Where Are The Good Shows? - Page 2

JeffWld · 05-10-2006, 08:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jay_B!

Buffy is arguably one of the best shows of the past decade, same goes with Angel, and the majority of the board feels the same way. Actually, I'd argue two of the best shows EVER

That's the kind of comment that comes from either someone who has sampled very little of broadcast's legacy or still needs to sit on a phone book to reach the keyboard.

Carlos Garcia · 05-10-2006, 11:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Karlosi

Ummm -- I think I'll remain asleep. Yeah, I smell the coffee. And it's stale.

Hahaha...thank you Joe!

Carlos Garcia · 05-10-2006, 11:23 AM

I'll be fair here...alot of this argument does have to do with a generation gap. Example: I grew up watching and loving the Adam West Batman TV series as well as the George Reeves Superman series. To me these men were the only true Batman and Superman. However, I have since met people who say the only Batman and Superman were the ones who played them in the old movie serials of the 40s. So go figure. It all depends on when you grew up and the shows you grew up watching. I grew up in the 60s and 70s, so whether good or bad, it's the shows I watched during that time that I love, and I won't even acknowlege today's shows because I just can't get into them. To each generation their own I guess.

Michael Alden · 05-10-2006, 12:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carlos Garcia

I'll be fair here...alot of this argument does have to do with a generation gap. Example: I grew up watching and loving the Adam West Batman TV series as well as the George Reeves Superman series. To me these men were the only true Batman and Superman. However, I have since met people who say the only Batman and Superman were the ones who played them in the old movie serials of the 40s. So go figure. It all depends on when you grew up and the shows you grew up watching. I grew up in the 60s and 70s, so whether good or bad, it's the shows I watched during that time that I love, and I won't even acknowlege today's shows because I just can't get into them. To each generation their own I guess.

Well yes and no. I didn't really watch the great dramas of the 60s when they were on as I was too young to be interested in them. However over the last couple of decades, through tape-trading, film buying and trips to broadcast museums and archives, I have watched many of the great shows like Naked City, The Defenders, East Side West Side, Mr. Novak, etc. All of which would technically be before my time and not considered my generation. However, those are great shows and that era was the best in TV history. Not because I experienced it then, which I didn't, but because I've seen the shows, as well as the shows from the 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s. It's my informed opinion, as opposed to the many uninformed opinions I read from people who have not seen anything other than the shows of their era.

Jay_B! · 05-10-2006, 12:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffWld

That's the kind of comment that comes from either someone who has sampled very little of broadcast's legacy or still needs to sit on a phone book to reach the keyboard.

actually, all you have to do is search around on the boards.... go to any thread either about Buffy or Angel and you'll see 100's of replies, almost universally positive. One surefire way to initiate a hot thread here is to post "I'm just starting to get into Buffy", I've seen it so many times, Buffy/Angel fans love reliving their first time experiencing the show with newbie fans. The only people I've seen trash either series on here (outside of very uptight types who think everything needs to be as wholesome as 7th Heaven) are over-40's who see those shows for "young whippersnappers", and even then, I've seen plenty of over-40's who've given those shows a chance instead of thinking that because they were older than the target age group that it obviously can't be any good. I've seen plenty of people who don't LIKE either show, but at the same accept that they're good for what they are.

I don't see any of the older posters giving Michael hell for acting like his opinion is fact about that show, when a lot of people here disagree (there's a difference between "it's crap because it's crap" and not "it's crap because I dislike it"). If he posted on any of the hundreds of threads relevant to either show with his "factual" opinions, there'd be 3 or 4 pages instantly telling him off and telling him that his television preferences are crap too.

MikeLi · 05-10-2006, 12:46 PM

24 is a good one to have on hand as most every episode makes you want to watch the next even though you can kind of guess what happens they through you for a loop once in awhile.

Jay_B! · 05-10-2006, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffWld

Yes. Why waste your time with "Naked City", "Mr. Peepers", "MASH", "The Defenders", "Studio One", "Playhouse 90", "Route 66", "Stoney Burke", "He & She" etc. etc., when you can wallow in the golden age of "Pepper Dennis", "The War At Home", marketing-driven teen-angst classics ("The O.C.", "One Tree Hill", "Everwood", "The Bedford Diaries"); a wealth of scripted "reality shows" (repleat with "golden" segments of bug-eating and vomiting); the endless glorifying of dysfunction with "Maury", "Jerry Springer", "Montel Williams", "Judge_____ (fill in the blank); sitcoms that can't survive without an endless string of sex jokes underscored by an overactive laugh track.

it shows how many of these shows you've even WATCHED when you lump Everwood in with the others. Everwood is one of the most wholesome shows on television, quite possibly THE most wholesome show now that 7th Heaven has ended, my 60-something mother (someone who was very picky about shows to watch because she didn't like what she considered "vulgar") even enjoyed watching that show. Just because it had teens on the show and it wasn't preachy like 7th Heaven didn't automatically turn it into The OC. One Tree Hill is actually a decent prime-time soap bogged down only by the fact that Chad Michael Murray is a horrible actor, hardly trashy either.

Stop being so defensive and so "us vs. them". You have no idea just how many people under 30, hell just go to certain boards and you'll find a lot under 20, who have joined the fanbases of Lucy, Bewitched, Jeannie, Archie Bunker, MASH, Happy Days, Bob Newhart, etc... The only reason you don't see under-30 fans of certain older shows may very well just be caused by the fact that they have never seen those shows. You act like all anybody under 30 watches is Jerry Springer, I have never watched Springer once in my life.

