Sell By Date Expiration: Old Shows That Don't Stand Up To The Test Of Time

[ChromaKelly]

I find that 70's Saturday Night Live does not stand the test of time, at least for me. I find it very tedious and unfunny.

[tribeca]

When we were kids we did not watch cartoons instead the old shows like I love Lucy, Leave it to Beaver, Bewitched & Dick Van Dyke show.   I still love the Dick Van Dyke show. 

[hoosier80]

The early Roseanne shows are still funny to me.  The later shows, when it was all how Roseanne was always right and how she got so mean, it went downhill for me.  Started going downhill when Becky started dating Mark.  The earlier shows had them struggling, but there was an underlying warmth to the marriage and they had what seemed to be long time friends. 

 

Now they're playing the Facts of Life on Logo.  I never thought it was a top notch show, but it was ok. I never thought of it as a comedy; very rarely did it make me laugh. They really stretched things when the two oldest girls graduated from Eastland, so then they all moved into town and lived with Mrs. Garrett.  I never watched the later shows, when Beverly became the new surrogate mother so to speak. While Tootie was cute when little, she got incredibly bossy as she got older; I didn't find her sympathetic at all. 

 

The old Dark Shadows tv show is campy, but it's still 1000 times better than that awful movie.

[cpcathy]

I came across Facts of Life on Logo the other day, it was HORRIBLE! And I remember watching every episode in my teens. Wow, did I have no taste??!!

[bmasters9]

I came across Facts of Life on Logo the other day, it was HORRIBLE! And I remember watching every episode in my teens. Wow, did I have no taste??!!

Ain't that the truth! I had sampled it somewhat when it was on NBC when I was a boy, and again from Shout!'s Barney Miller release via a minisode (Sony's releases were ported to Shout!'s release), and was not impressed either time. 

[hoosier80]

I found a Facts of Life reunion tv movie shot in 2000 something.  It was incredibly bad.  I watched maybe 15 or 20 minutes in and had to turn it off (it was online).  Kim Fields was the only actor who wasn't horrible.

[magicdog]

Sometimes I wonder what old time script writers were thinking when they were trying to solve a problem on their sitcoms.  The actions sometimes made no sense in any era!

 

For example, I was watching an episode of Hazel (it was from the last season and from what I'd read, there were complaints by the actors that the scripts were subpar compared to earlier seasons*) in which the son of Hazel's employers and his tween buddies formed a rock band and were practicing in their garage.  First the adults are complaining about the music (the episode took place in 1965 and while R&R wasn't popular with all adults, the music wasn't all that bad).  Then the boys "grow out their hair" (actually, they just combed their parted hair forward - and they looked rather stupid since that left a wedge in the bangs) also to the dismay of the parents (understandable since long hair on boys and men was still frowned upon in mainstream circles).  They decide to enter a local battle of the bands contest which is broadcast live on local TV.  They win.  They become popular around town and are booking gigs!  Most parents even then might have thought that if the kids were making money, and it wasn't interfering with school, let them go on.  WRONG!  Instead the parents decide to try to find a way to end this lark.  How?  They dress up in hippy dippy outfits and refused to do "adult things" (making dinner, going to work, etc.).  Never at any time did the boys ever act badly, dress like hippies, or shirk their relatively few responsibilities.  They were only guilty of bad hair combing, hogging the phone  and becoming a local item.  By episode's end, the boys "cut" their hair (combed it correctly) and gave up the band because basketball tryouts were coming up!  Of course, if the parents had just left things alone, the boys probably would have dropped the band thing eventually since they were only about 12 or so and would have moved on anyway.  All I took from the episode was to interfere with your kid's interests and not only will they not be bitter, they'll be all the happier for it!

 

 

 

*I will say that after having viewed first and second seasons episodes, Hazel was actually a well written sitcom for its time.  Shirley Booth is the main reason for making it work of course, but her effort in the character showed so it's still a nice show to watch now and then.

[Haleth]

When we were kids we did not watch cartoons instead the old shows like I love Lucy, Leave it to Beaver, Bewitched & Dick Van Dyke show.   I still love the Dick Van Dyke show. 

The Andy Griffith Show and the Dick van Dyke Show were on right before Jeopardy (with Art Fleming) which came on at noon.

 

And I always wanted to have my homework done by 4:00 so I could watch Dark Shadows.  I LIVED for Dark Shadows.  The first movie was partly filmed in my hometown at an old Gothic mansion.  Kids swarmed the grounds waiting to get a glimpse of the cast.

