[NOTE: This was originally named “The Classic/Retro TV Thread,” and has since been renamed to reflect its expanded focus.] I've had the idea of creating a thread like this for a while now, as I had a tendency to go OT in other threads to bring up whatever Decades was showing. This is intended to be a general thread for discussing the programming of channels that specialize in classic TV shows, including (but not limited to) MeTV, Decades, Heroes & Icons, Antenna TV, and Cozi. (I understand that there's a Retro TV, which I don't seem to get, but it deserves a mention because I almost named this "The Retro TV Thread".) Even if you don't get or watch any of these channels, feel free to join in and impress us with your knowledge of arcane TV trivia! ******* In what's liable to be a recurring feature, here's a rundown of the currently scheduled Decades weekend binges (which run from 1 p.m . EST Saturdays to 7:00 a.m. EST Monday mornings).... Currently playing: The Loretta Young Show [Meh, don't know it, no interest.] Jan. 16-17: Hill Street Blues [I understand that this is a well-regarded show, but I didn't watch it in the day and it's a bit past the period that I tune into these channels for. Also, it seems like it's getting plenty of exposure in H&I's lineup.] Jan. 23-24: Kojak [No special interest, but that's a little more in my period of preference at least.] ******* So this morning, I stumbled across a "new" show on Antenna--a one-season wonder from the Sixties that I'd never heard of in my life: It's About Time, a Sherwood Schwartz production that apparently came on before Ed Sullivan in CBS's 1966-1967 Sunday night lineup. The show was about a pair of astronauts who traveled back in time and got stuck in a stereotypically inauthentic version of the stone age, with cavemen and dinosaurs living side-by-side. The cast included caveperson regulars Joe E. Ross (previously of Car 54, Where Are You?) and Imogene Coca. Cheesy as it was, it was also kind of cute and endearing...but I can definitely see why it got canned.
Been keeping up with MeTv in my area. Love when they show the Perry Mason movies. They're just so good and just classy.
I found a new channel the other night called Buzzr which focuses on Old game shows. I thought that was kind of cool. I think the show I was watching at the time was Password, but they also had Dawson family feud and Press Your Luck. It's like the old GSN, now that GSN itself is going towards family feud all the time.
Yea I remember the old GSN. Loved watching a lot of the game shows on there. Some of them are pretty out there.
I remember when GSN ran a night block of shows like Now You See It, Match Game, and other odd shows. When I was growing up, I was a sucker for stuff like that. Now it's all nostalgia, especially Press Your Luck.
I remember Match Game. Some of the answers were just loltastic . Yep. And those aren't quite as fun to watch.
Antenna TV just recently started re-running 'The Tonight Show staring Johny Carson' the complete uncut 90 minute versions. I've been getting a kick out of seeing the old fashions and guests. Also Johny was the perfect host and knew how to ask questions and let the guests talk about a wide range of topics. Not like now when all the guest does is show up to promote a tv show or motion picture.
For those who haven't been following the Super Sci-Fi Saturday Night thread in SF&F, I no longer get MeTV--My affiliate recently switched to H&I, for which my cable offers an alternative channel that doesn't show as much paid programming. So two H&I's and no Me...I wasn't too impressed with where their programming was going, but there were still blocks that I liked to have on, like the westerns on Saturday afternoon. I've been catching a little of the Carson on Antenna. For any interested parties, H&I added Black Sheep Squadron to their lineup, two episodes on Saturday mornings. Alas, they moved away the other WWII shows that they had been running on Saturday mornings, Combat! and Twelve O'Clock High...Black Sheep is preceded by two episodes of the 1960s Tarzan series (which I also just discovered when they added it). ETA: Oh, look...Heeeeeere's Johnny now!
I am also a MeTV watcher (as well as the old "Nick at Night") when I make it back to the Chicago area, and Perry Mason and The Untouchables were always perennial faves. I did enjoy the "It's About Time" reference, above, by Mixer, and "Match Game" by tomalak! They were guilty pleasures, and Match Game could, at times, be hilarious!!!
Match Game was hilarious. There will never be anything like it and I hope they don't even try to remake it.
Agreed! I miss Charles Nelson, Brett and all the rest...and the "other" Gene (Rayburn) was unmatched!
It wouldn't be the same now given how much they can get away with on network tv now by comparison to back then.
Oh, yeah, I'm a big fan of the retro channels. I've got MeTV and Decades. I've also got Cozi, but it's mostly infomercials here. I hope I've got Antenna because.... This was one of my favorite shows when I was a kid. Dinosaurs! Cavemen! Pretty cavegirls! I was about five years old when it was on the air and I loved it. I remember it having pretty much the same look and vibe as Gilligan's Island. About halfway through the season, the astronauts fixed their capsule and returned to the present and brought some of the cavepeople with them, with the expected ensuing culture shock. I recall one caveman clubbing a Volkswagen, thinking it was a new kind of dinosaur. I don't know if the change in format was an act of desperation or what, but if so it didn't work-- time quickly ran out for It's About Time. I'm psyched that they're re-running it, though. Maybe this means it will come out on DVD.
Yep, the Wiki article says that IAT shared sets with GI...and that the retooling was indeed an attempt to save the show. A lot of the innuendo in Match Game went over my head when I was a little kid, but it was always entertaining to watch. Not sure if I'm getting a classic game show channel ATM...if so, I can't find it. I was just starting to catch My Favorite Martian on late Sunday mornings on Cozi, but it looks like they moved it to weekday afternoons. That's one that I never saw much of in syndication before. Bill Bixby really had some good comedic chops.
I don't think I've ever seen It's About Time, but I've read about it in a 1987 book called The Best of Science Fiction TV -- which also included a section on the 10 worst SFTV shows, as determined by a viewer poll, with IAT coming in at #10, probably more from obscurity than from being better than the rest. (Space: 1999 was voted the worst, which I think is unfairly harsh, given that the list also included Galactica 1980 and The Starlost.) It was a Sherwood Schwartz show like Gilligan's Island. And yes, the format change in mid-season was done in the hopes of bolstering the show's lousy ratings.
Also regarding It's About Time...particularly given the Gilligan's Island connection, I can't help but to be reminded of the 70s Saturday-morning show Far Out Space Nuts, which co-starred Bob Denver and was about a pair of (accidental in this case) astronauts who got stranded on sound stages having wacky adventures.
I have heard of that show, as a notable flop, but never knew anything about it. But it does explain a lyric from my teen years, from a 1983 song called "I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts" by X: Astronauts go back in time To hang out with the cave people It's about time! It's about space! I have been watching those, too. I was only 10 in 1980 when they switched to 60 minutes, so I never saw much of the 90 minute format. It's a really different feel in the pace of the longer interview segments, it's almost surprising how long the conversations go sometimes. Johnny was, indeed, the master of the sit down interview and allowing the guest to succeed and something funny to unfold, without forcing it. His spots with non-celebrities are terrific. The episodes are definitely not "uncut," though; they have been edited to squeeze in more commercials and some of the cuts are quite obvious. I'm curious now to know how much commercial time they are putting in to those 90-minute blocks; in the '70s I think it would have been about 18 minutes. On the pay TV front, Encore Westerns has brought back Wagon Train, starting at the beginning, but I have seen most of those. They have cut Marshall Dillon (30-minute Gunsmokes) and Death Valley Days to one per night. DVD and Laramie, which they started last summer, are the only ones in their lineup I largely haven't seen. I was hoping that Have Gun Will Travel would come back. Even though I have seen all of them, too.
^If you get Heroes & Icons, it looks like they're currently running four episodes of HGWT on Sundays starting at 1 p.m. EST.