# Things you've rewatched after years and have held up, things that have not **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, movies\ **Created:** [May 2, 2024, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-rewatched-after-years-and-have-held-up-things-that-have-not/1001064 "2024-05-02T12:29:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2024, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-rewatched-after-years-and-have-held-up-things-that-have-not/1001064/61 "2024-05-03T05:35:24Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > I still can’t believe Buffalo Bill is Captain Stottlemeyer I know! ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2024, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-rewatched-after-years-and-have-held-up-things-that-have-not/1001064/62 "2024-05-03T06:36:20Z")
> [@Briny\_Deep](#): > > I tried **M.A.S.H.** on Hulu not long ago, which my family thought was hilarious and profound at the time. It’s neither, and the laugh track makes it utterly unwatchable now. This is sad! Some other shows of that era are still very good though, particularly **Mary Tyler Moore**. I still think the first seven seasons of **MASH** are great – the last four, very much less so. I have tried to watch it without the laugh track (“the way it was meant to be watched” as several friends have said) but it’s actually _more_ distracting to me not to hear it. Go figure. **Happy Days** – did I actually _watch_ that?? Especially in the later seasons when most of the characters basically gave up on actual fifties’ fashions. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2024, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-rewatched-after-years-and-have-held-up-things-that-have-not/1001064/63 "2024-05-03T07:16:08Z")
The first three, maybe four, seasons of **Happy Days** were great, and I find that they hold up well. Fifties expressions (“Man oh man, you got it made in the shade!”), typical teen hijinks, hot rods, Richie and his friends worried over who to take as a date to the sock hop, and so on. Fonzie was a side character, dispensing wisdom when asked to, or helping Richie out in some way. I could excuse the pinball game at Arnold’s (Bally’s “Nip It,” which was produced in 1973), but everything else was the fifties. Then it became **The Fonzie Show** , and the fifties references started fading into the background. Scott Baio came on board with his 1970s hairstyle (supposedly at a time when parents were complaining about their sons wanting to look like the Beatles), and Arnold’s was renovated to a 1970s look, and that was it for me. After seasons 3/4, the show does not hold up well, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2024, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-rewatched-after-years-and-have-held-up-things-that-have-not/1001064/64 "2024-05-03T07:28:37Z")
I agree with the comments that the Battlestar Galactica miniseries and (especially) the series continue to hold up. When the show was originally airing, it was seen as one of the most powerful explorations of our paranoia and dysfunction that had been made in the wake of 9/11. With the distance of time, it can be seen as having a wider thematic reach than a straight allegory, and it still works like gangbusters. > [@griffin1977](#): > > Though I remember watching these kind of movies, where the basic premise was the harassment (and flat out assault of) women as a kid and thinking “that’s not actually OK, why is this funny?” It’s not a slapdash 80s comedy, but I had a similar reaction when rewatching the 50s SF classic _Forbidden Planet._ I remember liking it as a kid, and the stuff I remembered liking (the mysterious ancient world, the revelations about the technology, the implications about how the dead civilization destroyed itself) was still extremely cool. But I had forgotten everything about how the all-male crew had treated Dr Morbius’s daughter Altaira, and it just made my skin crawl with its gross rapey vibe. Shocking to think that this kind of behavior, these attitudes, were so normalized as to be presented with a straight face and zero self-awareness. It was a sad realization to recognize that this former classic is now a dustbin title, a bit of homework for viewers who want to study the history of the genre, and appropriate for no one else. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2024, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-rewatched-after-years-and-have-held-up-things-that-have-not/1001064/65 "2024-05-03T13:17:40Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > How about _The Sting_? I loved that movie when it came out, but haven’t seen it since. I recently showed it to someone who’d never seen it. It definitely still holds up. Still holds up; **Forbidden Planet** – most of the special effects, even from the 1950s, are still great. If I had the budget I’d redo the obviously animated acenes of the Krell machines, but most of even those scvenes I’d keep. And the plot is still great. The most jarring thing is the total lack of digital el;ectronics. This id from that Analog past that’s inhabited by _Venus Equilateral_ and _Rocket Ship Galileo_ **The Dick van Dyke Show** — It was wonderfully written, and avoids the trite and cliche. **M.A.S.H** – the TV show, for the most part. The earlier episodes are iffy, but once it hit its stride it was great. I don’t