Shows you loved as a kid that STILL hold up

[Greg Cox]

I was just thinking about what makes a show feel dated. A lot of them revolve around situations most people face daily no mattrer what decade you live in. Does it all come down to technology? Like in a sitcom from the 90s when you see someone at work, there's never a computer on their desk.Watching it now it's really hard to relate to being at a desk job without a computer.

On the other hand, that can provide bonus value. On top of the story in the foreground, some old TV shows now work as captivating period pieces. You can enjoy the whole "time capsule" aspect of old shows and movies while getting caught up in the story as well. .

Take THE NIGHT STALKER tv series from 1970s. It was a contemporary horror show then, but, watching it today, it's fascinating to observe how much journalism has changed in the last forty years: no computers, no internet, no cell phones, no digital photography, etc. Kolchak is forever pounding away on his old Smith-Corona typewriter, searching for the nearest available pay phone, developing photos in a dark room, etc.

It' s real nostalgia trip.

The way I see it, if you can relate to DOWNTON ABBEY or VIKINGS, you can relate to people using typewriters in their offices.

 

[MacLeod]

On the other hand, that can provide bonus value. On top of the story in the foreground, some old TV shows now work as captivating period pieces. You can enjoy the whole "time capsule" aspect of old shows and movies while getting caught up in the story as well. .

Take THE NIGHT STALKER tv series from 1970s. It was a contemporary horror show then, but, watching it today, it's fascinating to observe how much journalism has changed in the last forty years: no computers, no internet, no cell phones, no digital photography, etc. Kolchak is forever pounding away on his old Smith-Corona typewriter, searching for the nearest available pay phone, developing photos in a dark room, etc.

It' s real nostalgia trip.

The way I see it, if you can relate to DOWNTON ABBEY or VIKINGS, you can relate to people using typewriters in their offices.

As you say it basically boils down to can you relate to the characters and the story being told. Doesn't matter if the story takes place in the past or the future.

What can "date" something is things like hairstyles/fashion/music.

 

[MacLeod]

What about this show from the 1980's?

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[Tom Hendricks]

I just recently rewatched the two seasons of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. I really enjoyed it and so did my kids. There were so many familiar guest stars, it was kinda fun playing who will show up next. It was so much fun and still very good.

 

[Caleuche]

As you say it basically boils down to can you relate to the characters and the story being told. Doesn't matter if the story takes place in the past or the future.

What can "date" something is things like hairstyles/fashion/music.

Attitudes can also date a television series. I loved Gerry Anderson and other action series from the 60s/70s when I was a kid, but I don't think they hold up well - partially because of the puppets/ special effects -but also the way the world looks. Its all stiff-up-lipped white men running/saving the world, while the women type away in tiny tinfoil costumes in the corner*. If there is anyone black, he's (and its always a he) is always presented as a token, streetwise 'other'. Gay people, Asians, Other religions, the whole sub-continent of Europe just don't exist. The Empire is always referred to fondly and like it was a good thing and was run well. Authority and Establishment is respected blindly. This doesn't look or act like modern Britain in anyway and dates the series considerably.

This doesn't mean that the series aren't still enjoyable and I don't still enjoy some of them (The Avengers and Captain Scarlett are still fun), just they look and are very much products of their time.

(* Lady Penelope and Mrs Peel are of course excepted)

 

[GNDN18]

You can’t go home again when you notice the laugh-tracks plastered over single-camera shows. That were animated.

I’m looking at you, Scooby Doo. (And too many more to count.)

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

Loved the Animaniacs. Show still holds up pretty well and I loved Good Idea/Bad Idea.

Animaniacs got me through university!

The Mysterious Cities of Gold. I was so thrilled when they finally released the show on DVD back in 2009 and even more thrilled that show held up so well as I remembered (aside from the two token comedic doofus villains). I still need to watch the recent new seasons.

Love MCOG. Watched it again recently, and it does really still hold up.

The Muppet Show - I've been re-watching it with my niece and nephew. Back when I was their age, I got the jokes that were aimed at children.
Now that I'm an adult, I get the jokes that went over my head the first time.

