# What do you miss about old school tv? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 8, 2014, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-miss-about-old-school-tv/700747 "2014-10-08T11:20:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2014, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-miss-about-old-school-tv/700747/81 "2014-10-09T21:18:13Z")
In Indiana, it was a guy named Sammy Terry. I’m embarrassed to say that it took several years before the pun dawned on me. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2014, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-miss-about-old-school-tv/700747/82 "2014-10-09T21:29:58Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#): > > Quality news reporting. I’m not sure about “quality” but at least they used to have actual news on. I remember moving to a town with “Action News” type stuff. I remember thinking: “This isn’t news, it’s just ambulance chasing. Where is the _news_?” On visits back I’d eat up watching news again. … But then the virus spread nationwide and real, actual news is now a dim memory. Stopped watching the local news and then after a while the national news. It was just too painful. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2014, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-miss-about-old-school-tv/700747/83 "2014-10-09T22:09:43Z")
The UHF station, that ran the old Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes, Charlie Chan & Godzilla movies on Friday nights. ---
**Author:** ![AZRob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/azrob/32/3003_2.png) [@AZRob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AZRob)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2014, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-miss-about-old-school-tv/700747/84 "2014-10-10T08:06:07Z")
> [@xizor](#): > > Not just the cartoons, but all the educational filler programming that they squeezed in between the shows. Such gems as Schoolhouse Rock, HELP! (Dr Henry’s Emergency Lessons for People), the Dough Nuts, or the weird thing in the tophat hankering for a hunk of cheese. Boy I must be old(er) because these really hit home 😛 So my teen daughter thinks I’m dim and hopeless at the best of times. But I started singing “Conjunction Junction” the other night, the wife joined in, and Daughter perked up, gave a quizzical smile and asked, “how do you know that? we sang it in school!” 😃 And thanks to Dewey Finn for, “\*you could talk about what you’d watched with someone at school the next day, and be reasonably certain they might have watched it. \*” ---
**Author:** ![Waymore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Waymore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waymore)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-miss-about-old-school-tv/700747/85 "2014-10-11T03:38:18Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > In Indiana, it was a guy named Sammy Terry. I’m embarrassed to say that it took several years before the pun dawned on me. I use to watch channel 4 religiously and I never realized Sammy Terry was a pun until I read your post. Mind blown. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-miss-about-old-school-tv/700747/86 "2014-10-11T03:48:09Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > 28 episode seasons. Hell, 26 episode seasons! > > (I’m old enough to remember _Bonanza_ running 32 or 34 episodes a season.) No joke. IIRC, doesn’t Breaking Bad have less than 32 eps for the entire series?? ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-miss-about-old-school-tv/700747/87 "2014-10-11T03:50:40Z")
I miss the weekend at Midnight Movies. I think that they were all horror, but, I can’t say for sure. They always had a scary host. One had a scary looking one named Count Gregore, with a bunch of bad puns. One of the channels had a local jeweler hosting it, live. The jeweler had a saleswoman from the store, with a set of DD cups, and they would zoom in on the ‘jewelry’ as she was holding it in front of her. She was later replaced by the owner’s not overly beautiful wife. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-miss-about-old-school-tv/700747/88 "2014-10-11T04:41:00Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > No joke. IIRC, doesn’t Breaking Bad have less than 32 eps for the entire series?? 1. ---
**Author:** ![oliversarmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/eb8c5e/32.png) [@oliversarmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oliversarmy)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2014, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-miss-about-old-school-tv/700747/89 "2014-10-11T05:09:40Z")
I miss[Kitirik](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF0InneA08k). And Cadet Don, but not as much. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-miss-about-old-school-tv/700747/90 "2014-10-13T21:26:21Z")
Y’know, I’m going to sound like a total “vinyl has the warmer tone, man!”-type old fart for saying this, but…I kinda miss CRTs and VHS, and their distortions. At least for some things. Hear me out. I mean, the hum of motors, the analogue signal buzz, the little waver of the picture, the equipment weight, the almost subliminal undercurrent of user _un_-friendliness behind the bezels _adds_ something—and, believe me, as loathe as I am to grant that the unplanned technological _flaws_ in a medium could become as notably a part of the art _as_ the content itself. It feels like saying _The Tempest_ loses something vital if you’re not reading it from a mouldering parchment.—there’s the kind of “grungy,” eerie quality you get from watching [old cyberpunk anime on a library-loan or convention-bought VHS](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsiepGvjjTM), rather than the [remastered, reworked digital version.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBqGC9sVBXY) There’s the familiar rhythms and warmth of old homemade tapes. The imperfections and relative crudity of some productions—like some Disney animation, even, for example—being veiled by the lower resolution and video interlacing, like gauze over a camera lens. Maybe it’s just the haze of nostalgia. Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve spent the better part of 20 years, basically growing up with, modern digital media and highly capable computers designed as consumer products, rather than specialist tools that “civilians” were making hesitant, unguided steps towards working with—familiarity and experience taking away a lot of mystique and discomfort. The “awe,” even. Not that I’d _want_ to go back if I could, mind—there’s so much to be gained by _not_ looking at film and TV “through a glass, darkly.” But I guess I can recognize that squinting through that murky old glass was an experience in it’s own right. Also, I miss when cartoon characters could still shoot people. Elmer Fudd and Race Bannon didn’t _exactly_ produce whole generations of slavering psychopaths and mass graves. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2014, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-miss-about-old-school-tv/700747/91 "2014-10-14T03:59:15Z")
