Who else here only watches 1 ep per week? (1 Viewer)

Anyone else do this with the classic, episodic style shows? Do you have special schedules for certain shows? Are you able to stick to those schedules?
While I can't do this with something serial in nature (like BSG), I'm finding that I'm enjoying the older (and more formulaic) shows much more if I limit them to one per week. Rather than burning out on any given show, I find myself looking forward to certain days just so I can watch certain programs.

I've never considered doing this before. We tend to watch shows in larger chunks (around four or five different shows at a time). Your idea seems like it might be a good one, however--in some ways, like the good old days of having to wait a week before you got to see another episode of a favorite show.

I don't burn out on shows; this is probably because we watch those four or five at a time, one or two episodes per week. But doing it this way can also get a tad confusing, remembering where we left off.

I watch 4-5 series at a time. What I like to do is watch a disc or two of one show, then move on to the next. My goal every day is to watch at least 2 episodes of a show. Most of the time I watch 3 or 4 episodes in one day, but sometimes I don't watch any. Doing a disc or two at a time is nice because you can get through a season faster and watch a larger chunk of the series at a time. It's easy not to get lost where you left off too.

I certainly don't do the once a week thing for a number of reasons - my schedule is too uncertain and I have too many tv series to watch. However, I do agree that watching huge blocks of one show is not the ideal way, at least for me.

I used to do that - try to watch everything in one series, and then move on to the next, but I now alternate, and it's much better. For example, I'll watch one episode of one show, then an episode of another show, then an episode of another show, etc. Of course, I'm also mixing in movies, so it's a slow process.

The only exception to watching blocks of one show is when I'm introducing my 8 year old son to a show. So, right now we're watching I Love Lucy, and we may end up watching a whole dvd (6 episodes) in one sitting. We're only on season 3, so that's still going to take a long time.

Here's my Current Rundown:

Sundays - Movie of the Week, Miami Vice, Evangelion: Neon Genesis

Mondays - Little House on the Prairie, Knight Rider, Sliders, Western TV Classics

Tuesdays - Touched by an Angel, The Wild Wild West, Baywatch, Superhero Movie Serial

Wednesdays - JAG, Walker,Texas Ranger, CSI, Best of TV Detectives

Thursdays - The Waltons, MacGyver, Charmed, Adventure Movie Serial

Fridays - NBC Mystery Movie, ER, Ultamate TV Westerns

Saturdays - Smallville, Lois &Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Saturday Morning Cartoons

Sure beats the Blah the Networks are throwing at us!

Great thread Paul.

I have actually been doing my own retro scheduling for a while now. So far it's just reserved for Friday nights when I watch The Incredible Hulk, and The Dukes of Hazzard. I even match the air dates so they play exactly as they originally aired back in the day(on Friday nights). Example:

This Friday night I will watch

9-10 The Incredible Hulk "Blind Rage" 9/28/79

10-11 The Dukes Of Hazzard "Gold Fever" 9/28/79.

Retro scheduling is lots of fun if you have a couple series that add up, you should try it. The nostalgia factor is off the charts.

You sure have a good schedule lined up!


I've tried watching one episode per series, but it just doesn't work for me. I also tried having days for series:
EX:

Monday-Combat
Tuesday Man From U.N.C.L.E.
Wednesday-Macgyver
Thursday-X-Files
Friday-Stargate SG-1
Saturday-Get Smart
Sunday-Dukes of Hazzard


That didn't work for me either, I wouldn't follow a weekly schedule.

We started doing a little of this during the writers strike, but have fallen out of the schedule since summer started.

For awhile there Thursday and Sunday were "retro TV" nights; while Saturday was reserved for DVD movies.

On Thursdays we did:
* Friends
* Everybody Loves Raymond
* Star Trek: Deep Space 9

On Sundays:
* The Bob Newhart Show
* Mary Tyler Moore
* Seinfeld
* Farscape

Ya' know: We were almost sorry when the writers' strike ended!!

