Classic TV Thread

[Suicane75]

Watching the Family Ties where Alex's friend dies in a car crash and he starts appearing to him as a ghost. Looks like a tear jerker. I sort of remember it, but not as much as the Uncle Ned episode.

[NobodyHere]

MASH was and still is great.

It's much better when you can watch it w/o the laugh tracks.

[tarcone]

I really liked Family Ties.

Andy Griffith is my all time favorite. I could probably tell you about every episode.

[Suicane75]

Mash is one of those shows where I watched it when I was young, but was too young to understand the mix of gravity and comedy, and as such has never quite resonated with me, though I know it's a fabulous show. I don't think I ever watched an episode of Andy Griffith outside of having it on before Wrestling on Saturday Nights.

[mckerney]

I am still frequently rewatching episodes of NewsRadio.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Y'know what I think holds up surprisingly well?

The Rockford Files.

Cool is cool, and that never goes out of style.

[tarcone]

NewsRadio was a great show.

And we cant forget about Cheers. We used to watch that on Thursday nights before we hit the bars in college.

Rockford Files was cool. And Quincy was another cool show.

[Suicane75]

Originally Posted by mckerney

I am still frequently rewatching episodes of NewsRadio.

In my top 3 of all time. Reckon I've seen each episode close to 100 times. That sounds so sad when typed.

[EagleFan]

M*A*S*H

Cheers

Three's Company

Family Ties

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by tarcone

NewsRadio was a great show.

[cuervo72]

Originally Posted by Suicane75

Mash is one of those shows where I watched it when I was young, but was too young to understand the mix of gravity and comedy, and as such has never quite resonated with me, though I know it's a fabulous show. I don't think I ever watched an episode of Andy Griffith outside of having it on before Wrestling on Saturday Nights.

I feel the same about MASH. Part of it is the theme song (depressing song REALLY gets you ready to laugh!), part is the laugh track. It's funny, but it never really worked for me. Of course, I haven't really given it a shot in 20 years.

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Y'know what I think holds up surprisingly well?

The Rockford Files.

Cool is cool, and that never goes out of style.

I can see this. I mean, James Garner. But in general I'd think 70s/80s cop and detective shows would still be pretty entertaining.

[sabotai]

Inspiration for the "But I don't want to be a pirate" episode?

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Suicane75

In my top 3 of all time. Reckon I've seen each episode close to 100 times. That sounds so sad when typed.

Jimmy James on advertising is another one of my favorite scenes.



This show had such an amazing cast.

[Suicane75]

I know it's not classic, but for anyone who's a fan of Norm MacDonald and has never seen A Minute With Stan Hooper, you really owe it to yourselves to track down the 1st (and only) season. It's available on youtube and in other places, but I've only ever seen really low quality vhs rips. Still though, it's a perfect blend of classic sitcom with just the right amount of bizarre Normness.

[Suicane75]

Originally Posted by mckerney

Jimmy James on advertising is another one of my favorite scenes.



This show had such an amazing cast.

It really deserved to have a longer and more pronounced run than it did. Even the loss of Hartman, while tragic, didn't really diminish what they were able to do and maybe even inspired them to grow more than they would have otherwise. Flowers For Matthew is probably in my top 3 from the series and I love the Patrick Warburton arc. I mean, a wino Casanova, how can you not love that?

[sabotai]

♫When Johnny comes marching home again, he's gay, he's gay!♫

[Suicane75]

That entire episode is such a thing of beauty. Hartman punching Daves replacement never fails to get a pop out of me no matter how times I see it. Then the final scene where Andy Dick legit pisses off Gilmore lady by slapping her in the tit during his pratfall. Just greatness all around.

[stevew]

I was just thinking about the episode of Family Ties where Alex gets behind the liberal ERA cause he's into a liberal chick. Wasn't there one with "hot stock tips" too?

[thesloppy]

The Rockford files is fucking great, and timeless. Also: WAZZUP Y'ALL? BILL MACNEIL ROCKING THE MIC AGAIN, COLD REPRESENTING ROCKET FUEL MALT LIQUOR! IT'S GOT THE MAD FLAVOR THAT TAKES ANY SITUATION TO THE NEXT LEVEL! SO WHEN THE PARTY STARTS BOUNCIN' AND THE LADIES START BUMPIN', TIGHTEN UP YOUR FLOW WITH ROCKET FUEL! ROCKET FUEL MALT LIQUOR! DAMN!! What?

[CrimsonFox]

[CrimsonFox]

The Big Day is my favorite episode of that series but there were so many great ones.

[thesloppy]

GET ON THE ROCKET AND SEE THE STARS!!

[NobodyHere]

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

That is such a classic.

