Of the list you gave, Magnum still holds up in my book, along with the first season or two of Miami Vice (if you can get past the dated 80s references, especially on the latter). But a lot of what you listed were, basically, kids' shows. Maybe not in terms of being Sat AM programs, but in terms of the fact they were written to appeal to younger audiences. So it isn't surprising that, as an adult, they'd lose their appeal.
When I was about 4, I walked in on my parents watching Caligula, and years later I deducted that what I had seen must have been I Claudius, but after sitting through I, Claudius twice, I really was perplexed about where all the naked penises had gone.
Yep. It was common for twentysomethings to play highschoolers then (and possibly still is?), but the difference in Macchio's case was that he actually looked as young as the character he was playing.
Totally agree on Magnum. I wsnt old enough to enjoy it when it was new but I'm watching through it now and find it to be a well written and enjoyable show today. I agree that many of the older shows don't but I think they are primarily the "dumb" action ones(ahem A-Team). I don't think sitcoms have really changed all that much, and ones from 20 or thirty years ago arent exactly high art but neither is the Big Bang Theory I think iI must be old when I think of Jurassic Park as being state of the art fx and its older than many college students
Yeah, it's the second half of your sentence that made me surprised. Macchio actually looked like a young teen. I just looked up a more recent pic. If anything, the difference to his actual age is even greater now. He looks a good 15-20 years younger than his actual age. Guy has good genes.