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

[roseha]

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I thought there was a forum for  The Odd Couple--the original one, with Jack Klugman and Tony Randall, but I don't see one.
I'm just posting to say that Facebook has an I Love the Odd Couple group, and Joan Hotchkis' daughter posted there today,
"Hi all, daughter of Joan Hotchkis here. We will be celebrating her 90th brthday this weekend! 

I just saw your post auntjess, what an awwww moment!  I will have to check out that Odd Couple Facebook page.

On another note, I have been looking through MeTV listings to make some recordings as I am getting improved over the air reception now, and what do I see late Sunday night (last night) but The Fugitive!  I don't know how often they are running this great show, but it seems to pop up so seldom that I always have to alert anyone else who is interested.  What a great TV Noir it was - I have always regretted that they felt compelled by the times to film their final season in color.

Edited October 3, 2017 by roseha

[ratgirlagogo]

56 minutes ago, roseha said:

have always regretted that they felt compelled by the times to film their final season in color.

the final season was in COLOR???!!!??  We didn't get color TV until the early 70's so I missed a lot of things like that.  Seriously??  COLOR???!!

I should watch it again to see if I get as caught up in it as I remember being as a kid.

[roseha]

2 hours ago, ratgirlagogo said:

the final season was in COLOR???!!!??  We didn't get color TV until the early 70's so I missed a lot of things like that.  Seriously??  COLOR???!!

I should watch it again to see if I get as caught up in it as I remember being as a kid.

Ha, my father worked for RCA so we got a color TV fairly early though my parents didn't let us watch TV much...ironically.  But yes, The Fugitive was made to be a black and white show.  Every time I've re-watched it I've felt that overall it holds up very well.    The gloomy, noir-ish atmosphere, and the episodic nature of Kimble always being on the run both really worked for the show I think.

[friendperidot]

For some reason when I clicked on this thread, it took me to page 13 and there I found this statement by me written on 8/26/16. 

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I know that some people are pleased with H&I's Star Trek line up, but they've lost me until the wee hours when it's time for The Man From U.N.C.L.E. I am not now, never was nor will ever be a Star Trek in any form fan. I'll be looking for something else until I find the part to repair the remote sensor and get another remote so I can go back to Netflix or maybe Hulu

I guess I have to eat my words, I now usually watch 3 shows of Star Trek every night. It started from boredom and nothing else to watch. Now I participate, a little, on the Star Trek threads. And earlier this year, druggie friends of my sister dumped their Pit Bull puppy on me. He was never a Freeway, but Quark suits him perfectly.

Now, what I came here to ask, I saw yesterday that ION is adding a couple of shows to their line up, NCIS LA and CIS (original). Their website hasn't caught up to their advertising. So I guess a couple of other shows are going away, one of them is starting 12/31 and the other on 1/5, a Friday, so they're probably losing a couple days of Law & Order. I'm ok with that even though I love Law & Order and Criminal Intent, I'm kind of tired of the same 6 seasons. If they could start Law & Order on episode 1, season 1, I would watch, but I guess they don't own the rights to seasons 1-13. 

I've been watching 2 hours of Wiseguy on Saturday nights since H&I moved it there. I hardly watched the show in any earlier runs. I do like it and it's a new show for me. The seasons where they concentrated on one storyline were better than when they started doing the short storylines and stand alone episodes. Of course, it's dated, but it's pretty well written, acted and I do like Ken Wahl and Jim Byrnes.

Wonder if any of the other retro stations are going to be changing line ups and shows. I hardly watch anything else any more. Major broadcast networks do not interest me. 

[Cobb Salad]

Friendperidot, do you get WE TV?  They show the early seasons of Law & Order.  Looks like TNT shows the later ones.  

[friendperidot]

no, I don't have any cable or cable streaming. I am making do with antenna, Netflix and Prime. As soon as I finish the final season of Longmire, probably next weekend, I will shutting off Netflix, it just isn't worth it to me. I go weeks without turning it on. I am thinking of starting Vue after the first of the year.

[shapeshifter]

The zap2it.com website that I rely on for schedules has been glitchy, so, just in case anyone else has that problem and hasn't gone to the individual station websites: Decades is currently showing a Diagnosis Murder marathon, and New Year's day COZI is showing a marathon of The Nanny.

