I work from home a lot of the time and like to leave it running in the background because it’s rarely annoying, and generally shows stuff that’s pretty entertaining. The TV is in another room, so if I’m out of audiobooks, it’s a reasonable stand-in. I like the classic shows and am totally down with the westerns, but lately they seem to be shifting their line-up from “classic television” to “mediocre sitcoms old enough to no longer be in re-runs anywhere else”. Exhibits A, B, and C: Wings, Designing Women, and… as of January, that David Spade show.
What about Dragnet, or Get Smart, or Laugh-In, or The Smothers Brothers? Hell, even bring back I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched, but… holy Christ on a cracker, people… Night Court?
I love Night Court. But I mainly watch TV Land for the classic All In The Family episodes I used to love. As well as for all the Bonanza and Gunsmoke episodes I didn’t appreciate when I was a kid but now enjoy as an adult. And their specials such as the Top 50 TV icons are pretty enjoyable, too.
Is it just me, or are Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie seriously stupid? I mean, Family Circus stupid. Barney stupid. The kind of stupid that comes from assuming one’s audience is really stupid.
I watched the first season or two of Wings and for the life of me I can’t figure out why. It is not a good show. David Spade I do not understand the appeal of. Designing Women, though, was a consistently good and often great show. The first season has an unfortunate tendency to tack on a maudlin ending and the last season was a bad mistake but there are episodes which should rightly be considered classics. “Killing All The Right People” for instance, which was one of the first if not the first network shows to deal with the AIDS epidemic. The episode where Anthony dresses up as Suzanne’s maid Consuela to take her citizenship test. The one where Suzanne has to give up her title as Miss Georgia. The ep written in response to Clarence Thomas’ confirmation, completed from scratch in something like two days.
Bewitched at least didn’t start out that way. At some point it turned into a formula show (Endora casts a wacky spell on Darrin that Samantha manipulates to sell an advertising client) but it wasn’t always that.
I have to admit that I almost always thought Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie were incredibly stupid, aside from the occasional clever episode (Darrin doesn’t overreact to whatever weird magical thing happens, but rolls with it. Or the wacky magical visiting relative is Darrin’s, instead of Sam’s. ) On the other hand, Night Court was pretty witty, and I liked Wings.
I find it hard to watch the old All in the Family episodes, now.But YMMV.
What about all those other shows, especially the odd ones? Give me The Prisoner anytime. Rerun old episodes of The 21st Century and see how far off predictions were (or how dead-on). Show a jumble of old shows that had short runs. Show That Was the Week That Was.
I love TV Land–it’s on right now. It’s the one channel that I can count on to always have something on to watch or at least play in the background. Right now it’s The Jeffersons. I’m one of the few people who actually likes Wings. Designing Women is a classic to me and so is Cheers.
I don’t understand why in the world they are now showing Extreme Home Makeover reruns though. It’s not a classic nor a sitcom?
And as for my former love Nick@Nite–they might as well change it to the Fresh Prince Channel. And I’m also still bitter because they stopped running Mary Tyler Moore and Rhoda a few years ago.
I agree that they need an infusion of other shows- the ones they show now have been syndicated on one network or another for 25 years- there are tons of obscurities out there, why not show them instead of the 200th airing of the Edith gets menopause episode.
And I too would love for them to one night a week or so air some short lived shows from the 60’s/70’s that no one remembers- Holmes & Yo-yo, Pink Lady & Jeff, etc.
My excuse was Crystal Bernard, who was cute as a friggin’ button, Amy Yasbeck, who was smokin’, and the occasional appearance by Laura Innes* as Lowell’s nympho ex-wife.
Oh, and Tony Shaloub, who I have no penile interest in whatsoever, but who was funny as hell.
Yes, that Laura Innes. Pre-crutch and bitchy attitude from ER.
I loved Holmes and Yo-Yo. Of course I was like eight when it was on and easily amused. “The Bunco Squad!”
Tack a few episodes of the Captain and Tenille variety show on to the Pink Lady & Jeff eps and I’m there. I yearn for an installment of “The Bionic Watermelon.”
On the other side there was Tim Daly, Steven Weber and Thomas Haden Church in addition to the aforementioned Shaloub who was pretty hot back in the day, but I’m pretty sure that it was as much if not more attributable to Thusday night NBC inertia than to any lustful feelings.
Definite love for Green Acres and Star Trek. Also, I know Wings and Designing Women are a couple decades old, but somehow that doesn’t seem “classic” to me–like the difference between “sorta old” and “antique” or “vintage”. When I rule the world, TV Land won’t run anything made after I was born.
Also, I’d axe 90% of their original programming and on Saturday mornings run a couple hours of Sid and Marty Krofft shows. I also want a week of “other stuff your favorite classic TV stars did”–like Desi Arnaz movies and such.
ETA: Add in my votes for MTM, Rhoda, and anything Newhart, too!
TVLand is another example of a cable network that has a great concept and lousy execution. With thousands of classic, long-running or at least critically acclaimed shows to choose from, their lineup leaves a lot to be desired.
Here are my suggestions:
No more than one episode per day. Who really wants to watch four episodes of The Jeffersons or even MASH* in a row?
Don’t run a single series for more than 13 weeks – in fact, no more than 2 months.
I’m not crazy about movies, but if they have to have them, stuff like Still the Beaver and other reunions, 2-hour pilots and the like will do just fine.
I, too, would like to see some non-fiction like 21st Century some groundbreaking documentaries, maybe anniversary specials of notable events.
What on earth could you have against Night Court? That show is hilarious, with more than a few genuinely touching moments. I think it’s one of the few sitcoms were the cardboard-cutout characters actually had real depth. For example, Dan Fielding wasn’t just the dirtbag, sleazy, womanizing, obnoxious assistant DA, he had another side. I mean, Harry was genuinely his friend, and you could see why, it wasn’t just because the writers told us they were friends. But at the same time, he could be an unrepentant douchebag, and I love that about him.
I never really saw Night Court on its first run. I only know it through the TVLand reruns. But in the interest of full-disclosure, I find myself very attracted to 80s-90s era sitcoms: Night Court, The Golden Girls, The Nanny, Cheers, Frasier, even Who’s the Boss. I think there might be something wrong with me.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, I think Night Court is entertaining, and certainly far more entertaining than, say, The Munsters or The Addams Family. I just don’t think it–or any of the other 80’s-90’s sitcoms–belong on TV Land. I’d actually dig the hell out of an 80’s-90’s sitcoms station, I just don’t want them taking up airtime on the one channel where I can consistently see 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s era shows all day and not just at five in the morning.
The problem with TV Land, compared to what it was a decade ago, is that it went from being a network that would air programs that had not been rerun in years, or, in some cases, ever (especially, as I recall, on weekend afternoons) to a network that airs nothing that hasn’t been rerun into ubiquity.
As for what I’d program, considering ignored programming:
The live anthology programs of the 1950s.
Variety shows, especially variety shows that have not been edited.
What used to be known as “actuality” programming, when in season. For instance, rerun an Oscar, Emmy, or Grammy telecast when those awards are given out.
A time slot dedicated to airing surviving programs of the 1940s.
The surviving talk show broadcasts of the 1950s and 1960s might be of interest, especially if we do such things as have a marathon of genre examples.
The earliest surviving color videotape programs would be of interest.
