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Celebrating 25 Years Of The West Wing

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

Actionmage

By Actionmage
in Network Talk

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wilsie

wilsie

@chessiegal  I love Bob Newhart a lot.  All his shows, even "Bob" and "George and Leo"  I miss Decades, too.  It had such a great variety of sitcoms, dramas, The Best of Hollywood, Ed Sullivan, and Dick Cavett to just name of few.  You are not alone.

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chessiegal
chessiegal

I don't "pine" for the 1970s. MTM was one of the best sitcoms out there - well written with good acting.

shapeshifter
shapeshifter

I am right now chatting with a live person regarding picking up a Home Depot order.  I just typed:  I might want to add some sharpie markers and PostIts and labels And it showed up in the

Maverick
Maverick

It was actually Lucille Ball (who's Desilu company produced the show) that ditched the first season format.  She thought the computers were confusing and out of the grasp of the ordinary viewer. 

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Tom Holmberg

Tom Holmberg

19 hours ago, wilsie said:

Dick Cavett

I enjoyed watching the old Dick Cavett shows, but it bugged me that the musical numbers were always cut (plus they had such a limited number of them). I wish at least one late night talk show could be as intelligent and witty as the Dick Cavett show was.  I was hoping Colbert would model himself after Cavett , but I guess there's no market for it,

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shapeshifter

shapeshifter

48 minutes ago, Tom Holmberg said:

I enjoyed watching the old Dick Cavett shows, but it bugged me that the musical numbers were always cut (plus they had such a limited number of them). I wish at least one late night talk show could be as intelligent and witty as the Dick Cavett show was.  I was hoping Colbert would model himself after Cavett , but I guess there's no market for it,

I happened to catch an episode of The Alec Baldwin Show. Alec Baldwin is no Dick Cavett, but his style of interview is probably the closest currently airing AFAIK. I suppose Alec Baldwin is styling his approach after the fallen-from-grace Charlie Rose, who was well acquainted with Dick Cavett. Barbara Walters is also cut from that cloth, WRT interview techniques.
Anyway, it does look like Decades is the only network currently airing Dick Cavett. 

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friendperidot

friendperidot

On 1/1/2019 at 6:44 AM, shapeshifter said:

And, (as Columbo would say?), just one more thing:
How did I miss that original L&O is on the Escape channel M-F 12-2/1-3 CT?

I was just coming in here to talk about this. I was without internet for a very long week, a plumber digging for a water main cut a line and several houses were affected, then I had an additional problem with a wire, it had probably been going on for some time, but AT&T wouldn't listen when I called to complain, but 4 technicians, 4 service calls later, I'm back. But I was without any streaming service, so it was all over the air for me. On New Year's Day, apparently Escape went from being all old true crime to half true crime and half scripted law shows. They added Without a Trace a few months ago, but now have Without a Trace, Law & Order, Boston Legal and Scandal. I never cared for Scandal, and it's on at the same time as Star Trek on H&I, so not a problem. I can never get enough Law & Order and now that internet has been restored, Sundance and WE show lots of episodes also. I think Law & Order still has it's own thread, so I won't spend any more time discussing it. 

But where has Boston Legal been all of my life? I don't remember why I didn't watch it on first run, probably scheduling conflicts. I can't find a thread for it, I looked in the general "B" and in the "B - other shows", I may have missed it. I don't know if it started at the beginning because I couldn't look it up online when I started watching. I haven't quite got everyone sorted out, I know who the actors are, but I haven't got all the character names with the actor names, I'm old, I need visual aides to remember things. But Shatner is a much better actor and the character is more enjoyable to me than Kirk ever was.

At first I was unhappy about Escape's programming change, I like to leave the true crime shows on as background noise, but after a week of watching several hours of Law & Order and Boston Legal, I'm okay with it. And they still have true crime in the mornings. I do have streaming back and there's always Discovery ID for true crime.

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Jaded

Jaded

8 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

The Good Wife has begun airing on Start TV (2 episodes after the end of prime time programming).

I struggled to watch the last season, so I had forgotten how good the first season was.

I watched The Good Wife for almost all the seasons it was on. The last season was a struggle, it was so bad that I still need to watch the last 3 episodes. I'll eventually do that and try The Good Fight. I just needed a long break from all of those characters even the ones I liked. It's sad what The Good Wife devolved into when comparing it to the first few seasons.

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shapeshifter

shapeshifter

3 minutes ago, ratgirlagogo said:

Although it's not making the news the same way the WPIX (CW) blackout is, the Tribune Media vs. Spectrum fight is blacking out Antenna for us here.  :(

Just checked. Johnny Carson is on Antenna TV here right now interviewing an 88-year-old Merie Earle,
but I'm watching over-the-air, not cable.
Maybe unplug from cable and plug into an antenna long enough to see what you'd get?

