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

[Tom Holmberg]

On April 30th, on H&I, they are supposed to be starting with Season 1, episode 1 of "Maverick."  Finally James Garner is back.

[Tom Holmberg]

Apparently "Z Living" is back as "Seek", at least on my cable provider.  Not sure it its 100% the same, but its pretty much so (all weekend "Real McCoys", for instance).

[Tom Holmberg]

On 4/28/2024 at 10:45 AM, Tom Holmberg said:

Apparently "Z Living" is back as "Seek", at least on my cable provider.  Not sure it its 100% the same, but its pretty much so (all weekend "Real McCoys", for instance).

Apparently this channel, despite what the cable guide says, is BINGE.  They show a lot of the shows that used to be on Z Living, except not the ones I like, Jack Benny, Route 66, MST3000.  But if you want 15 straight hours of Renegade, this channel's for you!

[chessiegal]

Probably not helpful, but this insomniac knows that antennatv airs one episode of Jack Benny at 5:30 am ET weekdays.

Edited May 2 by chessiegal

[Bazinga]

MeTV is replacing "My Three Sons" with "The Flintstones" starting Memorial Day.  Disappointing.  Would have preferred replacing one of the two showings of "Dragnet" or "Leave It To Beaver".  Also unnecessary, as "The Flintstones" is shown on METV Sundays and on Boomerang nightly.  And "MTS" just got up to the Polly years, which I like.  

And GetTV recently reduced the daily two episodes of "Ironside" to one, replacing it with two "Sanford and Son" episodes.  Also unnecessary as "Sanford and Son" is also aired four times overnight.  Why air the same show over and over? 

I am not doing well.

Edited May 21 by Bazinga

[Raja]

On 5/20/2024 at 8:20 AM, Bazinga said:

Why air the same show over and over? 

They must figure that their audience does not record and time shift programing. For them the ratings game is the same as it was before the VCR

[shapeshifter]

On 5/20/2024 at 11:20 AM, Bazinga said:

Why air the same show over and over? 

2 hours ago, Raja said:

They must figure that their audience does not record and time shift programing. For them the ratings game is the same as it was before the VCR

There are lots of reasons to air shows over and over.

My mother spent her last 5 years in an assisted living facility in Florida, spending most of the time "watching" TV, often seasons of a show running repeatedly.
This university page states there are about 200k people potentially living in similar situations just in Florida, which suggests to me that most may be set up with the similar viewing experiences. I could go off on an angry morbid tangent here, but will not.
But these hypnotic TV repeats do serve the purpose of keeping the residents distracted, reducing calls for assistance at these expensive but understaffed facilities.
And this does not include other elderly and disabled shut-ins who spend most of their days in front of the TV, with home health care workers only there part time.

Sometimes I let the TV run "in the background," which is another situation where it doesn't much matter if there are repeats of a show. In fact, if it runs "in the background" enough times, I eventually "watch" the whole episode. But this is probably not the viewing experience anyone is imagining. Heh, that was how I "watched" Fight Club while prepping to teach students how to research databases in the earlier 2000s. I even worked a bit from the film into a couple of my presentations, but my student audience was too young to have seen the film, and didn't get my "joke," so I cut it.

When I was in the hospital for 10 days, I think I had Law & Order on most of the time. The only part I can recall is when I turned the TV off mid-episode whenever one of the surgeons came in to check on my progress. I was imagining they smiled so nicely because I happily turned off the show in the middle. I am just now realizing that was part of the opium-like dream.
Still, hospital rooms generally have cable TV services that include the channels with non-stop reruns, so that's a lot of eyeballs. 
I also still recall an oft-repeated commercial for an ice cream that was just 3 natural ingredients, which I still prefer. 
So that marketing is working.

And then there's dentists offices. I don't know if they still do this, but I recall having a TV screen adjusted for me to watch while the dentist did a lengthy procedure with my mouth open. I seem to recall some stations I could select had a particular show running, which meant the dental assistant could set it up and let it run. 

Edited May 21 by shapeshifter

[BooksRule]

I just happened to notice that my cable service now has MeTV on the lineup.  Yay! I had been planning to get an antenna so that I could watch it (and maybe another retro channel or two on my TV).  Other than 'Adam 12', 'Kolchak' and maybe 'Dragnet' the lineup isn't too exciting right now, but I know that it changes now and then.  Someone mentioned 'My three sons'.  Hopefully, they'll bring that one back soon.  I haven't seen those in many years.  I wish they would show 'Quincy, M.E.', 'Marcus Welby', and 'Medical Center'.  I love those old medical shows.