The Muppet Show really does appeal to broad audiences, although these days, some of the guest stars have faded into vacuity. Thankfully I picked up a compilation set from HMV ten or so years ago that collected the guest stars that were still famous back then, and still are today.

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Battlestar Galactica (1978-80) original series

Galactica 78/79 yes. Galactica 80. No, very no! Mind you Galactica on Blu-ray looks awesome, better than Star Trek on Blu-ray awesome.

When I went back to watch Knight Rider, I was pleasantly surprised at how well it holds up.
There are a few bad episodes per season, but young Hasselhoff has a charming quality that helps gloss over the weak parts and the fantastic incidental music keeps the momentum up.

I tried a few Knight Rider repeats a few months ago, and the cheese factor was overwhelming. It's a premise that just doesn't work anymore, one man and his pet car? The same issue hits all of those 'tech' adventure shows from the eighties, where the machine is the star, and the pilot/driver just the muppet. The only one that still works for me after a fashion is Street Hawk. a) because it was cancelled after 13 episodes, it didn't have the chance to get gimmicky with its premise. b) It was less about the bike than it was about the bromance that developed between its two main characters, Jesse and Norman.

What about this show from the 1980's?

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The Equalizer is still good, seen a couple of episodes recently, and Edward Woodward is all manner of brllliant.


Shows that I still like that I first encountered as a kid. Some of the vintage Doctor Who serials still hold up. Watched The A-Team through last year, and other than that Boy George episode, it held up pretty well. Actually the Boy George episode was crap in the eighties. I was surprised that I still enjoyed The Red Hand Gang when I watched it recently. I first saw it when I was five. I still love The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show and the Peanuts specials. I love Tales of the Gold Monkey as a child, and that still works today.

 

[Galileo7]

Galactica 78/79 yes. Galactica 80. No, very no! Mind you Galactica on Blu-ray looks awesome, better than Star Trek on Blu-ray awesome.
...

Agree, BSG first season 1978-1979. Galactica:198O does not hold up and I usually just tolerate the pilot episodes "Galactica Discovers Earth" because of the use of the time-warping Colonial Vipers.

 

[Random_Spock]

Not a kids show per say, but the Perry Mason movies hold up pretty well. Been re watching them and regardless of the clothing and tech, they're still fun to watch

 

[Kai "the spy"]

Shows I watched as a kid and still re-watch occasionally because they hold up:

- Batman TAS
- Superman TAS
- Batman Beyond
- Gargoyles
- Jim Henson's Dinosaurs
- Animaniacs
- Pinky & the Brain
- Darkwing Duck
- Peanuts Specials and The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show
as well as those classic Disney, Warner Bros. and Tom & Jerry shorts.

Shows that I watched a lot as a kid that I maybe should give a re-watch at some point:
- DuckTales
- TailSpin
- Captain Simian & the Space Monkeys
And especially Cat's Eye based in the comic by Tsukasa Hojo, which I watched almost religiously for quite a while.

There are a few older "kid shows" I only watched as an adult, but still very much enjoy.

- Ultraman
- The Muppet Show
- Thundercats
- Superman (1988)
- Fleischer Superman
- Space Battleship Yamato
Probably more that I'm not thinking of right now.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

On the other hand, that can provide bonus value. On top of the story in the foreground, some old TV shows now work as captivating period pieces. You can enjoy the whole "time capsule" aspect of old shows and movies while getting caught up in the story as well.

The trouble with that is, most TV shows don't show you how the world really was, they show you what was considered 'safe' or the idealized status quo of the period. In the 1990s even a countercultural show like the Simpsons had episodes where it was incredibly scandalous just to suggest that somebody wouldn't go to church.

I can barely stomach shows that show the idealized status quo of 2018, much less an outdated idealized status quo. Especially because in these shows people don't only live in the idealized status quo, they quietly accept that the idealized status quo is the only way to live a happy and fulfilled life.

For the few shows that actually show the world as it was, yeah, that can be a bonus.

