Jump to content

Type keyword(s) to search

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


  • Reply
  • Start Topic

Recommended Posts

Roku added some new channels: 
rokuguide.com/articles/roku-launches-six-new-live-tv-channels-from-nbcuniversal

I've been watching Universal Crime (Channel 514), which streams as much as a season at a time of a show, including Ironside and Kojak
The quality of the broadcast is excellent; very hi-res.

 

 

R.I.P. Tommy Smothers

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/27/arts/television/tom-smothers-dead.html

Maybe some retro channel will run some episodes of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.  I still remember when CBS kicked them off the air.

Edited by Tom Holmberg
  • Sad 3
  • Love 1
On 12/13/2023 at 11:52 AM, Tom Holmberg said:

So H&I showed the final "Maverick" episode today.  So are they starting over with S1 E!? Nope, they are showing a S! Bart episode> Have they lost all the James Garner Bret episodes?

They finally ran a Bret episode, but one from season 2. I don't understand why after running the final episode they just don't start from season one, episode one.

  • Like 1
(edited)

Z Living has changed its programming for the new year. Their schedule is rather irregular,but the seem to be now showing "Route 66", "Jack Benny Show", "My Little Margie", "MST3000,", "Ozzie and Harriet",  "Hawkeye"? (lee Horsely), "The Saint", "The Lucy Show", "Greatest American Hero", and who knows what else.  Z Living is the most disorganized retro channel, so even if they say they are running something, it may not show up or disappear after a few weeks.

Edited by Tom Holmberg
10 minutes ago, Tom Holmberg said:

I saw this morning the first episode of the "Jack Benny Show" from 1950 on Z Living.

Cool! I was born in 1950 and I don't think my parents got their first tv until around 1954. I remember my parents watching Jack Benny. My mom also watched Arthur Godfrey. She was dismayed that Godfrey "fired" the Macquire sisters. We lived in a house with a coal fired furnace. My dad would go to the basement to "fire up" the furnace. I thought my mom meant that Godfrey threw the sisters in a furnace! 🤣

  • Like 1
22 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

Cool! I was born in 1950 and I don't think my parents got their first tv until around 1954. I remember my parents watching Jack Benny. My mom also watched Arthur Godfrey. She was dismayed that Godfrey "fired" the Macquire sisters. We lived in a house with a coal fired furnace. My dad would go to the basement to "fire up" the furnace. I thought my mom meant that Godfrey threw the sisters in a furnace! 🤣

I was born the same year, though I think we didn't get a TV until maybe 1955, because I remember my excitement when we got it (I think it was a Muntz TV). As for the McGuire sisters, my aunt lived on the next block from gangster Sam Giancana who was "dating" Phyllis McGuire.  As kids we would walk by his house (and Tony Acardo's) hoping to see a shootout. the bar that was Giancana's hangout was on my paper route.

  • Like 2
  • Mind Blown 1
6 minutes ago, Tom Holmberg said:

I was born the same year, though I think we didn't get a TV until maybe 1955, because I remember my excitement when we got it (I think it was a Muntz TV). As for the McGuire sisters, my aunt lived on the next block from gangster Sam Giancana who was "dating" Phyllis McGuire.  As kids we would walk by his house (and Tony Acardo's) hoping to see a shootout. the bar that was Giancana's hangout was on my paper route.

Sounds like you've got the outline for a historical fiction/novel!

 

On 12/12/2023 at 6:32 PM, shapeshifter said:

Roku added some new channels: 
rokuguide.com/articles/roku-launches-six-new-live-tv-channels-from-nbcuniversal

I've been watching Universal Crime (Channel 514), which streams as much as a season at a time of a show, including Ironside and Kojak
The quality of the broadcast is excellent; very hi-res.

So, I'm the only one here watching this Universal Crime Channel 514 on Roku?
I really enjoyed seeing McCloud (1970-77) for the first time:

Quote

Sam McCloud is a marshal from Taos, New Mexico, who takes a temporary assignment in the New York City Police Department.

