What older TV series have aged the best/worst when watched in reruns?

Cafe Society
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In the All in the Family thread kingpengvin remarks at its surprising relevance today:

And it’s true: even though it was probably the most topical show that aired to that date and is completely a piece about a blue collar family in Queens in the 1970s (i.e. you couldn’t imagine the Bunkers if they were upper middle class or living in Los Angeles) it’s still funny and fresh today. It’s still funny and the key issues are about a family that bickers over money, politics, religion, worldview in general, etc., so even references to Carter and Nixon and earning $5.50 per hour as a loading dock foreman don’t detract from the enjoyability.

OTOH, Mary Tyler Moore was a megahit at the same time and save for some memorable comic moments it’s- to me at least, all taste being subjective- almost unwatchable. Most of the plots are “eh” and Mary seems a bit of a ditz and the workplace hijinks are removed from today and the like.

My list (other than the above of course)

AGED WELL

Sanford & Son- in my completely subjective opinion one of the funniest shows ever on the air. Fred Sanford/Redd Foxx was a hysterical combination and again the humor was driven from characters and good writing and great comic acting. Most of the cast had no real acting experience- Aunt Esther, Bubba, Woody, etc., were all Chitlin’ Belt comics (Grady was the exception- Whitman Mayo was a stage actor) but they all had moments that were just flipping brilliant and still make you laugh out loud on the 199th viewing. (“Pop, what’s that horse doing in the kitchen?”)

Barney Miller- I can’t put my finger on what makes this show so timeless, but it is. They process criminals on manual typewriters, they dress from the 1970s, many of the episodes have Bicentennial or NYC bankruptcy themes, etc., but it’s still funny and fresh and vibrant.

Roseanne is much more recent than AITF of course (Bush1/Clinton era) but also has aged very well. Again it’s a blue collar family, this time the midwest, and while there’s not as much “ripped from the headlines” plot they do make reference to (then) current events, but the theme of a family arguing and struggling and ultimately sticking together are universal and the humor comes more from the characters than wacky events. (I’m stripping off the last “lottery winner” season which eviscerated the show of both comedy and believability- I could even believe them winning the lottery and it may have worked but the episodes sucked [Jim Varney as a prince?] and then had the single worst final episode of any show ever.)
AGED BADLY:

Happy Days- IMO it was never a more than mediocre show but it’s hard to figure out why it was such a megahit. It was set in Milwaukee but could as easily have been Cleveland, Miami, Boston or Tel Aviv for all the difference it made. Fonzie- a quasi-literate chauvinist- was for some reason it’s impossible to recall a major sex symbol (not to hate on Henry Winkler who is an awesome actor but the character was somebody you’d drive away from your daughter at gunpoint).

Friends- even though it only ended a few years ago it’s just very stale, if only to me. I don’t care about the characters and the arcs and the stories and characters seem increasingly contrived and boring.

St. Elsewhere- admittedly most dramas don’t age nearly as well as most comedies, but I’ve been watching this recently on late-night reruns and while I loved it in first run the drama and appeal just aren’t there anymore. A part of it is it’s so badly dated: AIDS is a death sentence and you can possibly get it from handling a HIV+ person’s food, the “machines that go ding!” and the computers all seem at best quaint, and the magic just seems to have evaporated.

Sidenote: I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the shows I listed as having aged well were all shot on video as opposed to film. Even though ALL IN THE FAMILY aired almost 40 years ago it seems somehow fresher in look than Friends. YMMV.

What would be your pics for aged well/aged badly? (I started to add in Music Videos, but I couldn’t think of any from the 1980s that aged well.:D)

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Hello Sampiro,

Over this side of the pond, ITV3 are showing reruns of Ironside and I must say that the themes and approaches in there do seem to have stood the test of time pretty well. :slight_smile:

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aged well

monty python
the untouchables

aged poor

the prisoner

never good

the a team

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Happy Days was a direct, equal, and opposite reaction against hippiedom and all that; unlike All in the Family, which in part took the counterculture down a notch (among many other things, before I get flamed), HD simply pretended that the 1960’s never existed at all. I loathed it back then for that, and I still do, even tho I later came to see it mainly as a symptom of such thinking more than anything else.

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It’s so funny, Sampiro - I’m one of those people who doesn’t notice user names, but there’s some grammatical twist in your prose even when you’re not being funny that makes me think “I bet that’s Sampiro” and scroll up and lo!

The boyfriend has been watching the Dick van Dyke show, which he swears to me is funny - the bits I’ve seen are really very modern. I don’t want to horn in on his thing, though. :slight_smile:

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I think that Friends has aged poorly for the same reason that Seinfeld has aged poorly.

I think that MAS*H has held up fairly well. Of course, it was a period piece to begin with, so that probably helps.

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I find the elements I initially liked still hold up, but I’ve failed to acquire the age & wisdom to finally appreciate what I didn’t the first time: The Rockford Files is still “The Angel Show,” and St Elsewhere is still “The Dr. & Mrs. Craig Show.” Poor Jim got dragged behind cars and Jack got raped for nothing, if it was for the sake of my viewership.