Old style sitcoms and just a lot more show that were just “fun.” This may be a golden age of TV, but I’m not a fan of all these more serious dramas. I also miss the less cinematic style, more fixed camera set ups. Granted, this still exists somewhat–it’s only in movies where this seems to have gone extinct. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2014, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-miss-about-old-school-tv/700747/92 "2014-10-14T04:05:32Z")
> [@AZRob](#): > > Boy I must be old(er) because these really hit home 😛 > > So my teen daughter thinks I’m dim and hopeless at the best of times. But I started singing “Conjunction Junction” the other night, the wife joined in, and Daughter perked up, gave a quizzical smile and asked, “how do you know that? we sang it in school!” 😃 > > And thanks to Dewey Finn for, “\*you could talk about what you’d watched with someone at school the next day, and be reasonably certain they might have watched it. \*” “I’m just a bill, from Capitol Hill…” (I’m 36) ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2014, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-miss-about-old-school-tv/700747/93 "2014-10-14T18:47:09Z")
Something else: the hissing black and white snow you would get on a channel with no signal. ---
**Author:** ![Clarisse\_McClellan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Clarisse\_McClellan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clarisse_McClellan)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2014, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-miss-about-old-school-tv/700747/94 "2014-10-14T20:37:43Z")
ABC’s Wide World of Sports When TV Channels had nothing on the screen except the show. No superimposed channel numbers or initials, no crawls across the bottom of the screen, no previews of upcoming shows, no sponser’s names, just the show. News read without facial expressions, voice inflection, snarky editorializing or dramatic music. And when there was an editorial there was a big announcement “The following is an editorial opinion…” ---
**Author:** ![Annoying\_Buzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Annoying\_Buzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annoying_Buzz)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2014, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-miss-about-old-school-tv/700747/95 "2014-10-15T06:37:47Z")
> [@xizor](#): > > Not just the cartoons, but all the educational filler programming that they squeezed in between the shows. Such gems as Schoolhouse Rock, HELP! (Dr Henry’s Emergency Lessons for People), the Dough Nuts, or the weird thing in the tophat hankering for a hunk of cheese. > > Also, from the 70s, after school specials with shows aimed at kids and their problems. I vaguely remember Helen Hunt on LSD and Scott Biao as a teen alcoholic. About Schoolhouse Rock, etc, because they weren’t full shows, they didn’t have listed schedules. You never knew when you’d see one, or what it would be (to me at least, they were probably shown in a fixed pattern that was blindingly obvious to everyone else), so there was a sense of look-quick-or-you’ll-miss-it discovery to them. Watching them again on YouTube with my son is fun, but they don’t feel quite as special. ---
**Author:** ![john\_b\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9a28c/32.png) [@john\_b\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/john_b_2)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-miss-about-old-school-tv/700747/96 "2014-10-18T17:46:12Z")
I miss anthology shows (i.e. shows with no regular characters) of the Twilight Zone-Hitchcock-Suspense Theater kind, which kind of went out when color came in. The run a lot of them on digital channels and I’m amazed at the quality of the writing and acting in many of them. They were like little movies. Also missed: when TV series played out in something resembling real time, with no f/x, very little editing, by which I mean “cuts”, which enabled the viewer to actually follow a story rather than be dazzled by the technique or style in which it was presented. Good writing in general, especially from a time,–and I’m going back a long while–when rough language and sex talk were not allowed on TV. No, I’m not a prude, it’s just that TV writers of dramatic shows today seem to fall back on the same old same old rather than feel obliged to explore character, what used to be called the human condition. Yes, that was there years ago, while now shows are geared to a specific demographic and cater to the whims and fancies of mostly younger viewers. ---
**Author:** ![svd678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@svd678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/svd678)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-miss-about-old-school-tv/700747/97 "2014-10-19T05:42:57Z")
Variety shows, and music. (I even remember when there was good music on radio!) ---
**Author:** ![LynnM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b2d939/32.png) [@LynnM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LynnM)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-miss-about-old-school-tv/700747/98 "2014-10-19T11:56:14Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > I really don’t miss much of anything about old TV, to be honest. There’s a nostalgia about it, but looking back with some historical perspective, the quality and choice were nowhere near as good. C’mon, man–don’t you at least miss the Golden Era of TV Variety Shows–the 1970s? The Carpenters, Olivia Newton-John, John Denver, John Davidson, Mac Davis, Bobby Goldsboro, Andy Williams, Sonny and Cher, Jim Stafford, Flip Wilson, Glen Campbell, Donny & Marie Osmond, Barbara Mandrell, The Captain & Tennille, The Jacksons, Sammy Davis, Jr., Tony Orlando…and didn’t Bobbi Gentry host a variety show for a while? Personally, I miss Don Cornelius. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-miss-about-old-school-tv/700747/99 "2014-10-19T12:30:02Z")
Personally, I always hated variety shows and am happy they’re gone. > [@john\_b\_2](#): > > I miss anthology shows (i.e. shows with no regular characters) of the Twilight Zone-Hitchcock-Suspense Theater kind, which kind of went out when color came in. The run a lot of them on digital channels and I’m amazed at the quality of the writing and acting in many of them. They were like little movies. My first though reading this was “What about Tales from the Crypt?” but then I realized that was 20 years ago. That makes me feel super old. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-miss-about-old-school-tv/700747/100 "2014-10-19T13:34:43Z")
Reality shows and singing contests seem to have replaced variety shows. I wonder what the next wave will be… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-miss-about-old-school-tv/700747.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-miss-about-old-school-tv/700747.md?page=6)