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

[Actionmage]

No. I just checked; Star Trek's been added to the afternoon line-up (4PM/3Central), in addition to their Sci-Fi Saturday block. I guess it can fit into their Rescue Me block, even though I thought The Adventures of Superman fit okay.

[Maverick]

 Star Trek being daily might have something to do with Nimoy, but I assume it's more likely that Superman didn't perform as well in the slot.   It's odd they changed that and dropped Mary Tyler Moore in the mornings.  It's an odd time for them to make schedule changes, and such minor ones at that.

[ennui]

Star Trek seems like a bridge show between The Rifleman and Emergency!. Not really part of either bloc.

I don't care, I'm happy to see it.

 

Umm, MeTV just ran a commercial for Superman, and reminded us to tune in daily at 4 p.m.  Well, it's 4, and it's Star Trek. So, maybe this is the Nimoy effect.

Edited March 9, 2015 by ennui

[smiley13]

Ugh, ME-TV in the afternoons is not good.  And Star Trek makes it worse.

[shapeshifter]

The Untouchables is "binge"ing on Decades right now.

It would never pass the Bechdel Test, but ya gotta love the old timey turns of phrase, speech patterns, and cadence.

"...the mole's heart was as dead as if a gangster's shot had gone clean through it" (or something like that).

Edited March 12, 2015 by shapeshifter

[Milz]

I wish I had Decades: we have the Justice station which shows a bunch of crime/forensic stuff. :(

[shapeshifter]

A young Robert Duvall in on the Untouchables right now in a 1963 episode: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0737745/?ref_=fn_ep_tt_1

He was either playing the cornet really well or acting like he was.

Edited March 15, 2015 by shapeshifter

[ennui]

Has GAC completely given up on country music? Whenever I check, it's something about RVs or flea markets and yard sales.

[Actionmage]

For those potentially interested-- and have access-- the next binges for Decades are The Rogues, Naked City, Daniel Boone and The Saint.

 

The Rogues- starts tomorrow at 8 AM. Naked City runs 24 hours later (St. Patrick's Day) until the 23rd. Daniel Boone goes from the 23rd ( at 5AM!) until the 30th. The Saint takes us into April and Peter Gunn!

 

The Rogues, according to IMDB sounds as if it was the prototype for the Hustle and Leverage template, i.e. "Bad Guys" taking on Worse Guys for Little Guys. With David Niven and Charles Boyer s regulars, maybe the premise was a bit ahead of its time ( 1964-5)?

[Milz]

For those potentially interested-- and have access-- the next binges for Decades are The Rogues, Naked City, Daniel Boone and The Saint.

 

The Rogues- starts tomorrow at 8 AM. Naked City runs 24 hours later (St. Patrick's Day) until the 23rd. Daniel Boone goes from the 23rd ( at 5AM!) until the 30th. The Saint takes us into April and Peter Gunn!

 

The Rogues, according to IMDB sounds as if it was the prototype for the Hustle and Leverage template, i.e. "Bad Guys" taking on Worse Guys for Little Guys. With David Niven and Charles Boyer s regulars, maybe the premise was a bit ahead of its time ( 1964-5)?

 

ME showed The Rogues either on saturday or sunday mornings. From what little I watched of them, it did seem like the prototype for Hustle.

 

I miss that ME stopped showing The Naked City. I liked watching that on those mornings Mr. Milz has to get to work extra early.

 

Alas, my CBs affiliate chose to use a digital channel for the Justice channel: 24 hours of true crime, true CSI and Cops-like programs.  (Not my cup of tea or coffee or soda or water or seltzer or any kind of beverage for that matter.)

[Actionmage]

MeTV still plays Naked City on late Sunday/early Monday AMs. This morning I saw the end of a Naked City before Route 66 (1 AM and 2AM respectively.)  I stay up to watch Peter Gunn and Mr. Lucky sometimes. *g* ( Young Ross Martin? Nice to watch. The whole line up was an hour earlier at some point last year and it's tiresome to stay up to 3AM every weekend. So I don't.) 

 

Also, if you have access to Retro TV they also show Naked City on the weekends.

[Milz]

MeTV still plays Naked City on late Sunday/early Monday AMs. This morning I saw the end of a Naked City before Route 66 (1 AM and 2AM respectively.)  I stay up to watch Peter Gunn and Mr. Lucky sometimes. *g* ( Young Ross Martin? Nice to watch. The whole line up was an hour earlier at some point last year and it's tiresome to stay up to 3AM every weekend. So I don't.) 

 

Also, if you have access to Retro TV they also show Naked City on the weekends.

 

I've watched a few episodes of Mr. Lucky: I like it. Peter Gunn, I never got into  And we don't have Retro TV here-----our ABC affiliate got rid of it when it began airing primarily Canadian imports and replaced Retro with Me.