My family and I have never watched a bunch of episodes of the same show in one sitting. To each his own, but it seems to me that that's too much of a good thing. We have so much classic TV on DVD, we don't even usually watch an episode a week of the same show; we do rotations of shows of a certain genre. We call it "Theme Nights," and we have great fun with it! It goes something like this:


Sundays - Family Night Little House on the Prairie, The Waltons, Family, The Wonder Years (taped off ION), Walt Disney Treasures, All-Star Family Feud

Mondays - Mystery Night Columbo, McMillian & Wife, Quincy, The Hardy Boys, Marple

Tuesdays - Comedy Night Cosby Show, Cheers, Everybody Loves Raymond, Sanford & Son, Happy Days, That 70s Show, Seinfeld, Frasier, Police Squad!, Dream On, Perfect Strangers, Gomer Pyle

Wednesdays - Adventure Night Mannix, The Rockford Files, Hardcastle & McCormick, Hunter, Hart to Hart, Mike Hammer

Thursdays - Sci-Fi Night The Incredible Hulk, The Invaders, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Night Gallery, The X-Files

Fridays - Black & White Night Andy Griffith Show, You Bet Your Life, The Fugitive, Perry Mason, Rawhide, The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents

Saturdays - Variety Night Dean Martin Show, Carol Burnett Show, Flip Wilson Show, Andy Williams Show, This is Tom Jones, Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Ed Sullivan Show, Whose Line Is It, Anyway?

As I mentioned, we just rotate these shows. We have our themes/genres, and we usually decide over the weekend what we're going to watch that week. Nothing ever gets tiresome; it's always fresh and wonderful. We love it!

I've considered doing this on occasion for nostalgia. Check the old TV listings and duplicate a favorite TV night right down to the episodes airing on that date. But I've not gotten around to it yet. For now, I have 3 hour and 3 half-hour series I rotate through until one is completed and I add in another. I'll watch 2-4 episodes of a disk/series daily if possible. Like others have mentioned it's sometimes difficult to keep track of just where I am in a series if I do it otherwise. I'm just a bit too lazy to keep a written log.

I usual watch the whole espidoes sometimes i skip a few.

I've been doing this with "I Love Lucy" since getting the complete series as a Christmas gift. I'm fudging a bit, though--no summer reruns or summer hiatus.

I've done the same thing, more or less, with "Hazel" and "Green Acres." Like you, I find it more fun to not rush through a set.

Also, I've been collecting the MPI releases of the gothic serial "Dark Shadows" for several years now. The earliest episodes are the last in the series that MPI has chosen to release, and I've been waiting to begin watching them until late June, which is when the series first premiered on ABC daytime in 1966. Watching a single episode before going to bed, Monday though Friday, has become an enjoyable close to the day for the past couple of weeks. When Sci-Fi channel aired "Dark Shadows," they ran two episodes each weekday, which I always disliked...stories were raced through so quickly that way.

My variation on this was to create a simulation, of sorts, of the prime time of the fall of 1966… the year I was 11, and everything was special! (…as it is for EVERYONE when they are 11!)

The DVD sets I used for this included:

•F-Troop (2nd Season)
•Gilligan’s Island (3rd Season)
•Lost in Space (2nd Season Volume One)
•Star Trek (1st Season)
•The Time Tunnel (1st Season Volume One)
•Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (3rd Season Volume One)
•The Wild Wild West (2nd Season)

Here’s the line up for September, as compiled from the sets themselves, with original 1966 air dates.


ShowTitle1966 Date
F-TPThe Singing Mountie09/08 (TH)
STMan Trap09/08 (TH)
TTRendevous with Yesterday09/09 (F)
GIUp at Bat09/12 (M)
LISBlast Off into Space09/14 (W)
F-TPHow to be F-Troop Without Really Trying09/15 (TH)
STCharlie X09/15 (TH)
TTOne Way to the Moon09/16 (F)
WWWNight of the Eccentrics09/16 (F)
VBSMonster from the Inferno09/18 (SU)
GIGilligan vs. Gilligan09/19 (M)
LISWild Adventure09/21 (W)
F-TPBye Bye Balloon09/22 (TH)
STWhere No Man has Gone Before09/22 (TH)
TTEnd of the World09/23 (F)
WWWNight of the Golden Cobra09/23 (F)
VBSWerewolf09/25 (SU)
GIPass the Vegetables, Please!09/26 (M)
LISThe Ghost Planet09/28 (W)
F-TPReach for the Sky, Pardner!09/29 (TH)
STThe Naked Time09/29 (TH)
TTThe Day the Sky Fell In09/30 (F)
WWWNight of the Raven09/30 (F)
VBSThe Day the World Ended10/02 (SU)


Unfortunately, I was unable to sustain any sort of regular viewing schedule or routine, but DID continue on through the balance of September, 1966, as my personal schedule allowed. It was a fun game to play, and I wonder if something like this occurred to many others.

Interesting thread.

Does anyone here know of a website or database which lists original TV broadcast schedules? (I can imagine that collecting individual TV guide issues would be prohibitively expensive and time consuming)

Why would anyone do anything as dumb as that? With so many studios using double sided DVD's, poor manufacturing on single sided DVD's resulting in skipping or no playback at all, waiting an entire season to watch a complete set would void out the return warranty policy on DVD's.