[ratgirlagogo]

PopTV is running an ER marathon from 11:30 AM to 7 PM New Year's day with a Before They Were Stars theme - episodes from the 90's featuring early guest appearances from Ewan McGregor, Jessica Chastain, Kirsten Dunst, Octavia Spencer, etc.  This actually looks interesting.

https://www.poptv.com/er/exclusives/2573

[wilsie]

@ratgirlagogo  Thank you so much for sharing about the ER marathon.  I sometimes forget that I have this channel.   I love seeing actors before they were stars.  

[Maverick]

Antenna TV is doing a Newhart marathon on NYE (ugh) and a Coach marathon on NYD (Yeah!).   Looks like Coach will be on their schedules weeknights at 11.  Glad to see it return to syndication.  

[chessiegal]

Yeah - a Newhart marathon. Thanks for the heads up!

[Jaded]

I'm looking forward to a few of Antenna TV's additions like Head of the Class, Murphy Brown and The Hogan Family. One show I'm not looking forward to seeing is Growing Pains. It will be easy enough to avoid though. There are people up in arms on Antenna TV's FB page over the prospect of the black and white shows going away or being reduced. 

I'm just glad that MeTV doesn't seem to be touching their Mannix, Cannon and 77 Sunset Strip overnight lineup as of yet. Cannon is nearing the end of the series run and the second season of 77 Sunset Strip just started airing not long ago. I had never gotten the chance to see either before earlier this year.

Since FETV quit having the COZI lineup and created it's own I don't have access to any stuff on that channel. There's no local COZI affiliate. At least FETV is rerunning Designing Women which I haven't seen on TV in quite awhile. FETV is 578 on U-verse.

Still jealous of people with Decades since they occasionally show Vega$ and some other stuff I'd like to see. I've tried for years to find Vega$ online.

@shapeshifter try Titan TV for listings. I had to find a new site after AT&T got rid of their U-verse  site completely which included their online listings. I liked Zap2It's look but it kept being clunky for me when I tried to use it frequently.

[Maverick]

Antenna TV always seemed to have more 80s series than the other networks but they still kept a pretty good spread of shows from the 50s-early 90s.  Most of the additions seems to fit inn.  Head of the Class and Valerie/Hogan Family will be interesting because I haven't seen them in forever but I don't recall either being that great/nostalgic.  Growing Pains kinda bugged at the time, I'm pretty sure I won't e able to stand watching Kirk Cameron smarm up the screen.   Never cared for Murphy Brown.

To me, COZI is the bigger problem.  I was annoyed with Frasier taking over the entire night and then threw in 2 hours of Will & Grace.  As if having two relatively recent shows take up 4 hours of prime time isn't bad enough, now they're doubling down and and showing those same series in the morning as well.   They definitely feel like they're on the TV Land plan.

[kathyk24]

I saw on  the Cozi schedule that the Nanny will be airing on that channel. I wonder how they can show the same programs as the Hallmark Channel. I've noticed that there share Columbo and Murder She Wrote.

[shapeshifter]

10 hours ago, Jaded said:

@shapeshifter try Titan TV for listings

Thanks, @Jaded! It's got prettier, more easy-to-read color blocks too.

 

 

On December 2, 2017 at 10:26 PM, friendperidot said:

Now, what I came here to ask, I saw yesterday that ION is adding a couple of shows to their line up, NCIS LA and CIS (original). Their website hasn't caught up to their advertising. So I guess a couple of other shows are going away, one of them is starting 12/31 and the other on 1/5, a Friday, so they're probably losing a couple days of Law & Order.

Yes, NCIS LA will be replacing L&O SVU on Sundays until 8pm when Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior takes over (is it as gratutious as original flavor CriminalMinds?), and then on Fridays we will lose L&O to CSI. 

[roseha]

Another great thing about the Titan TV web page is that they very obligingly give you the title of the episodes, which is especially useful for Law and Order.

[jumper sage]

I get up weekdays at 5:45 am and love to hurry up and brush my teeth, get dressed, fix hair etc to catch the 6:00 am Facts of Life.

Just caught the final episode of Newhart where he wakes up and is in bed with his wife from Bob Newhart - so good.

