Retro TV Channels: ”The Good Old Days of Television”

[ratgirlagogo]

Hope so.

[Maverick]

They are.

MeTV has announced their fall schedule. Daniel Boone is out in the mornigs, Matlock is in. Yawn. Not interested. Worse, Catch Me If You Can and Spies Who Love Me are gone from Sundays. Instead they are airing comedies all afternoon and night, many of which air during the week. So the likes of Hawaii 5-0 and Mission: Impossible are booted to make room for more MASH and Odd Couple.

[CMH1981]

Is the Mary Tyler Moore Show coming back to the new schedule?  I was in the midst of watching this show from the beginning when they up and quit in the midst of S2.

[shapeshifter]

Weird closed caption effect on Antenna TV (and maybe others?):

I've been recording Barney Miller episodes to watch after I get home from work, ff-ing through the repetitive commercials for products that seem to be scams (ambulance chasing lawyers, etc.)

When I watch it live, the closed captions don't show, even though I have them set to show, and they do for other programs/channels with the same settings on my TV. But when I watch the recorded version, the closed captions are visible. I use a DVD recorder that is not a DVR from a cable company--I don't know if that matters.

Can anyone explain what's going on or point me to a thread where this curiosity can be explained?

Edited August 22, 2015 by shapeshifter

[Maverick]

Is the Mary Tyler Moore Show coming back to the new schedule? I was in the midst of watching this show from the beginning when they up and quit in the midst of S2.

Sundays at midnight (early Monday morning)

[auntjess]

 

So the likes of Hawaii 5-0 and Mission: Impossible are booted to make room for more MASH and Odd Couple.

I love the Odd Couple, but MASH is omnipresent on TV, and has been since the series ended.

I hope the Bob Newhart Show is back, and will watch some MTM.

[CMH1981]

 

Sundays at midnight (early Monday morning)

 

Ugh...it's going to take forever to get through the series now.  I want it shown twice weekly.

[ratgirlagogo]

I cannot even THINK about The Odd Couple without mentally seeing and hearing  Richard N. Hughes on WPIX in NYC saying:

 

http://www.gothamcityinsider.com/2008/05/whats-your-opinion-wed-like-to-know.html

 

Same goes for Original Recipe Star Trek and the Honeymooners.

Edited August 23, 2015 by ratgirlagogo

[CMH1981]

Luckily when MTM starts back up they are picking up where they left off this last winter with the start of S3. Yay!

[roseha]

Alert!  If you are a fan of The Fugitive, DECADES is running a "binge" of the show as we speak!

[ennui]

Ugh...it's going to take forever to get through the series now.  I want it shown twice weekly.

Just pretend you're back in the 1970s, watching one episode each week, in real time.

Binge and marathon were unheard of!

[ratgirlagogo]

 

Binge and marathon were unheard of!

There was no bingeing, but there were certainly marathons.  And they were special because they didn't happen unless a station decided to have one.  I don't remember one for The Fugitive (although that would have made a good one obviously) but The Prisoner  popped up as a marathoner pretty regularly.  People would have slumber parties for the marathons.

[GHScorpiosRule]

It's been such a joy for me to watch The Andy Griffith Show and to see a wee Ronnie Howard as Opie, and then watch [i[Happy Days[/i] to see Ron Howard as a grown up Richie. And nooooow...starting tomorrow, MeTV is giving me Matlock! Where, I will again see Andy and Don (in gues appearances) togehter again, 20 years later!

 

What?

[Maverick]

 I'm not happy about them adding Matlock.  I know it has AG, but it's a little too contemporary for MeTV.  Also, it's been run to death on half a dozen other networks.

[shapeshifter]

I'm not happy about them adding Matlock.  I know it has AG, but it's a little too contemporary for MeTV.  Also, it's been run to death on half a dozen other networks.

Not for at least the last year here.

[WendyCR72]

While (compared to the truly "classic era" of TV) Matlock seems contemporary, the (scary!) truth is, it turns 30 next year! That used to be a barometer for the old '50s/'60s shows shown in the '80s.

 

So, it's sort of the "new" classic era, I guess. Kind of like when listening to the classic rock radio stations and now hearing '90s music on it. Sigh.

[ratgirlagogo]

And seventies eighties nineties, even 2000's  movies on TCM.  Oh the humanity.

[selhars]

Yes. That's how old we are (thank goodness)......that "Matlock" is a recent show to us. I'm there right with you though. I remember when TV Land and other 'classic TV" channels first started airing shows from the 70's andI was like, "That's not a classic TV show....it's too new!"

