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


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We had Retro in the DC Metro area. Then it began showing a bunch of not-very-good Canadian tv shows, and was dumped for MeTV. I hope they'll bring Retro back to replace Live Well Network, which is going off air in a couple of weeks.

 

That's what happened here, near Albany, NY. We had RTV/Retro TV but then came The Live Well Network which my affiliate added - and removed RTV for it. But even with LWN's demise, I have a feeling RTV still won't benefit and my affiliate will put something else there.

Random, and a bit newish for either Antenna or MeTV.   That seems like something TV Guide Channel (soon to be Pop) or Logo would air.   At first I was thinking it would be something like TV Land would air, but a quick check of my cable guide tells me that other than a few hours in the morning, TV Land doesn't air an classic TV anymore.  It's all new millennium sitcoms with a few 90s shows thrown in.  Without realizing it, I completely stopped watching TV Land.  

Random, and a bit newish for either Antenna or MeTV.   That seems like something TV Guide Channel (soon to be Pop) or Logo would air.   At first I was thinking it would be something like TV Land would air, but a quick check of my cable guide tells me that other than a few hours in the morning, TV Land doesn't air an classic TV anymore.  It's all new millennium sitcoms with a few 90s shows thrown in.  Without realizing it, I completely stopped watching TV Land.  

 

As scary as it sounds, I think '80s and even '90s stuff is now considered "classic" as I have also heard '80s and '90s music on "Classic Rock" stations. As someone who graduated high school and college in the '90s, it's disheartening!

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I so envy you roseha. I wish I had Retro TV. I read that Retro is showing the old soap opera The Doctors. I remember the last few years of that soap and would love to see some of the early episodes.

They're running it just after Doctor Who, so I've seen the beginning a few times now. They even show the original lead-in to it - A very mellow announcer voice (almost no treble) saying "The following program is brought to you in living color on NBC!" while they show the old version of the NBC peacock logo. Ah, the good old days, when they made a big deal about it if a show was in color.

Here's the web page Retro put up for the show with their promo.

The promo says noon, but the show is also on at 9 pm.

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We had Retro in the DC Metro area. Then it began showing a bunch of not-very-good Canadian tv shows, and was dumped for MeTV. I hope they'll bring Retro back to replace Live Well Network, which is going off air in a couple of weeks.

 

I live in MD, which is considered part of the DC Metro area, even though each, MD, DC. VA, have different cable providers. I have Comcast. And I've got both Retro and Logo, the latter of which airs Who's The Boss, so presently, I am happy.

LOGO is the LGBT network. Why do they air Who's the Boss? Johnathan?

 

I didn't know that. Well, they also air Living Single, The Golden Girls, RoseAnne, T Shirt Stories, The Antics Road Show and last week, they also aired Working Girl.  So I don't think they're limited to just airing shows with an LGBT theme. They've got RuPaul, Lady Gaga, Will & Grace, and some other titles that fit under LGBT.

 

{shrugs}.  I'm just happy that I found Who's The Boss? again.

Logo, like many other cable networks (Syfy, TLC, A&E) has steadily been increasing programming that has nothing to do with the original intent of the channel.  Most of these "niche" channels don't bring in big ratings, so they all look for what'll will pay the bills.  It sad in that one of the big draws of cable was the ability to have virtually unlimited channels that could offer programming for specific interests and they all end up being pretty much the same.

 

 As to Who's the Boss, Danny was actually doing commercials between episodes (the one I saw had him talking about how he may or may not have kept the prop calendar of Tony in nothing but a red apron) so yes they are trying to make a connection there.  

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I live in MD, which is considered part of the DC Metro area, even though each, MD, DC. VA, have different cable providers. I have Comcast. And I've got both Retro and Logo, the latter of which airs Who's The Boss, so presently, I am happy.

 

Mr. Milz and I don't have cable, so it's digital broadcast (which isn't too bad since I mainly watch  PBS, Me/Ant/COZI , MyFox DC/20.1 ---Judge Judy is must-see-tv for me, and LiveWellNetwork because Motion is probably one of the best travel shows on tv and the kids love it too.) 

As Maverick said, I think they've gotten away from that focus. They show pretty much anything.

It might be that the only channel still true is BET. It's the only one I can think of, anyway.