[Raja]

I know Quincy M.E was broadcast on one of these stations last year. But I have only seen 80s and up medical shows, except the Rampart parts of Emergency 

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, Raja said:

I know Quincy M.E was broadcast on one of these stations last year.

Quincy M.E. is broadcast on GET TV here in Rochester NY.
I've seen all the episodes since moving here in 2021, and have no desire to rewatch them, even in the background. 
I'm not a fan of medical dramas, Jack Klugman is too shouty, and the plots are too preachy.
But to each their own.🤷🏻‍♀️

[Tom Holmberg]

11 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I'm not a fan of medical dramas, Jack Klugman is too shouty, and the plots are too preachy.

It started out good, but later too many plots were about various social problems of the day.  The worst was the one about horrible, deadly problems of punk rock.

[chessiegal]

I'm a chemist. My problem with Quincy is the science is bullshit. You can't run a sample through a gas chromatograph and get the answer to everything. 

Plus, medical examiners don't do lab work.

Edited June 7 by chessiegal

[BooksRule]

23 hours ago, Tom Holmberg said:

It started out good, but later too many plots were about various social problems of the day.  The worst was the one about horrible, deadly problems of punk rock.

I'm looking forward to watching some of the episodes of 'Adam 12' and 'Dragnet' just to snark at some of those types of plotlines.  I seem to remember those shows had a lot of episodes that dealt with that demon weed and pesky hippies.

[Yeah No]

33 minutes ago, BooksRule said:

I'm looking forward to watching some of the episodes of 'Adam 12' and 'Dragnet' just to snark at some of those types of plotlines.  I seem to remember those shows had a lot of episodes that dealt with that demon weed and pesky hippies.

I have MeTV and FeTV and I get Adam 12 on both of them.  I'm really enjoying watching them again.  It's making me see things I never saw the first time and now look at differently after so many decades.  It's also reminding me of a lot of things I forgot about about how life was in those days.  My husband and I have a running game of who can name the car make and model first, LOL.  Despite the fact that he worked in the auto biz. and owned a few cars from this era I hold the prize.  I was crazy about cars as a kid!  I love it that there are websites with trivia on the show including photos and videos of what some of the street scenes look like today.

I remember having crushes on both of them as a teenager, but wow now looking at Kent McCord, he was incredibly handsome when he was young!  I never realized what a cynical guy Malloy was and what a "boy scout" Reed was.  Seeing the show again has given me a  new perspective.  I don't like that so many of women characters are portrayed as crazy but then the show tries to be modern and forward thinking by depicting policewomen that know their stuff and the like.

Quincy, ugh, we never watched that back then or now.  As soon as it comes on we change the channel, LOL.  No offense to Jack Klugman, we loved him as Oscar Madison.

[Raja]

3 minutes ago, Yeah No said:

I remember having crushes on both of them as a teenager, but wow now looking at Kent McCord, he was incredibly handsome when he was young!  I never realized what a cynical guy Malloy was and what a "boy scout" Reed was.  Seeing the show again has given me a  new perspective.  I don't like that so many of women characters are portrayed as crazy but then the show tries to be modern and forward thinking by depicting policewomen that know their stuff and the like

From its late 60s through mid 70s time frame some real social change was going on. Adam-12 had Officer Reed go from bright eyed rookie, who I think was spared Vietnam service to the jaded one. Vietnam service wouldn't really come up for characters until the 80s. While Officer Malloy had gone from the one who lost a partner killed to being rejuvenated by the bright eyed kid. Meanwhile female officers went from specialized duties with their service revolvers in their purse in their first, and last Dragnet seasons, to unrestricted patrol duties. So that by the end of the decade on TV but on a different city's department you could have the first detectives and not women as honey trap decoys on Barney Miller the a Cagney and Lacey got made the first homicide detective team

24 minutes ago, Yeah No said:

My husband and I have a running game of who can name the car make and model first, LOL.  Despite the fact that he worked in the auto biz. and owned a few cars from this era I hold the prize.  I was crazy about cars as a kid!  I love it that there are websites with trivia on the show including photos and videos of what some of the street scenes look like today

In the early days of first run syndication  where it hit the syndicator as 1 Adam-12 to distinguish it from the network running that year's new episodes if there wasn't a TV Guide description of the episode the year's LAPD cruiser would let me know about where they were in the story. Along with moving from the studio back lots to doing some filming on the streets of Los Angeles.

[Raja]

1 hour ago, Yeah No said:

I love it that there are websites with trivia on the show including photos and videos of what some of the street scenes look like today.