[whatsatool]

Clint Eastwood and Steve McQueen hold up well.

[fishcakes]

I watched a couple of episodes of Love American Style on Decades yesterday and they were terrible. Unfunny and so dated. I still love the theme song though.

[kassygreene]

They were pretty terrible then too.  They were cheap to make, a way for "resting" celebrities to get their faces out there, and apparently ego-stroking for at least some of the producers.  IIRC, Harrison Ford was in one that he thought was really bad, and when he went to the producer with his notes, he realized his character was an avatar for the guy, so said "Great script!", did his scenes, and double downed on his carpentry business...  The theme was catchy.

 

Thank g The Love Boat and Fantasy Island came along to provide those "resting" celebrity venues.

[bmasters9]

I Love Lucy is not the kind of humor that catches me.  I was a kid when they first aired so I only saw them in rerun and they were impossibly corny with slapstick.  I have not watched many.   My parents were not all that into it either.  

I had gotten the first two seasons' releases as a sort of curiosity purchase, thinking that since it was regarded as the greatest comedy (maybe the greatest show) in the history of television, I should like to see why. I saw them through, and while they were funny in spots, the show was actually quite dull, just like The Honeymooners. Fortunately, my nephew Eli happened to see some of the show and became a fan, and so I was able to get rid of some proverbial deadwood (I gave him those first two, and also purchased Nos. 3-5 for him, so now, he has 5 seasons' worth [1951-56]).  

[MyAimIsTrue]

I watched a couple of episodes of Love American Style on Decades yesterday and they were terrible. Unfunny and so dated. I still love the theme song though.

 

One of my favorite TV theme songs ever and, in fact, I have it on my iPod. 

 

Fun fact for those who don't know:  the 'Love, American Style' theme song was performed by The Cowsills, who were the real life inspiration for The Partridge Family.

[DeLurker]

I watched a couple of episodes of Love American Style on Decades yesterday and they were terrible. Unfunny and so dated. I still love the theme song though.

I may be completely misremembering or was delusional...I seem to remember the basics of Happy Days was shown on one of the Love American Style episodes. 

[MyAimIsTrue]

You're not crazy as 'Happy Days' began as an episode of 'Love, American Style.'  I believe the segment was called 'Love And the Happy Days.'

[fishcakes]

I remember watching that when it originally aired (I am 127 years old). Here's the intro:

 

 

The video quality on that is bad, but a high quality version of the whole episode is on YouTube. I'm not linking to it because it has to be a copyright violation and I'm not sure what PTV's policy is on that, but it's one of the related videos that comes up at the end of the clip I embedded. It's only worth watching to see a different Howard and Joanie, but almost all the parts without them were used later as flashbacks in a regular episode of the series.

 

The only other episode I can remember is "Love and the Forever Tree" with Robert Morse. It had a similar plot to the play and movie Same Time, Next Year, about a couple who meet only once a year for their entire lives. I'd like to see that one again but I can't find it online, and I'm not willing to sit through the broadcasts hoping it will appear.

Edited May 11, 2015 by fishcakes

[Jipijapa]

Carol Burnett stands up to the test of time... IF you are watching the right rerun package.  I don't know what MeTV paid for their Carol Burnett package, but I think it was too much, because some of the stuff they have on their measly half-hours is just... not... funny.  No, I'm not talking about the classic skits, like Rebecky or Mama's Family or anything with Tim Conway in it... those are still great.  (Even more so if you, like me, can inexplicably recite every line of "Rebecky" even not having seen it since you were 12.)  Just that there is a lot of stuff that was on the show that probably wasn't funny even back then... and MeTV's got it!

[xls]

The early Roseanne shows are still funny to me.  The later shows, when it was all how Roseanne was always right and how she got so mean, it went downhill for me.  Started going downhill when Becky started dating Mark.  The earlier shows had them struggling, but there was an underlying warmth to the marriage and they had what seemed to be long time friends. 

 

Now they're playing the Facts of Life on Logo.  I never thought it was a top notch show, but it was ok. I never thought of it as a comedy; very rarely did it make me laugh. They really stretched things when the two oldest girls graduated from Eastland, so then they all moved into town and lived with Mrs. Garrett.  I never watched the later shows, when Beverly became the new surrogate mother so to speak. While Tootie was cute when little, she got incredibly bossy as she got older; I didn't find her sympathetic at all. 