 

Yeah, I think I also read either online or in an article that Logo is no longer specifically geared to LGBT programming. Not a surprise as, I believe, it is under the Viacom umbrella which also owns MTV and VH1, as examples. And when was the last time either played music videos (what the channels were created for)?

 

Add in that TLC, once The Learning Channel, is now a cesspool, A&E and Bravo went from artsy upscale programming to idiocy, the History Channel no longer really shows historical stuff, TVLand no longer shows '50s/'60s TV shows, and so on, and Logo is in a lot of company.

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You could probably add the Food Network to that list.

And actually the History channel has slowly been adding historical programming, but still too msny reality & alien shows. LOGO found that some of their audience was straight, so they started showing more that would appeal to everyone.

I think CMT is still pretty close to their roots, as is the Cooking channel.

Yeah, I think I also read either online or in an article that Logo is no longer specifically geared to LGBT programming. Not a surprise as, I believe, it is under the Viacom umbrella which also owns MTV and VH1, as examples. And when was the last time either played music videos (what the channels were created for)?

 

Add in that TLC, once The Learning Channel, is now a cesspool, A&E and Bravo went from artsy upscale programming to idiocy, the History Channel no longer really shows historical stuff, TVLand no longer shows '50s/'60s TV shows, and so on, and Logo is in a lot of company.

I hope this isn't getting too off-topic, but for me it's MTV and VH1 that really breaks my heart. I grew up watching those two networks during the 80's and 90's for music and then stopped watching for just a little bit and turn back and it's stuff that I wouldn't watch at eleven years old. Complete dumbed-down idiocy. Plus, I have no idea what's going on in music anymore. A lost forty-four year old. Who knows, maybe I don't want to know. I know they won't but these networks really should change their names. It's madness.

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MeTV is going to run "firsts" on New Year's Day. The first Perry Mason might be fun.

I just saw the first episode of Superman. It was unintentionally funny in several places. I really did LOL when they showed Clark Kent's arrival in metropolis using what passed for special effects for 1952 TV, with George Reeves pretending to be walking while scenes of the city were being projected behind him.

Keep in mind that Superman was a children's show. Like the Lone Ranger. Very simple.

 

If you like obscure movies, Hollywoodland was good. It told the mystery of George Reeves's death. 

 

Wanted to add, the special effects for Adam-12 are similar to Superman. They pretend to be driving. I wonder if they teach that in acting class.

Edited by ennui

GAC used to bill themselves as better than CMT because GAC actually did show videos for most of the day. Now  GAC has become CMT with lots of "reality".

 

The History channel has indeed lost a lot of historical programming but they did kind of morph their Military Channel into The American Heroes Channel or whatever they call it. IT is still possible to get a WWII hit every now and then. Now that Edward Herrmann has passed away I may need my own little fix shortly.

 

Here in NYC Cablevision only has Antenna and Cozi, No MeTV. I love the older stuff like Burns and Allen, Jack Benny. Also, Magic Johnson's Aspire network airs "Julia" which I remember and totally eat up these days. Marc Copage as her son was too too cute. 

Does anyone besides me get something called El Rey? They seem to target males. They show a lot of the martial arts films from the 70s. Anyway, they are running a Miami Vice marathon this weekend. "No earth tones." 

 

I like to watch these things for the guest stars. Bruce Willis used to have a lot of hair.

Edited by ennui
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Does anyone besides me get something called El Rey? They seem to target males. They show a lot of the martial arts films from the 70s. Anyway, they are running a Miami Vice marathon this weekend. "No earth tones." 

 

I like to watch these things for the guest stars. Bruce Willis used to have a lot of hair.

That's a great channel. They had a Godzilla marathon during Christmas. I can identify with Willis. I also had a lot of hair during the 80's. Rock on!

Does anyone besides me get something called El Rey? They seem to target males. They show a lot of the martial arts films from the 70s. Anyway, they are running a Miami Vice marathon this weekend. "No earth tones."

I like to watch these things for the guest stars. Bruce Willis used to have a lot of hair.

I hope you got to see season 2, episode 3, "Out Where the Buses Don't Run," guest starring Bruce McGill and Edward James Olmos.

That's a great channel. They had a Godzilla marathon during Christmas. I can identify with Willis. I also had a lot of hair during the 80's. Rock on!

Bruce Willis still looks awesome, so if your identification with him extends to that degree, indeed you should rock on! Heh.

