Get Smart was a favorite when I was a kid, and it still cracks me the hell up.
Two of my favorite shows from the 1970s were mentioned by the OP: Emergency! and WKRP in Cincinnati.
I was in grade school when Emergency! first aired. I bought the first season of the show on DVD a few years ago – it’s still enjoyable, but as with a lot of TV series and movies from that time period, the pacing feels just glacially slow by current standards. Johnny and Roy pull up to an incident site, and there’s a good 30 seconds of them getting out of the truck, getting their gear out, and walking over to the victim. If it were made today, it could easily be a half-hour show instead of an hour, simply by trimming a lot of those long scenes.
I was in high school for WKRP, and I think that, generally, most episodes are still pretty funny, too, though some of the sources of the stories and the humor feel somewhat dated now (such as Herb getting away with being a rampant horndog, and Jennifer’s rich old sugar daddies).
Nobody has mentione Barney Miller yet! There was some clever writing in that show.
Remember when someone protested against a local bakery that was making pornographic pastries? They never described them, nover showed them. But you would see folks reactions when they opened the box of goodies. I think it was Jack Su who said “I never would have thought of putting poppyseeds there!”
Or the one on which a woman vandalized a nude painting, from the 1920’s, on display at an art gallery. She was objecting to the “immorality” of it Barney looked at the old lady, looked at the painting, and did the math, realizing the old lady was the model, and all these years later she was embarrassed by what she’d done in her youth.
I still watch buck rogers and the original battlestar galaticia knight rider and bonanza and for the first time in 20 years I caught an ep of the A-team . …… but for me its the reverse I find I have appreciation the older shows from the 50s-80s that I didn’t have when I was younger like the waltons
But I still cant stand “the biggest louse on the fairy”" (a cousin renamed grandmas favorite show and I still call it that )
I’m a little annoyed by how long I had forgotten about WKRP. I doubt I’ve even seen the show for 20 years prior to this last couple of months. I only stared my re watch to settle a bet regarding the very first rock song Johnny Fever ever played on WKRP. (Turn it up and click the link.)
You know, I’ve never really watched Barney Miller. I’ve caught several of the episodes here and there but I’ve certainly never performed a systematic watch through of the series. Detective Dietrich in particular always seemed more of a plot device and exposition dump than a real character. Most of it just seemed kind of stale to me but I should probably give the series another shot before commenting further.
Not really from my childhood (it was in reruns then) but one of the secondary channels is showing Dennis the Menace episodes. Poor Mr. Wilson! What I didn’t remember from back then is the right thing always happens, even if it makes Mr. Wilson lose face or some money. The plot twists are quite inventive, at least for the day.
Another one in a similar vein is The Andy Griffith show. Sometimes it’s relaxing to go back to a much simpler time. Stick to the B&W episodes though.
Several of my favorites have already been mentioned, but in addition I have affection for old SF - the original Star Trek, of course, but also the TV version of Logan’s Run, the 1975 version of The Invisible Man both of which I have on DVD now. As well as others up through the 1990’s (by which time I was an adult).
I’ve only ever seen the late 50’s-early 60’s one with Jay North, is that the one you mean? I WAS a child at the time, but even then I thought Jay North was grossly miscast. Dennis is supposed to be a little ankle-biter whirlwind of energy, and Jay North was far too old, too stiff, too bad an actor to play the role. He stood there with his arms at his sides - ‘gee, Mr. Wilson!’ - in every episode like a statue carved from wood.
Timely thread for me. I’ve been rewatching Perry Mason, which my parents and I always watched when I was in grade school. Raymond Burr is the famous attorney, fresh from his role as the bad guy in Rear Window.
The first season is a real eyeopener. In the latter episodes, Mason is efficient and somewhat emotionless. Della Street (played by gorgeous Barbara Hale) sits quietly off to one side trying to look interested. Of course, the one person you can be sure is innocent is Mason’s client. The shows usually ended with a courtroom reveal.
In season one, Mason is much more energetic and emotionally expressive. Perry and silver-haired detective Paul Drake (William Hopper, son of columnist Hedda Hopper) often find the murderer before the case ever gets to court. Perry sometimes wears a hat, and you occasionally see him at home in his bathrobe. (!) In one that I watched today, he’s sick at home on his sofa, and Della gives him medicine on a spoon and fluffs his pillows. WTF?? And in another season one show, an exhausted Perry flops down in an armchair at his office and Della rubs his shoulders! I read on IMDB that in the first season the writers hadn’t decided on the character of Perry and Della’s relationship.
The show is also fun to watch for the cars, the Los Angeles exteriors, the clothes (Della’s petticoats and gloves-- she’s always putting on and taking off gloves). If you remember this show give season one a look. On Amazon streaming.
I loved and still love WKRP. “As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!”
Never cared for Carol Burnett.
SNL. The old ones, the new ones, doesn’t matter. I was five years old when it premiered. I wasn’t really allowed to watch it but when I’d spend the weekend at my grandparents’ house I was allowed a small black and white television in my room so I probably started watching around age eight or nine.
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Batman: The Animated Series
Most of the stuff I loved as a kid still holds up. I can only think of one exception: My Favorite Martian, which is pretty bad.
But my favorites (Outer Limits, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Get Smart, Star Trek, The Americans, Ed Sullivan, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Beany and Cecil, The Defenders, et al.) still hold up.
Very, very true!!
My actual childhood took place in the 50s, so the shows I watched were Leave It to Beaver, Ozzie and Harriet, Father Knows Best, What’s My Line? and I Love Lucy… none of which I’d be interested in re-watching, with the possible exception of What’s My Line?.
But from my “late” childhood, I’d watch:
Dick Van Dyke
Twilight Zone
Outer Limits.
And I agree with some of you about Carol Burnett. I watched a few eps, and I can’t understand why I used to considerate it so funny. The only thing I’d still laugh at would be Carol wearing the drapes.
My dad has a handful of shows he watches on a pretty constant basis. So I end up watching them when I visit.
I’ve found that Bonanza and Gunsmoke were pretty well-made shows and they hold up well.
The Andy Griffith Show is another one. A solid sitcom where the jokes, the stories, and the characters are still funny.
MASH, on the other hand, has not aged well. I can remember liking it back in the seventies. But now I find it unwatchable.
And there’s Everybody Loves Raymond. That show was terrible when it was new and it’s still terrible now.
I will still catch a “Wild Wild West” episode whenever I can.
I loved Gomer Pyle, the spin-off from the Andy Griffith show.
I still enjoy MAS*H, although Hawkeye grates on me when he’s in preachy mode. Still sometimes he’s genuinely funny, and the other characters (minus Frank Burns, who’s pretty much a caricature) are always enjoyable.
Others childhood favorites I would happily re-watch - Cheers, Night Court, Family Ties. Cosby Show would complete the lineup nicely, but after recent revelations regarding its star, I don’t think I could ever look at it the same again.
I have the abbot and Costello TV series xmas special on dvd ……. I want the honeymooners one just to see Jackie Gleason’s alternate characters ……
MAS*H is definitely still a great show. I can put one on from the middle part of its run and just enjoy it. It has aged so well. I think it helps when shows are set in the past.