Not till 86, but I’m not sure that really signifies much TBH - overnight TV tends not to exactly be high-quality. I’ve no idea what English stars of the 60s loved. The American market is bigger, so it pays more, so presumably a lot of them wanted to work there just like they do now.
UK TV isn’t more intelligent - loads of it is dumb and always has been, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. TBH I don’t think you can really judge it from the bits you got to see in the US. I mean, you didn’t even know we had multiple channels back then.
No, UK tv was more intelligent just based on some demographic realities. They never ran series into the ground as if it never had to end. They seemed to be attuned to artsy stuff. The US audience was so vast it just couldn’t have the same reality as the UK. A “series” in the US and the UK meant totally different things, and that was based on not milking golden calves forever, which makes less intelligent tv IMO.
But then the US did have its pockets of creativity.
Not that different from the U.S., then. With few exceptions (such as live news or weather), there’s very little new/original programming that airs much later than midnight or 1 a.m., either on the broadcast networks or on cable. Most of it winds up being repeat showings of series that had aired during prime time that evening, re-runs of old series or movies, or infomercials and home shopping.
Actually, I think it was more an attempt to cash in on established stars.
Andy was lucky because he came to the attention of Danny Thomas, who knew he could carry a sitcom on the basis of his performance in No Time for Sergeants. Dick van Dyke got noticed by Carl Reiner while he was appearing on Broadway in Bye-Bye, Birdie.
Fred MacMurray is something of an exception, both because the show was called My Three Sons and Fred himself was, I think, better known for playing dark roles in movies like Double Indemnity and The Apartment. (He was, however, also Disney’s “Absent-Minded Professor.”)
In the case of Mary Tyler Moore, the title was pretty much a foregone conclusion because it was produced by MTM Enterprises, which was owned by Mary and her then-husband Grant Tinker.
But… You said you didn’t want to live in the UK because of the BBC, then when I pointed out that we’ve had more than the BBC for decades, you said you were old. And actually it was more than 2 channels even in the 60s.
Some of our TV shows ran for decades, and not just the soaps. They had short seasons, but they came back every year. Last of the Summer Wine, a sitcom, ran for 37 years.
It’d be nice to think our TV was more intelligent, but perhaps that was just the stuff you guys got. Also it’s surprising to hear that as a reason for not liking our TV so much you wouldn’t want to live here!
My choice about where I would have wanted to live will be in abeyance until I get an actual detailed rundown of the channels, hours and variety of the various networks, and options I might have had.
Fred’s character was named “Steve Douglas.” It was the early '60s, so he was (of course) an aerospace engineer.
As MAD Magazine once pointed out, “Steve” is a good name because it “sounds more American. Can’t afford to offend the American Legion!”
I mean, look at all the great leading characters named “Steve” in American popular culture. Steve Douglas, Steve Canyon, Steve Austin, Steve McGarrett…
Huh? You didn’t want to live in the UK as a kid based on what you thought you knew about “the BBC” back then. How would giving you extra information now change your opinion then?
A “detailed rundown.” This is a discussion board - I am not your staff.
Yeah. These days there can be some decent cop shows and stuff on in the small hours, old episodes of course but it can be good to catch up on them. But loads of channels show crap or turn into shopping channels.
For a while in the 1980/90s BBC2 turned its overnight platform to The Open University, which is a distance university that’s actually well-regarded. They broadcast lectures and some discussion panels and demonstrations of science experiments for their students to record and watch later. It was great TBH - as an insomniac child I learned some really esoteric stuff from there!
The UK soap Coronation Street has been running since 1961. Doctor Who has had two runs that have both lasted more than a decade. Jonathan Creek, Midsomer Murders, and Hollyoaks have both been on since the '90s. Those are shows that are still being made - there’s of course stuff like All Creatures Great and Small, Foyle’s War, The Vicar of Dibley, Rumpole on the Bailey, which all had 10 year runs, or longer. And that’s just fiction. When you add in stuff like news programs (Panorama started in 1953) game shows (Mastermind debuted in '72) and children’s programming (Blue Peter has been on-air since 1958) it really highlights how much you don’t know what you’re talking about.
I doubt any of the series you name have suffered such dramatic losses of quality as American ones that have been around for years, have they? I watch a lot of British TV, and I’ve never felt any long-running series has gone so far downhill.
I’m trying to think of a show with an established star who used their first name, and who wasn’t the calm at the center who needed the eccentrics on the show, though. Who was basically a lunatic.
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