I just remembered that Sergeant Friday on Dragnet when he narrated often gave street names that ran parallel to each other as cross streets to place the locations.

[Yeah No]

15 minutes ago, Raja said:

In the early days of first run syndication  where it hit the syndicator as 1 Adam-12 to distinguish it from the network running that year's new episodes if there wasn't a TV Guide description of the episode the year's LAPD cruiser would let me know about where they were in the story. Along with moving from the studio back lots to doing some filming on the streets of Los Angeles.

Another game we have is guessing the year of the episode.  Again, I'm uncanny, but I am about everything from that era.  It's one of my superpowers, LOL.  I can do it based on women's clothing alone.  I once dated an episode based on the top a woman was wearing because I had one just like it that year!  It was a black Danskin leotard with white collar and cuffs.  I wore it in 1973.

[DXD526]

A favorite exchange between Malloy and a hippie he was arresting:

Hippie: "It's just a little grass, man!"
Malloy: "Too many know-it-alls like you get tired of pot and decide to try the hard stuff: Heroin, the mainline to nowhere! We're doing you a favor!"

Delivered in a gravely serious, Joe Friday-esque manner, of course!

[Raja]

For all of Jack Webb's anti stance I can't recall Mike Brady or The Mod Squad even being neutral on the weed issue. And with deep cover cops they would have been mandatory drug kingpin stories.

By the end of the 70s we had pimps as lead good guy characters on Starsky and Hutch, and Baretta. The main cast students/players on The White Shadow were dealing with teen sex, pregnancy STDs, alcoholism and being dosed with PCP and acid.

[Gharlane]

On 6/8/2024 at 8:41 AM, BooksRule said:

I'm looking forward to watching some of the episodes of 'Adam 12' and 'Dragnet' just to snark at some of those types of plotlines.  I seem to remember those shows had a lot of episodes that dealt with that demon weed and pesky hippies.

Blue boy!

 

On 6/8/2024 at 9:27 AM, Yeah No said:

My husband and I have a running game of who can name the car make and model first, LOL. 

If memory serves, there's a version of the IMDB for cars that appear in movies and TV shows.

 

On 6/8/2024 at 12:54 PM, Raja said:

For all of Jack Webb's anti stance I can't recall Mike Brady or The Mod Squad even being neutral on the weed issue.

I do not remember the topic coming up on The Brady Bunch.

[chessiegal]

My cable provider, Verizon Fios, has dropped fetv. Not that I watched it that much, but I wish they would start adding channels rather than dropping them. I used to get 2 MeTV channels, one out of Baltimore and one out of DC. A few years ago they dropped the DC channel. The Baltimore channel shows local news when Ed Sullivan airs. Boo! You can watch the Baltimore news on regular channels. 😠

[Tom Holmberg]

R.I.P., Bob Newhart

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/bob-newhart-dean-deadpan-delivery-194135531.html

[chessiegal]

fetv reappeared in my Verizon Fios line-up as inexplicitly as it disappeared. 🤷‍♀️

I tuned in to watch Johnny Carson on Antenna TV last night. They replaced what was scheduled with an episode with Bob Newhart. Fun! I hope we see tributes on other channels. Bob played the role of a previous M.E. Walter Magnus on NCIS in 2011 at age around 82.

[Yeah No]

56 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

fetv reappeared in my Verizon Fios line-up as inexplicitly as it disappeared. 🤷‍♀️

I tuned in to watch Johnny Carson on Antenna TV last night. They replaced what was scheduled with an episode with Bob Newhart. Fun! I hope we see tributes on other channels. Bob played the role of a previous M.E. Walter Magnus on NCIS in 2011 at age around 82.

I'm hoping those channels that play reruns of "Big Bang Theory" do a tribute to his recurring role as "Professor Proton" on that series. His character even died at one point about 10 years ago and came back repeatedly as a "ghost" in Sheldon Cooper's dreams. It's worth watching if you haven't seen it.

[tres bien]

Catchy is honoring Bob Newhart this weekend 

[KWalkerInc]

19 hours ago, Yeah No said:

I'm hoping those channels that play reruns of "Big Bang Theory" do a tribute to his recurring role as "Professor Proton" on that series. His character even died at one point about 10 years ago and came back repeatedly as a "ghost" in Sheldon Cooper's dreams. It's worth watching if you haven't seen it.

TBS is going to air a tribute on Sunday night.

