When TV was Great

[windsor]

I thought i would start a thread on some great classic tv shows from yesteryear.Please add a link if you come across something good.

They dont make them like this anymore............Enjoy!!!

Car 54 Where are you???

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvsbwZXa3-k

jack Benny with guest jackie Gleason

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFJ1dd9bxng

That Girl w/ guest Ethel Merman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOHXUBn ... JQ&index=5

[windsor]

I know for some that the humour is dated, but in these shows it was clean humour to make folks happy not to send a message in a vulagar or sexual way like todays attempt at humour ......and I do mean Attempt.

if you didnt laugh at all at these show....plz check if u have a pulse.....

[Turkeytop]

Car 54 was one of my favourites, back in the day.

Another I liked was Sgt Bilko

[windsor]

Yes Sgt Bilko was also a unique comedy show.Both were if Im not mistaken were produced by Nate Hiken.

The way Hiken wrote those shows, either you got the humour or you didnt.

[moldyoldie]

I thought i would start a thread on some great classic tv shows from yesteryear.Please add a link if you come across something good.

They dont make them like this anymore............Enjoy!!!

Car 54 Where are you???

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvsbwZXa3-k

Sorry for the bump, but I just came across this. I gotta tell ya, I was cracking up!
Car 54 Where Are You? has the same rep in classic TV lore as Gilligan's Island; i.e., the epitome of dumb. However, I can always appreciate inspired political satire. Or maybe I've just dumbed down a bit myself.

This episode takes the same tack as one of Billy Wilder's less appreciated classics from around the same era - One, Two, Three - with Jimmy Cagney going full bore non-stop over-the-top hilarious!

[Bobbert]

Every New Year's Eve I watch NYE-themed episodes of The Honeymooners and Stanley (with Buddy Hackett and Carol Burnett).

I enjoy watching Mr. and Mrs. North, mostly because of the lovely Barbara Britton.

I'm a big fan of Dragnet. I've watched every episode of the late 60s version on MeTV many times. Occasionally I'll watch the 50s version and it's also very good, with its gritty black-and-white texture.

[craig11152]

A few decades ago I read somebody's column titled "The Golden Age of Television".
His contention was the golden age of Television isn't a point in TV history rather a point in an individual life when TV was "magic" for that person.

[Robert Faygo]

I find that Barney Miller still holds up as an incredibly well-written and well-acted show.

These days ol Barn wouldn't have survived past the first few episodes / original premise of being a split between Capt Miller's home and professional lives. Focusing the show almost entirely on the squad room and the difference between detectives was a brilliant decision.

For those here that are AARP-eligible, Abe Vigoda was 54 when he debuted the Fish character.

[bmw]

Having grown up on Nickelodeon in the 1980s/early 90s (including Nick-at-Nite), my list goes something like:
-Get Smart
-Dragnet
-Mr. Ed
-Green Acres
-Bob Newhart
-Alfred Hitchcock Presents
-Adventures of Superman

As far as stuff that was current when I was growing up, setting kiddie's shows aside, there aren't many:
-Seinfeld
-The X-Files
-Married With Children
-Family Matters (ok, kind of a "kiddie" show)
-The Red Green Show

The final sitcom I ended up enjoying was Corner Gas. And that wasn't something I discovered until a few years ago.

[FredLeonard]

TV IS great. Not network TV. Almost all the good stuff is streaming (or, for the time being, on cable until cable is fully obsolete).

[ChrisWL1980]

Speaking of Nickelodeon in the '80s... You Can't Do That on Television - a Canadian classic - comes to mind. It's the reason I knew the name Alanis Morissette years before she swallowed any jagged little pills. And by today's standards, it lives up to its title. Indeed, even by the standards of back then, as this episode was actually banned by Nickelodeon after airing only once or twice, despite a disclaimer in the intro link skit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYWqSyZiWXM

[paul8539]

My list is something like this (most of these are now on some retro-channels):
Hogan's Heroes
McHale's Navy
Combat
Rat Patrol
Twelve O'Clock Hign
Black Sheep Squadron
Gomer Pyle, USMC
MASH

[Trophyhead]

If you have DecadesTV available to you via an OTA side channel, many of the shows you list air on those stations.

My wife and I wind up rolling over to see the likes of Sgt. Bilko, Car 54's crew, they're on in the deep overnight, after The Lost Honeymooners and Get Smart. Antenna TV shows Barney Miller after Tonight with Johnny Carson, Jack Benny around dawn (these days). MeTV fills in the gaps with the likes of Dragnet, Gomer Pyle, Green Acres and Dick Van Dyke, beyond the bedrock content of M*A*S*H and The Andy Griffith Show.

[Bobbert]

If you have DecadesTV available to you via an OTA side channel, many of the shows you list air on those stations.

My wife and I wind up rolling over to see the likes of Sgt. Bilko, Car 54's crew, they're on in the deep overnight, after The Lost Honeymooners and Get Smart. Antenna TV shows Barney Miller after Tonight with Johnny Carson, Jack Benny around dawn (these days). MeTV fills in the gaps with the likes of Dragnet, Gomer Pyle, Green Acres and Dick Van Dyke, beyond the bedrock content of M*A*S*H and The Andy Griffith Show.

Those subchannels that resulted from the mandate to broadcast only digital signals were a gift from heaven. Many of the channels are owned by Weigel Broadcasting, so you can watch some shows at different times, and it minimizes the number of shows that are out of circulation.

My only complaint is the way that Antenna TV overlaps the closing credits and opening credits of shows. The theme music and the credits are part of the texture of these older shows.

[thatguy]

I find that Barney Miller still holds up as an incredibly well-written and well-acted show.

These days ol Barn wouldn't have survived past the first few episodes / original premise of being a split between Capt Miller's home and professional lives. Focusing the show almost entirely on the squad room and the difference between detectives was a brilliant decision.

For those here that are AARP-eligible, Abe Vigoda was 54 when he debuted the Fish character.

I loved the theme music to Barney Miller. Even as a little kid watching it with my dad.