Re: Are we Spoiled?
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Originally Posted by Hank Dearborn
The closest we have ever come was in the 80s with CBN and TNT. Unfortunately CBN cut stuff badly to 22 and 44 minutes. But look at some of the stuff that ran:
CBN: Wagon Train, Laramie, Empire, Wackiest Ship in the Army, Young Rebels, Iron Horse, Farmer's Daughter, Ben Casey, My Little Margie, Love That Bob, Wendy and Me, Bill Dana Show, Bachelor Father, Father Knows Best, The Monroes and I'm sure dozens more I can't recall at the moment.
TNT: Mr. Novak, National Velvet, The Lieutenant, Cain's Hundred, Logan's Run, Shaft, Maya, How the West Was Won, Hondo, Travels of Jamie McPheeters, Bronk, Then Came Bronson, Man from UNCLE, Girl from UNCLE, Beyond Westworld, Man Called Shenendoah, The Rounders, Dr. Kildare, Chicago Story, McClain's Law, Daktari, Mayberry RFD, Jericho, Northwest Passage, etc. Unfortunately they didn't have enough faith in the vintage material to run it at a decent hour and much of it, like Mr. Novak, was used as filler in the middle of the night. Now, although they own this vast television library from when Turner bought MGM in the mid 80s, they do nothing with it while the network devoted to the films acquired in the purchase is still going strong.
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Great days. TNT, in its original form, was such a great channel (the only real downsides were the commercial breaks, some time/content edits, and the general lack of letterboxing of widescreen movies), delivering for classic TV fans, movie fans and animation/cartoon fans alike. I'm kicking myself for not taping CAIN'S HUNDRED and THE TRAVELS OF JAMIE MCPHEETERS when I had the chance, however (mainly because I was taping so many movies from TNT and AMC at that time).
I could see the writing on the wall, though, when the channel started premiering "TNT Original" movies like THE WATER ENGINE, and adding sporting events (first soccer, then football). Nothing against you sports fans, or the possible merits of films like THE WATER ENGINE, but once this form of programming is added to a national network, the interesting and/or obscure stuff tends to go bye-bye fairly quickly. Ultimately, like so many other formerly-worthwhile channels, it became a clone of the USA Network (itself a once-cool channel, back in the days of NIGHT FLIGHT, COMMANDER USA'S GROOVIE MOVIES, and reruns of DRAGNET, LAND OF THE GIANTS and THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR).
Sadly, even back in the glory days of TVLAND, they had a ton of shows they didn't bother to air regularly. This was evident when they had their annual "Ultimate TV Fan" contest. The winner got his/her own weekly hour slot in the TV LAND schedule (for a year) to air whatever they wanted from the channel's "vaults". I witnessed one-time broadcasts of THE MILLIONAIRE, M SQUAD, HAWAIIAN EYE, 77 SUNSET STRIP, MR. TERRIFIC, etc, this way.
A couple of other channels were notable for the vintage TV they aired, back in the day:
The Sci-Fi Channel, in the 1990s, had Boris Karloff's THRILLER, KRAFT SUSPENSE THEATRE, ONE STEP BEYOND (non-pd, though they did add some awful new comuter-animated opening credits to it), THE INVADERS, DARKROOM, Filmation's animated FANTASTIC VOYAGE and JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, SCIENCE FICTION THEATER, LIGHTS OUT, TALES OF TOMORROW, THE IMMORTAL (1970), UFO (before the DVD release), STINGRAY (ditto), CAPTAIN SCARLET & THE MYSTERONS (ditto), H.G. WELLS' INVISIBLE MAN (ditto), etc.
Encore-Mystery in the late 1990s, was the best of all, a glimpse at what a TCM-esque presentation of classic TV could be like; though they only offered a couple of series at any given time (since they were/are mainly a movie channel), on weekday afternoons, you could see un-cut, commercial-free episodes of THE NAME OF THE GAME, MIKE HAMMER (1958-59, Darren McGavin), RICHARD DIAMOND, THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR, NIGHT GALLERY, THE AVENGERS (prior to A&E's DVD releases), THE NEW AVENGERS (ditto), PETER GUNN (ditto), THE SAINT (ditto), DANGER MAN/SECRET AGENT (ditto), THE PRISONER (ditto). Plus many 70s made-for-TV movies like GARGOYLES and BIRDS OF PREY. The channel declined in quality a few years ago, scaling way back the number pre-1980s films, and ditching their TV series, with the exception of the 1980s incarnation of MIKE HAMMER with Stacy Keach, and that's long gone now, too.
Encore-Action was pretty good, for a little while, airing un-cut, commercial-free episodes of COMBAT (though time-compressed, like the subsequent DVD releases), THE GREEN HORNET, TIME TUNNEL (before its DVD release) and THE PERSUADERS (ditto). Those days are over, as well.
Encore-Westerns is the only one out of the Encore bunch that is still keeping the faith, with un-cut/commercial free episodes of THE RIFLEMAN, BAT MASTERSON, THE BIG VALLEY, THE GENE AUTRY SHOW, CIMARRON STRIP and THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN. In the past they've run ALIAS SMITH & JONES, THE WESTERNER, THE VIRGINIAN and GUNSMOKE (the hour-long black & white episodes), among others.
