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

[SVNBob]

On 7/1/2020 at 7:29 AM, icemiser69 said:

Decades this weekend 7/4 will be binging on The Twilight Zone.

So they're taking up the mantle that the Sci-Fi channel laid down.

[shapeshifter]

9 hours ago, SVNBob said:

So they're taking up the mantle that the Sci-Fi channel laid down.

Stargate reruns would be fun.

[shapeshifter]

“Reiner died of natural causes in June at the age of 98. The prolific actor, producer and writer will also be honored by Turner Classic Movies (with a marathon of Reiner’s film work on July 28) and the MeTV Network (which will air Reiner’s favorite Dick Van Dyke Show episodes from July 5 through July 26)” (tvline.com/2020/07/01/carl-reiner-dead-dick-van-dyke-show-episodes-cbs).

[DXD526]

Something my DVR will be set for: The Decades binge for 8/8-9 will be Rhoda. They'll start with the pilot and show the first few episodes in order, then start jumping around. Looks like there will be a number of eps from all five seasons. 

[BradyBunchFan]

How I Met Your Mother is coming to Laff TV on September 6th.

[roseha]

On 7/27/2020 at 4:02 PM, icemiser69 said:

I am looking forward to the upcoming Decades Odd Couple Binge weekend, this weekend (8/1-8/3).  A much needed distraction.

I loved The Odd Couple.  One of my favorite episodes was The Subway Show where Felix tries to prove to Oscar that New York is still a great town.  Recently I was thinking that Tony as Felix would have been the perfect character to get everyone to social distance and wear their masks!

Sometimes I quote his line to myself:

"New York has made me tough!"

[BradyBunchFan]

Laff TV Acquires How I Met Your Mother

[wknt3]

12 hours ago, BradyBunchFan said:

Laff TV Acquires How I Met Your Mother

This won't end well...

[BradyBunchFan]

5 minutes ago, wknt3 said:

This won't end well...

I can tell that it won’t last at all.

[WendyCR72]

2 hours ago, wknt3 said:

This won't end well...

Neither did the show (GRRR!), so...  😛

[DXD526]

Some upcoming Decades binges: Carol Burnett and Friends on 8/15-16; The Jeffersons on 8/22-23; and Cheyenne on 8/29-30.

[BradyBunchFan]

On 8/5/2020 at 9:41 PM, WendyCR72 said:

Neither did the show (GRRR!), so...  😛

I can just tell that the show isn’t going to last long on there.

[DXD526]

Decades binges for September: Get Smart! on 9/5-6; NYPD on 9/12-13; Numb3rs on 9/19-20; and The Adventures of Superman on 9/26-27. 

[bmoore4026]

Looks like MeTV is bringing a bunch of superhero shows this October, no doubt for the Super Sci-Fi Saturday Night:

Adventures of Superman

Batman

Wonder Woman

(The DC Trinity!  Yay!)

Also, The Incredible Hulk

Other things that are coming are That Girl, Sandford and Son, and The Munsters (on September 7th)

[GHScorpiosRule]

On 8/19/2020 at 3:51 PM, bmoore4026 said:

Looks like MeTV is bringing a bunch of superhero shows this October, no doubt for the Super Sci-Fi Saturday Night:

Adventures of Superman

Batman

Wonder Woman

(The DC Trinity!  Yay!)

Also, The Incredible Hulk

Other things that are coming are That Girl, Sandford and Son, and The Munsters (on September 7th)

I wonder what they will remove to make place for them? I hope the Three Stooges and Gomer Pyle. And just reduce the double/triple episodes to single, so that I Love Lucy, Happy Days, and Laverne & Shirley will remain.

[bmoore4026]

On 8/21/2020 at 9:55 AM, GHScorpiosRule said:

I wonder what they will remove to make place for them? I hope the Three Stooges and Gomer Pyle. And just reduce the double/triple episodes to single, so that I Love Lucy, Happy Days, and Laverne & Shirley will remain.

I made a mistake.  It's not The Munsters that are coming to MeTV.  They're just moving Gilligan's Island to the morning time slot that The Beverly Hillbillies had on weekday mornings.  At least that'll mean no more "Three Hour Tour" crap on Sundays for a long while.

[Maverick]

On 8/19/2020 at 3:51 PM, bmoore4026 said:

Looks like MeTV is bringing a bunch of superhero shows this October, no doubt for the Super Sci-Fi Saturday Night:

Adventures of Superman

Batman

Wonder Woman

(The DC Trinity!  Yay!)