[smiley13]

My local affiliate has dropped Antenna TV and has replaced it with some terrible network called Grit.  I am very disappointed about this.  There are so few current shows that are decent and I love "old" shows.

[shapeshifter]

The Naked City seems to have the most consistently high quality scripts and acting of the Decades "Binge" series so far. It continues through Sunday night.

Then Daniel Boone, which I will pass on.

[roseha]

Kind of relevant (?) question, does anyone remember when some tv shows started playing in widescreen?  I caught the beginning of Quincy on METV the other day, and it looked genuinely widescreen, not stretched or distorted.  Wasn't that show late 70s early 80s?  I seem to remember the Law and Order shows not being widescreen for awhile (unless it was my old tube tv at the time making it look that way)?  Interesting.

[ennui]

Widescreen TVs arrived in the late 2000s. I think that any show prior to that, that fills a widescreen tv, has been stretched. I think MeTV stretches shows to fit the modern television, because even the old b&w shows are wide. COZI doesn't stretch their shows, if you need a comparison.

Maybe there's a technology comparable to film, where it's either letterbox or pan-and-scan.

 

I remember seeing Gone With the Wind at a retrospective, and it was square-ish. We assume that movies were all Cinemascope and Panavision, etc., but there was a period where films had a smaller aspect ratio, as well. Widescreen movies came back into vogue to combat television.

[Maverick]

 MeTV is running a bracket tournament to see which of their shows is the most memorable.  They're currently in Round 4, which is Star Trek vs. Columbo, Twilight Zone vs. Perry Mason, MASH vs. Happy Days and Andy Griffith vs. Rockford files.  I'm hoping for TAGS will be ok with anything but MASH and think Perry Mason will win because apparently people love the shit out of that show.

 

 I was surprised I Love Lucy was taken out (beating out Night Gallery and Batman before being taken down by Star Trek--et tu, Desilu?

 

 They had Wild Wild West on the list and although it didn't get far (beating Route 66 before losing to Columbo) I'm hoping it means Tight Pants will be back on TV soon.

[shapeshifter]

...They had Wild Wild West on the list and although it didn't get far (beating Route 66...

Hrmph. Route 66 should've/could've been a contender--IMO.

[ennui]

I love Perry Mason, but I'm still a little surprised it beat Bonanza.

[Actionmage]

Apparently, Decades can't count: Daniel Boone is still going! I guess the change will happen today ( 3/30). Still, I haven't seen/heard the "Our next series will be...[X]", like they did every break during Honey West and shows that were less than three days.  

[auntjess]

A lot shows that I loved back then, don't hold much interest any more.
As for Lucy and Bonanza and MASH, haven't they always been on somewhere?
The channel I get doesn't have Wild Wild West.
 

[Collinwood]

MeTV programming alert:  The Man from U.N.C.L.E. just started Season 2 last night and is now in color. 

[shapeshifter]

Apparently, Decades can't count: Daniel Boone is still going! I guess the change will happen today ( 3/30). Still, I haven't seen/heard the "Our next series will be...[X]", like they did every break during Honey West and shows that were less than three days.

Looks like it's The Saint, followed by Peter Gunn, and then Mission Impossible.

http://tvschedule.zap2it.com/tvlistings/ZCSGrid.do?stnNum=91649&channel=2.2&aid=tvschedule

http://decades.com/file/DECADES_BINGE_Calendar.pdf

[ennui]

The MeTV bracket is down to four ... none of which are my favorites.

[shapeshifter]

Really enjoying Peter Gunn on Decades. A gentleman detective with lots of live jazz. Can we get a reboot?

[ennui]

I've got Decades now ... they're doing a "countdown to Decades" with a Man From U.N.C.L.E. marathon. Is that their angle, to show binge watch marathons?

[opus]

As I was flipping through stuff post- The Big Game, Decades popped up. It is currently showing "binges" of entire series, until their big launch May 25th!

 

It has a countdown clock and a schedule of what shows are being shown through the big launch. (link:http://www.decades.com/) If you click on the big orange "binge", the schedule will open.

 

It's a joint do by CBS Television Stations, a subsidiary of CBS Corporation, and Weigel Broadcasting, the folks behind MeTV and Movies!.

 

What I think I will like is that there is going to be a focus on history, as well as entertainment. I one of the press releases I saw, they mentioned as an example the Happy Days' Jump The Shark episode: there will be talk about (I guessing) the phrase and how it's become a cultural thing, then show the episode. Bill Curtis is going to host the/one of (?) the shows talking about the theme/history. (I've seen two titles for the historical info. One was Through The Decades. The other was Decades Retrospectical. It could be a name change as the Retrospectical was in the 2014 release and on the current schedule is Through The Decades.)

