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What are your top 5 favorite shows from the 1950s? (1 Viewer)

FanCollector

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Dan McW said:
Columbo had two pilots, for what it's worth.
Although the first one was not intended as a pilot, per se. (It was similar to The Night Stalker in that regard.)All in the Family had two pilots also.
 

Ockeghem

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Alfred Hitchcock PresentsI Love Lucy
Leave It to BeaverPerry Mason
The Rifleman

Honorable mention:The Twilight Zone
 

BobO'Link

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John Maher_289910 said:
Wow, almost forgot how much I loved AMOS 'N' ANDY! Too long since I've seen an episode of it.
I just don't understand why this one has been suppressed for so long! I've looked and looked but just don't get the "stereotypes" others seem to see in this program. In my mind you could replace *any* of the cast with white actors and the show would be the same. Maybe it's because of where I grew up because I saw folks like that every day - black and white - and heard many of them speak in the manner of the characters on the show.

I have DVD copies of some video tapes a friend of my dad had and watch them fairly regularly.
 

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Vic Pardo said:
It was easier to pick just five from the 1960s than from the 1950s. Just too many good series then, many of which lasted into the 1960s.

I'll go with:
The Lone Ranger
Dragnet
Perry Mason
The Untouchables
Sergeant Bilko/The Phil Silvers Show/You'll Never Get Rich (whatever the official title is)

Of course there are a bunch of other great westerns, but if I had to pick one I'll stick with Lone Ranger, since it was first.
I *totally* forgot to put Bilko on my lists!! I saw this as a very young child, liked it then, still like it. I think that's one reason I liked Top Cat in the 60s so much - it's pretty much a animated version of Bilko. I'm really hoping that rumor of a full series set from Shout! comes to fruition!

FWIW the "original" title of the show was You'll Never Get Rich which was changed to The Phil Silvers Show and then Sgt. Bilko or just Bilko in reruns.

That makes me want to pull out my S1 set and see when the title changed, as I think it was during that first season, or if they even used the original opens on that set.
 

JohnMor

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TravisR said:
I'd say that many shows don't have their best season right out of the gate but once I know a series really well (I Love Lucy, Seinfeld, The Simpsons, The X-Files) and look back on the early years, I find something oddly enjoyable about seeing the writers finding their way to greatness. I guess I like the weird bumps in the road that I don't see once they hit their groove.
Me too. There is a definite charm in it.

Bewitched is another one of the few that I think was great right out of the gate with its first season among it's very best.
 

Ejanss

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BobO'Link said:
I just don't understand why this one has been suppressed for so long! I've looked and looked but just don't get the "stereotypes" others seem to see in this program. In my mind you could replace *any* of the cast with white actors and the show would be the same. Maybe it's because of where I grew up because I saw folks like that every day - black and white - and heard many of them speak in the manner of the characters on the show.
Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll on the long-running radio show were two white writers/performers who did all the major voices. Obviously, when they left radio for visuals, they had to hire real multiple black actors, but who could still play the radio voices and characters.

(Gosden & Correll later turned the radio Andy and Kingfish into animals with "Calvin & the Colonel", and almost no other changes in the show: )


Tim Moore on TV had to play Kingfish, but also play an approximation of the voice, and might be considered overdoing it. By the time it was in reruns, 60's audiences had forgotten the radio show, saw black people "forced" to do overdo Southern accents and lazy characters, and nowadays when you hear someone imitating bad black stereotypes by saying "Ohhhh, holy MACK-erel, dere!", they're doing Tim Moore's voice.
 

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Ejanss said:
Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll on the long-running radio show were two white writers/performers who did all the major voices. Obviously, when they left radio for visuals, they had to hire real multiple black actors, but who could still play the radio voices and characters.

(Gosden & Correll later turned the radio Andy and Kingfish into animals with "Calvin & the Colonel", and almost no other changes in the show: )


Tim Moore on TV had to play Kingfish, but also play an approximation of the voice, and might be considered overdoing it. By the time it was in reruns, 60's audiences had forgotten the radio show, saw black people "forced" to do overdo Southern accents and lazy characters, and nowadays when you hear someone imitating bad black stereotypes by saying "Ohhhh, holy MACK-erel, dere!", they're doing Tim Moore's voice.
I don't want to rehash things we've been through here before as it did turn a little nasty. However, I think the marketplace should determine the status of Amos and Andy not political correctness.
 