Green Acres is still great. Sadly, I lose interest in Bob Newhart before the first commerical break.

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Except that Seinfeld has aged very well. Still highly watchable, still very funny. The clothes and technology are dated, but the humor is mostly timeless.

Home Improvement has aged terribly. It was one of the highest rated shows for a while, but I defy anyone to sit through an episode now.

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The Lucy Show has done both. The first 3 seasons, set in Danville, hold up pretty well. Lucy’s a widow with 2 kids living with her divorced old Navy pal and her son. The only really dated aspects are Mr Mooney being in charge of Lucy’s finances (because of her late husband’s will) and the fact that neither woman really considers taking a job (for more than one episode) and just rely on Lucy’s trust fund and Viv’s alimony. Lucy does eventually take a permanent job at the bank.

Then she & Mooney moved out to California and it become another show in all but name. Lucy turns into a single “career gal” (doing the same job a woman 30 yrs her junior would do), and the show devolves into one long sketch involving the latest celebrity guest or fad. Consequently these episodes are virtually unwatchable 40+ years later, unless you have an extensive knowledge of mainstream '60s pop culture.

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MASH and the Norman Lear shows are virtually unwatchable now (except for Sanford and Son, which coasted more on Redd Foxx’s persona than on Norman Lear’s helmsmanship).

The Mary Tyler Moore Show had very few references to then-current events, and has aged pretty well if you ignore Mary’s wardrobe. I still get a chuckle out of WKRP in Cincinnati.

Rocky and Bullwinkle is problematic. So much of it is hip beyond words and before its time, but I can’t watch it without falling dead asleep. I never have that problem with Simpsons or King of the Hill.

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MASH is about the only rerun I watch with any regularity. I think the final episode was before I was born and I still feel it is one of the best shows ever made. Some reasons I still find it appealing; I have only ever watched it in reruns (might make it easier), as said above it is already a period piece, and any given show can be either a comedy, drama or both so it keeps your interest.

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Aged Well: Wonder Woman (when set in WW2). The ones that fast-forwarded to the 70’s stank. But, the WW2 ones paid great detail to sets and costumes. I could even see it shown in a history class to show how Americans lived during that time period, and I regularly use it in Sociology classes to show both the contrast with sexist attitudes of the 60’s and the birth of the feminist movement of the 70’s.

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Whenever I happen to catch a “Golden Girls” episode, I’m surprised by how damned funny it still is.

I also still enjoy “Friends,” but I’m an unabashed “Friends” geek.

Old “Buck Rogers in the 23rd Century” is bad. Bad bad bad.

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I think MAS*H has aged well, but I’m a fanboy so what do I know? :wink:

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I’ll have to disagree with the OP. I can’t bear to watch All in the Family now.
It seems both sad and mean. Or at least when I tried watching it again. Just not funny.

Red Dwarf on the other hand, still has me chuckling, despite the fact that some of the jokes seem to be set up light-years in advance. You get the feeling that the cast is having fun with their characters.

I don’t wish to spoil my memory of it by actually watching the episodes again, but I am thinking that The Avengers with Diana Rigg as Emma Peel might hold up well.

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I’m still amazed at how good Frasier still is -

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My mother’s favourite show is Bewitched, but I don’t think I’ve ever cracked a smile at the jokes - I don’t know whether this is because it’s not a very good show or because the humour is just so, so dated, and a bit lame.

The most dated thing about Bewitched, however, is the sexism that comes up every now and again, and the fact that the husband is an almighty jerk and Samantha just seems to put up with it because she’s his wife. The same thing comes up in I Dream Of Jeannie.

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On the other hand, my wife works for an underfunded hospital in a largely depressed part of town and still finds the the show to ring true. Obviously not getting AIDS from handling food but the general atmosphere of the show. Which is kind of funny since you cite a couple blue collar setting shows as holding up and she still sees “truth” in antiquated equipment and crumbling building infrastructure.

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Two that have aged well despite being nearly fifty years old:

**Get Smart **- Slapstick with a good dose of cleverness. Still funny as hell to me.

The Dick Van Dyke Show - Still emits an air of sophistication. And an All-Star cast.
mmm

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I have been watching lots of re-runs lately. Namely

**Mission Impossible **-- Without CGI special effects, the first four seasons have held up quite nicely. Better with Martin Landau and, later, Leonard Nimoy. Once Barbara Bain left, it seemed to struggle.

Outer Limits - Some episodes are shockingly timeless, even with the looming “Red Plague” of communism. Only two seasons to watch but they are all worth while.

Hitchcock Television - Interesting to watch as there is a LOT that is not timely at all but many of the stories involving abject irony are still great to watch. I also enjoy the occasional great movie star showing up in seeming bit rolls (Mary Astor, Franchot Tone, Claude Raines…) still sparkle.