Also, The Incredible Hulk

Other things that are coming are That Girl, Sandford and Son, and The Munsters (on September 7th)

 The DC shows were on H&I (MeTV's sister channel) until recently asp art of the Action Sunday block.   But then they switched to 9 hours of The Untouchables on Sunday.  Hopefully that will be gong away.  I never cared for Sanford and Son or Incredible Hulk so those no excitement there.   Having been home so much, I'm tired of some of these shows that keep bouncing around between MeTV, Antenna TV and  COZI.  I wish they'd do better at rotating them in and out.  I'm also sick of the blocks of shows.  Even if it's one I like (and it rarely is) it's too much.   Gilligan's Island, The Untouchables, The Office, House, Nash Bridges...I have no interest watching any of these, much less for hours on end.   And does no one like I Love Lucy anymore?   That and The Andy Griffith Show were basically the gold standard of these retro channels.  TAGS is still on multiple times a day on multiple channels but ILL gets one airing at the crack of dawn.    

[bmoore4026]

6 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

IIRC, MeTV ran those as a block last year or the year before.

Wonder Woman and Batman and that was two years ago, I think.  The former was dropped in favor of The Three Stooges and the latter gets rotated out regularly as part of the Super Sci-Fi Saturday Night.  Hopefully they both replace Buck Rogers and The Invaders.

[bmoore4026]

On 8/25/2020 at 9:47 AM, icemiser69 said:

I do wonder at what point MeTV pulls Planet of the Apes.  There were only fourteen episodes in the series.

Just checked MeTV's calendar.  Next week, Kolchak The Night Stalker will take The Invaders place on Super Sci-Fi Saturday Night while The Invaders will take Planet of the Apes place for Red Eye Sci-Fi.

[shapeshifter]

Here’s the new fall (starting September 14) H&I (Heroes & Icons) network schedule: https://imagecdn.heroesandiconstv.com/YbXzZ-1598387701-HNI FALL 2020 Eff 9-14-20 CT.pdf

[Maverick]

 Ugh.   No change to Saturday night or Sundays.

[Gramto6]

Unfortunately not available in my area of MT. ...le sigh

[shapeshifter]

16 hours ago, Gramto6 said:

Unfortunately not available in my area of MT. ...le sigh

I may be relocating to the hinterlands of upstate western NY state to be near a daughter and wonder if I'll mourn the loss of all my Chicagoland free TV. 
My understanding is that even if you pay for cable, you still can't get a lot of the retro OTA channels.
Since she moved there a few weeks ago, she can only get a clear phone signal inside her home through WiFi, so I'm guessing even an antenna on the roof won't do much.
At least BUZZR is free online, but I really like a lot of Start TV.
I really shouldn't complain or worry though, I can get most of those shows through Prime, Hulu, and Netflix, which my daughters already share with me through "family" plans. 
I guess because I'm older, I still like the idea of appointment TV --and radio too, rather than podcasts. I probably need to get over that.
 

 

[WendyCR72]

7 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

My understanding is that even if you pay for cable, you still can't get a lot of the retro OTA channels.

I live near the Albany, NY area, and this is true. Unless you have a splitter for OTA/cable channels, the pickings are slim. Maybe Western NY is a bit better. But I doubt it.

[DXD526]

Some October Decades binges: Cheers on 10/3-4 (sorry Diane fans, looks like episodes from Seasons 8-11); The Twilight Zone on 10/10-11 (the 80s reboot, not the 60s series); Beauty and the Beast on 10/17-18.

[Ubiquit0us]

I spent the weekend with my folks in Orlando and found this weird retro station called Archive, which seemed to specialize in playing old TV movies tapes on someone's VCR 30 years ago. The video quality on these gems was terrible! They also played some bad 1990's and turn of the millennium syndicated shows like Tropical Heat (no, not the one with Fabio!) and The Lost World, also of varying video quality.

 

Oddly enough, there were also Family Feud and America's Funniest Home Video's channels. How weird!

 

On ‎8‎/‎19‎/‎2020 at 3:51 PM, bmoore4026 said:

Looks like MeTV is bringing a bunch of superhero shows this October, no doubt for the Super Sci-Fi Saturday Night:

Adventures of Superman

Batman

Wonder Woman

They were playing those as recently as early 2020 until H&I started playing them and abruptly replaced them with The Untouchables (yuck!).

[shapeshifter]

10 hours ago, Ubiquit0us said:

I spent the weekend with my folks in Orlando and found this weird retro station called Archive, which seemed to specialize in playing old TV movies tapes on someone's VCR 30 years ago. The video quality on these gems was terrible! They also played some bad 1990's and turn of the millennium syndicated shows like Tropical Heat (no, not the one with Fabio!) and The Lost World, also of varying video quality.

Oddly enough, there were also Family Feud and America's Funniest Home Video's channels. How weird!