JMas

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Harry O is another show that had 2 pilots:

Such Dust As Dreams Are Made On
and
Smile Jenny, You're Dead.
 

Vic Pardo

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Ejanss said:
Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll on the long-running radio show were two white writers/performers who did all the major voices. Obviously, when they left radio for visuals, they had to hire real multiple black actors, but who could still play the radio voices and characters.

(Gosden & Correll later turned the radio Andy and Kingfish into animals with "Calvin & the Colonel", and almost no other changes in the show: )


Tim Moore on TV had to play Kingfish, but also play an approximation of the voice, and might be considered overdoing it. By the time it was in reruns, 60's audiences had forgotten the radio show, saw black people "forced" to do overdo Southern accents and lazy characters, and nowadays when you hear someone imitating bad black stereotypes by saying "Ohhhh, holy MACK-erel, dere!", they're doing Tim Moore's voice.

Prominent black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. has defended "Amos 'n' Andy" more than once in his writings. I remember an op-ed piece in The New York Times where he recalled the series' Christmas episode with great fondness and would watch it with his family every year when they reran it. As an adult he got hold of it on videotape and tried to screen it for his daughters but they loudly rejected it, which pained him greatly.

I can't find that piece on-line, but I found another one on the topic by Gates from another issue of the Times. It's called "TV's Black World Turns - But Stays Unreal." Here's the link:
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/12/arts/tv-s-black-world-turns-but-stays-unreal.html?src=pm&pagewanted=1

And it has this quote:
One of my favorite pastimes is screening episodes of ''Amos 'n' Andy'' for black friends who think that the series was both socially offensive and politically detrimental. After a few minutes, even hardliners have difficulty restraining their laughter. ''It's still racist,'' is one typical comment, ''but it was funny.''

The performance of those great black actors - Tim Moore, Spencer Williams and Ernestine Wade - transformed racist stereotypes into authentic black humor. The dilemma of ''Amos 'n' Andy,'' however, was that these were the only images of blacks that Americans could see on TV. The political consequences for the early civil rights movement were thought to be threatening. The N.A.A.C.P. helped to have the series killed.
 

Gary OS

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Vic Pardo said:
Prominent black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. has defended "Amos 'n' Andy" more than once in his writings. I remember an op-ed piece in The New York Times where he recalled the series' Christmas episode with great fondness and would watch it with his family every year when they reran it. As an adult he got hold of it on videotape and tried to screen it for his daughters but they loudly rejected it, which pained him greatly.
And a great Christmas episode it is. One of my favorites that I watch every year.


Gary "I'd buy an Amos & Andy dvd collection at the drop of a hat if it was ever offered" O.
 

Richard V

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oldtvshowbuff

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Mark Collins

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I was not going to list here because the 60s is my easy one.

I Love Lucy
Lucy Desi Comedy Hour
I bought these two separate on VHS so I will list them that way
Perry Mason
The Edge Of Night the Perry Mason Soap which it was based on and this show IS one of my earliest memories.
Saturday Night At The Movies The Day The Earth Stood Still aired the robot scared the hell out of me and I have never forgot it.

HM What's My Line?

I only have Lucy and and the 50th anniversary of Perry on DVD
 

SFMike

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Ones I remember watching:

TOP 5
Queen For A Day - Only a few episodes were filmed.
Mr. Peepers - Available from S'more Entertainment
The Adventures of Superman
You Bet Your Life
One Step Beyond

HONERABLE MENTION
The Honeymooners
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Fury
Amos 'n' Andy
Playhouse 90
Beat The Clock
Kukla, Fran and Ollie
Science Fiction Theatre
The Original Amatuer Hour
The Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney Show
Texaco Star Theatre - Milton Berle
Your Show Of Shows
 

maskedmala

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In this topic, I've noticed that Amos 'n' Andy is often named. I hope that someone who's in the DVD business take notice and maybe we'll have a chance of seeing this TV show on DVD someday
 

Susan Nunes_329977

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Again, way too many to choose from.

A few of my picks:

Amo's 'n' Andy
Jack Benny Program
Burns and Allen
I Love Lucy
Leave It to Beaver
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
Father Knows Best
Maverick
Have Gun Will Travel
Rawhide
Perry Mason
Alfred Hitchcock Presents

That's just a few, but this decade, like the 1960s, has an embarrassment of riches.
 

Susan Nunes_329977

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Amos 'n' Andy gets a bum rap, but it is so similar to The Honeymooners and arguably better than that great sitcom.

