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

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Wyatt Burp

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Sometimes some obscure channel will play some old TV show that I loved in the sixties (I'm 53). But seeing them now they don't knock me out anymore or really make me feel all nalstalgic.
Well, my favorite show was the Wild Wild West. The entire box set goes for around $80, a little less used. I'm wondering if I got this it wouldn't turn me on like it did when I was a kid or seem lame now. This show was tongue in cheek and campy, like Lost In Space, and I like that aspect of it now. So I'm not just talking about being spoiled with the high tech computer generated Sci-Fi stuff that's out there now. How do you feel about these old shows from your youth. Do they still work for you now?
 
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I still like "Leave it to Beaver". But stuff like Red Skelton and Danny Kaye make me feel creepy. I always thought slap-stick and funny faces were stupid after I was 10 year old. I had an Uncle who would still think Clem Kaddlehopper was the funnist thing in the world and giggle his *** off, but I would just look at him and think "what the hell are you laughing at"? Even shows like McHales Navy leave me cold. How did Tim Conway ever get that job? On the other side of the coin, I think Don Knotts was very talented.
 
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Funny,Wyatt feels the same way about the Wild Wild West as I do.I liked it as a kid,I don't care for it now.McHales Navy didn't do it for me as a kid but I like it now..

D.G.
 
I always enjoyed Commando Cody each week. There was a western titled, Donovan that I enjoyed as well.

Sky King inspired me to get all my pilot license and ratings.
 
I am dissatisfied with today's youth programing. My 6 year old is fed a steady diet of "Leave it to Beaver", "Bewitched", "The Brady Bunch", "The Beverly Hillbillies" and anything else from the era that I can find. She loves the old Batman series as well.

Myself, I love the old cop/detective dramas. Burk's Law is a favorite, 77 Sunset Strip, Surf Side Six, Bourbon Street Beat and Dragnet. I also never pass up Mission Impossible. Retro-TV is where I find most of these, along with American Life Network.
 
Yes they were corny were but they beat the current vacuous TV shows like a drum!
 
I did not like Wild Wild West when it was new, and still don't. I liked Hogans Heros in the day but not so much any more. Still like Combat, Twilight Zone and Star Trek though. Death Valley Days is also still very watchable, though hard to find.
 
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.
 
They were just as corny to me back then as they are now. The only thing the current moronic TV shows have over the old ones is the technology advantage of better quality video, better special effects, and a much more frequent use of foul language, bare skin, and bad manners that a dumbed down majority of todays viewers seem to enjoy. The actors and the writing is just as bad as it was in the 50s and 60s.
 
Well, I found some stuff on U-tube and I loved what I saw. The music, the colors, everything brought back the good old days when I watched this every Friday night. Don't laugh, but this warm feeling came over me just hearing the theme song. I think I loved this show so much I'll still like it now. I'll go watch some more.
 
Here are some I remember, all "Westerns."

Davey Crockett, w/Fess Parker
Have Gun Will Travel w/ Richard Boone (was in "Big Jake" with the Duke
Gunsmoke w/ James Arness
Rawhide w/somebody and Clint Eastwood
Wagon Train w/the Duke's roomate @ USC
 
Oh, and Wyatt Earp w/?? can't remember his name either

The Lone Ranger (I was very young!)
 
There are 249 episodes of The Andy Griffith Show. I taped all of them. Best show ever.
I am a "24" addict today, but prior to that the most recent new show I watched was Seinfeld. Nothing else interests me in the slightest.
 
I just can't watch "Hogan's Heroes" or "The Beverly Hillbillies" anymore. The only thing that allows me to even think about watching "I Dream of Jeannie" or "Bewitched" is the female leads.

As far as "The Wild Wild West" goes, I can still watch that, because the stories were often clever and inventive, and it was a showcase for the great character actors of the 1960s, such as Victor Buono and Michael Dunn, the two greatest villians, Count Manzeppi and Miguelito Loveless, of the show.
 
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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?
 
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