Obviously there are old TV shows that people watch. But it’s usually the stuff that gets syndicated and where you can watch the episodes in any order.
What about the series where there are story arcs and where you have to watch the series as one long ongoing story?
People watch old movies. I can see somebody in their twenties deciding to watch The Godfather for the first time because they’ve heard it was a great film. But would somebody in their twenties decide to watch The Sopranos for the first time because they’ve heard it was a great TV series? Sitting down to watch eighty-six episodes is obviously a larger commitment.
Do people do that? Or are TV series an ephemeral art form?
Yes they do. Hell, just check this board or the other board and look at the threads of people watching Star Trek or Babylon 5 or yes, the Sopranos for the first time. For that matter, what about those who came to *Game of Thrones *late? There’s 6 seasons of bloodshed to catch up on!
But not 20 year olds. They would have to have their phones surgically removed from their hands before they could do something like that.
I do. I watch shows on Me-TV, Cozi TV, Antenna TV, and ION-TV, just to name a few. And it’s no problem watching shows with story arcs, such as Miami Vice or Quantum Leap, as they are usually run in their original broadcast order. Even run of the mill sitcoms are run in their original order, and not randomly.
I love watching classic series, since they’re often so much better than what’s on TV today. This is especially true for sitcoms, which nowadays are largely either lame or over-the-top vulgar.
There are also genres that have completely fallen by the wayside, e.g., Westerns and WWII dramas.
If it’s on Netflix or Amazon or Hulu, a young person will find it and devour it and talk about it with their peers. I can’t imagine old series would be systematically shunned.
Buzzfeed’s favoritest tv show ever is Friends, and I’d say you have to be at least born in 1984 (33 years old) or earlier to have really gotten in to that show when it first aired in 1994. But plenty of people in their 20s are talking about it and loving it (it’s on Netflix).
There aren’t that many classic series (outside of soap operas) that had story arcs. Not hitting the reset button at the end of every episode is a more modern thing.
My daughter really enjoys The Dick Van Dyke show. A show 37 years older than her. Both my kids enjoyed Get Smart, Taxi and WKRP. My son really enjoyed the original Star Trek. Though neither will watch Barney Miller with me. They both watched a few seasons of Mary Tyler Moore also. When they were younger they loved the Addams Family and my daughter really enjoyed Bewitched and to a lesser extent Jeannie and The Nanny and the Professor.
On her own my daughter devoured Buffy the Vampire Slayer, almost all arc.
I agree. People who are citing shows like Friends, Miami Vice, or Star Trek are missing that crucial point. You can’t just sit down and watch a random episode of The Sopranos or Breaking Bad or The West Wing. Things change in these shows.
It’s like older series were a collection of short stories and some modern series are a collection of chapters that make up a novel.
I also watch Me TV and Antenna TV , I love the show Gun Smoke in b/w and there is CC . If I missed something I can read what been said. Perry Mason is another favorite of mine .
Im enjoying Perry Mason. I love a lawyer who is dedicated to his clients and isnt a blowhard. It was way before its time socially; it had the (rare) female and/or black judge. The cast had great chemistry.
Another point is, how old does a show have to be to be “classic”? Me, I’d reserve that term for shows from maybe the 1970s at the latest, but lean that term towards series earlier than that.
Well, I was regularly watching both “Rockford” and “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and Netflix got rid of them. Very disappointed. So now it’s “Twilight Zone,” which is sometimes good. Some of those episodes are right up there. Others, not so much.
I would sure not consider “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” as classic. Maybe in 20 years. Maybe.
Also, for things like “Friends” and its ilk, we have the binge-watch available to us now.
Actually, One Day at a Time had story arcs and continuity. It was a little ahead of it’s time in regard to that. It frequently had three- and even four-part episodes, and had characters reappear a season later (played by the same actor), had recurring themes, and characters who dealt with ongoing issues, plus story arcs that lasted half a season.
Perry Mason is another favorite of mine .