The two-part episode "Getting Mama Married" is a masterpiece. There are parts of that episode that remind me of the Marx Brothers and Laurel and Hardy. One catastrophe is piled on top of another. The episode is brilliant.

I hope someday the series gets a legitimate release. I have just a poor-quality bootleg.
 

Peter M Fitzgerald

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Five favorite episodes from five favorite series from the 1950s:

The Twilight Zone:

"Time Enough at Last" (Season 1, Episode #8, 11/20/1959) Through a trick of fate, a voracious bookworm (Burgess Meredith) is left as the last living human being on earth, after a global nuclear exchange.

"Perchance to Dream" (Season 1, Episode #9, 11/27/1959) A delirious man (Richard Conte) enters a psychiatrist's office, admitting that he hasn't slept for days, for fear that the mysterious woman in his recurring dreams will kill him.

"Third from the Sun" (Season 1, Episode #14, 1/8/1960) On the eve of an impending nuclear war, two families plan to slip by heightened government security and escape in a prototype spaceship.

"Mirror Image" (Season 1, Episode #21, 2/26/1960) A nervous woman (Vera Miles), waiting in a bus station, tries to convince a fellow passenger (Martin Milner) that her doppelganger is lurking nearby, trying to take her place.

"A Stop at Willoughby" (Season 1, Episode #30, 5/6/1960) During his wintery commute from city to home, a browbeaten ad man (James Daly) repeatedly finds his train stopping at an idyllic small town seemingly in the midst of summertime.

Rawhide:

"Incident on the Edge of Madness" (Season 1, Episode #5, 2/6/1959) - The drive delayed by a flood, a new drover (Lon Chaney, Jr.) is enticed into leaving Gil Favor's employ by the pretty companion (Marie Windsor) of Favor's former civil war commander (Alan Marshal), who is trying to lure the drovers into joining his planned New Confederate Empire in Panama.

"Incident at the Buffalo Smokehouse" (Season 2, Episode #29, 10/30/1959) - Searching for a shallow river crossing as the herd is threatened by a prairie fire, Gil Favor, the residents (Leif Erickson, Vera Miles, John Agar, J. Pat O'Malley) of an isolated smokehouse, and a visiting photographer (Jack Weston), are taken hostage by outlaw Wes Thomas (Gene Evans) and his gang (Harry Dean Stanton, etc), on the run from the U.S. Cavalry. Thomas forces Favor to retrieve the outlaw's nearby girlfriend (Allison Hayes), before the gang can make their escape. Amazing cast.

"Incident of the Blue Fire" (Season 2, Episode #33, 12/11/1959) - After St. Elmo's Fire lights up the horns of the herd during an approaching thunderstorm, a mysterious man named Lucky Markley (Skip Homeier) shows up, and joins the drive. Gil Favor takes him under his wing, but the other drovers, all superstitious, are wary of him.

"Incident at Tinker's Dam" (Season 2, Episode #39, 2/5/1960) - The drovers help save Wishbone's skirt-chasing younger brother, T.J. (Regis Toomey), a tinker by trade, from a Kiowa tribe, when an important treaty-signing with them is hanging in the balance.

"Incident of the 100 Amulets" (Season 2, Episode #49, 5/6/1960) - Hey Soos goes to visit his mother (Argentina Brunetti), only to find the local townspeople (including Ed Nelson, R.G. Armstrong, Whit Bissell, Vaughn Taylor, Virginia Christine, Peter Whitney and Richard Reeves) think she's a witch, and throw stones at him. Rowdy Yates and Pete Nolan arrive to help as the the town prepares to burn her at the stake.

Leave It to Beaver:

"Voodoo Magic" (Season 1, Episode #13, 1/3/1958) - Eddie accidentally reveals to the their parents that he and Wally took Beaver to see THE VOODOO CURSE at the local theater, instead of PINOCCHIO, getting them into hot water. In revenge, the boys fool Eddie into thinking they've put a real voodoo curse on him.

"Train Trip" (Season 1, Episode #26, 4/9/1958) - On the return trip from visiting their Aunt Martha, Wally and Beaver blow their train ticket money on junk food.

"Happy Weekend" (Season 2, Episode #52, 12/25/1958) - The Cleavers spend the weekend "roughing it" in a vacation cabin by the lake, though the boys would've rather stayed home and gone to the movies.

