Do others share your interest in retro tv?  

What immoral garbage are you referring to?

Oh, I don't know.  I'll take a wild guess that he's referring to about 90% of the current stuff that airs on TV today.  At least I know I'd classify it as immoral trash.  But that's just me.

David, I for one really appreciated your post and agree with you completely.  I have two daughters who aren't allowed to watch current fare for the very reasons you've mentioned.  We watch all the old classics from the 50's and 60's and they love them!  I wouldn't trade those experiences in for anything in the world.

Gary "I'm just thankful for this phenomenon of classic TVonDVD because it really has allowed me to enjoy things I never thought I'd get a second chance to see after childhood - and it allows me to pass these wonderful shows on to the next generation as well" O.

You are not the only one out there who has made a DVD collection of older television series. I myself have too. My mother has all of "The Waltons" on DVD, and she has seen all of it too. She loved it, and she's had a hankering for the post-series movies. I have all 6 releases of "Five-O" on DVD, and so far, I have truly enjoyed them. I used to be just an '80's fan (because that's when I was a little boy), but then I discovered a lot of what was on in the '60's and '70's, and gained two new decades. I don't understand, however, why your wife and children do not share your interest in older television. I'd feel kind of silly too if I had a wife/girlfriend/date and she said something to me along the lines of "Why don't you ever look at [name of current or '90's series] instead of all that old stuff?" (which is apparently how your wife and children feel). That said, the only reason that I can think of is that it boils down to a matter of personal preference. At least in my opinion, television started going downhill in the '90's, and got worse from there until we got where we are now; this is why I phrased my hypothetical question that way.


Edited by bmasters9 - 9/1/09 at 8:16am

I too collect and enjoy the older shows.  I do like a lot of todays science fiction, but it is not that popular.  "Merlin" for instance is a good show that teaches some moral lessions, but what were its ratings?  I bet nowhere near "Two and A-half Men" which I detest.   But I love "The Waltons" and "Hawaii Five-O" and such.  I have spent thousands on my collection as well.

In my experience, it depends more on the genre rather than the decade.  My wife and I watch a lot of current shows on DVD (Jericho, Leverage, The Closer just to name a few), and because she enjoys crime/mystery shows, she'll watch a Columbo with me.  Sometimes enjoying a current show with a similar flavor leads her to enjoy a classic (ex. Leverage with its cons and schemes was a nice segueway into Mission: Impossible, which she has also enjoyed).  On the other hand, westerns aren't her thing, so she won't do Wild Wild West.    

It cuts both ways, I think - there's a lot of classic TV I enjoy, but that doesn't mean everything aired between 1950 and 1989 tickles my fancy.  As much as I've tried, the big sitcoms from those decades don't really do anything for me, save for The Bob Newhart Show and Dick Van Dyke.  And other than Twilight Zone, vintage sci-fi doesn't dazzle me either.  There may be some of us out there who digest and love EVERYTHING classic, but that hasn't been my personal experience.

And I know it's been raised before, but I think it's a little unfair to brand something as "immoral" just because it's new.  Maybe we're working with different definitions of "immoral?" (I for one, am not bothered by depictions of people who are different than I am, but I know many are; profanity doesn't bother me as much as it does others). 

Don't misunderstand - if you don't like it, that's your right, but a generalization that all modern TV is "immoral garbage" has no more basis in reality than "all Black & White TV is boring."

Just me, but I haven't seen any network shows since the mid-90's except for "Firefly".  While I may have missed a few shows since then that I'd have liked, what I see as far as promos and such, I doublt I'd be interested in much that's been on network TV since around '95 or so.

My collection spans from the 50's thru the mid-90's.  That covers several decades of shows but I far prefer the 50's-70's decades.

Regardless of what anyone wants to admit, the culture climate has changed in big ways since those days.  While change is good in some ways, it's not imo, a universal rule.

Same as Jeff, just me.

My wife and I started watching a lot of TV shows through NetFlix back around 2005 and stopped watching cable/network TV altogether. For the most part we watched things like Stargate, 24, House, and FireFly. Then she became highly active in fundraising and preferred to use the evenings for planning and to make crafts, while I watch on my own.

Since she has never been fond of b/w it gave me a chance to experiment with my viewing. At first I watched a lot of older movies but then discovered vintage TV on DVD. I now have about 200 seasons of shows on DVD. Primarily between the 50's and 60's with a few spanning the 70's through 2000's. Mostly, westerns, espionage, and drama, with some classic family centric comedies.

The only thing we watch as a family is a single show before my daughters go to bed. We went through Little House, Flipper, and Father Murphy, and now are working our way through Road to Avonlea (which is the best so far).

i like to see a web page were people can share information around old tv shows. i have been collecting tv shows for the past several years and do not watch any cable tv anymore. I actually pick up the new shows on broadband. i just find tv and the reality shows abit much for me. I rather watch shows like hawaii five-o, Emergency!, The Invaders, Space 1999, Star Trek, Enterprise, Simon & Simon, etc.

I  can see cable tv dying over the next few years or at least many people switching and going to basic cable. There is really no need to have expanded cable and pay over $100/month for tv cable. when there is nothing on tv.

I am thinking of dropping the expanded package myself.  Except for Eureka, Burn Notice and a few other similar shows, I don't watch much cable.

I grew up in the 80's so an "old" show to me would be anything post 1976. I somehow wound up worshipping shows like The Twilight Zone, however and I'm pretty fond of I Love Lucy but my TV-on-DVD collection is littered with stuff like Sliders, MacGyver, The A-team and a few odd sitcoms like Benson and Gimme a Break. The 90's were a complete drag and the only recent shows I truly enjoy is Lost and Battlestar Galactica. The real treasure in my collection is still The Twilight Zone. Hell,  I even like the 80's version.

Retro TV is definitely a generational thing. Growing up in the 80s in Canada (before the Mulroney government killed the CBC's regional autonomy, thus killing an affiliate's ability to buy its own non-primetime programming), I was exposed to so many wonderful 60s and 70s TV shows, enjoying them as much as the contemporary shows. Even when TV became more adult-oriented (and cinematic-looking) in the 90s (thanks to Twin Peaks, Larry Sanders, Oz, etc.), I still had a fondness for the older shows, even if they lacked the sophisticated camera work of a David Lynch or Barry Levinson.  

But I still love my retro TV. I don't buy a lot of vintage TV on DVD anymore (I've collected most of what I want), other than waiting for some series to finish, but I have a small library to enjoy. Most of my friends don't like the vintage stuff (except for my Degrassi Junior/High sets), so I can't tell them why The Rockford Files is an amazing show without them giving me blank stares. Oh well, we have lots of other common interests to talk about!

Most definitely. A great show is a great show whether it was made today or 50 years ago. There's plenty of great shows made in every decade, don't limit youself by refusing to watch something because of when it was made.

I watched The Twilight Zone on the CBC when I was five and it so impacted me, that years later, even though it's never been in syndication in Canada for decades, it was one of the influences that made me decide to write for a living. Because the 80s TZ's final season was shot in Canada, it was syndicated frequently, but I always wanted to see the original, other than the few scraps I got by renting the odd VHS volume a video store might have. Such is the power of Rod Serling! 

I'm the complete opposite about the 90s, however, as I loved the dark, gritty programming that emerged (Twin Peaks, The X-Files, Homicide: Life on the Street, Millennium, Buffy, Da Vinci's Inquest).

A lot of great comments from several of you.  I'd like to briefly respond to a few of them (mostly to say "Amen"):



Exactly, Jeff.  Not all change is good.  And in the case of the declining values shown on network TV today versus 4 or 5 decades ago, it's definitely not a good thing in my eyes.  But to each his own.



My family enjoys all those shows too, Brad.  And I think my wife and two daughters would agree with you 100% about Road to Avonlea being a great one!  Hope you get a chance to go all the way through that series - it has a fantastic little ending to a big story arc over the last couple of episodes.  You think things are going one way and it's a bit meloncholy and even somewhat sad for a while, but don't give up till you go through the entire series and especially don't give up in the last season - the last couple of episodes are really neat.



David, what great comments.  I agree with you completely.  I'm a Christian parent as well and feel the same way you do.  The message in too many of the shows today (especially shows that are aimed at tweens) is not what I want my children exposed to.  Kids are growing up too fast as it is - they don't need all this sexuality and such shoved down their throats at every turn.  That's why my family turns to classic TV on DVD for our viewing entertainment.  No worries about hitting the mute button all the time or having to cover the kids' eyes every 2 minutes.