 

The old Dark Shadows tv show is campy, but it's still 1000 times better than that awful movie.

AND Twylight!

[bmasters9]

There's also something about exceedingly formulaic shows - ones that followed a tight pattern from week to week - that paradoxically, makes them very rewatchable.  

Bumping this up: this is exactly how I feel about M Squad (1957-60 NBC police series w/Lee Marvin). It was very much formulaic (each episode dealing with organized crime or other form(s) of crime in Chicago and how Lt. Frank Ballinger of M Squad ["a special detail of the Chicago Police," as Ballinger put it in almost every episode; I think that one of them lacked that opening] dug deep to solve the case). The good thing about it is that each half-hour episode (24-25 min. without commercials, although one only lasted 20 min.) is very much fast-paced, and Lee Marvin's performance as Lt. Ballinger helped to ensure that it never got boring; this is why I have the entire series on DVD, and why I continue to watch random episodes from it from time to time. 

Another good thing is that the version of it that I have has an audio CD of selections from the 1959 RCA Victor LP record; that makes it very much worth the money. 

Edited August 28, 2015 by bmasters9

[Demented Daisy]

I was really disappointed a few years ago when I rented Three's Company and Laverne & Shirley.  Loved them as a kid, horribly unfunny now.  On the other hand, Soap is as funny to me as it ever was.  Same with The Nanny, oddly.  Oh, and I've gotten my college-age daughter hooked on The Monkees.  She wasn't impressed with Beavis and Butt-Head, though.  (Hubby and I still love it and wish Mike Judge would release all the episodes, even the ones he hates.)

 

We moved to England in 1999 and loved dinnerladies.  A couple of years ago we bought a multi-system dvd player and the Region 2 dvds.  I thought that it would be horribly outdated, mainly because of the Millennial episode, but we still love it.

[andromeda331]

On the other hand, Soap is as funny to me as it ever was

 

 

Me too. I can watch that show a million times and its still funny. 

[cynicat]

I was so excited to watch Night Gallery recently because I remember that show being so freaking scary when I was a kid.  Unfortunately, I found it unwatchable.  The stories were still great, it was the over-the-top artistic directing and acting, weird camera angles and odd distracting gimmicks that made me very sad.  On the contrary, The Twilight Zone which is much older and should seem like it would be more dated, holds up like a champ.

[shang yiet]

Golden  Girls - still golden!

[topanga]

Golden  Girls - still golden!

ITA. When I watch an episode, I laugh at the jokes like it's my first time watching it, not my 3rd--or 10th time. (Or more, if you're talking about some of my favorites like the "Mr. Sandman" episode).

 

 

 

I was so excited to watch Night Gallery recently because I remember that show being so freaking scary when I was a kid.

Thanks for the heads up. That show scared the crap out of me as a kid. I don't want to ruin those fond memories.

[A Boston Gal]

Thanks for the heads up. That show scared the crap out of me as a kid. I don't want to ruin those fond memories.

Oh my God, I couldn't sleep for a week after "The Sin Eaters" (title?) episode, with Richard "John Boy" Thomas agonizingly sobbing while forcing himself eating a feast off the corpse of his father.

Edited August 31, 2015 by A Boston Gal

[DeLurker]

Oh my God, I couldn't sleep for a week after "The Sin Eaters" (title?) episode, with Richard "John Boy" Thomas agonizingly sobbing while forcing himself eating a feast off the corpse of his father.

I won't sleep for a week after reading that summary!

[xls]

I was so excited to watch Night Gallery recently because I remember that show being so freaking scary when I was a kid.  Unfortunately, I found it unwatchable.  The stories were still great, it was the over-the-top artistic directing and acting, weird camera angles and odd distracting gimmicks that made me very sad.  On the contrary, The Twilight Zone which is much older and should seem like it would be more dated, holds up like a champ.

TTZ does hold up great the low tech fx  are still very effective.

I was surprised by watching The Man From Uncle that I used to love, seemed so cheesy. and campy.same for Highway Patrol.

[bmasters9]

TTZ does hold up great the low tech fx  are still very effective.

I was surprised by watching The Man From Uncle that I used to love, seemed so cheesy. and campy.same for Highway Patrol.

