Old TV shows: Has the market disappeared?

Growing up in the US in the 1960-70s, television was very limited. But even with the limited number of channels, many stations did not produce original content to fill all of their low viewer broadcast hours (weekday afternoons, Saturday mornings). Instead, there was a reliance on reruns of classic TV comedies, and old Hollywood comedic short subjects. For someone of my age, we became very familiar with “I Love Lucy”, “Little Rascals”, “The Three Stooges”, “Honeymooners”, etc. It seems to me (correct me if I’m wrong) these shows are no longer shown constantly on TV.

For younger people, are you intimately familiar with these shows, from repeat viewing?

The next part of my question - It seems to me that Hollywood has tried, somewhat recently, to make movie remakes of some of these to little success. Has the market for these titles died out? Is it that all of us who grew up watching these on TV don’t really care to see remakes in movie form, and that the younger generations just don’t know or care about these supposed icons?

This all comes to mind because I am aware of a Honeymooners stage musical that is in out-of-town tryouts with hopes of a Broadway run. My initial reaction is “good luck with that”, in that it seems to me that the producers may be over optimistic that there is anyone out there hungry for a Honeymooners revival.

Is it that Seinfeld is the current version of our Little Rascals?

I could watch “I Love Lucy” a half dozen times a day on the Hallmark channel; I don’t know about the other shows you list (“The Honeymooners” only had about 40 episodes, so a channel could go through those pretty fast, making it a poor choice for routine syndication).

Well, those weren’t “classic TV comedies” back then, really, they were just the things available that were affordable for the local stations. Over time, of course, stations learned that people preferred one show over another, but for the most part, that stuff was just available and affordable at first. I mean, Room 222 was on in the afternoons in 1978, and I doubt there are many who remember that show today. There were plenty of shows offered up in syndication, but many only emerged as “classics” thanks to that process. Star Trek is prolly the quintessential example of this sorting, IMO.

Life in 1987 was a lot more like 1957 than 2017 was like 1987, too. Plots that revolve around not being able to tell someone something (no phone, don’t know where they are, etc.) are ridiculous today, for instance, and mostly unrelatable to modern audiences.

I don’t have cable at home, but have access to multiple OTA digital subchannels that are largely dedicated to older TV series (with various series that go in and out of rotation on the various channels.) The Honeymooners is one that I’ve seen on one of those channels. Others that I specifically remember watching at least once include* Mr. Ed, Car 54 Where Are You, Bringing Up Father, Make Room for Daddy/Danny, My Little Margie, I Married Joan, Leave it to Beaver, Donna Reed, Terry and the Pirates, The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Gilligan’s Island, My Three Sons, Andy Griffith, Family Affair, The Addams Family, The Munsters*, and surely others that aren’t off the top of my head.

The location I work at does have cable, and I’ve seen one channel that has a block of I Love Lucy episodes in the morning, and other channels that show I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched, The Flying Nun, Maude, and others. I don’t remember anything cable or broadcast recently airing The Little Rascals/Our Gang or The Three Stooges, though.

There are plenty of channels dedicated to old TV shows from the 50s, 60s, and beyond. They include MeTV, Antenna TV, Decades, Heroes and Icons (H&I), etc. You can get them over the air, but some cable companies run them, too.

Well, if you don’t mind my say, that’s slightly different. In today’s media market you can “find” just about anything.

?? Which television channels do the shows need to be on other than the channels that they are on before it counts as being on?

I remember non-prime time hours filled with soap operas and reruns. Now it seems to be talk and entertainment news shows.

The Honeymooners has been running on MeTV every Sunday night for several years.

I didn’t know that - thanks.

Little Rascals and Three Stooges were short films meant to run before the feature in movie theaters before TV was common. I think that’s different than actual TV shows like Honeymooners or Dobie Gillis. They used to fill the role of reruns in the 60s before reruns were really a thing. I’d love to see them on TV, but I only seem to watch them on Youtube now. I’d like to see more silent stuff, too, for that matter. There were quite a few shorts made in that era. Can’t say I’ve seen much Looney Tunes on TV in a while either, but I don’t have cable, so I’m just going by what I manage to catch over the antenna.

Even though many old shows are available in various avenues, I’m not sure how many of the new generation are getting hooked on them. Those of us who grew up in the pre-internet ages watched old shows because there was little else on and not much else to do. I remember watching reruns of “My Three Sons” and “The Odd Couple” after school because there was nothing more interesting on. What kid is going to watch “The Odd Couple” now with the infinite entertainment choices they have available?

That’s why I can’t figure out why they bring back a show like “Hawaii-50”. The young generation never watched an episode, and the old generation isn’t going to get any nostalgia from watching the reboot that is similar in name only.

When I was a kid in the late 70’s-early 80’s every morning in the time while I was getting ready for school they did air Little Rascals, Three Stooges, Looney Tunes, Abbot and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, etc. (along with most of the full-length shows I mentioned in my earlier post.)