Travis, for me the problem with the different decades and era's in TV is what the original poster brought up: declining values, especially in the area of profanity and sexuality.  There are very, very few modern shows that you can point me to where one never, ever has to worry about a cuss word popping up every now and then.  Or a show where there's never a concern about immodest apparel or sexual situations.  Like David said earlier, even if you are watching Nick or Disney the shows still emphasize dating and the like over and over and over.  And these shows are aimed at kids that really don't need to be obsessing with stuff like that at such young ages.  Just my opinion, but those are the big areas for me where there is a huge difference between shows of yesteryear and shows today. 


Gary "again, just my two cents" O.

Our family watches very few shows from 1990 to the present.  Exceptions to this are Lost, all of the Trek series from that time, and one or two other shows.

A routine night for us is an episode or two of The Brady Bunch or Room 222 (or similar half-hour show), followed by an episode of either The Fugitive, Mission: Impossible, or The Mod Squad (or similar show).  We love television programs from the 1960s and very early 1970s.  We also watch a lot of classic films, most often in the horror, suspense, and sci-fi genres.  We also love B films. :)

My wife and I watch a few of the current network shows (Lost, The Office, 30 Rock, Weeds) and also share a mutual love of some older shows on DVD from my vast collection (although she generally avoids the '50s and '60s shows I love).  Some of the ones we watch together:  Hawaii Five-0, Seinfeld, Married With Children, Sanford and Son, Charlie's Angels, Knight Rider, What's Happening!, Arrested Development.

I do admit that probably all of the recent or modern shows that I'd consider to be the best shows are not family programming. Just to clarify, I don't think it's the profanity, violence or sex that makes the show good. 

Shows like The Wire, The Sopranos, Deadwood, The Shield, Twin Peaks, The X-Files, Lost, Seinfeld or The Simpsons have content that you would not/may not enjoy. That being said, I still think that they're all shows that can stand among the greats of past decades.

I get what your saying, Travis.  I really do.  I'm not saying some modern shows don't have solid writing and great production values.  I know some do, and I know that some tell a great story and have neat arcs that stretch through entire seasons and the like.  As I said, my issue mainly centers on the moral aspect and how the standards have eroded so much since the 50's and 60's.  I generally don't care to watch something where I'm cringing every couple of minutes because of profanity, sexual situations, nasty jokes, and the many shades of gray in heroes and villains alike that Hollywood is so infatuated with at the moment. 

Seems like you can't just have a good guy and a bad guy any more.  No, everyone has to be bent and sick to one degree or another.  Stuff like that really bugs me.  I don't mean that the main characters can't be shown to have flaws and make mistakes.  That's always been a part of most every show and it should be.  Jim Anderson didn't always "know best" (well, at least not until the end of the episode - LOL).  Gil Favor, Rowdy Yates, and the rest of the RAWHIDE gang could and would make mistakes and show they were human.  I have no problem with that.  But today Hollywood takes things too far, IMHO, on many occasions and we have way too much gray.  And that just wears on me.  I'm watching TV for both entertainment and at least a little edification every now and then - not to be depressed at the human condition all the time.  Therefore I stick with the older material where the lines aren't so blurred all the time.

Gary "once again, just my two cents" O.

P.S.  As I was typing a response I see David just got into my brain again and wrote another great post that I fully agree with.  Well done, buddy. 

Even as someone who has no problem with the content on modern TV shows, I do think it's kind of sad that there isn't a quality show that you could watch with, say, your grandmother or young kids on the air today.

I tried real hard about 8 years ago to start watching the latest incarnation of Superman on TV: Smallville.  It started out ok, with the offending language kept to a minimum, but once the show introduced "Lois Lane", it really started going downhill with a lot more T&A junk.  It's just not an acceptable show that I can sit down with my kids and watch without fear of nudity/semi-nudity; profanity; numerous "heroes" being drunkards; and lots and lots of shading of gray amongst everyone.  Heck, this version of Clark Kent is easily the worst, on a moral level, of any I've ever seen.  Doesn't help that the show can't tell a consistent story or stick to an arc to save it's life.  Anyhow, it's a perfect example of a show that one would think might be ok for family viewing - but not in my house it isn't.  It's a mockery to the Superman I've come to know and love for many years in many different incarnations. 