find its preachiness off-putting **Arsenic and Old Lace** – still off-the-wall after all these years. Even people shaming it for various reasons can’t bring it down. **The Day the Earth Stood Still** – Again, even the special effects mostly stand up, especially the scenes of the flying saucer, and especially Gort’s laser-visor. There aren’t any black people in significant roles, but at least they’re shown in the crowd scenes, which is something, I guess. **2001: A Space Opera** — stands up well even against modern CGI. It’s soulless, but then again, it’s _supposed_ to be. **What’s Up Doc** – Still one of the funniest movies ever made. And, no, it’s _not_ a remake of _Bringing up Baby_. Don’t hold up: **All in the Family** – I tried watching this a while back. I loved it in its day, but I couldn’t continue watching it. **What’s up, Tiger Lily?** – Maybe I’ve been spoiled by Mystery Science Theater 3000, but The “commenting on the Bad Movie” shtick falls flat. Outdated and sexist jokes send my wife from the room if I put this on. Still funny in parts, but not the treat it once seemed. **The Time Machine** – A staple of my childhhood, this got ruined for me ages ago when I was watching it with someone who hadn’t seen it before, and who pointed out every flaw and stupidity along the way. A sort of nasty MST3K’ing of the film, with no jokes. Nowadays what ruins it for me is that Pal clearly didn’t appreciate the point Wells was making (or deliberately chose to ignore it). It’s the logical extrapolation of the Class System – “Eat the Rich” A lot of James Bond. I’m a huge Bond fan, but time has not been kind to the post-colonial and often sexist male fantasy. My wife is no fan. While I still admire the sets, photography, scenery, and “Fleming Sweep”, things like Sean Connery’s Bond trying to pass for a Japanese individual make you cringe. And Roger Moore was pretty awful until they dropped the juvenalia and returned Bond to his roots with **For Your Eyes Only** ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2024, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-rewatched-after-years-and-have-held-up-things-that-have-not/1001064/66 "2024-05-03T13:26:52Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > When the show was originally airing, it was seen as one of the most powerful explorations of our paranoia and dysfunction that had been made in the wake of 9/11. I remember the one story arc where they made the good guys into suicide bombers, trying to liberate themselves from the Cylon oppressors. At a time when IEDs in Iraq were making the news almost every day. A pretty risky play, but I think it worked in making you understand how someone could reach that point in a conflict they are losing. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2024, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-rewatched-after-years-and-have-held-up-things-that-have-not/1001064/67 "2024-05-03T13:29:49Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > But, “The Return of Starbuck”, the last episode of the last season, was actually the best episode in the entire franchise. Exactly! OG BG was something we watched because we were sure the next episode was going to be good. Then you’d get a few gems like Lloyd Bridges, then it would suck again. G1980 was sooo stupid, throwing away everything that was good and bringing in things no one asked for, like an adult Boxy and a child supergenius (Robbie Rist, no less! Cousin Oliver!) but I’m glad I stuck it out to see that episode. > [@Cervaise](#): > > Forbidden Planet. While the sexism is so creepy the movie could be in a thread "can a sexist movie still be “great” " I disagree that it isn’t watchable. If we’re going to throw that out, we have to throw out Mudd’s Women and most of TOS, and I’m not willing yet. ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2024, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-rewatched-after-years-and-have-held-up-things-that-have-not/1001064/68 "2024-05-03T13:31:29Z")
> [@Briny\_Deep](#): > > Some other shows of that era are still very good though, particularly **Mary Tyler Moore**. Agreed. We started a binge of MTM on the fiftieth anniversary of the first episode and went all the way through. It really didn’t feel dated in any significant way. There’s more attention to the idea that a single woman should find a man to marry than you would probably find in a show today, but that’s authentic to the period. Mary’s trying to navigate through that while living her own life. The message is pointing the way forward without being heavy handed. We just started the last season of a **Moonlighting** binge. I think it holds up pretty well, as I noted in another thread a few episodes after we started it. It eventually gets bogged down by the personal relationship stuff, but I understand why, and a discussion of that would be off topic, as it’s not a matter of the age of the show. And glancing through an episode guide, I think it looks as if the final season will get back on track with more casework. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2024, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-rewatched-after-years-and-have-held-up-things-that-have-not/1001064/69 "2024-05-03T13:39:02Z")