WMAQ in Chicago (COZI) has recently retired a lot of shows and is now showing things I will not be watching, including The Real McCoys and Howdy Doody. But they have also dusted off Murder She Wrote, which might do on a snow day.

Edited by shapeshifter

I think I did see Maverick listed for MeTV, but I can't remember when or whether it has a regular time slot. So many of these channels are owned by the same parent network, and Maverick is on many channels, so it's difficult to keep track. MeTV doesn't seem particularly invested in westerns. They dropped The Big Valley. Encore's Western channel has added a lot of new shows, however.

Ooh, interesting.  (Maverick can be purchased on a by-episode basis from ABC's stock of on-demand shows - on iTunes for instance - but at $2 per episode it's a bit rich for my blood.)

 

MeTV does have a Saturday afternoon block of Westerns though - they're currently showing Wanted: Dead or Alive with Steve McQueen, among others.

 

Along those lines, it's occurred to me that now that rights owners have opted to sell so many of their movie and TV properties via in-demand -- which accounts for the wasteland that cable TV is these days -- we actually do have the "a la carte" pricing that people have always wanted, except viewers have to pay through the nose to 10 different stakeholders rather than just one (the cable company).

 

I wish that MeTV would have a dedicated sci-fi block though... something more focused than the stuff they play on Saturday nights.  I'd love to see Space: 1999 again.

Edited by Jipijapa
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I wish that MeTV would have a dedicated sci-fi block though... something more focused than the stuff they play on Saturday nights.

"I second that emotion."

Right now I have The Happening on in the background--which rightfully has a 17% fresh rating from Rotten Tomatoes (based on the acting, Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel seem to hate each other IRL).

It looks like it's on again next week the same time, but no other scifi on MyNetworkTV showing.

 

ETA: Batman Forever is on ION right now. But then I might have to pay attention.

ETA one more: It must actually be Batman and Robin, because George Clooney just said, "I'm not the marrying kind." LOL

Edited by shapeshifter

More on:

...I wish that MeTV would have a dedicated sci-fi block though...

Right now Superman is on MeToo with a H&I logo in the corner, which stands for "Heroes & Icons" which is a smorgasbord of superheroes and mortal heroes. From Wikipedia:

...Much like its sister network, Me-TV, Heroes and Icons specializes in reruns of classic television series and films. However, unlike Me-TV's broad audience aim and wide-ranging programming lineup, H&I aims to attract a generally male audience with shows from the genres of action, police, detective, western, science fiction, superhero, and war and military....

I don't know how long it will last, but right now if you Google H&I, the search result blurb is the very funny:

Heroes & Icons - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroes_%26_Icons

Heroes & Icons (or simply H&I) is a United States television network airing on digital terrestrial television stations. The network is owned and operated by Weigel ...

I used to watch Star Trek TNG on a station that claimed it was for "men" which freaked out my daughter because she didn't think her mother should be watching it.

Season Two of "Miami Vice" was outstanding. The Phil Collins episode and the one with Frank Zappa were excellent. So was the one with the female prostitute killer who left drawings at the crime scene. Another great episode had basketball legend Bill Russell as a crooked judge with a gambling debt. Bernard King played his son and Michael Richards from Seinfeld was the sleazy villain. The season ended dramatically with Calderon's son getting revenge on Tubbs by killing his lover and taking his infant son.

NEWHART (the one as an innkeeper in Vermont) also coming to Antenna Jan. 5.

Ahh...so they're showing Bob's nightmare. The final episode of Newhart is one of my favorite finals, btw.

 

 

A&E is the one that makes me sad. I was upset when they dropped Longmire.

 

Todays MeTV trivia. Did you know that Chris Pine (Star Trek  2009) is the son of Robert Pine (CHiPs)?  Now that I know that, I can see the resemblance.

 

Last night I saw the Lucy Show (or is it " Here's Lucy" whatever) on COZI. Totally blew my mind how Desi Arnaz Jr. looked so much like Desi Sr. at certain angles. I can't imagine the pressure Desi Jr and Lucie had doing that show with their mom. Good thing the internet wasn't around then because I could just imagine the negative posts about their acting and timing (not that there was anything wrong with either, imo.)

Edited by Milz

A big BOO to Cozi for cutting off the closing credits on Adam-12. Half the fun of watching these old shows is spotting guest actors and trying to remember their names. But not being able to check the end credits for answers because those end credits are entirely cut? BOO. Get your act together, Cozi. 

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