 ADD to that the subjective nature of the definition of "classic"....because in my mind "Knight Rider" isn't it!

 

Then like us all, I guess, I did the math on how many years ago that was......And I realized, yeah I guess Happy Days and Barney Miller...and even shows from the 80's and 90's...are that old now...Heck 1995 was TWENTY years ago!

 

I love black and white 50's and early 60s TV...and marvel that those shows are 60 years old!

 

And yes: same thoughts about the Classic movie channels.

Edited September 1, 2015 by selhars

[GHScorpiosRule]

Boo! They only aired part one of the pilot for Matlock and they're not airing them in order!

 

grumblebitchwhinegrumble...

[Milz]

I like Welcome Back Kotter but it's hard to stomach at 5:30 AM. Shows from the late 50s-and 60s make for better early morning tv shows, imo.

[pandora spocks]

I like Welcome Back Kotter but it's hard to stomach at 5:30 AM. Shows from the late 50s-and 60s make for better early morning tv shows, imo.

 

I agree.  I have to be wide awake to deal with Arnold Horshack's laugh.

Edited September 4, 2015 by pandora spocks

[opus]

Obscure show alert- It's About Time , a one season show from the '60's by Sherwood(Brady, Gilligan) Schwartz, is going to be running Saturdays on Antenna in a few weeks.

[shapeshifter]

H&I (Heroes & Icons) is airing 21 Jump Street, Hill Street Blues, and NYPD Blue--all shows that aired during the years I didn't have TV, and all shows I've heard were worth watching. I caught parts of episodes of each. Not sure yet what I think.

[Milz]

H&I (Heroes & Icons) is airing 21 Jump Street, Hill Street Blues, and NYPD Blue--all shows that aired during the years I didn't have TV, and all shows I've heard were worth watching. I caught parts of episodes of each. Not sure yet what I think.

 

I liked 21 Jump Street when it aired, but I think I liked it more for Johnny Depp and Peter Deluise than the story lines. I never watched NYPD Blues, but I watched Hill Street Blues specifically forKen Olin, Charles Haid, Kiel Martin, Michael Warren, Ed Marinaro :-)

[ennui]

There was no bingeing, but there were certainly marathons.  And they were special because they didn't happen unless a station decided to have one.  I don't remember one for The Fugitive (although that would have made a good one obviously) but The Prisoner  popped up as a marathoner pretty regularly.  People would have slumber parties for the marathons.

Wow, I don't recall any tv marathons of anything, cable or broadcast. Do you recall a year, give or take? The Prisoner only ran for two years.

[roseha]

Actually, I think The Prisoner only ran for maybe 13 episodes, or something like that, it was a very limited run series.  There was a lot of speculation, by the way, that "Number 6" who had resigned (McGoohan) was intended to be John Drake ( of Secret Agent) though McGoohan wasn't legally allowed to say so (some people claimed you could see someone mouthing the name "Drake" in the opening).

I don't remember a marathon of it per se but since it was a late 60s British show maybe on PBS channels? 

There were until recently, and maybe still are, holiday weekend marathons of shows like The Odd Couple (WPIX Channel 11 in New York, more recently Channel 55, WLNY here) and a lot of Law and Order marathons, though I think those were on TNT.

This was before the endless routine marathon of certain shows that seems to go on on networks like TVLand today.

[WendyCR72]

You may as well call TNT/ION, etc. Marathon Central, too. They run shows in big blocks for the majority of any given day. Even WE is doing it with original Law & Order and Law & Order: Criminal Intent, the latter especially on the weekends.

 

Binge watching is the in thing! And (to tie this to the topic) with the sheer volume of episodes of older shows, which used to have 30 or more per season in the '60s as an example, they would be some long, long marathons!

[ratgirlagogo]

 

Wow, I don't recall any tv marathons of anything, cable or broadcast. Do you recall a year, give or take? The Prisoner only ran for two years.

Thus perfect for a marathon since it's only 17 episodes.  I know I saw it marathoned in the 70's, maybe on PBS?   Maybe KCOP (I lived in Los Angeles then).   WNYC did it in the 80's,  later Syfy and Mystery! and AMC.  There have to be more, I'm not sure how I would search this.

 

There were until recently, and maybe still are, holiday weekend marathons of shows like The Odd Couple (WPIX Channel 11 in New York, more recently Channel 55, WLNY here)

Yes, WPIX was always a big marathon station.  Here's a piece on Twilight Zone marathoning:

http://www.denofgeek.us/tv/the-twilight-zone/231833/the-twilight-zone-marathon-a-history-of-a-holiday-tradition

Edited September 5, 2015 by ratgirlagogo

[ennui]

Martin Milner has passed. I'm not sure who is running Adam-12 and Route 66 these days, but I'd love a tribute.