[EagleFan]

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

WAZZUP Y'ALL? BILL MACNEIL ROCKING THE MIC AGAIN, COLD REPRESENTING ROCKET FUEL MALT LIQUOR! IT'S GOT THE MAD FLAVOR THAT TAKES ANY SITUATION TO THE NEXT LEVEL! SO WHEN THE PARTY STARTS BOUNCIN' AND THE LADIES START BUMPIN', TIGHTEN UP YOUR FLOW WITH ROCKET FUEL! ROCKET FUEL MALT LIQUOR! DAMN!! What?

I'm Bill McNeil, on crack, I like boys.

[sabotai]

Watching CNN's The Seventies and they are talking about TV and they mention Maude was a spin off of All In The Family, so I look it up on Wikipedia.

All In The Family has to be, when you add up all of the spin offs and spin offs of spin offs, the biggest TV show universe in history. It spun off Maude which spun off Good Times. It spun off The Jeffersons which spun off Checking In. It spun off Archie Bunker's Place which itself spun off Gloria. There was also 704 Hauser, spun off years after.

Some of the spins off failed, but some were also some of the biggest shows in TV history.

All In The Family: 9 season, 210 episodes
Maude: 6 season, 141 episodes
Good Times: 6 seasons, 133 episodes
The Jeffersons: 11 season, 253 episodes
Checking In: 1 season, 4 episodes
Archie Bunker's Place: 4 season, 97 episodes
Gloria: 1 season, 21 episodes
704 Hauser: 1 season, 6 episodes

39 seasons, 865 episodes of TV.

[rowech]

Originally Posted by sabotai

Watching CNN's The Seventies and they are talking about TV and they mention Maude was a spin off of All In The Family, so I look it up on Wikipedia.

All In The Family has to be, when you add up all of the spin offs and spin offs of spin offs, the biggest TV show universe in history. It spun off Maude which spun off Good Times. It spun off The Jeffersons which spun off Checking In. It spun off Archie Bunker's Place which itself spun off Gloria. There was also 704 Hauser, spun off years after.

Some of the spins off failed, but some were also some of the biggest shows in TV history.

All In The Family: 9 season, 210 episodes
Maude: 6 season, 141 episodes
Good Times: 6 seasons, 133 episodes
The Jeffersons: 11 season, 253 episodes
Checking In: 1 season, 4 episodes
Archie Bunker's Place: 4 season, 97 episodes
Gloria: 1 season, 21 episodes
704 Hauser: 1 season, 6 episodes

39 seasons, 865 episodes of TV.

Happy Days would be close. Laverne and Shirley, Mork and Mindy, Joanie Loves Chachi. Then there was an animated series I believe.

[tarcone]

I was at Wal-mart today. They have a bunch of old shows on DVD.

I checked them out to see what we forgot.

Hill Street Blues was one that grabbed my attention.

[Solecismic]

Originally Posted by rowech

Happy Days would be close. Laverne and Shirley, Mork and Mindy, Joanie Loves Chachi. Then there was an animated series I believe.

Probably in terms of sheer number of shows, it's Love, American Style, where the Cunninghams were first shown (they replaced some of the actors and added Henry Winkler later). Several animated series of that time were first seen on Love, American Style and Happy Days spawned at least a couple. But many of those shows were relatively short-lived.

It's a tough problem. In terms of volume of hours produced, Law and Order might stand out. Maybe CSI and its incarnations. Cheers spawned Frasier, and was part of the Wings world. The Danny Thomas Show was where The Andy Griffith Show and the Joey Bishop Show started, and Griffith led to other shows. I think that would be the biggest source of episodes in terms of pure numbers. As mentioned, All in the Family led to a bunch of shows.

[Suicane75]

I think this may have been posted here before, but it's fascinating none the less.

Welcome to Slushfactory.com: A Pop Culture Extravaganza

There are other links if you look up The Tommy Westphall theory. Essentially it says that over 400 TV show Universes are simply the fabrication of the Autistic kid featured on the final episode of St. Elsewhere.

[thesloppy]

Love! LOVE! LoOOOOoove, American Style!

Even when I was 5 years old I knew that show was some cornball shit.

[thesloppy]

A couple years ago I watched every single episode of T.J. Hooker. That show is still incredibly entertaining...though of course not intentionally. Every bad TV trope you can think of was abused and beaten to death by those folks.

[Suicane75]

I wonder how the Fall Guy holds up. Without relying on Heather Thomas, Heather Locklear or Markie Post.

[cuervo72]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

A couple years ago I watched every single episode of T.J. Hooker. That show is still incredibly entertaining...though of course not intentionally. Every bad TV trope you can think of was abused and beaten to death by those folks.

