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

[chessiegal]

I'll give MeTV props with their airing of The Wild Wild West this morning. I think the episode was complete as originally aired. I didn't see any edits to fit in more commercials. I was in the process of recording all 104 episodes on fetv when they stopped airing it. I bought the entire series on DVD, and can see little cuts here and there in the fetv airings, especially in the Pilot.

[Tom Holmberg]

On 1/6/2023 at 3:30 PM, wilsie said:

They could have also replaced it with "Wagon Train or The Rifleman".  They both are on 5 days a week. For me, I wouldn't miss one of the "Three Stooges'" hours.

I like "The Rifleman" but they could bump "Wagon Train."

[opus]

METV adds All In The Family in Feb. (right now just on Sundays I think)

https://tvline.com/2023/01/10/all-in-the-family-metv-release-date-sundays/

[wilsie]

On 1/10/2023 at 3:23 PM, Tom Holmberg said:

I like "The Rifleman" but they could bump "Wagon Train."

I like it a lot but there are 10 episodes compared to losing "Maverick" one time on Saturday.  I get to watch "Maverick" on "Heroes and Icons" during the week so I don't lose it. But for some people, they only got it on Saturday.  I would prefer "Wagon Train" gone instead of either of those.

Edited January 13, 2023 by wilsie
" not :

[chessiegal]

MeTV has added The Love Boat back to their Sunday lineup at 5 pm ET. It was my Sunday afternoon guilty pleasure before they dropped it some time ago.

[Tom Holmberg]

On 1/10/2023 at 5:15 PM, wilsie said:

.  I would prefer "Wagon Train" gone instead of either of those.

Agreed, but "Gunsmoke" is on like 4 or 5 stations.  If one "Gunsmoke" showing a week disappeared it would be no great loss.

[dalek]

On 1/6/2023 at 10:15 AM, Tom Holmberg said:

The cable guide was really rubbing it in.  It listed Me-TV running "The Saint" "Burke's Law" and "Route 66" this morning.  I wish.

It sounds like your TV guide was confusing MeTV with MeTV2.  Because that's the MeTV2 morning line up

[roseha]

I've just recently set up my TV that I must have bought some time in 2009 again in the bedroom and ran a few channel scans.  To my surprise I can get both MeTV and MeTV plus (?) in great reception  here in NYC.    I guess they moved their transmitter away from New Jersey, not sure I remember anymore. 

I also was able to tune in Get TV which was showing back to back episodes of The Rockford Files Sunday night (the second featuring Stuart Margolin, RIP).

[chessiegal]

getTV shows The Rockford Files from 8 pm to 10 pm ET on weeknights. They used to show it at noon, but when they dropped Hart to Hart at 11 am, they replaced it with 2 hours of Ironside. 😠

 

[Tom Holmberg]

On 1/16/2023 at 4:27 PM, dalek said:

It sounds like your TV guide was confusing MeTV with MeTV2.  Because that's the MeTV2 morning line up

Could be, though I don't get MeTV2 (though with those listings I wish I did.

[DXD526]

Decades binges for February: 2/4 - That's My Mama; 2/5 - That's My Mama, The Royal Family; 2/11 - Blondie movies; 2/12 - Blondie movies and tv show; 2/18 - The Flying Nun; 2/19 - The Girl with Something Extra, Gidget; 2/25-26 - Gunsmoke.

[chessiegal]

Like we need to see more Gunsmoke. It's all over many channels every day!

[Tom Holmberg]

I don't get Decades but I'd like to watch the Blondie show and movies.  Blondie movies used to be a staple of local TV's movie blocks, but very rarely show up today. You can forget about Gunsmoke though.

[chessiegal]

I lost Decades years ago, which sent me on a wild goose chase to get an antenna, that the Best Buy salesman assured me had a 60 mile range to try and get it OTA out of Baltimore (30 miles away), but I appear to be in an OTA black hole, so that didn't work. I recently subscribed to Frndly that carries Decades, so I've got Mary Tyler Moore, The Bob Newhart Show, and Newhart back in my life, which makes me happy.

Edited January 21, 2023 by chessiegal

[wilsie]

36 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

I lost Decades years ago, which sent me on a wild goose chase to get an antenna, that the Best Buy salesman assured me had a 60 mile range to try and get it OTA out of Baltimore (30 miles away), but I appear to be in an OTA black hole, so that didn't work. I recently subscribed to Frndly that carries Decades, so I've got Mary Tyler Moore, The Bob Newhart Show, and Newhart back in my life, which makes me happy.

