Gary16
Screenwriter
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TVLand also aired 77 Sunset Strip for about a month!
And now that TBS has become so obsessed with becoming the Sitcom Network, with original programming and "themed" Seinfeld reruns, I confess:I'm now partliy ashamed of being one of those cable viewers so disgruntled with Turner's hyperactive "I own 'em" merchandising of their few limited low-rent syndicated properties in the 80's (Nick at Nite was showing every classic rerun in existence, and TBS was reminding us they showed Leave It to Beaver?...Oooo!), we actually used to laugh at those "Ted Turner and Jane Fonda's Wedding Night" jokes of their day:Harry-N said:Far be it for me to be defending these channels, *but*
Whenever a channel does a start-up, it usually lacks programming of any kind. Back in the '80s, the main source for TV programming was in fact old off-network reruns. They didn't have the funds to create their own programming, so they relied on what the syndication marketplace held. That was a boon to those of us who liked older series and got a chance to see them again in the days before anyone ever thought of actually selling these shows to home video (STAR TREK, TWILIGHT ZONE and THE PRISONER excepted).
Once the channels were up and running for a number of years, became the property of the big conglomerates, and the money was there to do original programming, then slowly the old syndicated reruns went away to be replaced by newer stuff. Now that these channels have had years of making their own shows, they can run them ad nauseum, back-to-back, wall to wall. Who needs to spend money at a syndicator?
In the 1980s we had the best of all worlds. Home video was new, cable was becoming more prevalent, and Saturday morning cartoons were still around, so it was easy to get a good mix of old and new shows of all genres. The Disney Channel in its pay-cable days was like an extensive crash course in Disney history, and Nickelodeon had a lot of great shows, too (they also had the rights to Looney Tunes, where IIRC they were less censorious than Cartoon Network or the broadcast networks). Ironically, the shows from the 1980s barely had any time to stick around in reruns before talk shows and court shows crowded them out. Almost nothing from either the 1980s or 1990s gets rerun today except the heavy hitters, which are all on DVD.Nick at Nite's finest moment was when they decided to show I Love Lucy uncut in its debut marathon. Regrettably, that didn't become the default, and they switched to the same cut versions as everybody else. The editing situation has gotten worse since then, and it got to the point where the sloppy, systematic wholesale editing, increasingly noisy commercials and distracting visual clutter made virtually all of basic cable unwatchable until Mad Men premiered. DVD box sets couldn't have come at a better time.MattPeriolat said:Cable syndication is what made me the vintage television fan I am today. Nick at Nite with Donna Reed, Mister Ed, My Three Sons, I Spy, Route 66 and Dennis the Menace; Disney Channel with Mickey Mouse Club, Zorro and the anthology series. Not a day goes by I do not thank my stars for being an 80s kid and the summer time, right around this time every year, for getting to stay home and have the TV on in the living room and falling asleep on the couch exposed to all this stuff that, to this day, I try to recapture as best I can.
It was a cultural Perfect Storm in 1983-86:MatthewA said:In the 1980s we had the best of all worlds. Home video was new, cable was becoming more prevalent, and Saturday morning cartoons were still around, so it was easy to get a good mix of old and new shows of all genres. The Disney Channel in its pay-cable days was like an extensive crash course in Disney history, and Nickelodeon had a lot of great shows, too (they also had the rights to Looney Tunes, where IIRC they were less censorious than Cartoon Network or the broadcast networks). Ironically, the shows from the 1980s barely had any time to stick around in reruns before talk shows and court shows crowded them out. Almost nothing from either the 1980s or 1990s gets rerun today except the heavy hitters, which are all on DVD.
Before I stopped following tv shows regularly in the late 1980's, I vaguely recall watching reruns of shows like the original Knight Rider, CHiPs, etc ... on various local channels. (Typically after midnight).MatthewA said:In the 1980s we had the best of all worlds. Home video was new, cable was becoming more prevalent, and Saturday morning cartoons were still around, so it was easy to get a good mix of old and new shows of all genres. The Disney Channel in its pay-cable days was like an extensive crash course in Disney history, and Nickelodeon had a lot of great shows, too (they also had the rights to Looney Tunes, where IIRC they were less censorious than Cartoon Network or the broadcast networks).
Ironically, the shows from the 1980s barely had any time to stick around in reruns before talk shows and court shows crowded them out. Almost nothing from either the 1980s or 1990s gets rerun today except the heavy hitters, which are all on DVD.
I had such high hopes when TV Land debuted as "Nick at Nite's TV Land." I still have a videotape from Nick at Nite giving a preview night showing Hogan, That Girl, The Munsters, etc. All gloriously uncut and no annoying ads.MatthewA said:Nick at Nite's finest moment was when they decided to show I Love Lucy uncut in its debut marathon. Regrettably, that didn't become the default, and they switched to the same cut versions as everybody else. The editing situation has gotten worse since then, and it got to the point where the sloppy, systematic wholesale editing, increasingly noisy commercials and distracting visual clutter made virtually all of basic cable unwatchable until Mad Men premiered. DVD box sets couldn't have come at a better time.