I dislike admitting it, but I might end up feeling the same way about The Man From U.N.C.L.E. It's sort of average, and in fact, I think I find it quite tedious (I had gotten the repackaged first-season DVD release recently, because I was somewhat interested in it, having never seen it before; this will probably be $20 down the drain). 

[DeLurker]

I usually catch one episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E on Sunday nights on some random cable station I get.  It aired a bit before my time, but I grew up hearing about it.

 

I honestly enjoy most of the eps I've seen.  It is cheesy, in the same delightful manner that the original Dark Shadows (a show I was not allowed to watch because it was deemed too scary) is cheesy.  But, for me, it shows how the charisma of the leads could carry a show and how TPTB worked around that framework.  And seeing a younger version of David McCullum is always a treat.

 

Would I sit down and binge watch?  Probably not.  But it is a decent way to wrap up the weekend in a non-demanding way.  It isn't appointment tv, but I do look forward to it.

[Ruby25]

I actually still like I Dream of Jeannie despite the sexist underpinnings. Yes, it's a male fantasy, but honestly, the chemistry between Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman was amazing, and they were so playful, sexy and funny together that they made it work. Whereas on a show like Bewitched, Darrin seems to me like way more of an asshole in his demands and his scolding, and how Sam's expected to give up everything that she is for her husband. I mean, come on, Darrin hates magic, while Tony (and Roger) enjoyed Jeannie's powers and didn't want to change her, he just wanted her to hide them from his boss so he won't get fired. In fact, a lot of episodes kind of play now as a metaphor for an unmarried couple living together and trying to hide it from his superiors, so they can continue to fool around and have fun in private with no consequences. Considering the time it was made, when more and more young people were starting to do that, I think that might have been intentional and I kind of like that subversiveness about it.

Edited September 1, 2015 by Ruby25

[xls]

Aunt Clara! 

"Oh, dear!"

[GreekGeek]

I got a Netflix DVD of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and didn't feel motivated to watch beyond the first episode. I guess I should have given it more of a chance since Ilya wasn't a character yet, but didn't feel like it at the time. Glamour spy stuff has never been my thing--I never got into James Bond either--so it's probably just me. 

[xls]

I say we should give them another chance. I started watching the Dark Shadows on /You tube again and even though it's tame by today's standards, I think I'm hooked.

Wow, YT has Honey West, too!

Edited September 3, 2015 by xls

[cynicat]

I guess I should have given it more of a chance since Ilya wasn't a character yet

 

IMO, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is nothing without Illya Kuryakin .  It was the two together that made the show work.  Without the balance, Napolean Solo by himself, (no way to avoid that pun) would have been overwhelmingly smug and smarmy. 

[ABay]

Many shows I loved as a child are unwatchable now, and I've learned from experience not to ruin good memories by trying to revisit them. However, Man from U.N.C.L.E was my first fandom, although I didn't know it at the time because I was practically an infant, and I still find it mostly watchable. I even bought the complete collection in the mini briefcase. Some of the dialogue and attitudes are dated (thank God) but for the most part, I think the stories still work. The gun fights look so artificial now--how can you miss from that close? Why does no one bleed?--and the sets are spartan.

 

There are certainly times I want to slap both Napoleon and Illya (obviously, Napoleon more often. Heh) but I also genuinely like them both. Neither character alone, however, is half as good as the two of them together.

Edited September 3, 2015 by ABay

[Princess Sparkle]

It's not that old, but - Netflix suggested that I watch Ally McBeal, and I remembered liking it when it was on, so I watched the pilot episode.  Dear lord, that show does not hold up well at all.  Everything was just painfully unfunny, and Ally's quirks (that I didn't remember being that strong) were on full display.  At least the lawyers on The Practice all seemed competent; I kept wondering how Ally even graduated law school.  

[Cobb Salad]

Lost in Space - some of the technology and science looks outdated or is wrong due to what the writers in 1965 thought 1997 would be like. Watching John Robinson write in his journal with pen and paper is silly considering shows set in the future always seem to show the characters using voice recorders or tablets. Then when in one episode they're in their ship in space approaching a comet, making everyone sweat, this is now known to be wrong since comets are really giant snowballs traveling through space. Then there's the statement in the early part of the first episode when they talk about the Robinsons being the first of possibly 10 million people to leave the earth to escape the over population, if they're giving each family or a family size group of people their own spaceship, how much is that going to cost?