I found out about Frndly because of you, so thank you! I have Hulu so I can get/record TCM and an antenna which gets me a lot of local stations plus METV, Antenna, Start, Dabl, Grit and most local PBS channels.  Frndly is great so I can record METV, H&I, Hallmark and especially Decades.  I've missed Decades for years since cable changed to Start.  I love all of the MTM shows so that's a real treat.

[SVNBob]

14 hours ago, Tom Holmberg said:

I don't get Decades but I'd like to watch the Blondie show and movies.  Blondie movies used to be a staple of local TV's movie blocks, but very rarely show up today. You can forget about Gunsmoke though.

There's a channel called Movies! that shows lots of classic films from the early Hays Code era.  It's how I saw many of the Thin Man movies (and thus finally truly understood the basis of part of the Thrilling Adventure Hour...). 

And coincidentally, this morning they aired one of the Blondie movies.  Looks like they have one scheduled for next Saturday morning as well.

[Tom Holmberg]

On 1/22/2023 at 2:11 AM, SVNBob said:

There's a channel called Movies! that shows lots of classic films from the early Hays Code era.  It's how I saw many of the Thin Man movies (and thus finally truly understood the basis of part of the Thrilling Adventure Hour...). 

And coincidentally, this morning they aired one of the Blondie movies.  Looks like they have one scheduled for next Saturday morning as well.

I used to get Movies! with my previous cable company, but AT&T seems very reluctant to pick up retro channels (they only added COZI in the last 6 months).

On 1/22/2023 at 2:11 AM, SVNBob said:

 It's how I saw many of the Thin Man movies (and thus finally truly understood the basis of part of the Thrilling Adventure Hour...). 

 

TCM frequently shows the Thin Man movies. In fact, they had a Thin Man marathon New Year's Eve.  They showed a Blondie movie once a few years ago. I always wished they'd add the Blondie series to their Saturday morning "series" series.

[Tom Holmberg]

R.I.P. James Yoshio Yoda, better known as Fuji in "McHale's Navy"

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/yoshio-yoda-dead-mchales-navy-1235307153/

 

[Gharlane]

On 1/17/2023 at 12:14 AM, roseha said:

I've just recently set up my TV that I must have bought some time in 2009 again in the bedroom and ran a few channel scans.  To my surprise I can get both MeTV and MeTV plus (?) in great reception here in NYC.    I guess they moved their transmitter away from New Jersey, not sure I remember anymore. 

A friend mentioned getting Me TV + recently. I guess it only airs in NY, Chicago, and AZ. *shrug*

[GHScorpiosRule]

4 hours ago, Gharlane said:

A friend mentioned getting Me TV + recently. I guess it only airs in NY, Chicago, and AZ. *shrug*

Nope. I live in MD, and it's available here.

[shapeshifter]

5 hours ago, Gharlane said:

A friend mentioned getting Me TV + recently. I guess it only airs in NY, Chicago, and AZ. *shrug*

12 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Nope. I live in MD, and it's available here.

Yes, apparently METV Plus has a signal out of Washington DC.
This:
rabbitears.info/search.php?request=network_search&network=Me-TV+Plus&sort=state
 is the link for the "Sort by State," with "DC" positioned alphabetically.🤞😉

But, yes, @Gharlane, it is geographically spotty.

 

[chessiegal]

I see that MeTV is evidently not showing The Wild Wild West in order. When they started showing it at 10 am on Saturdays, they did the pilot followed by Season 1, episodes 2 and 3. Tomorrow they are showing Season 2 Episode 1 (Season 2 is when they started recording in color).

Did they do the same thing with Maverick that they replaced in that time slot? When I looked up Maverick, I was surprised it was 5 seasons with hundreds of episodes. It seemed to me when I caught it on MeTV, they were showing the same 10-15 episodes over and over.

[Tom Holmberg]

R.I.P. Lisa Loring, the original Wednesday

 

[Tom Holmberg]

R.I.P., Cindy Williams.  Never watched the show, but I liked the two stars.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/cindy-williams-dead-laverne-and-shirley-1235313231/

 

[chessiegal]

I hope MeTV does a few of the better shows of Laverne & Shirley in tribute.

[chessiegal]

18 hours ago, chessiegal said:

I hope MeTV does a few of the better shows of Laverne & Shirley in tribute.