I was living off the grid and/or without TV when it aired. 
It's very formulaic, but Dennis Weaver manages to come off as charming rather than as a womanizer — perhaps a reflection of the actor's real life values rather than those of the character.

Just FYI, any TV that can access WiFi can be turned into a Roku TV with a $30 device, for example: amazon.com/Roku-Express-Streaming-Wireless-Controls/dp/B0916TKFF2

But now Channel 15 is airing MacMillan and Wife, which is, at best, scenery chewing, IMO.
Banacek starts January 8. I'm not familiar with it.
Quincy M.E. starts again January 15, which is kind of shouty and moralizing in an After School Special way.

  • Like 1
15 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Banacek starts January 8. I'm not familiar with it.

"Banacek" had George Peppard as an independent insurance investigator solving impossible crimes.  Unfortunately, I think there were only 17 episodes. It was one of the NBC revolving mystery series which also included  "Columbo", "McMillian and Wife" & "McCloud".

  • Useful 1
On 1/17/2024 at 9:16 AM, chessiegal said:

Is Murder, She Wrote that popular or is it so cheap that it gets shown many hours a day on multiple channels, some retro, some not?  I'm surprised anyone is still alive in Cabot Cove.

There's a number of shows like that, the top one being Gunsmoke, which has got to be on at least 8 or nine different channels. When you consider the shows not running on any of the retro channels, you have to wonder what's the deal with this one?

  • Like 1

I know it's not an over-the-air network, but does anyone here watch Boomerang? After many years of network decay (for a while, Looney Tunes and Tom & Jerry were basically the only pre-late 90's cartoons they would show), the channel now lives up to its original premise again, since about a few months ago. They have various incarnations of Scooby-Doo and Yogi Bear, Top Cat and not only the Flintstones, but even Flintstones Kids too. Just recently, they started airing Tas-Mania, for the first time ever.

Anyone into classic cartoons should tune in before it goes into another network decay. If you get the channel that is, since the majority of households don't seem to get Boomerang these days.

  • Like 2
On 2/5/2024 at 11:52 PM, Lili said:

I know it's not an over-the-air network, but does anyone here watch Boomerang? After many years of network decay (for a while, Looney Tunes and Tom & Jerry were basically the only pre-late 90's cartoons they would show), the channel now lives up to its original premise again, since about a few months ago. They have various incarnations of Scooby-Doo and Yogi Bear, Top Cat and not only the Flintstones, but even Flintstones Kids too. Just recently, they started airing Tas-Mania, for the first time ever.

Anyone into classic cartoons should tune in before it goes into another network decay. If you get the channel that is, since the majority of households don't seem to get Boomerang these days.

Boomerang is a broadcast channel here. I  discovered it by accident when my cable went out last week.

On 1/17/2024 at 10:16 AM, chessiegal said:

Is Murder, She Wrote that popular or is it so cheap that it gets shown many hours a day on multiple channels, some retro, some not?  I'm surprised anyone is still alive in Cabot Cove.

I don't think the sun ever sets on "Murder She Wrote" and it's been that way for decades now.

And I call FETV and a few others "The Perry Mason Channel" because they play it so much.

  • Like 1
  • LOL 2
(edited)
On 2/18/2024 at 8:51 PM, Yeah No said:

I don't think the sun ever sets on "Murder She Wrote" and it's been that way for decades now.

And I call FETV and a few others "The Perry Mason Channel" because they play it so much.

They could show, for instance, "The Defenders" and cut back on "Perry Mason", which I like, but they show too many in a day.

Edited by Tom Holmberg
  • Like 1

On 2/28 H&I will be showing the "Maverick" episode, "Hadley's Hunters" where Bart Maverick meets all the Warner Bros Westerns stars: Will Hutchins from "Sugarfoot", Clint Walker from "Cheyenne", John Russell and Peter Brown from "Lawman", Ty Hardin from "Bronco", and even non-Western, Edd "Kookie" Byrnes from "77 Sunset Strip" (at a livery stable named 77 Cherokee Strip). A typically unusual "Maverick" episode, which did a lot of this sort of thing.

