# I used to love this? What was I THINKING? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 26, 2011, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-used-to-love-this-what-was-i-thinking/572715 "2011-02-26T17:52:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-used-to-love-this-what-was-i-thinking/572715/81 "2011-02-28T19:18:44Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > I just turned 40… > > Speaking of Silver Spoons, do you remember hot crazy-hott Erin Gray was? > > Absolutely Stunning!!! Indeed. I was about to say her and that woman from Buck Rogers, but then I realized they’re the same one. (gotta love those tight white pants!) ---
**Author:** ![ripopgome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a698b9/32.png) [@ripopgome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ripopgome)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-used-to-love-this-what-was-i-thinking/572715/82 "2011-02-28T19:37:13Z")
> [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](#): > > _The Dukes Of Hazzard_. I barely remember the later seasons of the original run, and used to love watching the reruns in the late 1990s on TNN. When CMT started showing reruns a few years ago, I thought, “Oh boy! This will be fun! I used to love this show!”. Then I started watching, and after about 20 minutes, I realized it wasn’t as great as I remembered. Ten minutes into the second episode, I realized that The Dukes of Hazzard is really, really, really stupid. This. ---
**Author:** ![Noelq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noelq/32/16438_2.png) [@Noelq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noelq)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-used-to-love-this-what-was-i-thinking/572715/83 "2011-02-28T20:00:58Z")
I’m so sorry for this. When I was a young lad of 7 or 8, I thought the peak of hilarity was… _The Family Circus_. I even had my mom buy me some of their cartoon compilation books. I’m so, so sorry for ever encouraging this blight on humanity. I was young. :smack::(:smack:☹ ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-used-to-love-this-what-was-i-thinking/572715/84 "2011-02-28T20:31:45Z")
There’s something about comedy, it seems… I was all psyched when, as a young adult, I got the chance to see the original _Casino Royale_ again, remembering how side-splittingly hilarious I had found it as a kid. I watched about 20 minutes of it and decided not to waste any more of my time. Something similar happened with a movie called _Evil Roy Slade._ Turns out it’s mostly lame-brained, although John Astin’s turn as the title character is genuinely marvelous. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-used-to-love-this-what-was-i-thinking/572715/85 "2011-02-28T20:32:44Z")
I am proud to say that my tastes have matured hardly at all. However, **Noelq** ’s post reminds me that I once thought Garfield hilarious. I also recall that when I was in high school, I thought the David Letterman show was the most excellent thing on TV. I want to hop in the time machine and find young Dung, just to say, “Really?” ---
**Author:** ![Cumberdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@Cumberdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cumberdale)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-used-to-love-this-what-was-i-thinking/572715/86 "2011-02-28T20:41:18Z")
_Welcome Back, Kotter_ Most other shows I can still watch and appreciate on some level. This, though is painful to watch. Looking back I wonder how did anyone find it entertaing. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-used-to-love-this-what-was-i-thinking/572715/87 "2011-02-28T21:07:06Z")
[QUOTE=AuntiePam;13510137 _PeeWee_ holds up – _Miami Vice_ doesn’t. It still **looks** good, but Don Johnson’s acting was just awful – way too loud, for one thing. He makes that CSI guy look good in comparison.[/QUOTE] You can console yourself knowing you’re not alone. I _loved_ that show as a budding teen. You can also console yourself by the fact that it was a huge stylistic departure for TV at the time. It was really innovative. It’s like when you watch _Citizen Kane_ and ask “Why was that such a big deal?” and someone has to tell you that, before that movies were much more static. They looked more like stage plays. _Miami Vice_ merged the TV cop procedural with the music video. If you look it up on Wiki, _People_ magazine apparently wrote: “[it’s] the first show to look really new and different since color TV was invented.” Plus, it was one of the first network shows broadcast in stereo, so in addition to rock music style, with headphones it sounded awesome. Seeing it _now_… :rolleyes: Geez, was that show overwrought and ridiculous! Oh, and my other WTF childhood show was… _ChiPS_. :o I was a _child_, okay? I thought cops on motorbikes was really cool. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-used-to-love-this-what-was-i-thinking/572715/88 "2011-02-28T21:19:57Z")
> [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](#): > > Ten minutes into the second episode, I realized that The Dukes of Hazzard is really, really, really stupid. IIRC, that show is responsible for me insisting on entering/exiting my mom’s car via the window rather then the door for at least one full summer. But once I got out, I’d open the door anyway because I had to roll the window back up. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-used-to-love-this-what-was-i-thinking/572715/89 "2011-02-28T21:24:49Z")
I thought that the late George Carlin (“Wonderful WINO”) was hilariously funny-when I was 16. As an adult, I thought it was stupid. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-used-to-love-this-what-was-i-thinking/572715/90 "2011-02-28T21:29:21Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Indeed. I was about to say her and that woman from Buck Rogers, but then I realized they’re the same one. > > (gotta love those tight white pants!) She’s **still** hot. I talk to her at Comic-Con every year. A truly gorgeous woman, in all ways. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-used-to-love-this-what-was-i-thinking/572715/91 "2011-02-28T21:59:48Z")