 

[Greg Cox]

That's what film noir is for. Shows you the seamy underside behind the "Ozzie & Harriet" facade.

And, honestly, the original Twilight Zone was hardly accepting of the status quo either.

 

[Random_Spock]

Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction still holds up pretty well. Still wish it was showing in re runs and not just via Amazon Prime though.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

Shows that I watched a lot as a kid that I maybe should give a re-watch at some point:
...
And especially Cat's Eye based in the comic by Tsukasa Hojo, which I watched almost religiously for quite a while.

Fuck. I just looked up the opening theme of the show on YouTube, and was hit with such a strong wave of nostalgia I actually had one or two tears in my eyes. How the hell could the actual show hold up to that kind of emotion?!

 

[JirinPanthosa]

That's what film noir is for. Shows you the seamy underside behind the "Ozzie & Harriet" facade.

And, honestly, the original Twilight Zone was hardly accepting of the status quo either.

That relates to the problem I have. A lot of the time people conflate pessimism with realism, and that leads to an unnecessary split where everything positive is in an idealized status quo fantasy where gay people don't exist until 90% of people have already come to terms with them, and everything where the human condition is as diverse and complex as it is in the real world is cynical and depressing.

You see so few shows where people behave like real human beings, and all kinds of human beings are represented as they really are whether or not the majority of the TV public accepts they exist, and it's not about murders, betrayal and idealism being harshly crushed.

 

[tomswift2002]

C.O.P.S (aka CyberCops)
Spider-Man 1967
Spider-Man 1994
X-Men 1992
Lois & Clark The New Adventures of Superman
Babylon 5
Dinosaurs
Darkwing Duck (although Disney seriously needs to Remaster this series, as the DVD's look like they were sourced from a SLP VHS, plus they need to finish releasing the series, as it's not even available on iTunes)
Chip 'N' Dale Rescue Rangers (again the same as Darkwing Duck).

 

[Owain Taggart]

The trouble with that is, most TV shows don't show you how the world really was, they show you what was considered 'safe' or the idealized status quo of the period. In the 1990s even a countercultural show like the Simpsons had episodes where it was incredibly scandalous just to suggest that somebody wouldn't go to church.

There was a Canadian show called Degrassi Jr High/High that was incredibly avantgarde for the time it was being made, ie mid-80's to early 90's, dealing with all sorts of topics that the average show didn't touch until much later. It was refreshing to see that it was far from being safe. Topics such as sex, teenage pregnancy, aids, HIV, etc. Real stuff. It was quite gritty for its time.

 

[mos6507]

Speaking as someone in my mid 40s, what I find strange is how no matter what time period you're in, that represents "modernity" and only after 10-20 years do you look back and things feel dated, not just the technology and fashion but culture and whatever the zeitgeist is in storytelling.

When I say "modernity" what I mean is that we always walk around with this sense of arrogance that today is the apex of the species and anything that came before represents a more primitive time.

For instance, tonight I caught some less than politically correct snippets from Married with Children. From today's perspective, it's sexist. In its day, however, I think the prevailing opinion was that more raunchy material on broadcast networks was progressive in the sense that it was trying to shake off TV's puritanical past. Remember that the 80s was the golden age of televangelists who were also going after heavy metal.

So when you look back you lose touch with any sense of context for why things were done the way they were done and it becomes so easy to find fault with it.

But I firmly believe there will come a time when the entertainment of the modern era (post-911 to today) is deconstructed and bashed in the rear-view mirror as well. It's just really difficult for people who are really in-sync with the times to accept that, but it's a heck of a lot easier for older people who feel the generation gap so severely.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I think in the case of television though it actually is the apex. In other media, film, literature, music, certainly not. But TV hadn’t been allowed to realize it’s full storytelling potential until Sopranos and we’re still in the grace period where half the best ambitious ideas haven’t been tried yet.

I disagree that today’s TV will be bashed in hindsight, I think that TV is now where music was in the 1960s, and later shows will end up being relentlessly and perhaps unfairly compared to it. Shows like Game of Thrones are the TV equivalent of the Beatles.