[friendperidot]

I no longer have COZI just when I see programs listed I'd like to watch. COZI is available in Tulsa along with Decades which I also cannot get, I'd have to have a roof antenna and I don't think that's going to happen. 

So I guess I'll be sticking with my big 3, Escape, ION and H&I, with occasional forays onto METV for Perry Mason. Matlock & MASH and MYTV for Major Crimes, finally catching up to season 5 there.

I have a weakness for 21 Jump Street which airs at 2 AM and 3 AM on Saturday nights. I don't always want to stay awake that late and since everything is a repeat, it's ok that I fall asleep. But last week I decided to stay up, and then they had the Judy Hoffs as a girl gang member episode. I hate that episode. I'm an old, middle class suburban type person and she was never believable as a girl gang member. Harry was a more believable gang member than she was. I like Holly Robinson Peete just fine. I just hate that episode. I am glad they decided to move the original cast on to jobs like teacher and coaches in the high schools, they were getting a little long in the tooth to be undercover as students. I was never a Johnny Depp fan, I never hated him either, just wasn't a fan, but after watching this show for the 4th & 5th time, I appreciate him as an actor, I'm still not particularly a fan. I have acquired a bigger appreciation of Peter De Luise though. 

[Kemper]

For some odd reason, I don't think CSI has aged all that well; and I am Law & Order SVU'd out.  I will watch the original Law and Order episodes over and over again.  And I hate NCIS LA...although I love Chris O'Donnell and Ice Cube..can't stand anyone else in the cast with the exception of Linda Hunt.  

It is nice to see these retro channels popping up; and we can't all have the programming we want on them.  But I'll take what I can get.  Love the old Ironsides, by the way.  Don't like the westerns.

[chessiegal]

I don't like Westerns either. My Mom didn't like them so we never watched growing up. I remember going to visit my Grandpa, and Gunsmoke was must see TV in his house - we both hated it. I'm disappointed MeTV has so many of them on. I finally remembered to record The Mary Tyler Moore show that comes on wee hours of Monday morning, and am also recording The Bob Newhart Show and Taxi. Looking forward to watching my guilty pleasures tomorrow.
 

[roseha]

I've watched a couple of episodes of Good Morning World, a one season mid-to-late 1960s sitcom about a pair of disc jockeys, their boss (Billy DeWolfe) and their wife/girlfriend (Julie Parrish/Goldie Hawn).  I don't remember if I saw it the first time around, and it could have used better writing, but it's kind of a cute window into the styles of the era so to speak.  It struck me that most of the comedies I remember from that time were not slice-of-life like this or the much better Dick Van Dyke show, they were more fanciful things ranging from Get Smart to I Dream of Jeannie to Green Acres - maybe it says something about the era, maybe by the late 1960s people wanted escape in their TV.  But I like revisiting the cute colors and styles once in awhile if nothing else.

[Mumbles]

On 1/13/2018 at 9:56 PM, roseha said:

It struck me that most of the comedies I remember from that time were not slice-of-life like this or the much better Dick Van Dyke show, they were more fanciful things ranging from Get Smart to I Dream of Jeannie to Green Acres - maybe it says something about the era, maybe by the late 1960s people wanted escape in their TV.

This comment reminded me how I recently came across a 1960s sitcom on one of the retro channels I had never heard of called "It's About Time." It was about astronauts who went back in time and met a group of cavemen. Apparently the second season involved them all getting back into present day.

My gawd it was awful. (Imogene Coca was in it, and she's great, but I guess she needed the gig.) Horrible writing, corny jokes. I later found out it was a Sherwood Schwartz production, which explained it. The Bradys and Gilligan's Island have a sentimental following, but high or even middlebrow art they ain't. The whole mess reminded me that while we remember the "classics" there are hundreds of shows from past eras that nobody remembers, and weren't in heavy rerun rotation, for a reason.

[ebk57]

13 minutes ago, Mumbles said:

This comment reminded me how I recently came across a 1960s sitcom on one of the retro channels I had never heard of called "It's About Time." It was about astronauts who went back in time and met a group of cavemen. Apparently the second season involved them all getting back into present day.