> [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](#): > > _Miami Vice_ merged the TV cop procedural with the music video. If you look it up on Wiki, _People_ magazine apparently wrote: “[it’s] the first show to look really new and different since color TV was invented.” Plus, it was one of the first network shows broadcast in stereo, so in addition to rock music style, with headphones it sounded awesome. Not just the music but the set design – those “cool” colors. Crockett’s shirts coordinated with wallpaper and furniture. If there was a way to watch without the dialogue – just the music – now that’s some art right there. I can still watch the Ted Nugent episode (the woman with the ice cube) and “Evan”, the one with William Russ. I think those were the days before ‘shipping’, but Evan and Sonny definitely had some chemistry. Another show I loved was _The Real McCoys_. I’ve never seen it in syndication and wonder how it holds up. ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-used-to-love-this-what-was-i-thinking/572715/92 "2011-02-28T22:03:41Z")
You really can’t go back again. I watched an episode of Magnum P.I. (one of my family’s favorite shows back in the '80s) and was all, “We watched _this_?” It wasn’t awful, really, so much as it was clichéd, trite, and predictable. I felt like the writers took me by the hand and carefully pointed out the plot twists, just so I wouldn’t miss them. In college, my then boyfriend (now husband) went through a huge MacGuyver, A-Team, and Dukes of Hazzard phase. I just laughed at him. Was even funnier when he’d say he hated the '80s, then tell you that he and his friends had watched Footloose again that weekend. ---
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-used-to-love-this-what-was-i-thinking/572715/93 "2011-02-28T22:44:16Z")
We can all agree that most of the '80s and early '90s were part of a really bizarre shared dream experience, right? I mean, I had a mullet, for Crom’s sake! Anyway, post-pubescent WTFs: I used to be a born-again Christian, and used to listen to both Bob Larsen (“This is the worst day in the history of my ministry…I need a $100 hero to call in RIGHT NOW…!”) and Rush Limbaugh (“I have the A/C going full blast and the hotel windows wide open, letting plenty of wonderful, healthy CFCs into the atmosphere!”) and thought they were the most clever defenders of truth ever. ---
**Author:** ![Iggins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Iggins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggins)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-used-to-love-this-what-was-i-thinking/572715/94 "2011-02-28T23:30:23Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > Led Zeppelin, for the most part, though there are still a small handful of their songs that still resonate with me. (I only hear those songs once in a while when listening to the radio; I havent played any Zeppelin on my own for decades) I came in to post this. I didn’t listen to them much for a few years, and when I ripped my collection to MP3 a few months ago, I started in again. I can’t listen to much before changing the song. Strange, because I used to love them. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-used-to-love-this-what-was-i-thinking/572715/95 "2011-03-01T14:11:10Z")
I remember making a post about The Lost Boys when I was in high school and had seen it for the first time, about how great it was. I’d like to say I was just responding to the campier elements but let’s face it. I was behaving like any modern day teen with a Team Edward t-shirt. I still really like The Lost Boys, partly because of the nostalgia and partly because it’s just so bad it’s good, but not the same way I used to. ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-used-to-love-this-what-was-i-thinking/572715/96 "2011-03-01T15:19:14Z")
I went on a Princess cruise a few years ago, and they had _The Love Boat_ on a continuous loop. Jesus Christ. I used to watch the old Adam West _Batman_ show and had no idea that it was supposed to be a comedy. To me, it was straight-up action/drama. I also thought [KISS Meets The Phantom of the Park](http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/KISS_Meets_the_Phantom_of_the_Park_1978.aspx) was the coolest thing ever captured on celluloid. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-used-to-love-this-what-was-i-thinking/572715/97 "2011-03-01T15:35:14Z")
**Dark Shadows.** Literally ran home from school to see it when it originally aired. Now? My ass starts to itch before I can sit through a single episode. Not only does nothing happen in any given episode, nothing happens in any given week’s worth of episodes. **The Twilight Zone.** This may simply be a case of overexposure. The surprise endings lose their punch after repeated viewings. **The Beatles.** Definitely a case of overexposure. The Fab Four are just so …shrill. I still enjoy other people’s covers of their stuff, though. **Most Comic Books.** Some of the very well known stuff like Watchmen or TDKR and some of the Elseworlds stories still hold up, but your typical monthly installment from any ongoing series is drek. **The Thompson Twins** I really like them back in the mid-80’s. I even went to one of their concerts and remember having a good time. I still have tons of 80’s music and lots of it still entertains me. Eurythmics are still cool. Huey Lewis still makes me smile. I even still like Art of Noise. But for the life of me I can’t figure out what I liked so much about The Thompson Twins. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-used-to-love-this-what-was-i-thinking/572715/98 "2011-03-01T15:42:00Z")
I still like the Twilight Zone but sort of see what you mean. Also, when I watched eps I hadn’t seen before as an adult it was a lot easier to guess endings. Just pick the opposite of what they’re setting you up for. (Also why reading Agatha Christie books got boring after a time.) ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-used-to-love-this-what-was-i-thinking/572715/99 "2011-03-01T15:43:42Z")
ALF. I rolled on the floor at the crap that little alien got into. What was wrong with me? ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-used-to-love-this-what-was-i-thinking/572715/100 "2011-03-01T15:53:25Z")
Man, when I think of all the _garbage_ I wasted time watching when I was a kid. We had only six channels: three networks, PBS, and two local independent stations. I used to come home from school and watch stuff like _The Brady Bunch_, _The Monkees_, _Batman_, The Three Stooges and The Little Rascals, even _Sanford and Son_. I could have been reading a book or doing my homework (well, I did do that eventually), but no: watching the same syndicated episode garbage day after day for years. And then after dinner, _network_ garbage! I mean, we have tons of garbage television now, but I think if I were a kid now I’d come home and watch Turner Classic Movies or something. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-used-to-love-this-what-was-i-thinking/572715.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-used-to-love-this-what-was-i-thinking/572715.md?page=6)