😎 Cool. It’s online too: https://www.thearchive.tv

ETA: It has at least some of the Cagney and Lacey after-series movies, which I hadn’t seen previously. 

 

Edited September 23, 2020 by shapeshifter

[meowmommy]

18 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

😎 Cool. It’s online too: https://www.thearchive.tv

ETA: It has at least some of the Cagney and Lacey after-series movies, which I hadn’t seen previously. 

 

Thanks for the link.  It has a Roku app.  So I downloaded the app, found a movie that supposedly plays in 4K, and waited for the 6 opening ads to run.  Five of the six ads were the same ad, and the movie isn't playing in 4K.  But hey...

[Jaded]

On 9/22/2020 at 3:37 PM, shapeshifter said:

😎 Cool. It’s online too: https://www.thearchive.tv

ETA: It has at least some of the Cagney and Lacey after-series movies, which I hadn’t seen previously. 

 

If anyone has Amazon Prime they now have those after-series movies available to watch for members too.

[ClassicShowsFan]

On 9/22/2020 at 12:18 PM, Ubiquit0us said:

I spent the weekend with my folks in Orlando and found this weird retro station called Archive, which seemed to specialize in playing old TV movies tapes on someone's VCR 30 years ago. The video quality on these gems was terrible! They also played some bad 1990's and turn of the millennium syndicated shows like Tropical Heat (no, not the one with Fabio!) and The Lost World, also of varying video quality.

 

Oddly enough, there were also Family Feud and America's Funniest Home Video's channels. How weird!

 

They were playing those as recently as early 2020 until H&I started playing them and abruptly replaced them with The Untouchables (yuck!).

 

On 9/22/2020 at 4:37 PM, shapeshifter said:

😎 Cool. It’s online too: https://www.thearchive.tv

ETA: It has at least some of the Cagney and Lacey after-series movies, which I hadn’t seen previously. 

 

 

19 hours ago, meowmommy said:

Thanks for the link.  It has a Roku app.  So I downloaded the app, found a movie that supposedly plays in 4K, and waited for the 6 opening ads to run.  Five of the six ads were the same ad, and the movie isn't playing in 4K.  But hey...

 

4 hours ago, Jaded said:

If anyone has Amazon Prime they now have those after-series movies available to watch for members too.

There are also apps for Apple and Android devices, Apple TV, Android TV, and Amazon Fire TV.

[shapeshifter]

8 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

STARTtv needs to shake up its line up.   There are already multiple women's channels on cable, how about having a channel dedicated to mysteries or detective type shows.

Ooo, I hope not. I love Start TV and don't get those other women's channels. 
I'm really enjoying Any Day Now (1998–2002, starring Annie Potts and Lorraine Toussaint) on Start TV at 9am CDT all 7 days per week.
I'd never seen it before and it's not available for streaming.

[roseha]

There's a local Over-the-Air Channel, WJLP from New Jersey (though I believe they now broadcast from NYC as I get them in perfectly in Manhattan) who have been broadcasting Me-TV (on channel 33.1) for the last several years, and around a year ago I found out that they also simulcast a delightful oldies station which goes heavy on the 50s and 60s on channel 33.14.  To my surprise, they have added the Retro Channel on 33.5.  This channel is carrying all kinds of classic shows from Naked City and Route 66 to the Soupy Sales Show.  Unfortunately the Soupy Shows are not the classic black and white 60s shows that Soupy ran from New York back in my childhood; those were said to have been mostly destroyed despite their great popularity at the time (in spite of their shoestring budget).  Still it's fun to see these 70s shows with a similar spirit.

Edited October 6, 2020 by roseha

[Gramto6]

On 10/3/2020 at 4:08 PM, icemiser69 said:

STARTtv needs to shake up its line up.   There are already multiple women's channels on cable, how about having a channel dedicated to mysteries or detective type shows.

Dish just recently added Starttv in my area. I am enjoying Crossing Jordan. I liked it when it was originally on and now more just to see Miguel Ferrer, healthy,  again on my tv screen. The other shows, not so much...

[ClassicShowsFan]

Starting on October 24, Hallmark Drama will be airing Cheers, Happy Days, and The Brady Bunch.

[chessiegal]

2 hours ago, ClassicShowsFan said:

Starting on October 24, Hallmark Drama will be airing Cheers, Happy Days, and The Brady Bunch.

Thanks for the heads up. I didn't even know I got this channel.  Will be good to see Cheers again.

[ClassicShowsFan]

14 hours ago, chessiegal said:

Thanks for the heads up. I didn't even know I got this channel.  Will be good to see Cheers again.

You’re welcome.