And they are. Sunday February 5 - 4 shows starting at 4 pm ET.

[opus]

1 hour ago, chessiegal said:

And they are. Sunday February 5 - 4 shows starting at 4 pm ET.

Specifically, these....

4P: #23: "Excuse Me, May I Cut In?"
4:30: #29: "Guinea Pigs"
5P: #77: "Supermarket Sweep"
5:30: #112: "The Diner"

[HyeChaps]

“Supermarket Sweep”

Lenny & Squiggy: Bosco!

[DXD526]

The Diner: "Betty, please!" 

[DXD526]

Decades has changed its binge for this weekend, to commemorate the loss of Shirley Feeney and Wednesday Adams. Saturday will feature Laverne & Shirley, and Sunday The Addams Family. 

[Tom Holmberg]

On 2/2/2023 at 10:24 AM, DXD526 said:

Decades has changed its binge for this weekend, to commemorate the loss of Shirley Feeney and Wednesday Adams. Saturday will feature Laverne & Shirley, and Sunday The Addams Family. 

What no binge for Fuji from "McHale's Navy"?

[Tom Holmberg]

It appears that INSP replaced "Alias Smith & Jones" with "The Big Valley" which is on other channels (and was a show I never watched even in first run). 🤔

[Tom Holmberg]

I don't know if this is permanent, but INSP replaced their Sunday morning showing of "Daniel Boone" with... wait for it...even more "Gunsmoke!"

[Tom Holmberg]

On 1/27/2023 at 5:08 PM, chessiegal said:

I see that MeTV is evidently not showing The Wild Wild West in order. When they started showing it at 10 am on Saturdays, they did the pilot followed by Season 1, episodes 2 and 3. Tomorrow they are showing Season 2 Episode 1 (Season 2 is when they started recording in color).

Did they do the same thing with Maverick that they replaced in that time slot? When I looked up Maverick, I was surprised it was 5 seasons with hundreds of episodes. It seemed to me when I caught it on MeTV, they were showing the same 10-15 episodes over and over.

I think the Saturday episodes were on a different rotation.  The weekday episodes were chronological.  The only good thing about running WWW out of order is more Dr. Loveless.  I suspect they think showing these episodes early will help ratings (esp. for people unaware of the show).

On the 17th MeTV will be running the Robert Conrad episode of "Adam 12."

[chessiegal]

9 minutes ago, Tom Holmberg said:

I think the Saturday episodes were on a different rotation.  The weekday episodes were chronological.  The only good thing about running WWW out of order is more Dr. Loveless.  I suspect they think showing these episodes early will help ratings (esp. for people unaware of the show).

On the 17th MeTV will be running the Robert Conrad episode of "Adam 12."

I don't think WWW has been on MeTV on weekdays recently. I've found info that they did at one time. fetv is the channel that showed WWW weekdays for 2 years. And yes, they showed them in the order they aired. Now that I have WWW on DVD, I can see where fetv cut things out to make room for more commercials! At least with the Pilot, MeTV didn't seem to make those edits. 

[Gharlane]

39 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

I don't think WWW has been on MeTV on weekdays recently. I've found info that they did at one time. fetv is the channel that showed WWW weekdays for 2 years. 

Me TV used to play Wild Wild West on Saturday evenings and as far as I know, ScreenPics Western plays it on weekday evenings.

[opus]

Decades apparently gone

Weigel Broadcasting‘s Decades Network Will Flip to Sitcom-Centric ‘Catchy Comedy’ in March, Led by Original ‘Night Court’ (EXCLUSIVE)

 

 

[GHScorpiosRule]

10 minutes ago, opus said:

Decades apparently gone

Weigel Broadcasting‘s Decades Network Will Flip to Sitcom-Centric ‘Catchy Comedy’ in March, Led by Original ‘Night Court’ (EXCLUSIVE)

 

 

I was about to lose my shit over this, but then read the article and this:

Daytime will be focused on female superstars via shows like

“I Love Lucy,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Rhoda,” “Laverne & Shirley” and the hour-long full version of “The Carol Burnett Show,” which has rarely been seen in syndication.

Makes me HAPPY.

And looks like The Brady Bunch is also getting airtime on this new network.

[chessiegal]

7 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

and the hour-long full version of “The Carol Burnett Show,” which has rarely been seen in syndication.

