Ah, but that’s not an indication it hasn’t “aged well.” After all, that’s still topical today. It’s an indication your sensibilities on the subject have changed, perhaps.
I couldn’t.
One speech I liked was Sinclair’s bit regarding Why We Stay In Space, but it’s not as if the odd character gave the odd bit of florid exposition now and then; they all talk like Elrond, all the time.
Everyone but Garibaldi talks like Elrond, all the time.
My perception of the show wasn’t that we were laughing at the jokes that Archie made so much as laughing at Archie for making them.
I’m going to guess that Archie was in his 50s in the 1970s. That would put him at the age of my grandparents. While Archie is a caricature of that generation, he is spot on with some of his silly racial views. Both of my sets of grandparents were dead set against racism. Hated it. A sure way to get in trouble with my grandmother was to use the “n” word and she said that God created all races equally.
However, this same woman who was so enlightened said of the OJ Simpson case, “I think OJ is innocent. But you know those negroes do like to use knives, so maybe he is guilty”. My dad and I laughed our asses off at that one, not because my grandmother had excoriated black people with her wit, but because she let her simplistic racial stereotypes cloud her judgment. That sounds like something that Archie would say.
I guess my point is that we laughed AT Archie, and now the subject is so taboo that we can’t even laugh at those views anymore. We have to pretend that they don’t even exist. Are they less now than in 1975? Of course, and that’s because a lot of the old timers have died off. But go to some rural places in the Appalachians and the old south. There is certainly a fresh generation of racists out there.
And there are forms of racism that are far more subtle. I hear parents all of the time talk about “good school districts” and “A rated school districts”. Tell them that their precious white daughter will go to a school that is 78 percent black and watch them dance and squirm about how they “aren’t prejudiced, but” and give you another reason why that school is bad and that they are paying or scheming the system to get their kid into a “good school” that happens to be overwhelmingly white. I see this all of the time.
Good point IMO.
IIRC All in the family was extremely popular in Israel of all places. Which to me suggest that either Jews like a good Jew joke OR that they were laughing AT Archie as you suggest.
Yes he was. Bonanza was not enjoyable after finding out that Lorne Greene, in real life, was a Canadian who didnt like and was afraid of both horses and guns. That just spoils it completely.
Besides, nobody on the Bonanza show has any bullets. The people who made and who were on the show supposedly were all anti-gun and that is why if you look at their gun belts, nobody ever has any cartridges.
(Bonanza is worse than Barney Fife on the Andy Griffith show, because we knew Barney had at least 1 bullet, and we Actually saw Barney put the bullet in his pocket or in his gun)
Maverick, esp when James Garner was on , was more of a comedy or a spoof than a western. Bret was always acting ridiculous and didnt try to hide it.
Agreed on Northern Exposure, I would not be surprised to see everyone still at Cicely right now in 2009.
Our Gang became dated in the 1980s’, when kids stopped being allowed to be out on their own all day away from parents. Kids in America today do not have freedom anymore. No kid today would do any of the things the kids do in the Our Gang shows.
Yes, its hilarious, but VERY dated!!! I watch it to bring back old memories.
I can remember when big department stores, in America, and in London, were like that, which had the customer service and sales people and floor walkers, and where all the employees in a retail store wore either a tie or a skirt.
Today, it would be rare to find any department store in America that has enough employees on the floor, and even harder to find a department store where the employees are dressed either in a tie or skirt.
I dont think people today would even “get it”. Mary Hartman Mary Hartman would not last 2 episodes these days.
I dont think people today even know about “wax build up” or “yellowing”.
Also, people today are too uptight and conforming, and could never accept or be friends with neighbors like Charlie, Tom , Mary,
Nobody picked** Ben Casey** ?
I’ll second You Bet Your Life. Though the people that Groucho interviews are obviously products of that particular era, especially with the various professions that people hold (think Organ Grinder with Performing Monkey), his biting wit really hits the mark even today.
The Dick Van Dyke Show avoided contemporary cultural reference for the exact purpose of making sure the show would not appear dated in reruns. Obviously that was extremely effective.
Barney Miller also holds up with a very few exceptions, such as the already mentioned “wife accuses husband of rape”.
I don’t agree The Simpsons will hold up. I just saw the episode where Lisa becomes student body president. It obviously parodied Evita. How are younger people going to get that? The shows are loaded with things like that. (I admit that I never cared for the show. I just happened to catch it today.)
One show I don’t think has been mentioned is The Odd Couple. The only aspect of it that hasn’t kept up is the way the show was completely oblivious to the gay overtones. Nowadays, even if the characters were both straight, the scripts would acknowlege the appearance of two men living together possibly being gay (as was done with Joey and Chandler on Friends).
Yes Minister / Yes Prime Minister – proof that politics have always been the same…
The Looney Tunes cartoons have held up very well. I recently saw some, and they were as funny for me now as they were when I was little. And some of them were already 40 years old when I was little.
The show is gold standard for me not because of the acting, but because of the writing and the ensemble format that they employed; the acting is practically a non factor to me. I didn’t really use the guest stars as a measuring stick, which is why I used the phrase “not to mention”; I was trying to illustrate a point that the show was well acted, to refute your statement that the show was not acted well (save DeVito).
Batman did have some great guest stars, loved that show. I’ll see your Batman and raise you Columbo - that show had some real heavyweights guest starring in its early run.
Kaufman was mostly a one trick pony (his Vic Ferrari would be the exception), that happens a lot in a sitcom format, particularly with a less featured co-star (as opposed to the outright lead, whose character might be the title of the show).
The Wild Wild West.