Jeff Willis · 05-10-2006, 12:55 PM

I'd say emotions tend to run a little high when the inevitable "then vs now" comparisons are posted. Me, I'm another one of those "50's" (early, that is) guys

Being an average-to-avid TV/DVD collector, almost all of my buys are from my "past" but, after borrowing 'Firefly' from my nephew, I'm enjoying that series. I haven't seen any eps of the more-popular present-day series (Buffy, Angel, Lost, 24, etc). so I don't have an opinion on current TV series. The issue that I run into, is 'Time'. I don't have enough of it to check out current series. I look at it this way: I can try a Season-1 set of one of the present-day series sometime in the future. That way, I have the best of "both worlds". What we need is another "Time Tunnel" that really xports us back a year or two to add some viewing time....right, Harry-N?

JoshuaB. · 05-10-2006, 12:56 PM

So much hostility in this thread! There's a lot of banter back and forth about supposed golden ages and "wholesome" programs, but most comments on here are highly subjective. I would love to see a lot of the vintage TV shows from the 60s and 70s make it to DVD (The Fugitive, Get Smart, Man From UNCLE, WKRP, Six Million Dollar Man, etc.), but I'll remain patient that many of these programs will eventually reach DVD.

And as for contemporary television, I rarely watch network fare, but the success of TV on DVD can be primarily attributed to contemporary shows. If not for the success of The X-Files (the first TV show to use the now-standard season-set format), Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sopranos, Sex and the City on DVD, we might not have gotten season sets of older shows. Recent short-lived TV shows like The Job, Undeclared or Freaks and Geeks are released because they have cult followings, critical acclaim and are in recent memory. Older short-lived shows have faded from memory, save for the fans who remember.

And as for trashing programs like Buffy or Angel as crap, well, to each one's own. I enjoy Buffy, Angel and Alias because they place post-modern spins on standard genres. Joss Whedon and J.J. Abrams are fans of many of the old sci-fi/horror/spy TV shows and their programs are reflective; I don't see these shows as tarnishing the legacy started by The Twilight Zone or Thriller, but continuing it, adding more adult themes to the mix. As a writer I enjoy the playful, rich dialogue, the ambitious season-long story arcs and the fact that these shows don't cater to genre fans exclusively.

I happen to think The Fugitive is the finest drama series made to date, but I also crave the adult fare found on cable and I want shows from both eras on DVD.

Jay_B! · 05-10-2006, 01:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Karlosi

So "majority" means "right"? Being a huge horror fan (and yep, the old stuff is generally much better there, too) the dopey BUFFY happens to be one of the newer shows I've watched and I'll join the "minority" in thinking it stinks. I'll take THE TWILIGHT ZONE (the original version of it, naturally), THRILLER, ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS, THE OUTER LIMITS, and KOLCHAK THE NIGHT STALKER (which was the original "Buffy", but minus the Dawson's Creek kidstuff) any day.

Night Stalker was actually the original X-Files and Chris Carter himself has given Kolchak the right amount of praise and props to prove so... if you're gonna liken Buffy to an older series, Dark Shadows seems to be the more fitting one. I know a lot of BTVS fans who went back and fell in love with DS, and a lot of DS fans who checked BTVS out and loved it.

Jay_B! · 05-10-2006, 01:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoshuaB.

So much hostility in this thread! There's a lot of banter back and forth about supposed golden ages and "wholesome" programs, but most comments on here are highly subjective. I would love to see a lot of the vintage TV shows from the 60s and 70s make it to DVD (The Fugitive, Get Smart, Man From UNCLE, WKRP, Six Million Dollar Man, etc.), but I'll remain patient that many of these programs will eventually reach DVD.

And as for contemporary television, I rarely watch network fare, but the success of TV on DVD can be primarily attributed to contemporary shows. If not for the success of The X-Files (the first TV show to use the now-standard season-set format), Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sopranos, Sex and the City on DVD, we might not have gotten season sets of older shows. Recent short-lived TV shows like The Job, Undeclared or Freaks and Geeks are released because they have cult followings, critical acclaim and are in recent memory. Older short-lived shows have faded from memory, save for the fans who remember.

And as for trashing programs like Buffy or Angel as crap, well, to each one's own. I enjoy Buffy, Angel and Alias because they place post-modern spins on standard genres. Joss Whedon and J.J. Abrams are fans of many of the old sci-fi/horror/spy TV shows and their programs are reflective; I don't see these shows as tarnishing the legacy started by The Twilight Zone or Thriller, but continuing it, adding more adult themes to the mix. As a writer I enjoy the playful, rich dialogue, the ambitious season-long story arcs and the fact that these shows don't cater to genre fans exclusively.

I happen to think The Fugitive is the finest drama series made to date, but I also crave the adult fare found on cable and I want shows from both eras on DVD.

thank you. That was sensible and showed that it's perfectly fine to enjoy shows from your childhood and modern day shows. There is a real "us vs. them" attitude from older posters which I find laughable considering how many twentysomething I Love Lucy fans there are.

michael_ks · 05-10-2006, 01:42 PM

Quote:

There is a real "us vs. them" attitude from older posters which I find laughable considering how many twentysomething I Love Lucy fans there are.

"I Love Lucy" has universal and timeless appeal due to its insipidness. Personally, I don't consider this series as representing the pinnacle of classic television. For that, we need look no further than "Playhouse 90", "Route 66", "Naked City" and countless others, which the vast majority of "twentysomethings" completely eschew.

Like Michael Alden, I was too young to see many of the series orignally broadcast in the 50's-60's era and didn't actually see a first run show until the "Night Gallery/Night Stalker/Kung Fu" days. Having shows like "Have Gun Will Travel" come to DVD has been a godsend, a western that began airing two years before I was born. And if weren't for 50+ friggin years of "Lucy" being re-run ad nauseum, perhaps I could have enjoyed shows like "Have Gun" in syndication a long time ago.