Do people watch classic TV series?

[BigT]

I know plenty of people who do that. They keep hearing about how good a show is, so they pull it out on Netflix and binge it.

I don’t do it much, but I don’t watch a lot of normal TV.

I am watching the Mr. Roger’s marathon. And that show actually has a lot of continuity, from day to day and week to week.

[aceplace57]

I recently watched a lot of 1970’s Doctor Who. I enjoyed Jon Pertwee’s run. Watched a few Tom Baker episodes and stopped.

I watched Are You Being Served when it was on PBS. Seen most episodes multiple times.

Recently watched first two seasons of Corner Gas, a Canadian sitcom.

It’s fun watching shows from other countries.

I even watched two seasons of Australia’s Dancing with the Stars. Three seasons of the UK’s Strictly Come Dancing.

[Little_Nemo]

@DrCube

Oh, I agree, I was just commenting on Little Nemo’s frustration with people not answering the OP specifically. The title, on first read, makes it sound like he’s asking about old TV shows like I Love Lucy and Honeymooners, which are the first things I think of when I hear “Classic TV”, but he’s really asking about Breaking Bad and The Sopranos. I was just trying to explain the disconnect between his expectations and some of the answers he has received.

To be honest, I don’t feel like taking the weight on this one. To me, a thread title is just to give people a brief general idea what the thread is about so they can decide if they want to open it or not. The actual topic is what’s in the OP and I think I was pretty clear about what I was asking in that.

[control-z]

Sure I love any good TV shows, whether they are old or new. Some old ones I rewatch:

Green Acres
The Dick Van Dyke Show
Simon & Simon
Magnum, PI
Miami Vice
Gilligan’s Island

Recently I started Band of Brothers, it’s 16 years old so nearing classic.

[aceplace57]

A lot of TV shows don’t hold up well to binge watching.

West Wing was a good weekly show. That I watched semi regularly.

I binge watched a season and got very irritated. Problems in the plots get magnified binge watching. There were times it was like watching a soap.

I didn’t buy any more seasons.

[CelticKnot]

@Ukulele_Ike

We had our first kid in 1990, so television went by the wayside pretty much. I’ve been watching a few continuity shows recently, mostly when I fold laundry. Things I would have enjoyed had I been able to watch them when they were new.

I started the first season of Quantum Leap, got about four shows in, and Netflix dropped it. Switched to the first season of Third Rock from the Sun, got about six shows in, and Netflix dropped it.

Sorry to hear that Netflix dropped Alfred Hitchcock Presents; that was another one I was enjoying. I guess I’m not the audience Netflix is after.

I was watching The Mentalist on TNT when they dropped it. Can’t afford Netflix, Amazon Prime doesn’t have it and I’ve never found it elsewhere.

[CelticKnot]

My husband has bought box sets of Quantum Leap, Magnum, P. I., and Enterprise for me, but our absolute favorite box set, which we have watched 5-6 times, is Britcom As Time Goes By. 2nd favorite, watched 2-3 times so far, Eureka.

I’ve been told I need to watch Blind Spot but I need to borrow the recommender’s box set to do so.
Right now, because we got rid of satellite and get few channels, we only watch Big Bang Theory and Star Trek DS9 together. The goal is to watch all of Star Trek via Amazon Prime.

[Richard_John_Marcej]

@CelticKnot

Right now, because we got rid of satellite and get few channels, we only watch Big Bang Theory and Star Trek DS9 together. The goal is to watch all of Star Trek via Amazon Prime.

I know you said you got rid of your satellite, but if you had cable and got the channel Heroes & Icons you could watch all the Star Trek shows (original, Next Generation, ES9, etc…) every night. They also air the animated Star trek series on weekends.

[cochrane]

@Ukulele_Ike

Sorry to hear that Netflix dropped Alfred Hitchcock Presents; that was another one I was enjoying. I guess I’m not the audience Netflix is after.

Me TV shows the Alfred Hitchcock Hour nightly at about 1:00 a.m. It’s the same as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, just in an hour long format.

[ftg]

Forgot this one. Cozi TV* was running a lot of The Avengers (1961-1969) for a while. One episode late Saturday and Sunday nights.

Allowed me to watch a lot of the early Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman) ones that I had only seen a few of before. She’s quite good but the production value was low pre-Emma Peel.

Mixed in with those were some I hadn’t seen before with Venus Smith (Julie Stevens). She was terrible.

Watched as many of the Emma Peel ones as I could, of course.

But there’s only so much Tara King (Linda Thorson) a person can take.

• Cozi TV is one of those cheapo channels that local stations air on their secondary frequencies. Having a DVR to skip over those terrible repetitive commercials is a must.

[digs]

@Little_Nemo

Did anyone read the OP?

Yes, and we’ve been addressing it.

I think your attitude here is because you interpreted everyone saying they’re watching a specific show to mean they’re just watching random episodes. Even when they said “binge watch” you thought they were just watching willy-nilly, ignoring your OP.

I polled my (college) students, and 100% say that when they watch a classic TV show, they start at the beginning. And watch at least one season’s worth, in order. Usually followed by the next season.

And according to them “binge watching” means exactly that – to watch an entire TV show in broadcast order.

Meanwhile, complaining that they don’t have enough time to do homework [“classic” roll-eyes]
From the OP:

@Little_Nemo

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?