I have always considered that sort of thing idiotic ... not only would you quickly wear out your DVD player, but it's an unneccesary waste of time to continuisly pop one DVD in and out ...

Plus, there's also another issue ... more and more studios are starting to program each of their DVD's so that you cannot fast forward through all of the studio propoganda that has started showing up on DVD's. Just take a look at what Universal has been doing. They have disabled the fast forward function on all of their DVD's and force you to sit through commercials for other DVD releases from the studio.

Mike,

One that I've visited occasionally: Try this one It's a fairly versitile site with many selections of past primetime schedules.

I agree; Paul, this is one thread that I've nearly started a few times Thanks for getting it rolling.

I'm guessing that I might be in a minority of 1 here with the way that I view TV/DVD's So, here goes....

Lately I've found myself leaning towards somewhat following my past memories of watching the same shows on the same evenings that the shows aired but only on the weekend evenings. For example, recently, I've been watching a "Mission:Impossible" on Sat eve and "My Favorite Martian" on Sun eve.

As far as how many eps per show I watch at one time, I'm nearly always a 1-ep-view per series viewer. Rarely do I watch back-to-back eps of a series. I'll usually watch an "action", "Detective", or "SciFi/Adventure" show during a meal on the weekends and follow it with a sitcom/comedy "chaser".

Since I have...a few... shows that are in viewing-progress, I get help from "Bill Gates" (I have an Excel file that I update and print out weekly). That's the only way I can keep track of what I last viewed. I also keep a release-date sch (the sets that I'm planning on buying) on one of the excel file tabs along with all of my DVD collection with Movies on one worksheet & the TV/DVD sets on another sheet.

As far as the issue with possible defective sets, that is one drawback to watching a collection this way. I have sets on the shelf that are way beyond the normal return-time window for exchange that I haven't started to watch but I've not had a refusal yet from Amazon for an exchange when the purchase date was well beyond the usual return/exchage deadline.

What are you talking about?
-Choosing a specific episode from the main menu does not wear out a dvd player.
-I have a five disc dvd player so I don't have to pop anything in and out constantly .

-Universal discs don't force me to do anything. I push the menu button on my remote, and go directly to the main menu, and fast forward works perfectly.

-retro scheduling is a lot of fun. If you don't dig it fine, but with all due respect we own the dvd's we can watch them in whatever way we please. It's not idiotic. On the contrary, it's more thought provoking than just hitting a "play all" and vegging out.

Ya know….this is exactly WHY I hate the Internet!

This looks like a fun, lighthearted thread to participate in…. and here comes another contrary “expert-on-how-to-do-all-things” to say : “Why would anyone do anything as dumb as that?”

I TRULY cannot understand such behavior! If it’s not for you, just say so in a generally polite way -- or abstain from comment completely, as I often do when things strike me as “dumb” or “idiotic”! Just because I might feel something is “dumb”, there’s no need for me to denigrate the original poster. He or she may have a point that I just don’t see.

A good rule to follow – and one that I adhere to is: “Would I say that to the person’s face?” If so, then it’s probably okay to post. If not, then find another way to say it!

Most everyone here has common likes, dislikes, and a love for TV DVD that goes beyond the casual! GEEZ! You’d think we’d be able to enjoy ourselves!

If I want to watch my own stuff in a certain way – a way that others of a like mind “MIGHT” find fun to do as well, I’d like to think that I could share that here… with nothing more negative than a respectful disagreement – or an interesting alternative suggestion in return!

C’mon, folks…

My job prohibits planning anything on any night, so I just watch what I feel likeat any particular time that I actually have time. Latest series watched was
Firefly's last 7 eps. Then the Serenity movie (I know not TV). I had previously watched the beginning of the Firefly series some months earlier and just now felt like finishing it up. It's my second time through that series.

DVDSpot is good for keeping track of what has been watched and where I left the series.

In between starting and finishing Firefly was among others, Buffy, Homicide, Dark Angel, Burke's Law, Mannix, Kojak (more seasons please), Greatest American Hero, I Spy.....really it just comes down to what strikes my fancy as I look longingly at my collection of DVDs. hahah
I'm just a big kid.

This is a neat idea. I never have any use for the "play all" feature and never have watched any more than one episode a day at most.

Here is a Wikipedia link which gives the schedules for every TV season from 1946 to the present.

List of United States network television schedules - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia