[Slight Hijack]
If you cross black & white with HD, won’t Hollywood implode or something?
[/SHJ]
They’re not going to be replaying any of these, unfortunately, so why not go for broke? The one, the only, ladies and gentlemen… The Gong Show!
Also, The Muppet Show, which was really exceptional entertainment for kids aged from four to eighty, bork-bork-bork.
A few gems from the 1950s:
M Squad, with Lee Marvin as a tough Chicago cop. “The opening scene was one of the best in TV history. Every week you saw the grille of Lee’s '53 Ford come wheeling around a city corner and the words ‘M SQUAD’ flashing onto the screen as the car is coming into full view.”
Highway Patrol, with Broderick Crawford
“Powerful patrol cars, fast motorcycles, and superheterodyne two-way radios combine to fight crime on the rural highways of America’s wide open spaces.” Probably the first use of “10-4” on the tube.
The Millionaire In which a reclusive gazillionaire awarded a check for a million bucks each week (on which the taxes had already been paid) to some ordinary person. The catch? They can’t tell anybody, except their spouse, where the money came from. “My name is Michael Anthony. For many years I was secretary to the late, fabulously wealthy, John Beresford Tipton…”
The non-HD part shouldn’t be a problem, especially since most people don’t have HD TVs. B&W is a bigger problem, but recent monochrome hits, like Sin City, or ones that might as well have been, like Saving Private Ryan and 300, and the cliched use of B&W in flashbacks may have trained the eyes of younger viewers to not immediately change the channel. Chicago has a station that mostly broadcasts old shows, and its program director seems to be reading from the same list as you guys. Maverick and Have Gun, Will Travel hold up the same way they did when they first ran, through the appeal of their leads. Beverly Hillbillies, at its best, can be placed against the works of Voltaire and Wilde and, though I toss my English Major cred aside saying this, Ionesco and Beckett could only wish their plays had been as absurdly funny as Green Acres.
MAS*H
One group that hasn’t been mentioned is talk shows. They aired repeats of Jay Leno’s early years on the “Tonight Show” last month, and it was pretty interesting to see what the monologues covered and what actors were hot at the time. Either E or Comedy Central used to air David Letterman’s NBC shows, and in both sketch quality and guests they blew away his present work. Wouldn’t you love to see Johnny Carson’s best shows, or relive how goofy Joe Franklin was? It would also have the added appeal that none or very little of this material has ended up on DVD.
Ooooh.
Never heard of it, but my mind is boggling over all the twisted implications that it is conjuring up.
Alot of the series people have suggested air regularly on Sky Digital Satellite in the UK and Ireland.
Quantum Leap is owned by Universal. It’s been rerun on the Sci-Fi Channel. Universal owns NBC. In the unlikely event they would start showing old reruns, NBC would be the most likely over the-air-outlet.
Oh, God yes. So much of the magic and mysticism was left out. You have Morgaine cringing like an arranged bride on her wedding night in the Kingmaking ritual, they completely skipped over the importance of Morgaine’s marriage (as you may remember, it’s how she returned to her priestess roots) and Gwydion was portrayed as a thug rather than the Machiavelli that he was.
I’ve found people who have read the book hated it, and people who haven’t read the book thought it was good.
I want them to redo it…properly.
Absolutely, Positively,
The Wonder Years
Been waiting forever for it out on DVD, and it seems the music rights are still snagging it up.
Oh, I thought of a show I haven’t thought of in years but adored when it was on: Tales of the Gold Monkey. Anyone remember that one?