My gawd it was awful. (Imogene Coca was in it, and she's great, but I guess she needed the gig.) Horrible writing, corny jokes. I later found out it was a Sherwood Schwartz production, which explained it. The Bradys and Gilligan's Island have a sentimental following, but high or even middlebrow art they ain't. The whole mess reminded me that while we remember the "classics" there are hundreds of shows from past eras that nobody remembers, and weren't in heavy rerun rotation, for a reason.

The theme song haunts me to this day, in that I can't actually remember the words past the first line, but I can't forget the damn thing either.

Edited January 15, 2018 by ebk57

[Moose135]

4 hours ago, ebk57 said:

The theme song haunts me to this day, in that I can't actually remember the words past the first line, but I can't forget the damn thing either.

You and me both!

And just so you can all be haunted by the theme song...

Edited January 16, 2018 by Moose135

[ratgirlagogo]

2 minutes ago, Moose135 said:

4 hours ago, ebk57 said:

The theme song haunts me to this day, in that I can't actually remember the words past the first line, but I can't forget the damn thing either.

You and me both!

Oh for christ's sake, as though ANYONE who saw the show in it's first run COULD forget any part of the theme song:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1G-TsdNWGg

And it's running on Antenna, followed by that other notorious 60's bomb of bombs, My Mother the Car.

[ebk57]

I will have several more drinks before I click on that YT link.  Thanks - I think... 

[prican58]

I was 8 when It's About Time aired and I have memories of loving it and yes, that song still finds it's way into my mind every now and then. Coca and Joe E. Ross are all I remember of it....not storylines, not other actors. 

I must say that I am actually enjoying Hawaii 5-0 on ME TV. Never watched it on its initial run. But Jack Lord is very intriguing with his hair and suits. Really. I am mesmerized by him. 

The Odd Couple is likely my favorite show ever. It is perfect. Must check the facebook site.

Here in NYC I am lucky enough to have Cozi, Me, Decades and Antenna.  

BTW ratgirlagogo, WLIW 21 is the Long Island PBS channel. 

Edited January 18, 2018 by prican58

[Mumbles]

Hawaii 5-0 was a great show. Beautiful scenery and well-plotted episodes.

[bad things are bad]

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The theme song haunts me to this day, in that I can't actually remember the words past the first line, but I can't forget the damn thing either.

Well, we always sang it as "it's about time, it's about space, it's about time to slap your face!" 

Quote

Hawaii 5-0 was a great show. Beautiful scenery and well-plotted episodes

My husband loves it, and I'll watch just to snark on the bad acting and the Jack Webb-inspired portrayals of hippies and their drugs.

Last night was funny, though, when a character referred to another as an "old queen". Pretty daring stuff for the time

[Mumbles]

Quote

Last night was funny, though, when a character referred to another as an "old queen". Pretty daring stuff for the time

Was it the episode with Gavin McLeod as "Big Chicken"? I always thought he played that role in a overly "mincing" way.

[bad things are bad]

i didn't recognize Murray Stubing, so probably not. 

[roseha]

I remember back on TWOP there was a separate thread for the classic Odd Couple with Tony and Jack.  I love that show so much.  Just recently I watched a couple of episodes and found two of my all time favorite quotes, both spoken by Tony as Felix:

"New York has made me tough!" (I quote that to myself sometimes)  and 

"This is the real you that's underneath the other real you!" to Jack as Oscar, the Scrooge episode. 

[Lili]

My Charter Spectrum suddenly picked up MeTV last year. I have some shows on the DVR from months ago from it that I still need to watch, like Laverne & Shirley and Taxi.

I kind of wish I had Antenna TV as well.

[DXD526]

I was a tiny tot when it was on, and I can still remember my parents giving me an "It's About Time" coloring book. No kidding! 

I'm jealous of all of you who have Antenna TV, as my local affiliate recently dropped it and picked up Light TV, which is awful. 

[shapeshifter]

50 minutes ago, DXD526 said:

I'm jealous of all of you who have Antenna TV

This time of year I only get the Antenna TV signal on clear days. But I've been catching quite a few reruns of The Nanny on COZI. Fran Drescher is so good in that role. I am easily distracted by the wardrobe, so it takes me a few viewings to catch her wonderful physical comedy. 

