T.V. Shows From Your Youth. Are They Corny Now?

Group 4 said:
My 5 and 8 year olds are watching Bullwinkle now, on dvd. I find many of the shows from my youth holding up pretty well; some are even better this time around as the campiness is appealing, like Three's Company.
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Rocky and Bullwinkle stands up to the test of time, because it operates on so many levels.

At one level, it's just silliness for children.

On another, it's wry social commentary on the US of the 1960s.

On yet another, it's numerous oblique historical references, like the character "Boris Badenov's" name, which is a reference to Soviet politician Boris Bazhanov.
 
My favorite western as a kid was "Have Gun Will Travel." I was so crazy about that show and thought Richard Boone was the coolest guy anywhere!

We grew up poor and my parents couldn't afford such things but a neighbor kid got the official full-blown Palladin outfit one Christmas. I remember it came with the hat, sixguns, holster and the card case with the "Have Gun Will Travel Wire San Francisco" cards.

I bugged and pleaded with him for days to trade me for those cards and case and he eventually gave in and traded me for a pocket knife. I was in paradise! I carried that case and cards every day until I eventually wore them out.

Anyway, to get back on subject, I hadn't seen Have Gun Will Travel for 30 years or more and then they started playing it on the Encore Westerns channel awhile back.

I couldn't believe how corny it was! :) I was stunned to think that I was so crazy about that show when I was a kid but then again, I WAS a kid. I still watch it now and then but mostly to laugh.

I also like The Andy Griffith Show and watch it often but I'm in the real minority as I can't stand the shows with Don, (Barney Fife), Knotts and won't watch it if he's in an episode. He wasn't funny to me as a kid and he still isn't today as I find his character irritating instead of funny.
 
Sometimes you can go back, sometines you can't. In 1976 or so one of the NYC stations showed the original "Mickey Mouse Club", I couldn't watch it for more than 10 minutes, it has dated so badly. In the 1980s I found videos of "Captain Midnight/Jet Jackson", "Rocky Jones, Space Ranger" and yes, I watched "Commando Cody". They let me go back for a
little while. I still get a thrill watching the "Silver Dart" (Captain Midnight's plane) take off, even though as a 5 year old I knew it was the Douglas Skyrocket. Like the sound effects when Rocky Jones' spaceship prepapres for blast off still do something for me.
I read a book entitled "Saturday Morning TV" in which Kirby Grant (Sky King) told the author that about half of the "Sky King" films were lost in a fire in an NYC film library. I read that one of the big differences between the Disney and the Warner Brothers cartoons was that the Disney ones were pretty much aimed at kids while the Warner Brothers ones were on all levels, as an adult I can laugh at the things I missed as a kid.
The only time I can remember watching "The Beverly Hillbillies" was when they had Flatt and Scruggs on.
 
I watch some of those old TV shows from when I was a kid in the late 70's and early to mid 80's and I think "what the hell was I thinking?!"

There are very few old shows worth watching to my mind,Lost in Space is still entertaining,20,000 leagues under the sea is still ok (I think haven't watched it in years) and Star Trek (I hated this show until I watched the new movie) still sit up there as good shows to watch.

I don't like things like Andy Griffith or Leave it to beaver or The Waltons as it just paints a picture that to my mind never existed,the world sucks,try to teach children it doesn't and they may get traumatized when they hit the reality barrier at full speed......or they may turn into those bible thumping weirdos who try to tell me how to live my life.
 
The Avengers (1960's)

Just don't expect production standards to be high, especially in the older ones. Somtime during their run their was a writer's strike and they reused previous scripts with small changes - very entertaining to watch, especially with Diana Rigg. (Check out "The Hellfire Club" - rotten plot but Mrs. Peele has a dynamite outfut!)
 
Twilight Zone. Art Carney as department store Santa Claus. Agnes Moorehead's kitchen invaded by tiny aliens. Chill Wills driving off the space aliens.
Recent stuff, Pinkie and the Brain has as good social commentary as Rocky and His Friends.
Dragnet. Naked City.
Re-runs of old movie serials.
 
