Cozi TV has just come on the air in Tucson, on one of the digital subchannels. It’s from NBC/Universal and mainly runs old Universal shows such as “Charlie’s Angels,” “The Six-Million Dollar Man,” and “I Spy.” It also has classic black-and-white shows such as “The Lone Ranger” and “Lassie.” This gives us four retro channels in the area now, the others being Antenna TV, MeTV, and This TV.
How many of you watch old TV shows and how much do you watch? I find myself watching more old shows than I do new. MeTV gives me my “Dragnet” and “Adam-12” fix, as well as “Lost In Space.” I like Antenna TV for “Benson,” “WKRP in Cincinnati,” and “Barney Miller,” as well as “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and “The Jack Benny Program.” I like catching up with shows I saw when I was a kid as well as classics that came on before my time.
We have Cozi and MeTV here too. My husband gets a kick out of revisiting shows he grew up with. I’ll watch them too if he has them on, but I rarely choose to watch them by myself. I think it’s because I don’t want to be reminded just how old I am
If it rains during the night, my dog insists I get up and lie on the couch next to her (It’s…I mean…argh, don’t ask). My TV is hooked up to a computer so usually I’m watching that on the screen, but at 3 AM when I’m stuck out there I’ll flip on the over-the-air antenna input and see what’s going on with George & Gracie, or Hazel. It’s nice to fall asleep to.
I’ve been watching MeTV and Cozi lately–mostly Svengoolie (which I keep on in the background–Sven’s schtick is fun but the movies are kind of boring to me), Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Six Million Dollar Man, and Bionic Woman, with a smattering of Charlie’s Angels. I used to be a big SMDM and BW fan back in the '70s when I was a kid.
Man, those shows are slow! I still enjoy them, but…sloooowww!
I get my Dragnet, Emergency, and Adam-12 fix on Netflix. Those hold up surprisingly well, and aren’t nearly as slow.
I’ve discovered three interesting old shows I had never seen before. On Cozi, there’s **The Name of the Game **, about a celebrity gossip magazine called People (before there really was one) whose publisher and reporters somehow always get involved in crime mysteries. Their secretary is a young Susan Saint James. Also on Cozi is Run For Your Life, starring Ben Gazzara as a guy who learns he has a disease that will kill him in 1-2 years so he decides to squeeze as many interesting experiences into his remaining time as he can. It has a nice bittersweet air about it. And on Antenna, there’s It Takes a Thief, featuring Robert Wagner as a conceited jerk who is also a well-dressed playboy and ex-thief who gets enlisted by a government agency to go on risky assignments that make use of his criminal skills. Lots of eye candy in that one.
We have MeTV and AntennaTV and THIS, and I’d like to see what they have on Cozi. We only have OTA TV, so we watch a lot of these old shows. My husband loves Perry Mason and Father Knows Best, and we both love The Burns and Allen Show. I never liked Jack Benny himself, but his show is fun to watch for the guest stars and Rochester. I also like Make Room for Daddy (which is off the rotation for now), Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and Hazel—but only when she lives with Missy and Mr. B.
We both hate Dennis the Menace and Bachelor Father.
I have lately been watching Cozi reruns of “Charlie’s Angels” and “The Bionic Woman” on Tuesday nights. (Nothin’ else on!) And as I have been watching them, I realized with dawning horror a truth that is simply impossible to ignore: My mother was so right. I did watch the stupidest shows when I was a kid.
A few odd specific things I’ve noticed about the two shows while watching them with more discerning adult eyes.
Charlie’s Angels:
Southern California in the late 70s had an apparent epidemic of treacherous, predatory lipstick lesbians. I mean, every other damn show one of the Angels is being leered at, ogled, or inappropriately touched by a very ‘foreward’ woman.
Even when going undercover in a women’s prisons, the Angels all had their faces fully made up to the hilt. In fact, ALL the women in prison (including Kim Basinger!) had fully made-up faces, even while laboring in the potato fields under a hot sun!
The show apparently had one single “apartment” set that they have quite obviously redecorated & reused again and again and again. I noticed this one night when Cozi showed two Angels episodes back to back, and the same apartment appears in both episodes!
When Farrah returns as a guest star, there is palpable tension between her and her former co-stars. Everybody is supposed to be so happy to see Jill again, but Sabrina, Kelly & Bosley all remain crowded behind Bosley’s desk, resolutely across the room from their ‘dear friend.’ Not one of them wants to come within 5 feet of her. Kate Jackson clenches her teeth so hard I thought her pearly whites would shatter from the force.
The Bionic Woman:
Lindsay Wagner was a terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE actress. All four of the original Angels give more credible performances than she does. She cannot deliver a line or demonstrate an emotion to save her life.
And what the hell was up with her hair??? It’s always so stringy and looks as if she didn’t bother to wash it. In a few episodes, she looks as if she’s two days away from having dreadlocks! She’s routinely wearing wide-brim hats that weren’t THAT fashionable - I suspect the wardrobe folks had her wear the hats in a desperate attempt to hide her bad hair. (I tried to rationalize that the producers tried to save money for bionic special effects by skimping on hair & makeup, but Oscar Goldman’s secretary and the Fembots all have Angels-worthy 'dos.)
What qualifies a former pro-tennis player to teach middle school?
All those shows are full of actors who later become more well-known. I’ve seen Rob Reiner and James Brolin on “Batman” for example. I saw John Travolta on “Emergency” before he was on “Welcome Back, Kotter.” And just the other week I saw Kent McCord (Adam-12’s Jim Reed) on “McHale’s Navy” under his real name, Kent McWhirter. I also saw Howard Hesseman on “Dragnet” using the pseudonym Don Sturdy. And “Dennis the Menace” had a young boy named Ronny Howard playing one of Dennis’s friends in a few episodes.