[WendyCR72]

Judy Carne, best known for Laugh-In fame and the ex-Mrs. Burt Reynolds, has also died, according to Variety.

 

I never knew she was British!

[roseha]

Now that MeTV seems to be playing everywhere, I am really wondering why they program dramatic shows during the day, and blocks of sitcoms at night? I really don't understand that thinking at all. I'd love to watch Perry Mason in prime time, but no such luck.

Edited September 14, 2015 by roseha

[shapeshifter]

Now that MeTV seems to be playing everywhere, I am really wondering why they program dramatic shows during the day, and blocks of sitcoms at night? I really don't understand that thinking at all. I'd love to watch Perry Mason in prime time, but no such luck.

I'm guessing they don't think old drama reruns can compete with daytime soaps and such, but the drama reruns cannot really compete with new drama, but that plenty of folks don't want to watch drama at night and so they're offering an alternative.

[shapeshifter]

H&I (Heroes & Icons) is airing 21 Jump Street, Hill Street Blues, and NYPD Blue--all shows that aired during the years I didn't have TV, and all shows I've heard were worth watching. I caught parts of episodes of each. Not sure yet what I think.

Too late to edit.

I just wanted to clarify that this station is WCIU (Chicago Illinois United States) aka "The U."

I'm not sure what H&I is if it's not a station. A "program line-up" maybe?

At my place, using a Mohu antenna, it comes in at 26.4

[WendyCR72]

Too late to edit.

I just wanted to clarify that this station is WCIU (Chicago Illinois United States) aka "The U."

I'm not sure what H&I is if it's not a station. A "program line-up" maybe?

At my place, using a Mohu antenna, it comes in at 26.4

 

H&I, a.k.a. Heroes & Icons, is a station (not one I get, but a station!) that does air old cop shows (Hunter as one example) and such.

[pandora spocks]

Hazel has been airing on CoziTV.  I found it amusing that when Hazel got a color TV. dozens of people showed up just to see the color of Perry Como's eyes on his show.  All I can say is wow.  I looked up Bobby Buntrock who played young Harold (Sport) Baxter.  He died in an automobile accident when he was 21.  What was most interesting was that Buntrock retired from acting following the run of Hazel and two guest appearances on The Virginian.

Edited September 19, 2015 by pandora spocks

[shapeshifter]

H&I, a.k.a. Heroes & Icons, is a station (not one I get, but a station!) that does air old cop shows (Hunter as one example) and such.

Thanks for clearing that up. That's what I originally thought, but lately I'm not trying not to assume anything is true, lest I turn out to be way off base. So then, what is "WCIU"? A "call sign" maybe? Or is that old CB radio lingo? Heh. (My hip mom had one in the 70s.)

[WendyCR72]

Thanks for clearing that up. That's what I originally thought, but lately I'm not trying not to assume anything is true, lest I turn out to be way off base. So then, what is "WCIU"? A "call sign" maybe? Or is that old CB radio lingo? Heh. (My hip mom had one in the 70s.)

 

Ah, CB Radios, the '70s answer to cell phones! (I remember them, even if I was just a wee kidlet then.) I'd guess the WCIU is indeed just the call letters.

[editorgrrl]

H&I, a.k.a. Heroes & Icons, is a station (not one I get, but a station!) that does air old cop shows (Hunter as one example) and such.

H&I was launched in September 2014: http://handitvnetwork.com According to this article, "Next year, H&I will be the first network to air all five Star Trek franchises": http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/currency/fox-stations-agree-carry-heroes-icons/144293

Maybe this thread should be renamed something like "Antenna, Cozi, Me & the Rest: Retro TV Channels."

[WendyCR72]

Yeah, the thread has gone beyond Me, Cozi, and Antenna, etc. I think an edit isn't amiss...

As requested, the topic title has been broadened to include the ever-growing number of retro sub-channels. So chat on!

[shapeshifter]

H&I was launched in September 2014: http://handitvnetwork.com...

Maybe this thread should be renamed something like "Antenna, Cozi, Me & the Rest: Retro TV Channels."

Thanks for the link and the thread name change suggestion.

I tried to figure out what the name "The U" designates and how it is different than "WCIU TV."