Decades was showing the full hour version. I'll wait and see what they are airing before cancelling the Frndly streaming service. One thing that irritated me about Decades was they didn't air pilots and series finales. MTM was nearing the shows final episode. Decades skipped it and went back to season 1, somewhere around episode 9.

[GHScorpiosRule]

4 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

Decades was showing the full hour version. I'll wait and see what they are airing before cancelling the Frndly streaming service. One thing that irritated me about Decades was they didn't air pilots and series finales. MTM was nearing the shows final episode. Decades skipped it and went back to season 1, somewhere around episode 9.

That is odd, as it does air the pilot and series finale for "I Love Lucy" and since that's the only show I watch regularly, because, Lucy! 

Then again, this dude/Weigel also owns MeTV, and MeTV+, and I did notice that that MeTV+ aired the pilot for Vega$ when it was on that network (it was pulled and is now on H&I, unless it was pulled from there, as Hawaii 5-0 was), but didn't air the pilot for TJ Hooker!

Edited February 13, 2023 by GHScorpiosRule

[DXD526]

Some of the Catchy Comedy schedule mirrors what Decades currently airs. I'll miss Through the Decades, though. 

[Gharlane]

21 hours ago, opus said:

Decades apparently gone

[Tom Holmberg]

Looking at my cable's schedule and INSP's online schedule it looks as if they might be still showing "Daniel Boone" on Sunday mornings.  Which means less "Gunsmoke".

[chessiegal]

23 minutes ago, Tom Holmberg said:

Looking at my cable's schedule and INSP's online schedule it looks as if they might be still showing "Daniel Boone" on Sunday mornings.  Which means less "Gunsmoke".

What is it with Gunsmoke that it is everywhere? I didn't watch it growing up because my mother hated Westerns. She considered them to be too violent. My grandfather loved it, and watched it when we were visiting, which irritated my mother to no end.

[WendyCR72]

Starting in March, Decades is rebranding. It will be called Catchy Comedy. More details here.

[kathyk24]

On 2/13/2023 at 5:25 PM, GHScorpiosRule said:

That is odd, as it does air the pilot and series finale for "I Love Lucy" and since that's the only show I watch regularly, because, Lucy! 

Then again, this dude/Weigel also owns MeTV, and MeTV+, and I did notice that that MeTV+ aired the pilot for Vega$ when it was on that network (it was pulled and is now on H&I, unless it was pulled from there, as Hawaii 5-0 was), but didn't air the pilot for TJ Hooker!

Did you know I Love Lucy has its own Pluto Channel?

[Tom Holmberg]

On 2/18/2023 at 4:02 PM, chessiegal said:

What is it with Gunsmoke that it is everywhere? I didn't watch it growing up because my mother hated Westerns. She considered them to be too violent. My grandfather loved it, and watched it when we were visiting, which irritated my mother to no end.

One aspect might be it's long life on TV-20 seasons. I find the half-hour episodes more watchable.  Later the plots seemed to be Marshal Dillon goes off on a trip in the first 5 minutes, leaving Festus in charge, Festus can't handle whatever trouble occurs, Dillon returns in the last 5 minutes and solves everything. (I suspect James Arness had a "Fred McMurray" contract by then.)

[DXD526]

Decades binges for March. Probably the last of the binges, since Decades is going to be disappearing 😟 - 3/4-5: Peter Gunn; 3/11-12: The Streets of San Francisco; 3/18-19: 77 Sunset Strip; 3/25-26: Mod Squad. 

[opus]

On 2/22/2023 at 8:29 PM, DXD526 said:

Decades binges for March. Probably the last of the binges, since Decades is going to be disappearing 😟 - 3/4-5: Peter Gunn; 3/11-12: The Streets of San Francisco; 3/18-19: 77 Sunset Strip; 3/25-26: Mod Squad. 

Binges are reportedly staying. They’ll just only be sitcoms now.

[Tom Holmberg]

On 2/13/2023 at 11:28 AM, chessiegal said:

I don't think WWW has been on MeTV on weekdays recently. I've found info that they did at one time. fetv is the channel that showed WWW weekdays for 2 years. And yes, they showed them in the order they aired. Now that I have WWW on DVD, I can see where fetv cut things out to make room for more commercials! At least with the Pilot, MeTV didn't seem to make those edits. 

They are definitely programming the episodes with big stars (and Dr. Loveless) first rather than going in episode order. This weekend was Sammy Davis Jr.