"The Tooth" (Season 2, Episode #60, 2/19/1959) - Beaver gets his first cavity, and is terrified of going to the dentist, after Larry tells him about the dentist's drill.

"Wally's Haircomb" (Season 2, Episode #73, 5/21/1959) - Wally follows Eddie in the current crazy hairstyle fad, much to his parents' disapproval. Funniest single episode of the early years of the series.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents:

"Breakdown" (Season 1, Episode #7, 11/13/1955) A callous businessman (Joseph Cotten) is rendered completely paralyzed in a car accident, and struggles to convince anyone around him that he's actually still alive. Directed by Hitchcock.

"Lamb to the Slaughter" (Season 3, Episode #106, 4/13/1958) A spurned housewife (Barbara Bel Geddes) impulsively murders her husband with the frozen leg of lamb she was planning to serve him for dinner. Story by Roald Dahl, directed by Hitchcock.

"The Crooked Road" (Season 4, Episode #121, 10/26/1958) A couple (Richard Kiley, Patricia Breslin), driving through the country, is stopped on a speeding charge by a shady policeman (Walter Matthau), who escorts them into his small town, where he and his local cohorts proceed to cheat them through frivolous fines and over-charging for auto service.

"Special Delivery" (Season 5, Episode #163, 11/29/1959) A boy (Peter Lazer) excitedly engages in the latest childhood fad sweeping the country: growing his own edible mushrooms via a mail-order business. The boy's father (Steve Dunne) starts to wonder if something sinister is afoot when a growing number of people they know start to vanish, while his wife (Beatrice Straight) remains unconvinced. Story by Ray Bradbury.

"The Man from the South" (Season 5, Episode #168, 1/3/1960) An inveterate gambler (Peter Lorre) proposes an unusual wager to a down-on-his-heels man (Steve McQueen) with a cigarette lighter: if he can ignite it 10 times in a row, he wins the gambler's expensive convertible; if he fails, the gambler gets to chop off his finger! Story by Roald Dahl.

Maverick:

"According to Hoyle" (Season 1, Episode #3, 10/6/1957) - Bret meets the lovely and devious con artist, Samantha Crawford (Diane Brewster), for the first time, as they team up to outwit a cheating gambler, while Samantha also tries to repeatedly bamboozle Bret, as well.

"Shady Deal at Sunny Acres" (Season 2, Episode #37, 11/23/1958) - Arguably the greatest of all Maverick episodes. Banker 'Honest John' Bates (John Dehner) has swindled Bret out of a large sum. To recoup his money, and teach Bates a lesson, Bret and brother Bart gather together all their old con-artist friends, including Samantha Crawford, Dandy Jim Buckley (Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.), Gentleman Jack Darby (Richard Long) and Big Mike McComb (Leo Gordon), to ensnare Bates in a counter-scam.

"Gun-Shy" (Season 2, Episode #43, 1/11/1959) - Hilarious parody of GUNSMOKE, in which Marshal Mort Dooley (Ben Gage) tries to rid Elwood, Kansas of disreputable types, like Bret Maverick, who's in town to locate a buried treasure he's heard about, before two other men find it first.

"Duel at Sundown" (Season 2, Episode #46, 2/1/1959) - The daughter of an old rancher friend of Bret's is being wooed by unsavory gunslinger Red Hartigan (Clint Eastwood), who doesn't take kindly to Bret's meddling. To personally avoid an imminent showdown with Red, Bret gets brother Bart to pose as a reportedly fast-on-the-draw badman.

"A Fellow's Brother" (Season 3, Episode #64, 11/22/1959) - While being mistaken by a bounty hunter (Sam Buffington) for the killer of a man in a Wells Fargo robbery, Bret is beset by the hero-worshipping Smoky (Gary Vinson), while he works a scam that involves his brother Bart seemingly taking the blame for the murder and ending up dead.
 

LouA

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No way I can limit it ot 5!!
The People's Choice
Many Love Of Dobie Gillis
My Little Margie
Sea Hunt
Have Gun, Will Travel
Captain Midnight
Amos And Andy
Adventures of Superman
Leave It To Beaver
Sgt Bilko
Love That Bob
Restless Gun,
Ameican Bandstand
Life Of Riley
Adventures Of Robin Hood
Lassie
It's A Great Life
Topper
Howdy Doody
Rocky And His Friends
Wagon Train ,
Gunsmoke
Real Mc Coys
World Of Giants .
Adventures Of Wild Bill Hickock
Probably others
I wish they were all available on DVD
 

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