This Wikipedia article:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/WCIU-TV

--seems to indicate "The U" is a brand for WCIU--and then Heroes and Icons (H&I) is a "subchannel" of 26. But 26.4 is the subchannel (at least now it is--as the Wikipedia editors have made a valiant attempt to document, the channels and subchannels seem to be playing an unending game of musical chairs), so maybe I (or someone more knowledgeable about this stuff) should edit the article to show that H&I is the brand of the subchannel rather than the subchannel.

Anyway, if they got it right, and if I got what they wrote right:

WCIU are the call letters of a station broadcast on channel 26. The U is the station brand name (because it's more catchy).

H&I is the brand for the subchannel 26.4.

Speaking of Retro. On tonight's airing of a 1994 episode of NYPD Blue, a character who thought he was going to get killed for testifying against a gangster said (in response to being told by the cops not to worry), "Yeah, and Rose Kennedy shouldn't keep her black dress pressed," after which I looked up the year JFK jr. died, and whoa, it was several years later: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_curse

ETA: And the informant in the episode did get whacked.

Edited September 20, 2015 by shapeshifter

[opus]

And a quick reminder that BUZZR, the network with classic game shows, has its own board.

[giovannif7]

I caught  this morning's airings of the first two episodes of both "My Mother The Car" and "It's About Time" on Antenna TV. Wow... I have vague memories of enjoying them when I was six, but good god, those were some terrible TV shows. Just headshakingly "what were they thinking?" bad. I was going to record a few more episodes to see if they improved at all - Antenna's schedule on the website lists both shows as airing every Saturday - but my DVR doesn't have them listed for next week. Either the programmers wised up and pulled the shows, or my DVR is trying to protect me from the weekly pain. Either way, it proves that some things are best left in the dark recesses of childhood memory.

[Cobb Salad]

I caught a few episodes of My Mother the Car on Hulu a few years back to find out if it was as a as bad as I had heard it was. Who thought that premise was a good idea? Maybe the episodes are still there.

[ratgirlagogo]

 

WCIU are the call letters of a station broadcast on channel 26. The U is the station brand name (because it's more catchy).

Yes, the call letters of any broadcast station, radio or television, commercial or non-commercial, together with the city it's licensed in are its legal ID.  They are unique to that station and its broadcasting license is to those call letters. Even if the station is marketing itself under another name they have to ID themselves (I think it's once every hour for radio, don't know about TV) using their actual call letters and city.  For example the radio station WXRK in NYC marketed itself under the name K-Rock for twenty or so years even though of course there are no K-anything stations east of the Mississippi - but once every hour ID'd itself as WXRK.

 

I know all this and yet I freaked out a month or so ago when MeTV started showing up on my cable grid as WJLP, the local MeTV affiliate station.  I couldn't figure out where MeTV had gone!

 

 

I caught  this morning's airings of the first two episodes of both "My Mother The Car" and "It's About Time" on Antenna TV.

I watched all of It's About Time a couple of years ago after not having seen it since it's original run when I was a kid.  It was bad, but bad in a fun way for me, and I love Imogene Coca.  I was planning to record My Mother the Car when I saw the listing on Antenna but between baseball and the new fall season this is a crowded DVR time around here.  I remember it as being bad even then but can't help thinking that nothing could possibly be bad enough to deserve the bad reputation it's developed over the years.

Edited September 20, 2015 by ratgirlagogo

[auntjess]

 

I caught  this morning's airings of the first two episodes of both "My Mother The Car" and "It's About Time" on Antenna TV.

I have no recollection of It's About Time, but I find that I know at least the first few lines of the theme song.

Not sure what that says about me.

 

[ratgirlagogo]

 

I have no recollection of It's About Time, but I find that I know at least the first few lines of the theme song.

Because it is hellishly catchy.

 

http://www.tvparty.com/recits.html

 

TVParty! is a fun site by the way for anyone who's watching all these old shows.  An old internet classic itself really.

Edited September 20, 2015 by ratgirlagogo

[auntjess]

A classic Odd Couple is on tonight, where he's audited by the IRS.

[selhars]

Help.....

What channel is Odd Couple airing on? I've searched the schedules of Antenna, Cozi, and Me TV and can't find it?

[GHScorpiosRule]

Help.....

What channel is Odd Couple airing on? I've searched the schedules of Antenna, Cozi, and Me TV and can't find it?

 

It's MeTV! It was on last night! Not sure what the schedule is, thought. I'm bummed. I love Laverne & Shirley, but they bumped my Remington Steele from its Sunday afternoon slot to air double episodes! Boo!

[WendyCR72]

GHSR, there is one lonely little entry on TV Guide Online listing Remington Steele as airing on October 4th at 3:00 p.m. But that's all. Is it correct? Time will tell, I guess!