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news/2024/07/19/tbs-tributes-big-bang-theory-star-bob-newhart-with-in-memory-of-professor-proton-marathon-sunday-july-21-668110/20240719tbs01/

[chessiegal]

MeTV's idea of doing a tribute to Bob Newhart is to show 2 episodes of Carol Burnett when he was a guest. Seems kind of lame.

[Yeah No]

On 7/20/2024 at 5:20 AM, KWalkerInc said:

TBS is going to air a tribute on Sunday night.

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news/2024/07/19/tbs-tributes-big-bang-theory-star-bob-newhart-with-in-memory-of-professor-proton-marathon-sunday-july-21-668110/20240719tbs01/

Thank you, I caught it!

On 7/20/2024 at 5:22 PM, chessiegal said:

MeTV's idea of doing a tribute to Bob Newhart is to show 2 episodes of Carol Burnett when he was a guest. Seems kind of lame.

Maybe they don't have the rights to show anything else?

I caught a mini "Bob Newhart Show" marathon the other night on Catchy Comedy.

[Gharlane]

I am not paying close attention, but catchy TV's weekend binges seem lame, judging by what I see while channel-surfing.

[shapeshifter]

11 minutes ago, Gharlane said:

catchy TV's weekend binges seem lame,

That was my impression too, but I might try to catch a few episodes of this heretofore unknown-to-me but award-winning 90s sitcom scheduled on Catchy Comedy Sunday, August 11, from 12am to 10:30am: https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_Bridge_(TV_series)

IDK. Most sitcoms are too shouty to put me to sleep.🙃

[chessiegal]

Well, crap! COZI has added Married with Children and replacing 2 hours of Monk on weekday afternoons. Blech! Could they have picked up a worse show? 

[Yeah No]

10 hours ago, chessiegal said:

Well, crap! COZI has added Married with Children and replacing 2 hours of Monk on weekday afternoons. Blech! Could they have picked up a worse show? 

Ugh, like that hasn't already been played to death on many other channels....When I tell my husband stuff like this he says, "It was probably cheap to get".

[chessiegal]

Why is COZI replacing 2 hours of Monk with Married with Children? How about replacing the repugnant Roseanne or the silly The Nanny? They are of a similar genre. I guess I'm the only one watching Monk. I contacted COZI and complained. I didn't even get a computer-generated we got your message.

[shapeshifter]

18 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

or the silly The Nanny?

Am I the only one who f'loves The Nanny?

[Palimelon]

I'd watch Roseanne over any of those other 3 shows.

Edited July 31 by Palimelon

[Tom Holmberg]

Cable Channel Binge TV is now showing like 13 hours of "Ozzie and Harriet" (the original show about nothing) on Thursdays.  They started with season one yesterday.

[chessiegal]

Hmmm.... Wonder if I wasn't the only one complaining about COZI replacing 2 hours of Monk on weekday afternoons with Married with Children. They've moved Monk to noon ET from 3 pm ET with 4 hours instead of 3. 🤷‍♀️ 

[opus]

2 hours ago, chessiegal said:

Hmmm.... Wonder if I wasn't the only one complaining about COZI replacing 2 hours of Monk on weekday afternoons with Married with Children. They've moved Monk to noon ET from 3 pm ET with 4 hours instead of 3. 🤷‍♀️ 

A network listen to its viewers? Nah.

[chessiegal]

3 hours ago, opus said:

A network listen to its viewers? Nah.

Something happened. Last Friday my on-screen guide showed one episode of Monk at 3 pm ET on Monday (today) followed with Married with Children. This morning when I was scrolling through the channel guide, COZI showed Monk at noon ET until 4 pm ET. 

[Yeah No]

Now FeTV went and replaced Adam-12 with Dragnet at 6:00 and 6:30 p.m. on weekdays. Meanwhile they've left Adam-12 on in the a.m. and late at night at 11:00 and 11:30 p.m. What sense does that make?  Who cares about freaking Dragnet anyway? The decisions these networks make are baffling and in my opinion stupid. I wrote to complain but I don't expect to get anywhere with it.

[chessiegal]

I wrote to fetv once to complain. I got a response - didn't change anything but I knew I was heard. 

[Raja]

7 hours ago, Yeah No said:

Now FeTV went and replaced Adam-12 with Dragnet at 6:00 and 6:30 p.m. on weekdays. Meanwhile they've left Adam-12 on in the a.m. and late at night at 11:00 and 11:30 p.m. What sense does that make?  Who cares about freaking Dragnet anyway? The decisions these networks make are baffling and in my opinion stupid. I wrote to complain but I don't expect to get anywhere with it.

