watch it sometimes just to laugh it how unintentionally ridiculous everyone looks and sounds.
I thought it was intentionally funny sometimes, but not often, and had trouble understanding the wild appeal it had for many.
shareIf you think about it ... nearly all of them except the Liberal
political shows like All In The Family or Star Trek. I Love Lucy
is still strong for some reason too.
American TV really sucks for the most part. It is to stupify
people I think ... it is so bad.
I was going to say the Westerns, such as Bonanza, Big Valley,
etc.
One of the problems is that the technology and effects were so
elementary in the past. The series had one or two stars and
the dialog was very slow and the plots single-threaded. Very
rarely was any plot related to any other show, except for
soap operas.
It is interesting though about how much better the talk shows
of yesterday were than the commercial stuff of today.
"All in the Family" seems to have faded into oblivion. At least in the circles I travel in no one seems to mention it much anymore.
shareJust the charged nature of it made it undesirable for reruns despite the brilliance of it. Reruns during the 1980's and 1990's helped maintain the legacy of a show.
shareBonanza, The Big Valley, and all the westerns, yep.
Just thought of another, which was huge at the time, Soap.
I think it's safe to say that every TV show made before 1990 has been pretty much relegated to the cultural ash heap of history.
"Have Gun Will Travel" was a Western my old man watched all the time. It wasn't bad though I preferred the grittier cinematic work of Leone and Peckinpah.
I think Billy Crystal's turn as a gay man on "Soap" is about all people remember about that show today.
I guess I'm from your old man's era. Peckinpah made normal westerns until he and Hollywood were influenced by Leone's 'new violent' westerns and the genre was never the same again.
shareI also used to enjoy Have Gun Will Travel, along with another one back then, Wanted Dead Or Alive which starred Steve McQueen.
shareQuite a few people don't necessarily view Star Trek as a liberal bastion including myself. I remember many debates while in college over whether Star Trek was an example of imperialism and self imaged American superiority. Not my view point but the view of more than a small segment of the population. Even All in the Family did not get perceived as intended as many including myself found Mike as somewhat patronizing and hypocritical among other flaws. Many people put themselves through college without help or working part time which Mike was never willing to do.
shareMike was *supposed* to be somewhat patronising and hypocritical. That was part of the beauty, and popularity, of the show. Everyone was flawed and poked fun of.
shareNot if you read some of the comments by Norman Lear. I would be interested in knowing if Lear had said something to the effect of what you are saying.
shareI've never read any of his comments, so wouldn't know, but the idea that all of the characters weren't written to be made fun of as stereotypes of the time is something I've never even considered, because it seemed so obvious.
What did he say that leads you to believe that wasn't the case?
Archie was a reflection of Lear's own father of whom he had a lot of issues with. And to some degree with his mother indicating she was flawed as well. Apparently, she made comments not limited to but including describing a person as "the laziest white man I saw" which was to imply that was still more productive than any black person. Lear never made any comments to the effect saying that Mike had any flaws. Mike's positions and Lear's overlapped on a number of things. I think that this was covered in TV Guide on more than one occasion a few decades ago.
shareI haven't looked very hard, but I did find this:
"The first seasons treated issues more lightly (almost bordering in farce, such as the Dream Sequence in "Writing the President") while later seasons tended to be closer to a comedy-drama. Also Archie progressed from being a total Jerkass to just a Grumpy Bear, while Mike's hypocrisy was increasingly played up."
Oh, and this:
"Michael's character was, in many ways, as stubborn as Archie, even though his moral views were generally presented as being more ethical and his logic somewhat sounder. Though this was true, he was generally portrayed in a more negative light than Archie; Archie was portrayed in a more sympathetic sense, while Michael was portrayed as loudmouthed and at times, demanding. He consistently tried to prove himself correct (as evidenced in the episode "The Games Bunkers Play") and seemed desperate to convince people that his way was the right way to go all the time, even more than Archie, who gave up giving advice about his way when there was no point. This would occasionally, if not often, end him up in conflict with his friends and wife. For his bullheadedness, Stivic was sometimes criticized for being an elitist. He also struggled with assumptions of male superiority. He spoke of believing in female equality, but often tried to control Gloria's decisions and desires in terms of traditional gender roles. While Archie was a representation of right-wing bigotry and demonstrated the lion's share of the hypocrisy, Michael, on many occasions, showed his own."
Lear would have been around 50 when the show came out, which was at least one generation older than hippies Mike and Gloria.
We may have to agree to disagree on this one. At the time, as now, I still think all of the characters were flawed and created to make fun of the stereotypes they represented. It was good-natured, which is why it was so wildly popular. Conservatives, liberals, Republicans and Democrats alike found humour in it.
I remember when All In The Family first appeared as a mid-season replacement. I must admit that for many years it was my favorite series......
share[deleted]
"It is to stupefy people ..." That about sums TV up. Even the heavy-hitters of today --shows that pride themselves on their cerebral appeal like "Breaking Bad" and "The Wire" -- might be dismissed by future generations, who fancy themselves (like the millenials of today fancy themselves) sophisticated and progressive, as quaint drivel.
share