…would you be reluctant to watch again if it came out on DVD, because it couldn’t possibly be as good as it is in your memory?
For me, it’s Wild Wild West, which was one of my favorites. I wasn’t too young to not recognize the greatness of Robert Conrad’s ass, though that was only one small element of the appeal of that show.
(Thank god they’ve never made a big screen update of that with all kinds of CGI because that would really suck.)
Actually, Wild Wild West holds up pretty well.
For me, it’d probably be The Aquanauts, a show about a couple of skin divers. It was aired in 1960-61, and quickly showed me the concept of “jump the shark” (decades before “Jump The Shark”): The lead actor (Keith Larsen, who I though was pretty cool) left the show (I thought he was fired, but just discovered he had inner ear problems and couldn’t shoot the underwater sequences) and was replaced by Ron Ely (later to play Tarzan). The show’s title was changed to Malibu Run, but it no longer held any interest after that.
I’d expect that the original episodes, even with Larsen, would be disappointing.
Uhhh yeah… like one involving a giant mechanical spider or something…
When I was three or four years old, the greatest show in the world was Johnny Sokko and his Giant Robot . I haven’t seen the show since I was a child, but I actually have pretty vivid memories of it. I have occasionally seen it on DVD at conventions and such, but have never bought it.
I’m afraid to buy them. I like my memories the way they are, thank you very much.
“Giant Robot, Launch!”
As I said, that would suck, so I’m glad they haven’t done anything so … sucky.
One more joke on that subject and I’ll be neuralizing the lot of you, and the phony memory I will insert will be of a night of passionate lovemaking with Ann Coulter.
Lou Grant
Weird for a 10 year old, but I used to watch it religiously. I caught an episode on American Life TV a while back, and cringed.
I would think most of the cartoons I watched growing up in the 80’s would fit.
Both my wife and I liked The Man from U.N.C.L.E as kids, (she even more than I) and we got the first DVD from Netflix. It really sucked. Sexist, illogical, poorly written among other things. I’m sure it gets better, but it was enough to put her off it.
Banana Splits, a Saturday-morning kids’ show from the late 60s, in which various cartoons and live-action serials were interspersed with skits featuring four guys in animal suits horsing around (a sort of anthropomorphic Monkees).
When I was 4 or 5 years old, I LOVED that show. I saw some reruns on Cartoon Network some years ago, and…well, it’s bad. REALLY bad. Totally spastic, something that no person over the age of 6 could watch.
So, I was the perfect target, originally. 
All in the Family. I tried watching it in syndication a few years ago, and it was, to me, unwatchable. What was controversial and interesting many years ago doesn’t really age well.
Gigantor. Gigantor. Gigan-an-an-an-aaaannnn-tor.
Gigantor, the space-age robot, something something something…
Marine Boy sort of late 60s anime, used to be my favorite cartoon. I expect it would cause actual permanent brain damage to watch it now.
Any guesses what kid’s program from back then I think holds up rather better?
There are so many. But I fear The Monkees is probably not as funny as I remember.
But I have a feeling it’d be hilarious if you watched it while high.
I haven’t seen Ghostwriter but I want to see it again. It’s one of the few shows I haven’t rewatched. I remember loving it as a kid and thinking it was so mysterious, but I’m afraid it’ll seem a little dorky now.
ALF. My favorite show in second grade, but when I watched a couple of episodes on DVD recently, it just didn’t do much for me. It’s not that it’s bad. The gags work well for the age group it’s targeting. It’s just that there’s really nothing there for the over-12 set.
Sea Hunt with Lloyd Bridges
Petticoat Junction
Mannix
Cannon
Medical Center
Pretty much anything with the tag “a Quinn Martin production”.
Most of those longer form TV/movies – McMillen & Wife, McCloud, that one with the A-Team guy in it?
I would say The A-Team but I hated it even then.
Ooh, almost forgot Lassie, and the seaborn version, Flipper!
Lost in Space. It was my favorite, and on June 8, 1966, I remember being annoyed that the local TV station kept breaking in for weather alert updates.(Of course that was the night that an F-5 tornado made a wide swath of destruction through the city.)
Stoopid weather updates.
Don’t forget that she keeps her eyes closed less she see someone else having a good time. Details matter in this sort of thing.
Oh, the OP.
Somehow, I’ll warrant that Fireball XL5 fellates with great alacrity forty years afterwards.