**Sanford & Son** is cringe-worthy today. The laugh track is horrible and some of the jokes are unacceptable. I saw an episode where Redd Fox tried hooking up Demond Wilson with a friend’s daughter (because she had money). The girl was overweight and most of the jokes were about fat chicks. ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2024, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-rewatched-after-years-and-have-held-up-things-that-have-not/1001064/70 "2024-05-03T14:04:20Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > The first three, maybe four, seasons of **Happy Days** were great, and I find that they hold up well. Fifties expressions (“Man oh man, you got it made in the shade!”), typical teen hijinks, hot rods, Richie and his friends worried over who to take as a date to the sock hop, and so on. Fonzie was a side character, dispensing wisdom when asked to, or helping Richie out in some way. I could excuse the pinball game at Arnold’s (Bally’s “Nip It,” which was produced in 1973), but everything else was the fifties. I’m actually kind of curious to revisit a few episodes of Happy Days, but there’s nowhere streaming it for free where I am at the moment. I remember loving it as a kid (and I rudely worked “Sit on it!” into my vernacular as an eight-year-old which, no) but I also seem to remember endless overacting and bland wholesome vagueness being the overall aesthetic. I caught the end of an episode about a decade ago while channel-surfing, and I was passing one of the Christian channels on the dial (this network would run the cleanest-of-the-clean sitcoms and had bus ads with the slogan “Television you can BELIEVE in!”). The last several minutes of the episode were literally just a pan around a congregation (in typical sitcom style, the entire church would fit in my office and had about twenty people) as the cast sang hymns with great enthusiasm. It rubbed me the wrong way…felt like it was abandoning any narrative movement to cater to the most “those were the days” conservative elements of the viewing audience. I know there’s a place for faith-based teevee for those who want it, but for a hugely popular sitcom it was alienating. ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3da27b/32.png) [@Gordon\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_G)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2024, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-rewatched-after-years-and-have-held-up-things-that-have-not/1001064/71 "2024-05-03T14:28:10Z")
I watched much TV as a kid circa 1960. A few years I watched some old episodes on YouTube. Have Gun Will Travel was the only old series that was almost tolerable. Movies are different. About half of the movies on my Top 65 List were released before 1987, including 4 from the 1940’s. (Almost all of the rest were between 1995 and 2007.) ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanubv.2/32/3260_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUBv.2)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2024, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-rewatched-after-years-and-have-held-up-things-that-have-not/1001064/72 "2024-05-03T17:10:52Z")
**Trading Places**. Don Ameche’s use of the word ‘nigger’ aside, it’s still funny as hell with a great cast, particularly Dan Akroyd’s Winthorpe. It was a favorite years ago and has only gotten funnier (to me) since having worked in the financial industry. ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2024, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-rewatched-after-years-and-have-held-up-things-that-have-not/1001064/73 "2024-05-03T17:20:24Z")
I saw _Animal House_ recently, and it does not hold up well. Aside from all of the problematic sexual and racial issues which have been thoroughly discussed in similar threads, it just wasn’t funny. The one thing I did like, after the typical question of what does the Karen Allen character see in the guy she’s dating, the ending text over says they eventually get divorced. I also recently watched all of the Lord of the Rings extended editions, and those do hold up. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2024, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-rewatched-after-years-and-have-held-up-things-that-have-not/1001064/74 "2024-05-03T17:43:59Z")
TV series: _I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched_ and _The Addams Family_ are still funny as ever. When I rewatched _Dark Shadows_ on SyFy I loved it. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2024, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-rewatched-after-years-and-have-held-up-things-that-have-not/1001064/75 "2024-05-03T17:54:20Z")
> [@veryfrank](#): > > The last several minutes of the episode were literally just a pan around a congregation (in typical sitcom style, the entire church would fit in my office and had about twenty people) as the cast sang hymns with great enthusiasm. It rubbed me the wrong way…felt like it was abandoning any narrative movement to cater to the most “those were the days” conservative elements of the viewing audience. I know there’s a place for faith-based teevee for those who want it, but for a hugely popular sitcom it was alienating. I’d be curious to find out what episode that was. I don’t remember _Happy Days_ ever doing that kind of thing. Sure, there was a vague sense that the Cunninghams were probably some flavor of traditional mainline Protestant (and I think Fonzie was explicitly Catholic), but I don’t remember the