Well MeTV is the opposite with Adam-12 in the early evenings and Dragnet following Highway Patrol at the break of dawn. I figure that  all the retro networks switch up every now and then with younger shows being added to the lineup every buying season  while older shows get picked up by another network that picks up even older TV or specialized focus like the western networks or START focusing on women lead cop shows..

As for the color Dragnet or Dragnet 1967, if that is what FeTV is airing, it does tie directly into Adam-12. Even if Jack Webb reused older scripts he caught a reorganizing LAPD after the Watts Riots and was doing his part to rehabilitate their public image.  It is sort of like after the Rodney King Riots the LAPD wasn't featured as a TV setting and the few Los Angeles police  based shows of the early 90s featured LA Sheriff's Deputies. But that was truly an era of the NYPD and Baltimore.

[Yeah No]

21 minutes ago, Raja said:

Well MeTV is the opposite with Adam-12 in the early evenings and Dragnet following Highway Patrol at the break of dawn. I figure that  all the retro networks switch up every now and then with younger shows being added to the lineup every buying season  while older shows get picked up by another network that picks up even older TV or specialized focus like the western networks or START focusing on women lead cop shows..

I watch MeTV as well but they air Adam-12 when I'm usually making dinner and even if not it's just too early for me to want to watch TV at 5:00 p.m. I know I can record it but it's just not as convenient. Plus I could pick and choose which channel had episodes I wanted to watch. I don't want to watch this show late at night. At least FeTV left it on at 6:00 p.m. on weekends, which is good, because MeTV doesn't show it on weekends.

My husband and I are "later Boomers" or "Generation Jonesers" who are part of the "Brady Bunch/Partridge Family" generation so a lot of the older shows like Perry Mason are not our cup of tea. I know the relationship between Dragnet and Adam-12 but Dragnet never held any interest for me or my husband. It was to us an earlier concept that didn't resonate as much as Adam-12. Although there are later shows we didn't love either like "Quincy" and "Love Boat". Meanwhile we loved shows like "Man from UNCLE", "Mission Impossible" and many '60s sitcoms like "Bewitched", "Beverly Hillbillies" and on and on. But even so many of them we just don't feel like watching anymore. They were fun as kids but I have no desire to revisit some of them.

[Raja]

I just remember being shocked when Baywatch turned up on one of these networks. I still remember the most popular show in the world promos. Some of the later lifeguards are still in their 40s

[EtheltoTillie]

On 8/20/2024 at 1:19 AM, Yeah No said:

Now FeTV went and replaced Adam-12 with Dragnet at 6:00 and 6:30 p.m. on weekdays. Meanwhile they've left Adam-12 on in the a.m. and late at night at 11:00 and 11:30 p.m. What sense does that make?  Who cares about freaking Dragnet anyway? The decisions these networks make are baffling and in my opinion stupid. I wrote to complain but I don't expect to get anywhere with it.

I like Dragnet!  I think it's a hoot.  I sometimes watch it at 6 AM.  They always have murders of old men who live in boardinghouses.  Such a blast from the past.  Or they inveigh against hippie drug users. 

[Yeah No]

2 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

I like Dragnet!  I think it's a hoot.  I sometimes watch it at 6 AM.  They always have murders of old men who live in boardinghouses.  Such a blast from the past.  Or they inveigh against hippie drug users. 

Did you watch it when you were young? Usually if I didn't watch a show years ago I won't have any interest in it now either. There are probably some exceptions, though.

[Raja]

2 hours ago, Yeah No said:

Did you watch it when you were young? Usually if I didn't watch a show years ago I won't have any interest in it now either. There are probably some exceptions, though.

When I was young I caught the some of later years of Adam-12 live but the house was more into Emergency. But the colorized Dragnet and 1 Adam-12 was in constant stripped syndication along with Emergency One. So I always linked  the 3 shows. Even when Firefighter Gage was running around trying to find out what happened in an Adam-12 episode back when he would have needed to wait for a summer rerun and hopefully caught it to finish the story

[EtheltoTillie]

4 hours ago, Yeah No said:

Did you watch it when you were young? Usually if I didn't watch a show years ago I won't have any interest in it now either. There are probably some exceptions, though.

Yes I saw it in first run. 

[chessiegal]

Looks like MeTV is adding Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley to their Sunday line-up at 11 am and 11:30 am ET respectively. They are airing the pilot episodes of both on September 1.

[Tom Holmberg]

4 hours ago, chessiegal said:

Looks like MeTV is adding Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley to their Sunday line-up at 11 am and 11:30 am ET respectively. They are airing the pilot episodes of both on September 1.

Not really a fan of either.