On 2/18/2024 at 7:18 PM, DXD526 said:

Upcoming Catchy Comedy binges: 2/24-25 - The Lucy Show; 3/2-3 - Mama's Family; 3/9-10 - The Brady Bunch; 3/16-17 - When Things Were Rotten, Police Squad, Sledge Hammer!; 3/23-24 - ALF; 3/30-31 - The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast.

Lucy Show is on Z Living.  "Police Squad" is actually funnier than the movies.  "Brady Bunch" doesn't really need to be binged, nor does "Mama's Family."

  • Like 2
  • Applause 1

The cable guide shows that "Route 66" is still on the schedule.  It's typical of Z Living that their guide is wrong. Tomorrow's episode should be "The Beryllium Eater" with Edgar Buchanan as a grizzled old prospector who finds his fortune but the local mine owner wants to grab it anyway he can. Buz and Todd have to save the day.  Inger Stevens plays the mine owners wife.

On 2/27/2024 at 8:06 AM, Tom Holmberg said:

The cable guide shows that "Route 66" is still on the schedule.  It's typical of Z Living that their guide is wrong. Tomorrow's episode should be "The Beryllium Eater" with Edgar Buchanan as a grizzled old prospector who finds his fortune but the local mine owner wants to grab it anyway he can. Buz and Todd have to save the day.  Inger Stevens plays the mine owners wife.

So Z Living is still running "Route 66" and Jack Benny". Good.

Quote

"Police Squad" is actually funnier than the movies.

Yes, it is. I remember renting the VHS tapes in the 80s and thinking "Police Squad" was the funniest TV show I'd ever seen. I loved how the title of the episode never matched what the announcer said at the beginning. I need to go back and watch that show again to see if it still holds up. 

  • Useful 1
(edited)
On 3/5/2024 at 11:57 AM, mmecorday said:

Yes, it is. I remember renting the VHS tapes in the 80s and thinking "Police Squad" was the funniest TV show I'd ever seen. I loved how the title of the episode never matched what the announcer said at the beginning. I need to go back and watch that show again to see if it still holds up. 

I think the Comedy Channel used to run binges of the show on holidays.

Well, my cable provider dropped Z Living, so no more "Route 66" 😪

Edited by Tom Holmberg
  • Sad 1

R.I.P. Louis Gossett, Jr

A couple of weeks ago I saw the episode of "Alias Smith & Jones" where he played a bounty hunter.  I always thought that he would have been a good in a spin-off series with that character.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/louis-gossett-jr-dead-officer-and-a-gentleman-roots-948372-1235862761/

  • Like 1

I often see the second half of a Leave It To Beaver episode in the morning on METV. Today was “Beaver Joins a Record Club” from 1962. Beaver winds up in debt to for $17.65, which he, his friend, and his parents seem to think was *a lot* of money. So I looked it up.
Today that would be $181.37!!! 😮 (usinflationcalculator.com)

  • Like 1
  • Useful 1
4 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I often see the second half of a Leave It To Beaver episode in the morning on METV. Today was “Beaver Joins a Record Club” from 1962. Beaver winds up in debt to for $17.65, which he, his friend, and his parents seem to think was *a lot* of money. So I looked it up.
Today that would be $181.37!!! 😮 (usinflationcalculator.com)

I saw that one today too, a good reminder to check all the paperwork that comes with everything. 

  • Like 1
20 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

often see the second half of a Leave It To Beaver episode in the morning on METV. Today was “Beaver Joins a Record Club” from 196

This was actually a thing at that time.  These record clubs were advertised where kids could see them. I knew kids who got into debt that way. LITB did a pretty good job of putting Beaver (or the rest of the gang) in actual problems of the day.

  • Like 2

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...