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ratgirlagogo

ratgirlagogo

That would probably work, but I haven't even bothered to look since the only way Mr Rat and I can watch shows together is off the DVR.  I don't think we watch anything live except baseball and the news.   Hope this gets hashed out.

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shapeshifter

shapeshifter

4 hours ago, ratgirlagogo said:

That would probably work, but I haven't even bothered to look since the only way Mr Rat and I can watch shows together is off the DVR.  I don't think we watch anything live except baseball and the news.   Hope this gets hashed out.

I still occasionally use an old DVR I bought when I worked a lot of evenings. It records onto either tape or DVD, as well as from one to the other. But you can now get DVRs that are more like the ones provided by the cable companies. Just something to consider if you find yourselves snowed in for several days and feel like taking stuff apart, heh.

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friendperidot

friendperidot

I'm not sure Hallmark Channels qualify as retro, but they were added to Philo the day before they went all Christmas all the time for 3 months. A couple of them switched back to pretty much regular programming after Christmas but just yesterday I was beginning to wonder if the Mysteries channel was going to be all Christmas until the end of January. This morning I was happy to see Matlock, I've been enjoying it for a couple of hours, next up, Perry Mason Returns.

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Terrafamilia

Terrafamilia

Folk TV (Dish Network channel 218) is showing Space: 1999 on Sunday afternoons. It seems an odd choice for a channel that is practically wall-to-wall Roy Rogers and Lone Ranger but I'm not complaining. They also show The Saint, Route 66, and Danger Man.

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Tom Holmberg

Tom Holmberg

22 hours ago, Terrafamilia said:

They also show The Saint, Route 66, and Danger Man.

All good shows. I don't think any of the other channels, ME-TV, Cozi, Decades, showed "Danger Man" (AKA, "Secret Agent").  Which also leads me to wish someone would show "The Prisoner'.

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ratgirlagogo

ratgirlagogo

(edited)
16 hours ago, Tom Holmberg said:

TCM will show three episodes of "The Ernie Kovacs Show"

No classic TV fan should miss these if you have not seen them before (which you probably haven't unless you bought them on DVD).  He was a genius.

Edited by ratgirlagogo
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Tom Holmberg

Tom Holmberg

3 hours ago, ratgirlagogo said:

He was a genius.

All TV comedy from SNL to Monty Python was influenced by Ernie Kovacs.  Unfortunately he's not as well-known today as he should be.  (BTW, I'd also like to see episodes of "The Spike Jones Show.")  

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GHScorpiosRule

GHScorpiosRule

While I'm grateful that MeTV still airs Classic Perry Mason, I'm peeved beyond end that it dropped I Love Lucy from its roster. This network edited it the least. Hallmark just massacres it.

And while I was ecstatic over seeing early Law & Order, Without A Trace, and Boston Legal on Escape, that network has a host of problems. From Wednesday, the 16th through this past Sunday, it wasn't working. So none of my shows recorded. And since they got it "working" again, the fast forward function doesn't work. It freezes on the first commercials, then jumps to the end of the commercial, instead of me being able to see it run through the normal way, so I know when to stop. It used to be that I could fast forward the commercials for an episode still recording, but last night, it wouldn't let me. It would remain frozen on the last frame, and not move forward. I had to watch the timer in the right hand corner to see if it was even moving.

And it's not my provider, because it's only happening with Escape. I'm tempted to get Hulu, just to watch Boston Legal.

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shapeshifter

shapeshifter

10 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

While I'm grateful that MeTV still airs Classic Perry Mason, I'm peeved beyond end that it dropped I Love Lucy from its roster. This network edited it the least. Hallmark just massacres it.

And while I was ecstatic over seeing early Law & Order, Without A Trace, and Boston Legal on Escape, that network has a host of problems. From Wednesday, the 16th through this past Sunday, it wasn't working. So none of my shows recorded. And since they got it "working" again, the fast forward function doesn't work. It freezes on the first commercials, then jumps to the end of the commercial, instead of me being able to see it run through the normal way, so I know when to stop. It used to be that I could fast forward the commercials for an episode still recording, but last night, it wouldn't let me. It would remain frozen on the last frame, and not move forward. I had to watch the timer in the right hand corner to see if it was even moving.

And it's not my provider, because it's only happening with Escape. I'm tempted to get Hulu, just to watch Boston Legal.

Escape was one of the few channels working for me during the same time period while we were having bad weather (snow, ice, cold, wind). I have been enjoying Boston Legal. I'm kind of sad that I didn't watch it back when my parents did so we could have shared it—well, maybe not the best to share with parents, LOL.

CBS and it's affiliates (like Start, which has The Closer) has been alternating between broken squares of color and nothing. I need to go YouTube my Colbert fix—I'm getting cranky without it.

NBC has been unreliable during this weather too, but H&I brought me lots of Monk while I was home today.

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GHScorpiosRule

GHScorpiosRule

10 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Escape was one of the few channels working for me during the same time period while we were having bad weather (snow, ice, cold, wind). I have been enjoying Boston Legal. I'm kind of sad that I didn't watch it back when my parents did so we could have shared it—well, maybe not the best to share with parents, LOL.