[kassygreene]

Ah, the sixties, when science was informed by the super-growth aspects of radiation, and all public budgets were unlimited.  Or, more succinctly: Irwin Allen.  The movie Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (later re-done for television) had to deal with extinguishing the Van Allen Radiation Belt, which had caught fire....  I won't even start on that....

 

The actors did their best; the music was usually the best part (especially LoS's theme composed by Johnny Williams), but the complete lack of sanity in all of the storylines is the reason I never watch Irwin Allen.  It's not my style of fandomming.

 

What the hey, he did make money.

[Cobb Salad]

I continue to watch Lost in Space only because I find it mildly amusing however it had the potential to be a much better show while still being child friendly.

Then there was Land of the Giants .... Total nonsense.

[magicdog]

Then there's the statement in the early part of the first episode when they talk about the Robinsons being the first of possibly 10 million people to leave the earth to escape the over population, if they're giving each family or a family size group of people their own spaceship, how much is that going to cost?

 

Or the fact they can send people to outer space but don't have the technology to deal with the population problem on Earth (better ways to build housing, grow food, etc.).   Even the film version didn't think things out very well on this front.

[SmithW6079]

I continue to watch Lost in Space only because I find it mildly amusing; however, it had the potential to be a much better show while still being child friendly.

That's because they changed the focus from the family to Dr Smith and Will and the Robot. Still, the Jupiter 2 was the coolest spaceship. I wanted to live in it when I was younger -- hell, I still would.

[Cobb Salad]

Or the fact they can send people to outer space but don't have the technology to deal with the population problem on Earth (better ways to build housing, grow food, etc.).   Even the film version didn't think things out very well on this front.

So true - sending large groups of people off Earth to never return makes more room for whoever is left, then they grow the population more, and so on. What a half baked premise for space colonization. Then during the run of the show there's the hope of getting back to Earth (mostly by Dr Smith but other times by the rest) when the intent was to leave due to the problems on Earth.

[amensisterfriend]

Is Buffy "old" enough yet to qualify for this thread?! 

 

Buffy is the very first show I ever fell truly in love with. I used to get ridiculously excited to watch it (which was just on TV; I didn't have DVDs and no one watched stuff on computers back then...which I think means the show IS old enough to qualify for this thread :)) I quoted the show whenever I could, obsessed about it with anyone who would listen, and "shipped" Buffy/Angel before I'd ever heard the term. So it kind of breaks my heart that it just never holds up nearly as well for me today as I want it to. The dialogue that I found so supremely clever and funny now comes off as embarrassingly cutesy and often just sounds like the writers were trying too hard to be quirky and adorable. A lot of the stuff that felt so genuinely poignant now feels annoyingly melodramatic. I've become allergic to Alyson Hannigan and cringe through her line deliveries. The outdated hair, clothes, special effects and pop culture references doesn't exactly help my 2015 self to connect with the show, but it's more than that---the overall tone and feel just no longer clicks with me, like an old friend who you know you've drifted apart from but keep trying to connect with again due to fond memories and residual affection.   

[Kromm]

Is Buffy "old" enough yet to qualify for this thread?!

More than a dozen years gone? I'd think so.

[whatsatool]

I think That Girl is dumb now but still love the clothes and the theme music.

[magicdog]

I think the main selling point of "That Girl" (not unlike "Laverne & Shirley" later on) was a young single woman living alone while trying to make it in the big city.  Relatively few women did that at the time.

 

Yes, I loved the clothes and the opening credits too! 

[Snow Apple]

I loved That Girl too, but found that I couldn't stand Donald the last time the reruns aired.

I still like Laverne & Shirley, but find Shirley really annoying now. The same with Janet on Three's Company.

[bmasters9]

The Waltons, to me is a great show, still. I never watched it in its first run but did watch when it first went into syndication. The Richard Thomas years were the best. It dealt with topics like religious fervor, poverty, racial issue and the War. Mostly it showed a tight knit, motley family and their neighbors and how they all took on the times (The Depression) together. It epitomizes the idea of "It takes a village". I think it holds up beautifully. My mom loves it (she's of that Gen.) and I find myself struggling to get out the door when I visit in order to finish the episode.

My mother really goes for The Waltons-- she has all of it on DVD, and she has seen through the whole series twice. She doesn't have the movies, though. 

[DeLurker]

That makes your Christmas shopping easy.

[GreekGeek]

I'm thinking that shows set in the past when they were new, like "The Waltons," may hold up better than shows set in their own time.

Edited October 15, 2015 by GreekGeek