show ever putting a lot of emphasis on the religious lives of the characters. We certainly didn’t see them attending church regularly, although most of the audience probably took it for granted that they did. Funny thing about “Sit on it!” It was obviously explicitly introduced with the intention of becoming a catch-phrase. It first shows up in season 3, which was the season where the show moved from being a single-camera sitcom with a laugh track, to a 3-camera sitcom in front of a studio audience. The opening credits now feature the words SIT ON IT! appearing as graffiti on a wall, and the characters say it to one another several times starting from the first episode of that season. Even the very first time that it’s said, the studio audience roars with laughter as if this is already a beloved phrase. In other words, it’s not something that grew organically because it was a line that people responded to. Rather, it was a deliberate attempt to create the sense that this was a well-known and familiar verbal jab. We laughed at it because we were, essentially, told to laugh at it. I do have fond memories of _Happy Days_, but I suspect I wouldn’t find it as funny if I were to watch it today. ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2024, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-rewatched-after-years-and-have-held-up-things-that-have-not/1001064/76 "2024-05-03T18:14:53Z")
[quote=“WOOKINPANUBv.2, post:72, topic:1001064, full:true”] **Trading Places**. [/quote] The whole scene on the train, with everyone in over-the-top costumes and Ackroyd in blackface, is baffling for me. Never found that part funny, even when I saw it as a teenager and loved the rest of it. ---
**Author:** ![Topologist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/topologist/32/3208_2.png) [@Topologist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Topologist)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2024, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-rewatched-after-years-and-have-held-up-things-that-have-not/1001064/77 "2024-05-03T19:19:04Z")
My wife and I have been on an on-and-off nostalgia kick. We’ve rewatched all of **Laugh In,** **The Monkees,** and most of **Get Smart.** To us, they all held up really well. Get Smart in particular—the premise ought to be silly and cringe-worthy, but the writing was so good that it’s a pleasure to watch. But I was sad when I tried a while ago to rewatch some Marx Brothers movies. I just found the timing no longer worked for me, the pacing and delivery was too slow. As if it was something that worked on stage that didn’t translate to film. At least, it no longer met my expectations for how film comedy ought to work. Perhaps I’ve been spoiled by later screwball comedies, like **His Girl Friday,** which I love, and seem much faster paced. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2024, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-rewatched-after-years-and-have-held-up-things-that-have-not/1001064/78 "2024-05-03T19:28:19Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > Funny thing about “Sit on it!” It was obviously explicitly introduced with the intention of becoming a catch-phrase. It first shows up in season 3, which was the season where the show moved from being a single-camera sitcom with a laugh track, to a 3-camera sitcom in front of a studio audience. The opening credits now feature the words SIT ON IT! appearing as graffiti on a wall, and the characters say it to one another several times starting from the first episode of that season. Even the very first time that it’s said, the studio audience roars with laughter as if this is already a beloved phrase. When we were watching the original show, I remember my mom telling me that that was fifties slang. I understood her statement to mean that people were actively using the phrase in the 50’s and so it would be well known to people of her generation. With that said, it was a single mention from her, and she might have imagined it, so it is plausible that the phrase was an invention of the writers. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2024, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-rewatched-after-years-and-have-held-up-things-that-have-not/1001064/79 "2024-05-03T20:15:11Z")
I remember at the time asking my dad if people in the 1950s said “sit on it.” He said no, they said “stick it up your ass.” ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2024, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-rewatched-after-years-and-have-held-up-things-that-have-not/1001064/80 "2024-05-03T20:22:48Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > **The Day the Earth Stood Still** – Again, even the special effects mostly stand up, especially the scenes of the flying saucer, and especially Gort’s laser-visor. There aren’t any black people in significant roles, but at least they’re shown in the crowd scenes, which is something, I guess. There are only five credited Human actors. > [@echoreply](#): > > I also recently watched all of the Lord of the Rings extended editions, and those do hold up. Yep, and very well. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-rewatched-after-years-and-have-held-up-things-that-have-not/1001064.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-rewatched-after-years-and-have-held-up-things-that-have-not/1001064.md?page=5)