 

They also will show theatrical and made-for-TV movies, so the latter interests me more than the former. Old school TV movies seem to be shoved to the back of the shelf since cable has started with more reality and original programming. (Unless Lifetime and Hallmark are divvying up the good stuff. *g*)  Also, the channel has access to Entertainment Tonight's archives! So much fun to be had there, as well as John Tesh!

 

I know there's a lot of programming overlap with MeTV and probably Cozi, but I hope this has legs.

For ennui

Edited April 18, 2015 by GaryE

[ennui]

But will it still be binge-watching after the May 25th?

 

"Every day DECADES will allow viewers to experience a different year, trend, event or day through the unique lens of DECADES." Seems redundant to experience a day every day.

[Actionmage]

Well, May 26th, 1955 is going to have a different feel from the same day in 1969 or 1972 or 1980. So I think that the channel is going to show episodes aired from that date in history, along with news and documentaries about historic things that happened on that date. The channel is CBS owned, so they have CBS News archives to mine for as-it-happened events and news.

 

Also, as far as marathons, there might be various episodes having bands from the British Invasion popping up, to point out how The Beatles impacted more than just music.  Or on, say, Ian Flemming's birthday/ the date James Bond was first published,  there could be a marathon of spy-themed episodes or episodes of various spy series to celebrate James Bond and his impact. 

 

Then again, I love history and am so ready to see what is coming, not just the scripted shows but the documentaries and non-fiction.

[ennui]

The channel is CBS owned, so they have CBS News archives to mine for as-it-happened events and news.

That part could be interesting.

[Collinwood]

MeTV programming alert.  Starting on May 2nd, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea will start the last four episodes of season 3.  If Voyage stays on the MeTV schedule we will then be treated to season 4 which was truly horrific.  In addition to a variety of aliens, Voyage's final season featured time travelers, lobster men, mad scientists and even a leprechaun.  The budget had been cut and the show was barely renewed after season 3.  Voyage fell a very long way down after it's memorable season 1.  At the end, Voyage gave us some of the most incoherent sci-fi television ever made.

[Milz]

MeTV is editing Gilligan's Island. I saw the radioactive vegetable seeds and the Hamlet episodes this saturday morning. Both had scenes cut. In the radioactive vegetable seeds, the cut scene is where Mary Ann tells them some kind of saying like the plants need one part sunshine, two parts water and three parts love. The Professors reads aloud from a book and the final sentence repeats Mary Ann's saying. In the Hamlet episode the cut scene was Ginger's "Bread??!! You wanna bread??! I'll give-a you-a bread!", BUT they kept her imitation of Marilyn Monroe. Furthermore to keep the continuity, Harold Hecuba doesn't mention the "bread!" dialog when he's mocking Ginger's acting range.

[shapeshifter]

Last week on Decades there was a Man From U.N.C.L.E. episode that was supposed to take place in Greece, but during the car chase scenes they were driving on the right side of the road.

Now they're airing The Millionaire, which is actually kind of good. It is formulaic, but in a good way, IMO.

[Collinwood]

AFAIK all the shows on MeTV and the other retro networks are the syndicated versions which are edited to allow for more commercials.  I know the Perry Mason episodes are the syndicated versions.

 

ETA:  Perry Mason should always be in bold letters.  One of my favorite shows ever.

Edited April 28, 2015 by Collinwood

[roseha]

I love watching Perry Mason too, especially the noirish-retro early ones!  But I think they are editing the episodes more lately. Unless I am remembering from the DVDs, which is possible.  I remember one episode where Perry deduces the culprit from a book he sees in the man's room, but the actual scene was cut when I last saw it.

[Collinwood]

Perry Mason on MeTV is good television to clean your living room to, but that's about it.  The prints are often terrible, especially the early ones, and they lack several minutes of each episode, some of them crucial to the story.  The DVDs are well worth the money and the early seasons (which I enjoy the most) are much more affordable now.  Each DVD set contains half a season and when they were first released each set was $39.95.  I have seen the first three seasons for as low as $14.95.  The prints used for the DVDs are gorgeous and uncut.

[Milz]

AFAIK all the shows on MeTV and the other retro networks are the syndicated versions which are edited to allow for more commercials.  I know the Perry Mason episodes are the syndicated versions.

 

ETA:  Perry Mason should always be in bold letters.  One of my favorite shows ever.

 

When Me aired Gilligan in the evenings, the shows weren't edited. Although, the sound on the Honeybee's episode was sped up a hair.

[Collinwood]

Milz, I had no idea that any shows on MeTV were unedited.  Do you know of any other shows that are shown unedited?

