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TOS unique?

Vger23 said:
I will always contend that the 3rd season is every bit as good as the 1st and 2nd. They all have some stinkers, and they all have great ones. I don't see S3 any differently, and never have. It's become a very group-thinkish thing over the decades to just dismiss it out-of-hand.


But yes, TOS is unique in that it may actually be the best television series ever produced. I honestly think the argument can be made.
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I agree and don't hold up any TOS season as the best or the worst. My first memory of TOS, as a child, is watching "Specter of the gun" after all!
But I prefer the atmosphere of season one. It just seems more seat of your pants, United Earth, recent Vulcan(ian) close alliance, crewmen fixing GNDN stuff in the corridors, extra crew arriving to man the normally spare consoles in a red alert etc. And Kirk seems more in command, more serious and spit and polish.
But all TOS is great!!
 
Maurice said:
I love TOS but I don't think it's the greatest TV show ever made. I'd honestly put Hill Street Blues ahead of it by a fair margin.
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That's funny. I was literally just talking about this with a co-worker.

She said she watched a couple of episodes of HSB, and couldn't believe how dated and cheesy it was.

Sound familiar?

:shifty:

:lol:
 
1001001 said:
That's funny. I was literally just talking about this with a co-worker.

She said she watched a couple of episodes of HSB, and couldn't believe how dated and cheesy it was.

Sound familiar?

:shifty:

:lol:
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I watch silent movies so I'm all about dated and (to modern eyes) cheesy. It also depends on which season of the show you are talking. The final 3 seasons are like Trek's 3rd: new showrunners and all the nuance and character complexity started slipping away.
 
Hill Street Blues was a very good show in it's day but yeah...it does seem to have gotten very dated. I can't watch reruns of it anymore so than I can watch ST:Voyager reruns.

I loved M.A.S.H. during it's first run and did watch SOME reruns but, can't anymore.

"Star Trek"? Yep - I can still watch most episodes quite casually, even though I've seen most like -literally- a million times:

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Maurice said:
Doesn't mean Star Trek isn't as equally dated. It's just dated in a way some people are nostalgic for.
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I too loved HSB back in the day. But I wouldn't consider it to be any different to any other police drama series before or since.
TOS was different imho to any other scifi programme of the time. I could never watch LiS ever again (in fact went off it in favour of TOS back then!), but still regularly watch TOS.
Is it because all the others were aimed at children while TOS was for adults?
 
C57D said:
I too loved HSB back in the day. But I wouldn't consider it to be any different to any other police drama series before or since.
TOS was different imho to any other scifi programme of the time. I could never watch LiS ever again (in fact went off it in favour of TOS back then!), but still regularly watch TOS.
Is it because all the others were aimed at children while TOS was for adults?
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Rubbish. HSB was revolutionary in the way it was written and filmed, what with its large ensemble cast, extensive use of handheld cameras, "stacked" shots which you could see tons of people in precinct, dark humor and complicated, flawed characters, and the way the storylines were written with typically 3 stories in any episode: two of which were longer arcs and one of which was typically a one-shot. It won so many Emmys precisely because it was ground-breaking and of high quality. And did you miss that in virtually every episode Renko says something that is a euphemism for masturbation? That's hardly TV as normal.

It's like people looking back on the original Star Wars and no longer seeing its innovations because so many shows have since riffed on what it did. When it came out it was a wholly unique synthesis of samurai films, western, sci-fi serial and swashbuckler shot with documentary style camera and with revolutionary visual effects.
 
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Maurice said:
Rubbish. HSB was revolutionary in the way it was written and filmed, what with its large ensemble cast, extensive use of handheld cameras, "stacked" shots which you could see tons of people in precinct, dark humor and complicated, flawed characters, and the way the storylines were written with typically 3 stories in any episode: two of which were longer arcs and one of which was typically a one-shot. It won so many Emmys precisely because it was ground-breaking and of high quality. And did you miss that in virtually every episode Renko says something that is a euphemism for masturbation? That's hardly TV as normal.

It's like people looking back on the original Star Wars and no longer seeing it its innovations because so many shows have since riffed on what it did. When it came out it was a wholly unique synthesis of samurai films, western, sci-fi serial and swashbuckler shot with documentary style camera and with revolutionary visual effects.
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I bow to your suprrior knowledge on HSB. I recall enjoying it and watching it quite a lot but obviously missed the nuances that you discussed.
Maybe I should stick to Trek ???
 
C57D said:
I bow to your suprrior knowledge on HSB. I recall enjoying it and watching it quite a lot but obviously missed the nuances that you discussed.
Maybe I should stick to Trek ???
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You're certainly entitled to your opinion. My point is merely that it objectively wasn't a lot like what preceded it.
:)
 
Maurice said:
You're certainly entitled to your opinion. My point is merely that it objectively wasn't a lot like what preceded it.
:)
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No worries. I think your Star Wars example is a good one, and maybe where my memory has erred in regards to HSB.
I thought I had put a smiley winking face at the end of that post but lost it somewhere in transmission.
So I'll just end this post with " Be careful out there! "
 
Vger23 said:
I will always contend that the 3rd season is every bit as good as the 1st and 2nd. They all have some stinkers, and they all have great ones. I don't see S3 any differently, and never have. It's become a very group-thinkish thing over the decades to just dismiss it out-of-hand.


But yes, TOS is unique in that it may actually be the best television series ever produced. I honestly think the argument can be made.
Click to expand...
I agree with you 10000%
I briefly thought that I liked Planet of the Apes series better but looking back and at every show I've seen on TV TOS always has come up number one for me. Part of it is the forums/community/novels that maintain my interest. Thank you all for contributing to that.

Maurice said:
I love TOS but I don't think it's the greatest TV show ever made. I'd honestly put Hill Street Blues ahead of it by a fair margin.
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Of course its a matter of opinion.

Yes I still like Hills Street Blues. I think its just aged a bit because of the clothing, hairstyles, roles of women in society have changed but the main thing is the stories, the characters so its easy to watch now, You compare it to the new SWAT series which has a great deal of style but little substance.
 
Maurice said:
I love TOS but I don't think it's the greatest TV show ever made. I'd honestly put Hill Street Blues ahead of it by a fair margin.
Click to expand...

3e5.jpg


;) :beer:
 
StarCruiser said:
I loved M.A.S.H. during it's first run and did watch SOME reruns but, can't anymore.
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Not to derail but I'm curious as to why? This comes on the heels of me just watching a first season episode of MASH yesterday and laughing as much as the first time I saw it. So, it is interesting to see different opinions and experiences.

For me, MASH and TOS are closely linked in my viewing experience as I always find something new that I hadn't noticed before to enjoy.
 
fireproof78 said:
Not to derail but I'm curious as to why? This comes on the heels of me just watching a first season episode of MASH yesterday and laughing as much as the first time I saw it. So, it is interesting to see different opinions and experiences.

For me, MASH and TOS are closely linked in my viewing experience as I always find something new that I hadn't noticed before to enjoy.
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I enjoy seasons 3 and 4 of MASH the most.

Kor
 
fireproof78 said:
Not to derail but I'm curious as to why? This comes on the heels of me just watching a first season episode of MASH yesterday and laughing as much as the first time I saw it. So, it is interesting to see different opinions and experiences.

For me, MASH and TOS are closely linked in my viewing experience as I always find something new that I hadn't noticed before to enjoy.
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I'm actually not completely sure...

I knew, at the time, that they were taking a lot of liberties with the Korean war background. That didn't bother me then but, for some reason, that - along with some of the hyper-anti-military B.S. I just can't watch it as easily as before.

"Military Intelligence" is not an oxymoron...
 
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