The first time I watched Sports Night (after it was cancelled it was on reruns on comedy central) I didn’t get it at all. The rhythm was all ‘wrong’ there was no set up, punch line, pause for laughs dynamic. They would pump out a funny line and instantly on to the next joke. They didn’t have funny one liners they had funny conversations. I tuned it out for a few weeks then I caught it again. Suddenly it all made sense and I’ve loved it ever since.
Babylon 5 as I’ve mentioned in a few other threads I dislike CGI…well…I FREAKING HATE CGI. So a sci/fi show with CGI ships did not appeal to me. Neither did the avian hair styles that the Centauri wear. Also the Captain didn’t look all that impressive to me. Sort of sad and hound-dogish and I totally didn’t buy him in the action scene. Also another strike is that I saw one of the worst shows in the whole series (Infection) A tedious morality play that could have came straight from Star Trek which I had given up on at this point. A long long while later I caught another show this one was 1000% better. I started watching at the mention of a non-aggression pact which reminded me of WWII. It was a great show. Unlike Trek there was diplomacy and instead of a sudden reversing the particle stream saving the day ships got blown up. To top it off the ‘apology’ at the end was priceless. I started watching and I was hooked. It had everything that was lacking in Trek.
What shows have other dopers watched and changed their mind on?
West Wing. The first time I happened upon it, I thought it was unabashed liberal hubris. But a second episode, In Excelsis Deo, snared me, rivited me, and made me addicted to probably the best dramatic television series of all time. I now record every episode on Bravo so I can catch up.
The Practice. I watched a few episodes earlier on but just couldn’t get into the storylines. Too much inter-office drama for my taste. I started watching it again this season and am now a loyal viewer. The show has done a complete turnaround after they ditched about half the cast and added James Spader.
I think he’s single-handedly saved the entire show. If The Practice is cancelled, “Alan Shaw” needs his own series.
Firefly- I didn’t really like the train job episode that much, and didn’t really tune it to catch it as much as John Doe after it. I was working on the computer at the same time and the show didn’t catch my attention. The next week cured that. But I wonder how many viewers were lost by Fox’s insistance that they not start with the Pilot, and then use the worst episode of the lot.
Still, I somehow watched the next week and then was truly hooked.
I gave up in Star Trek: The Next Generation during the first season due to the rather bad acting and rehashed plots. Picked it up again later in Season 2 and it was much better.
Recently I watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the first time. It was the re-run of series premier, so I decided that I should watch it to see what the fuss was about.
I’m not hooked, but if it’s on I might watch it for a few minutes. That’s much more than I can say about any other adventure series on TV, so I guess it made a positive impression on me.
The Office - initially I only made it through about 15 minutes of the first episode. I didn’t figure out that it was supposed to be a parody of fly-on-the-wall documentaries, so the shaky camera style just annoyed me. None of the characters seemed particularly endearing, and the dialogue was so close to something I might actually hear in my own real life office (forced “witty” banter, creepy corporatespeak, and so on) that I was mystified that anyone would want to watch it as entertainment. But it was such a hit with some of my British colleagues that I gave it another shot after they explained the premise more clearly to this simple American.
King of the Hill would be another example of a show I consider an acquired taste–I used to occasionally catch it after the Simpsons and thought it paled in comparison, was too slow and not nearly as witty as its lead-in show…but nowadays I would rate it as far more clever and far less patronizing, with characters that actually have some semblence of depth. Both of these shows are quite subtle in their humor and I suppose that’s why they didn’t grip me right away…but in both cases I got hooked pretty quickly after people I respect pushed the DVDs on me.
NYPD Blue - I don’t like cop shows in which we’re forced delve into the personal lives of the characters. They’re too soap-opera-ish for me. I’m glad I gave this show a second whirl, though. Good stuff.
Family Guy - I thought it was awful the first time I watched it. Now I like it a lot more.
Most of the shows on Comedy Central I did not really like the first time. They took some warming up to. Especially “TV Funhouse”, “Reno 911” and “Strangers With Candy”. I thought they were exceedingly lame, but eventually I came around, and really enjoy them now.
A show I gave a second chance to and now HATE is “Deep Sea Detective” on some dish network. They had a pretty good episode on diving on a downed B-29 bomber in Lake Mead. I was fascinated (actually, as I recall, I was heavly steeped in homebrew), since I like airplanes and I used to live in Vegas and boat on the lake. All further episodes of this show have sucked Wombat genitalia. Dull, slow, ultra-repetitive with a creepy homo-erotic (in a bad way) vibe between the two “host/stars”. Its “Mustn’t See TV”.
Newsradio and Seinfeld. Figured Newsradio was just a rip of wkrp in cincinnati type show. Still hate the first episodes but fell in love with it after the characters rounded out more. Seinfeld bugged me because I didn’t think Jerry’s stand up was at all funny on the show. Still don’t. Was finally able to watch it after the “Gay” episode.
“Futurama”. I hated it when it originally aired on Fox, so I never watched more than two episodes. When it started running on Adult Swim, and I started seeing it every night instead of having to wait a week between episodes, I not only liked it but loved it. Now I’m a big fan, got the DVDs and everything. Always too late to the party.
Sex and the City – I was surfing channels one night and the witty dialogue caught my attention. But I think the next scene was something really, really graphic with Samantha. I wasn’t interested in what I thought was going to be “soft porn” so I kept surfing.
I don’t know what made me return to it, but it didn’t take long to get hooked and then eventually caught up with back episodes.
I wish I could see it all again for the first time!
The former had room for improvement and it quickly did improve. I found Roseann herself too crude at first but fell in love with her and the whole gang over time.
I never watched Cheers cause at the time I was giving up a drinking problem that started in many a Boston bar. I never watched Frasier cause it was a spinoff of Cheers and I couldn’t hear Kelsey Grammar talk without thinking of Sideshow Bob and that was too distracting.
I started catching Frasier in reruns. I love it. David Hyde Pierce is a genius.
My mother hated Three’s Company and criticized me for watching it. When she was dying of cancer, she fell in love with the show and John Ritter, who made her laugh. Thanks, John.
Law and Order. In the Jerry Orbach/Chris Noth years I thought, who talks like that, in that overly hard-boiled detective delivery? Man, that’s annoying.
Now I love it, including all the old espisodes, and not just because you can’t escape the reruns!!
Quantum Leap My brother and sister loved it. I couldn’t see what they saw in it. Then, somehow, I turned around and started watching it on USA (when they aired reruns 6 times a day)
Buffy, I didn’t catch on until season 5.
Friends Took forever for me to give a chance to.
ER I didn’t start watching until season 3 or 4. The first few seasons, which were arguably the best, just didn’t get my attention.