[GHScorpiosRule]

Perry Mason on MeTV is good television to clean your living room to, but that's about it.  The prints are often terrible, especially the early ones, and they lack several minutes of each episode, some of them crucial to the story.  The DVDs are well worth the money and the early seasons (which I enjoy the most) are much more affordable now.  Each DVD set contains half a season and when they were first released each set was $39.95.  I have seen the first three seasons for as low as $14.95.  The prints used for the DVDs are gorgeous and uncut.

 

I've got up to the 7th season on DVD, plus the anniversary dvd that has the Perry Mason Returns movie (which never fails to make me sob when Della says "Oh Perry" and he holds her, after telling her he couldn't think of anyone better, other than himself who could do the job of defending her). Also has the auditions...that Burr tried for Hamilton, as did Hopper.

 

I prefer the edited versions on MeTV as opposed to Hallmark, which just decimates the episodes. Same for the I Love Lucy episodes. I've found that MeTV does the least amount of editing.

[Milz]

Milz, I had no idea that any shows on MeTV were unedited.  Do you know of any other shows that are shown unedited?

 

When Gilligan came to Me, it was unedited. Again, the only thing I caught was the slightly sped up Honeybee's song during the evening run of the show. But the two Gilligan episodes I saw last saturday were definitely edited. The Hamlet edits were more apparent than the radioactive seeds edits. I'm usually not up that early on saturday mornings so I don't know how long this has gone on.

 

As far as I can tell, Andy Griffith isn't edited, neither is Star Trek.

[opus]

I've come across Gilligan's Island around noon on TVLAND, stretched into a 40 min. time slot. Those have to be unedited, right?

[shapeshifter]

I've come across Gilligan's Island around noon on TVLAND, stretched into a 40 min. time slot. Those have to be unedited, right?

I thought shows from that era ran at least 42 minutes.

ETA: I see now that Gilligan's Island was 30 minutes.

Decades is going to rerun Route 66 again starting Saturday, May 9, 8 p.m. CDT, through Wednesday, May 13, 4 p.m.

I like to think they are doing this because I posted here how great it was when they aired it a month or two ago. Heh. Just a little delusion of grandeur on my part.

It will be followed by a marathon of Dark Shadows.

Edited May 4, 2015 by shapeshifter

[Actionmage]

And Twilight Zone after that!  I am hoping the Robert Redford episode, with him as the wounded policeman, shows up.  It was a very cool, though slightly creepy, installment.

 

I'm just glad that the channel is close to actually kicking everything off. The ads with Bill Kurtis are welcome, but hopefully more informative ads about programming are coming soon.  20 days to go!

[Maverick]

 Last night I watched a show guest starring Melanie Griffith, George "Sulu" Takei and 80s wrestler Captain Lou Albano.  Either:

 

 a) I was having a fever dream after some bad sushi

 b) My cable provider was accidentally broadcasting MeTV, COZI and ESPN Classic on the same channel

 c) I was watching a rerun of Miami Vice

 

 I'm not sure which it was.

[Sandman87]

Google thinks it was the Miami Vice episode "By Hooker By Crook." Between the punny name and that lineup, I almost wish I had seen it.

[WendyCR72]

Google thinks it was the Miami Vice episode "By Hooker By Crook." Between the punny name and that lineup, I almost wish I had seen it.

 

Hey, Law & Order (the original) had an episode with the same name! Some must love that pun.  :-)

[GHScorpiosRule]

Hey, Law & Order (the original) had an episode with the same name! Some must love that pun. :-)

Not surprised, since that episode was in season three and was the season Dick Wolf became one of the producers on Miami Vice.

[shapeshifter]

Speaking of Miami Vice, I just saw on COZI Season 3, Episode 23, "Everybody's in Show Biz" (1 May 1987). Even though IMDB only rates it at 7.1, I thought it was as good as any episode of Season 1 (2014) True Detective, which all rated above 9.

Edited May 10, 2015 by shapeshifter

[ennui]

Decades is going to rerun Route 66 again starting Saturday, May 9, 8 p.m. CDT, through Wednesday, May 13, 4 p.m.

I like to think they are doing this because I posted here how great it was when they aired it a month or two ago. Heh. Just a little delusion of grandeur on my part.

It will be followed by a marathon of Dark Shadows.

I meant to watch Route 66. I did watch most of the first episode last night, and then got distracted.

I'd like to see Dark Shadows. I wasn't allowed to watch it as a child (too scary, apparently).

[Collinwood]

http://insp.com/

 

Just wanted to share this link with INSP TV which a network available on DirectTV, cable, and Verizon because it has so many older shows such as Dr. Quinn, Jag, and High Chaparral.  INSP lists The Virginian as their network exclusive.

 

 

Also The Esquire network is showing Simon and Simon and MacGyver if anyone is interested.