As Darren Garrison notes, most of the channels which are dedicated to old TV programs are now syndicated, but they’re primarily run on local TV stations secondary digital channels – when broadcasters switched to digital broadcasting, each station was also able to broadcast several additional feeds (so, Channel 7 is still the primary feed, but they also have channel 7.1, channel 7.2, etc.)

At first, local stations weren’t sure what to put on those channels (for example, some would just put up a continuous feed of the local weather radar). Networks like MeTV and Antenna TV developed, to provide the local stations with content to fill those secondary channels. I know that MeTV, for example, is now available in most U.S. markets, though finding it can be a bit of a challenge (and not all cable companies carry all of their local stations’ secondary digital channels).

A few years ago, I had a job interview with Weigel Broadcasting, the company which produces MeTV, and also operates an independent station in Chicago (above and beyond MeTV). The program on their local station is dominated by syndicated re-runs of network TV shows (especially comedies), and the station almost exclusively carries shows from the past 20 years (including, yes, Seinfeld). The program director told me that, once a former network show gets to be more than a few years old (with a few exceptions, like Seinfeld), ratings for those syndicated reruns drop dramatically…which is why stations regularly shift to shows which are “new to syndication,” and is also why those older shows that you mention in your OP have been relegated to those secondary digital channels.

The Three Stooges runs off and on on Antenna TV. Currently they’re on early Sunday mornings between 3:30 and 5:00. The good thing about being on Antenna TV is they don’t interrupt the shorts with commercials in the middle. They only run in between the shorts.

The subchannels seem to be doing pretty well. In my local area, I have 8 out of the 10 in this list plus several more not listed. I get probably somewhere around 40 OTA channels here–the one with the most subchannels goes all the way up to x.6.

You’re lucky - I have AT&T U-Verse, which makes it a point not to show subchannels except when it’s carrying one of the big four networks (and there are some cities that do not get CW on U-Verse because of this).

As for the OP, there are a number of reasons:
First, a lot of channels that aired these shows were independent, but are now part of Fox or CW (or some smaller networks like Ion), and no longer have as much time as they did.
Second, it seems to me that the stations feel they could make more money by airing talk or small claims court shows than by airing old repeats. Another thing that takes up a time slot; the resurgence of syndicated daily game shows (Jeopardy, Wheel, Feud).
Third, as more and more shows become available for syndication, older ones get squeezed out. “Hey, New Girl is available - do we really need to air The Andy Griffith Show for the 100th time, especially the color ones?”

There seems to be a lot of moving parts in this thread. In the 60s and 70s there were no cable channels, let alone streaming or on-demand. You had affiliate stations showing the Big 3 networks, plus PBS, plus a few independent stations. The network affiliate stations showed syndicated shows on Saturday morning and weekday afternoons. The syndicated shows were cartoons, old TV series and some movie shorts (like Little Rascals, Three Stooges, etc.). But the shows mentioned in the OP as “classics” were mostly syndicated sitcoms from the 50s and 60s. In other words, wrapped-up sitcoms that were 5 to 15 years old.

If I limit my search to after-school weekday afternoons on my local network affiliate stations, I see The People’s Court, Let’s Make a Deal, The King of Queens, Judge Judy, Dr. Phil, Funny You Should Ask, Mom, Last Man Standing, Modern Family, Harry Connick and Steve Harvey. Of those, I would say TKOQ, Mom, LMS and MF are the equivalent to The Brady Bunch, Leave it to Beaver, Gilligan’s Island, The Monkees, etc. that we used to watch after school. Five to 15 year old sitcoms. The others are syndicated shows created now for afternoon TV. So, yeah, it’s a little different, with more fresh content.

Saturday morning really looks different, however. None of my local affiliate stations show cartoons on Saturday mornings. They show wildlife and animal shows, news shows and other shows that I can’t tell what they are from the titles. But no cartoons, classic or otherwise. I guess you just go to the Cartoon Network or cable channels for cartoons.

Before school, it looks like all of the broadcast stations show news programming. Not a single cartoon or comedy to be found.

I think Black and White TV is essentially dead. Younger People by and large dismiss things that are B&W. Older color shows form the 90s (and maybe the 70s and 80s) will find an audience if they are available on Netflix. Friends is a good example. It became available on Netflix and suddenly there was buzz all over the Internet about it. For a not small number of people Netflix=TV

I watch METV Where do I watch MeTV in Boston? and The Honeymooner is on every Sunday at 11:00 pm I Love Lucy is on too , Wagon Train is on right now and the from the 50’s . I love B&W movies and TV shows , Perry Mason wouldn’t work for me in color that would spoil the drama . I never really was a fan of Friends . I grew up in the late 40’s 50’s on a lot of cowboy shows , I still watch Gun Smoke . There is less stations
that have old shows , I lost 2 stations that I liked a lot ,they were taken off the air ! CRAP !