[Barb1959]

I watch Hazel and Father Knows Best on Antenna TV every day.  Yeah yeah I'm old! I dislike most of the sitcoms on now.  I watched Kevin Can Wait last night and my Lord it was awful!

[SmithW6079]

On 1/17/2018 at 8:16 PM, prican58 said:

The Odd Couple is likely my favorite show ever. It is perfect. Must check the facebook site.

When I was in high school, my friends and I would quote dialogue all day.

I don't like the cuts they do, however. In the one with the ticket scalping, they cut a sequence with Miriam, after she says she went in to watch the show when Oscar and Felix didn't show up.

She tells Oscar and Felix that she loved the show and starts singing a song.

Felix whines that if he had been there alone, like Miriam, he wouldn't have enjoyed.

"I knew it was good because everyone else was clapping," she says.

"Good for you," says Oscar. To Felix: "She's too quick for you."

[auntjess]

On 1/15/2018 at 6:09 PM, Mumbles said:

This comment reminded me how I recently came across a 1960s sitcom on one of the retro channels I had never heard of called "It's About Time." It was about astronauts who went back in time and met a group of cavemen. Apparently the second season involved them all getting back into present day.

I don't remember that I watched it, but I find that I remember the theme song, and it's on youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1G-TsdNWGg

[Mumbles]

That theme song must have been CIA psy-op, so many of you remember it! 

[ratgirlagogo]

That WOULD explain it.....hmmm, NASA, CIA,.....we've got the makings of a whole new conspiracy theory! Yay!

[prican58]

Quote

I don't like the cuts they do, however.

Smith, I am with you. The crazily funny episode where Felix is afraid to fly (I fear much....) has a cut scene of the sky diving instructor who says to Oscar something like "Are you one of those sissy boys?" I may be mistaken but I think the dvd's also have these same edits. Will have to check that out.

I'm waiting for one of these channels to start airing F Troop. I really loved that show and Larry Storch and Frank DeKova are brilliant.

[Lili]

On 2/4/2018 at 8:01 PM, prican58 said:

Smith, I am with you. The crazily funny episode where Felix is afraid to fly (I fear much....) has a cut scene of the sky diving instructor who says to Oscar something like "Are you one of those sissy boys?" I may be mistaken but I think the dvd's also have these same edits. Will have to check that out.

I'm waiting for one of these channels to start airing F Troop. I really loved that show and Larry Storch and Frank DeKova are brilliant.

Well, it's not as bad as on the channel Logo, where they literally cut minutes of the old sitcoms they air, right?

Either way, there's one incentive of just buying shows on DVD.

Edited February 15, 2018 by Lili

[prican58]

I found that Hulu has all Odd Couple episodes and no editing. The sissy boy line is left in. 

So happy for that...Happy and peppy... 

[jumper sage]

On 1/13/2018 at 9:56 PM, roseha said:

I've watched a couple of episodes of Good Morning World, a one season mid-to-late 1960s sitcom about a pair of disc jockeys, their boss (Billy DeWolfe) and their wife/girlfriend (Julie Parrish/Goldie Hawn).  I don't remember if I saw it the first time around, and it could have used better writing, but it's kind of a cute window into the styles of the era so to speak

Just caught that one too.  I like it.

The real tragedy is the reruns of WKRP in Cincinnati.  The original music was awesome and now they dub in non descript rock.

[roseha]

In regard to the Odd Couple, I'm pretty sure that the DVDs are totally uncut (though it's been awhile since I've watched them). Probably also the Hulu shows should all be uncut as well.

Years ago I remember watching an uncut version of "The Odd Monks" - maybe at the now-called Paley Center.  There's a very funny throwaway scene where Felix is dutifully trying to write with a quill pen which keeps curling up on him. Just the kind of thing that would be the first to go in syndication but well worth seeing.

I think I've also seen cuts in my favorite episode "The Subway Show" where Felix and Oscar are caught on a stalled car and Garry Marshall as the grumpy New Yorker says to Oscar, who says he hasn't been on a subway in years:  "Can't tell you how we've missed you!"

Edited February 19, 2018 by roseha

[Tom Holmberg]

Although not technically a "Retro" channel, RFD-TV show "The Jimmy Dean Show" on Sat. afternoons (and other times). The JDS featured the first network appearance of a Jim Henson muppet as a regular part of the cast (Rowlf, the dog). Also the appearance of comics like Jackie Mason on a show featuring primarily C & W stars is humorously jarring.  You have to wonder what Jimmy's more "rural" fans thought about it.  RFD also shows "Hee-Haw."