Heh, I specifically thought of that one when writing my response to Jon. "I think a lot of those would hold up. Well...maybe not TJ Hooker."

[oykib]

Originally Posted by rowech

Happy Days would be close. Laverne and Shirley, Mork and Mindy, Joanie Loves Chachi. Then there was an animated series I believe.

There were three animated series. Happy Days, Mork & Mindy and Laverne and Shirley had animated versions.

M*A*S*H and Trapper John M.D. had over four hundred episodes between them as well. Mary Tyler Moore, Lou Grant and Rhoda are up around 400 as well. Also, where do we put the shared Hanna-Barbera universe? Scooby Doo, Yogi Bear, Josie and the Pussycats, etc. appeared in a lot of stuff together (although most weren't direct spin-offs).

[Julio Riddols]

I'm also a big News Radio fan.. But my favorite 90's sitcom besides Seinfeld has to be 3rd Rock From the Sun. John Lithgow was so damn good and it might have been the only sitcom I ever saw that never tried to be anything but funny. They also did a really cool dream episode at the end of season 2 that was just impressively weird and different from anything else on TV.

One of my favorite scenes, a great example of the subversion typical of the show:

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

Heh, I specifically thought of that one when writing my response to Jon. "I think a lot of those would hold up. Well...maybe not TJ Hooker."

It really is a remarkably horrible television show. I couldn't get enough.

[thesloppy]

Perhaps my absolute favorite show of all time is the classic Hawaii Five-O, which I think is kind of criminally overlooked as an actual TV show, despite being an enduring cultural flagstone. The old ones look great on DVD, thanks to being filmed on 35mm movie film, the setting is gorgeous, and everybody looks crazy because it's the '60s & '70s, but also in Hawaii...it's just great to look at. The cast is great, lots of classic guest stars and future stars in tiny roles, Jack Lord is THEE most self-righteous twat in the best of ways, and it was one of the most inter-racial shows of the time, thanks to the pacific islands setting. It was also kind of like the first law & order, with lots of shock plots pulled "straight from the headlines", and crazy sex psychos threatening helpless womenfolk.

One of my favorite episodes involves Slim Pickens leading his family of murder hicks through a fabulous Hawaiian vacation:



Full episode (looks like they're all here....there goes my weekend):

Hawaii Five-O - S06E04 One Big Happy Family - Video Dailymotion

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by Julio Riddols

I'm also a big News Radio fan.. But my favorite 90's sitcom besides Seinfeld has to be 3rd Rock From the Sun. John Lithgow was so damn good and it might have been the only sitcom I ever saw that never tried to be anything but funny. They also did a really cool dream episode at the end of season 2 that was just impressively weird and different from anything else on TV.

One of my favorite scenes, a great example of the subversion typical of the show:

Great show. Love the first Shatner scene.

[rowech]

What are some favorite theme songs?

[weegeebored]

Theme songs:

Hawaii Five-O, both the original and the updated version.
Green Hornet
The Munsters
Secret Agent (Man)

And well before anyone's time...Peter Gunn.

[tarcone]

The Andy Griffith show
The Beverly hillbillies.

[cuervo72]

Originally Posted by weegeebored

And well before anyone's time...Peter Gunn.

This is the correct answer.

[Suicane75]

I don't watch Barney Miller, but it's often on in the background, and I'm always amused that the lady who plays his wife gets 2nd or 3rd billing in the opening credits when I hardly ever see her on the actual show.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Suicane75

I don't watch Barney Miller, but it's often on in the background, and I'm always amused that the lady who plays his wife gets 2nd or 3rd billing in the opening credits when I hardly ever see her on the actual show.

I imagine that was due to her stature as an actress.

In 1975 when the series began she'd already won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival, a Tony nomination for Best Actress in a Musical and an Obie for Best Actress.

She had a bit of cachet so she probably stayed in the credits despite making infrequent appearances ... and 4 years after Miller began she'd add a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination (for Breaking Away)

[NobodyHere]

Why Adam West will always be the best Batman

[Suicane75]

God, I spent too many a day in my Batman underoos fighting imaginary evil doers. Ah to be 20 again.

[Suicane75]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I imagine that was due to her stature as an actress.

In 1975 when the series began she'd already won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival, a Tony nomination for Best Actress in a Musical and an Obie for Best Actress.

She had a bit of cachet so she probably stayed in the credits despite making infrequent appearances ... and 4 years after Miller began she'd add a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination (for Breaking Away)

How bout that. I sort of recognized her name but didn't realize she was all that.

[Suicane75]

I don't know if you've seen or heard about this, but apparently there's a fella on the you tube who has dozens and dozens, if not hundreds of late night with David Letterman episodes. There's got to be at least one or two good ones in there. Right Paul?