Some are, some are not. Still love 'Rocky & Bullwinkle'. As well as 'Gilligans island'. Ginger and Maryanne are still hot! And haven't aged a day. (on film)
 
Still enjoy "I Dream of Jeannie" and "Bewitched"...though I can't think of any common ground between the two....
 
Back when I was a kid circa early '70s, "Johnny Quest" was my favorite. Saw it again recently and I'd forgotten how violent it was! Gunfire, blood and death. Goodguys dispatching badguys. And this, as some of you may recall, was kids cartoon. Always liked "The Cisco Kid". The local station would run it back-to-back with "The Lone Ranger" on Sunday mornings and my Dad and I would watch it while Mom made lunch. Late '70s favorite was "Starsky and Hutch". Could they get away with making shows like this anymore?
 
I enjoy watching old black and white movies and most of the corny TV shows. The acting was terrible, but entertaining. Now, there isn't anything worth watching due to the language, skin, and damned CANNED LAUGHTER. They also had good country singers that could carry a tune.
 
Being that I was born in the early 70's, most shows I remember watching as a kid were in the 80's. The A-Team, The Dukes of Hazzard, Knight Rider, etc. I can't sit through that stuff anymore. However, I can sit through any of the old b&w Andy Griffith episodes, MASH, and Twilight Zone shows. I love those. Otherwise I prefer stuff on Discovery, A&E, etc.
 
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bwickens said:
Back when I was a kid circa early '70s, "Johnny Quest" was my favorite. Saw it again recently and I'd forgotten how violent it was! Gunfire, blood and death. Goodguys dispatching badguys. And this, as some of you may recall, was kids cartoon.
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And that's why I love it to this day! Of course it would be considered fare for three year olds in Japan.
 
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Early TV Shows

When in grade school I couldn't get home fast enough to watch Sally Starr's Popeye Theater. The uncensored Three Stooges. I would never think of poking my brother in the eyes or hit him with a cast iron skillet but they had to remove all that for the current reruns.
I was a total Combat fan in the second and third grades. Now I can hardly sit thru an episode. Now the Gallant Men holds up better for me but it never gets shown on TVLand.
As a teenager I really liked the Variety shows like the Smothers Brothers, Laugh In, And a couple that the names have escaped from my brain. One was folk/country based Hootenanny!, I think, and the other GoGo Girls in cages dancing to the latest pop tunes. I think Bobby Sherman was the MC. I wonder what theyed be like now?
 
What? No one mentioned the Honeymooners or Cheyenne or Jim Bowie?
My wife mentioned clint walker was her favorite. I spotted him at a cowboy festival at Kanob utah a couple years ago and took this picture of her and him.

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mike from st pete said:
I was a total Combat fan in the second and third grades. Now I can hardly sit thru an episode. Now the Gallant Men holds up better for me but it never gets shown on TVLand.
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In 1967 or 68 I remember writing my older brother asking him what he was doing to pass the time. He was laid up in a hospital somewhere in South Vietnam because the person a couple places ahead of him in line stepped on a land mine. He responded back that they were mostly "Watching reruns of Combat trying to figure out what we were doing wrong".
 
I watch Combat and rat patrol, and The Untouchables. Saturdays we get laredo with Neville Brand. My oldest daughter likes the twighlight zone. Kolchak the night stalker is always fun to watch and Barney Miller.

At Lunch time today I was watching Hawaii 5-0 forgot how anti gun that show was until today buit Jack Lords hair stayed in place.
 
I still love "The Wild Wild West". "Man from Uncle" seem kinda corny now but I still like it. Still watch "Johnny Quest" and like it as much as ever. I am up to season 4 of "Adam-12" now and it's holding up after 20+ of police work. I just found some episodes of Police Story which I am pretty sure I will still like too. Sometimes you can go back!
 
Honeymooners..... timeless genius.


A more contemporary and less known.... Fernwood Tonite.... now THAT was funny.... well some moments were:D
 
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