It really is a shame, Travis.  There's an honest to goodness dirth of kid-friendly, family-friendly shows on the major networks today.

Gary "fortunately, I can plug in some George Reeves AoS episodes on dvd to see how the legend should be told" O.

I grew up watching television in the 1960's, which meant 60's programming and 50's reruns. To me, in those days, television seemed like a friend. By the time I was raising my sons, television seemed like an unpredictable intruder that I needed to protect my kids from. How sad.

TV on DVD is one of the few ways to enjoy the earlier decades of television. I just hope releases from this time period continue.

I'm from your generation, the last one that grew up with three major networks, one or two independent or public stations and rabbit ears. And I got to tell you, I am bored silly with TV shows from that era and find most all of them silly, trite and naive. Give me the cinematic artistry and passion of The Shield, Dexter, Lost, Desperate Housewives any day of the week. I understand that a lot of you have child-rearing concerns that I no longer deal with and some have a value system different from mine. But I really do find it laughable that people can compare the quality of pre-cable TV shows favorably with current ones with the argument that everything new is crap. The networks/TV stations weren't showing us anything in the old days for any reason other than to sell advertising--no different than today. Everything new isn't crap, and not too much old is any good.

I greatly prefer programming from the 50-mid 70's, but simply because much of it was much better written, directed, and acted.  I have a huge collection of that era's programming, both from studio releases and from collectors.  That being said, I fully enjoy much of the contemporary programming as well.  I thoroughly enjoy Buffy, Battlestar Galactica, 24, Nip/Tuck, Rescue Me, the X-Files, Heroes, Monk, House,and others.  I watch mostly my older shows, but make time for the newer stuff that I find interesting.  The biggest problem is the proliferation of reality TV which I DO consider trash and the seemingly endless parade of late night infomercials which used to be the domain of great old TV reruns and old movies.  That is what I truly consider sad.

I am reminded of Sturgeon's Law -- “Ninety percent of everything is crud.”

Most TV from any era will be "silly, trite and naive," or, in other words, trash that will not stand the test of time.  
 

However, those of us who watch retro TV are usually watching the best the medium has to offer from any particular era.  The best of modern shows will be the equal of those from the past. 

For example, I just watched a 1957 episode of Gunsmoke that dealt with the gang rape of an Indian woman.  They didn't do it explicitly, but it was clear what had happened.  Then, there's the classic Dragnet episode, "The Big .22 Rifle for Christmas," which is as harrowing a piece of drama as ever appeared on TV. 

I do like modern TV.  I'm a big fan of the revived Doctor Who.  I love Torchwood and Mad Men.  I eagerly watched the first season of Heroes (but not so much the following seasons.)  And I'm excited about Glee premiering this fall.  And I will concede that many of the modern shows mentioned in this thread are as good as TV has ever been.  But if they are telling stories I am not interested in, I will not watch.  I tried watching Battlestar Galactica, and it was as brilliant as my friends were telling -- intelligent and relevant scripts, terrific acting, great production values.  But I found the story being told very depressing.  There is nothing wrong with shows about corrupt cops, dysfunctional firefighters, mobsters and serial killers. 

But I have no interest in watching such things.

While I personally do not have a problem with vulgarity and amorality in entertainment, it depends on how it is used.  If it is integral to the story being told, then it is serving a purpose.  But if it is there just for the sake of being there, then it is pure exploitation appealing to prurient interests.  

But as a wise man once said, you will never go broke underestimating the taste of the American public.
 

I'm from the same generation, and you're absolutely right. As proof, seek out the new documentary Yoo Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg (still playing in theaters, but should hit DVD this fall). It's a fascinating look, full of archival footage and kinescopes, at Gertrude Berg, the writer and star who invented the American sit-com, won the first Emmy for best actress in a comedy, and still saw her immensely popular series canceled by the sponsor when she refused to fire a co-star who had been blacklisted. The time slot was handed to I Love Lucy, and the rest is history.

Then as now, advertising ruled.