[Inquisitionist]

On ‎1‎/‎15‎/‎2018 at 5:22 PM, ebk57 said:

The theme song haunts me to this day, in that I can't actually remember the words past the first line, but I can't forget the damn thing either.

Ha!  I hadn't thought about this in years, but of course, I now have the tune (with just the first line of lyrics) stuck in my head.  It's About Time was on Sunday nights, wasn't it?

 

On ‎12‎/‎30‎/‎2017 at 10:05 PM, Jaded said:

I'm just glad that MeTV doesn't seem to be touching their Mannix, Cannon and 77 Sunset Strip overnight lineup as of yet.

I somehow figured out a few months ago that there is a channel in my cable package called H&I (Heroes and Icons) that was showing Hill Street Blues, one of my favorite series from the 1980s.  While rewatching that, I decided to look for other TV/movie appearances by some of the cast members.  Daniel J. Travanti (Capt. Frank Furillo) guest-starred in quite a few TV shows from the late 1960s through HSB's debut in 1982.  This morning, my DVR recorded an episode of Mannix that he appeared in.  I don't remember that specific episode, but boy, do I remember that show!  It was one of the few 9 pm (Central) series that I got to watch while in grade school because it aired on Saturday nights.   What a treat to see it again.

Over its 7 seasons, HSB also featured early performances by actors who went on to acclaim, including Frances McDormand, Lindsay Cruise, Tim Robbins, Don Cheadle, Yaphet Kotto, Mykelti Williamson, Paul McCrane, Chris Noth, and Andy Garcia.  I love seeing them pop up!

[Jaded]

@Inquisitionist I watched all the seasons of Hill Street Blues courtesy of H&I. I was too young to watch the show when it originally aired. H&I hasn't changed their schedule besides shuffling around shows they've been airing for over a year so I haven't watched in awhile. I'm guessing they get pretty good ratings at night airing the various Star Trek incarnations. I see they are airing The Greatest American Hero on Saturday mornings again which I'm going to watch today and any other Saturday I remember it's on. They took it off for awhile last year.

[roseha]

On 12/30/2017 at 11:05 PM, Jaded said:

I'm just glad that MeTV doesn't seem to be touching their Mannix, Cannon and 77 Sunset Strip overnight lineup as of yet. Cannon is nearing the end of the series run and the second season of 77 Sunset Strip just started airing not long ago. I had never gotten the chance to see either before earlier this year.

I just started watching Mannix very recently, I think inspired by the same let's-revisit-the-late-60s urge that sent me to Good Morning World.  I remember reading about the show when I was a teen, but I'm not sure if I watched it.  METV is currently showing Season 5, and having only seen a few episodes right now, I have to say that I enjoy the relative unpredictability of it, the guest characters are not always what they seem, and things are not always resolved in a neat bow.  I guess Mannix owed something to classic detective movies in that sense.  Mike Connors and Gail Fisher are excellent and they were able to get good guest stars.  If I can just keep METV's low VHF channel 3 signal from breaking up at 2 AM I will be sure to watch more.

[friendperidot]

I catch Mannix every now and then, the thing I like about the show is the clothes! Joe Mannix has a lot of very nice sweaters. And Peggy's clothes are wonderful. A couple of weeks ago, the episode was set around Peggy being sick and getting hypnotized. I didn't care for the story, but her home is so cool, has a couple of steps down from the front door that probably would cause much tripping especially with her young son. And she had a white sofa! Who has a white sofa when they have young children? I guess if they have a separate living room and family room and the children aren't allowed in the living room. But he was also eating ice cream, he was kneeling on the floor and his ice cream was on the coffee table, but still...

I've become kind of addicted to Wiseguy on Saturday nights on H&I. I missed a couple of weeks because of the Olympics but I noticed they seem to be skipping the Kevin Spacey episodes. I was kind of looking forward to that story arc. That's really the only part I remember from the first run and I remember Mel Profit as being an over the top character. I understand why they probably are skipping those episodes due to the notoriety of Kevin Spacey.