If all my other channels were experiencing such issues, I would still grumble, but not as much, because there would be a reason for it! I'm on the East Coast--DC/MD/VA area, and while we had about a half foot of snow, no wind or blustery stuff until this past Monday. So no excuse for Escape!

I watched Boston Legal sporadically--so some of the episodes are like new to me. I remember loving Spader's irreverence when he showed up at the end of The Practice's run. Though I don't recall William Shatner. I must Youtube The Practice. All I remember was the lame-ASS ending, with Bobby stroking his desk.

Start isn't available in my area or by my provider, so I can't watch Cold Case which I LOVED.

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Cobb Salad

Cobb Salad

7 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

I live in the DC/MD/VA area and have Fios cable. I am very bitter about Start replacing Decades.

Me too.  I watched Decades from time to time and enjoyed it.  I haven’t watched Start at all and do not plan to.  I wish CBS in my area (NY-NJ) would change it back or at least make it available for streaming through their website.  

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GHScorpiosRule

GHScorpiosRule

21 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

I live in the DC/MD/VA area and have Fios cable. I am very bitter about Start replacing Decades.

The place where I live doesn't offer FiOS because it would have to dig underground to place the optic thingamabobs? What I liked about FiOS when I had it at my previous address, was that if created folders of all the shows I dvr'd and when I would binge watch, I wouldn't have to hit delete, and then choose the next episode to play. They would play them all, like if I was watching a dvd and had selected "play all" episodes. Sadly I had it before Decades had been created.

But I'm more than happy with my MeTV. Well, except for the fact they took off I Love Lucy, Remington Steele and Original Recipe Hawaii 5-0. Hey, sure the latter is dated and the acting isn't the greatest by the guest stars. But the OPENING CREDITS!!! THAT MUSIC!!!!! I always bopped and jiggled.

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shapeshifter

shapeshifter

11 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

If all my other channels were experiencing such issues, I would still grumble, but not as much, because there would be a reason for it! I'm on the East Coast--DC/MD/VA area, and while we had about a half foot of snow, no wind or blustery stuff until this past Monday. So no excuse for Escape!

Do you have a cable/dish subscription, or are you watching over-the-air? 
If cable, try unscrewing your cable cable and screwing in an antenna. It looks like over-the-air Escape should be on channel 2.4 in your area.
If it works, you can get a cable splitter and have both.

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SVNBob

SVNBob

On 1/22/2019 at 4:59 AM, ratgirlagogo said:

No classic TV fan should miss these if you have not seen them before (which you probably haven't unless you bought them on DVD).  He was a genius.

Speaking of the DVDs, Shout! Factory has the Ernie Kovacs collection as part of their library, and they put all they have on sale for his centennial.

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Was-MArsenault

Was-MArsenault

(edited)

Heads up for those who watch Laff:

Night Court is being removed from the schedule after March 1.

A Different World is returning to the schedule starting in February.

Spin City along with Cybill and 3rd Rock From The Sun are also being removed from the lineup as well. 3rd Rock will still continue to be on the weekday schedule.

Edited by MikaelaArsenault
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opus

opus

(edited)
15 minutes ago, Camille said:

How do I do that? I can't even find a FAQ list.

For Without A Trace, you’d go the “Shows” list, scroll down to W, and click “other W shows”. You’ll see a big “Start” button. Click that and you can create a new topic for the show.

Here:

http://forums.previously.tv/forum/5-shows/

Or in fact, a more direct route

http://forums.previously.tv/forum/4296-other-w-shows/?do=add

Edited by opus
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GHScorpiosRule

GHScorpiosRule

(edited)
21 minutes ago, Camille said:

Thanks for taking care of it for me, since I was too lazy. 😄

giphy.gif

 

ETA: I also commented on the last episode I had seen when I created the thread, so no excuses for not posting/responding/agreeing/disagreeing!

Edited by GHScorpiosRule
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Tom Holmberg

Tom Holmberg

On 1/19/2019 at 1:55 PM, Terrafamilia said:

a channel that is practically wall-to-wall Roy Rogers and Lone Ranger

What's the deal with these shows- so many retro channels are overloaded with them?  (I enjoyed both when I was a kid, but I doubt many people today want RR/LR marathons everyday.)

 

On 3/1/2019 at 8:19 PM, shapeshifter said:

Escape has changed their lineup

All cops, all the time.  Are they aware that TV existed before the 1990s? (I noticed Decades, which I don't get any more, is showing "Dark Shadows")

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wilsie

wilsie

7 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

I'm still pissed Decades is gone from my market. No more Newhart for me. And FETV chops out whole scenes to add commercials. Boo hiss.

I understand completely!  I miss a lot of the shows Decades offered.  I still have a few Bob Newharts from there and they did much better edits.   

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