[WendyCR72]

On 10/7/2020 at 4:07 PM, ClassicShowsFan said:

Starting on October 24, Hallmark Drama will be airing Cheers, Happy Days, and The Brady Bunch.

So another channel not airing what they originally started with? (See MTV and a slew of others!) Don't get me wrong: All are good shows that are listed but...none are dramas!  😉

[ClassicShowsFan]

8 hours ago, WendyCR72 said:

So another channel not airing what they originally started with? (See MTV and a slew of others!) Don't get me wrong: All are good shows that are listed but...none are dramas!  😉

Yes. But I do agree with you about that.

[DXD526]

Some upcoming Decades binges: Hammer House of Horror on 10/24, along with One Step Beyond on 10/25; Dark Shadows on 10/31-11/1; Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts on 11/7-8; The Streets of San Francisco on 11/14-15. 

[Annber03]

Ooh, "One Step Beyond", cool. I've liked what I've seen of that show when they've run it before.

Enjoying watching the 1980s "Twilight Zone" this weekend, too :).

[bmoore4026]

Well, I was wrong about Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman coming back to MeTV.  That's what I get for using unreliable Wikipedia entries.  Still, how many damn episodes of Buck Rogers can one take?  Or Kolchak?

[DXD526]

Some more Decades binges: Barnaby Jones on 11/21-22; Vegas on 11/28-29; The Jeffersons on 12/5-6; Family on 12/12-13; Touched by an Angel on 12/19-20. 

[roseha]

Route 66 has been playing on the Retro Subchannel recently.   It airs in the New York area as a channel 33 sub (WJLP) so it may be available elsewhere.

[Kromm]

On 11/6/2020 at 1:30 PM, icemiser69 said:

Touched by an Angel is already available on other channels.  I am not sure why this show would be binged.

I'm not sure why this show would even be watched. 

On 11/6/2020 at 1:30 PM, icemiser69 said:

Vegas won't be too bad, I guess, but I have never been much of a fan of Aaron Spelling's series.

Do you mean "Vega$"?  That was Michael Mann, not Aaron Spelling, and was pretty good. A relatively rare combination of stylish and gritty for TV of the time. It's not Miami Vice, Mann's big contribution to TV, but you can see the infancy of that approach in it. 

There's also the considerably crappier show, "Las Vegas".  Much more recent, and also not Aaron Spelling, but crappy enough to be a Spelling show. 

Edited November 15, 2020 by Kromm

[Maverick]

 Aaron Spelling produced Vega$.  His daughter Tori famously had one of her first screen roles on the show and the main character, Dana Tanna (played by Robert Urich) had a brief cameo/crossover with Spelling's Charlie's Angels. 

[Jaded]

18 hours ago, Maverick said:

 Aaron Spelling produced Vega$.  His daughter Tori famously had one of her first screen roles on the show and the main character, Dana Tanna (played by Robert Urich) had a brief cameo/crossover with Spelling's Charlie's Angels. 

I wish that show was accessible outside of Decades or purchasing DVDs. I really want to watch more than a random episode posted on YouTube.

[Jaded]

1 hour ago, icemiser69 said:

I seem to recall Decades having a binge weekend of Vega$ earlier this year.  Decades has repeated their binge weekends in the past, maybe a Vega$ binge weekend will show up again next year.

I don't get Decades which is why I wish I had another option outside of purchasing a DVD player after not having one for so long just to see the show. So many other older shows like that have made it to streaming so I wish it would too. Amazon's IMDB TV has Spenser for Hire so that's one way to get my Robert Urich fix when I need one. 

[Lili]

MeTV is getting a Saturday Morning Cartoons block in January: https://tvnewscheck.com/article/254776/metv-launching-toon-in-with-me-hosted-morning-cartoon-show-in-2021/

I guess adding The Flintstones to the schedule last year really paid off. I can't wait.

[GHScorpiosRule]

1 hour ago, Lili said:

MeTV is getting a Saturday Morning Cartoons block in January: https://tvnewscheck.com/article/254776/metv-launching-toon-in-with-me-hosted-morning-cartoon-show-in-2021/

I guess adding The Flintstones to the schedule last year really paid off. I can't wait.

From the article:

Each hour will present a collection of cartoons featuring

Popeye and Friends, Tom & Jerry, Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies.

Me: 🙌🙌

 

[DXD526]

Decades is changing its schedule slightly starting this Monday, 11/30. Laugh-In and The Jeffersons are being removed. The Millionaire will run from 6-7 a.m. Eastern, followed by an hour of The Ed Sullivan Show. The Love Boat is being added to the schedule, at 6 p.m., with another hour of Ed Sullivan at 7.