Classic TV show you should be into/couldn’t get into (1 Viewer)

[Purple Wig]

Not a thread to disparage a show, but what is a well regarded or well loved show that you’ve not really seen much despite its popularity, or that you’ve tried to get into but can’t, or used to dislike but revised your opinion of?

I’ll start it off with my 3 examples:

I Love Lucy. Watched it occasionally as a kid, didn’t see it at all for about 30 years, have seen infrequently over the past 2 decades. I do like the show, but it’s probably the best loved and most highly regarded show that I really don’t have much of a history with. I’ve probably spent more time watching The Lucy Show. It was more widely syndicated when I was young, and in recent years I find it provides a soothing type of visual Muzak, summoning that staying home sick/summer vacation mid morning feel.

Lost In Space. I remember seeing one black-and-white episode at someone’s house when I was about seven and thinking it was cool, but I was never really exposed to it again until my 20’s. I’ve seen it here and there, I like the way it looks, it always seems like a show I should like but I never really latch onto it. I’ve probably seen a total of 15 episodes over my life.

Hogan’s Heroes. I’d watch it when I was young just because it was on, but never particularly cared about it. As an adult, for a long time it got on my nerves and I avoided it, but in the last couple of.years I’ve warmed up to it a bit.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

I certainly agree with you about Hogan's Heroes. I don't find much that's funny about Nazi POW camps.

When Mad Magazine did their satire of it way back when, they ended with the question of what's next -- a show about the hilarious adventures of the Jews in a concentration camp?

Along the same lines, I could never get into M*A*S*H because I just can't find anything to laugh about concerning the insanity of war. (Will there be a sitcom someday about the war in Ukraine?)

There's no point in discussing Lost in Space. Season by season, show by show, it got sillier and stupider.

When I was home sick from school I'd watch shows like I Love Lucy, My Little Margie and I Married Joan. Being young and clueless, I thought they were clever and funny. I watched some of the last two of those shows on YouTube and I was appalled at how stupid and unfunny they were. The only value they have for me now is as nostalgia.

 

[jcroy]

Buck Rogers

 

[jcroy]

- the original Outer Limits
- the original Twilight Zone

 

[Likecats]

I used to be bored with Perry Mason, but in the last few years I have acually enjoyed the series. I have it complete on DVD now.

 

[The 1960's]

I used to be bored with Perry Mason, but in the last few years I have acually enjoyed the series. I have it complete on DVD now.

You beat me to it.

Perry Mason. I have almost the entire collection and I do not understand why I cannot enjoy it. Maybe it's too complex for my tiny brain? Any suggestions anyone?

Also, with a few exceptions, just about every single Alt-Uni series I've watched.

 

[Bryan^H]

I'm trying so hard to like 'The Rockford Files'. Season 1 at about halfway through has done nothing for me, and I'm a fan of James Garner. Crossing my fingers something clicks before I pull the plug.

 

[bmasters9]

or that you’ve tried to get into but can’t, or used to dislike but revised your opinion of?

I can answer those two of the three parts of your query-- the former is The Fugitive (that 1963-67 ABC mystery/adventure series w/the late David Janssen as Dr. Richard Kimble); I don't know what it is about it, but one 50-min. outing of that hit 60s ABC series feels like a boring 3-hr. movie, because there are long stretches of just talk, where nothing happens, and you never know when an episode will end.

OTOH, the latter is another ABC series, The Untouchables, a 1959-63 period detective series w/the late Robert Stack as Eliot Ness; I have the all-in-one of that one, and at first, I thought it was boring as all get-out, in that it seemed at first to have long stretches of talk, like The Fugitive; however, I eased myself back in, and it started getting really good, really fast, and became very much action-packed and riveting, so much so that for a while, that would be the only series of mine that I would see on DVD for quite a while (albeit I didn't finish it by binging, but rather, by seeing 2 or 3 episodes spread out during the day); I eventually did finish it, and it's one of my most prized releases.

 

[smithbrad]

Ozzie and Harriet. Tried it once and it didn't sink in. Maybe I was expecting too much.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

For me it was Outer Limits. I had heard about it for so many years and was very excited for Kino’s Blu-ray edition (which was very nicely produced) but I couldn’t even finish the first season and sold it off. I think the one hour format was simply too long for many of the stories being told (half an hour would have been just fine) and too many episodes for my taste wound up being monster stories instead of clever science fiction. I’m glad I got to try it out but I was so disappointed.

 

[bmasters9]

For me it was Outer Limits. I had heard about it for so many years and was very excited for Kino’s Blu-ray edition (which was very nicely produced) but I couldn’t even finish the first season and sold it off. I think the one hour format was simply too long for many of the stories being told (half an hour would have been just fine) and too many episodes for my taste wound up being monster stories instead of clever science fiction. I’m glad I got to try it out but I was so disappointed.

I felt the same way about Cannon-- I had VEI's condensed all-in-one of that 1971-76 CBS mystery/action series w/the late, great William Conrad in the title role, and for some reason (I think it was because it was set and filmed out in the middle of nowhere, among other things), I never could get into that series (as hit of a series as it was for William Conrad then).

 

[JohnHopper]

Amonst the classic era series
I just can't watch these two Irwin Allen shows (Lost in Space, Land of the Giants).
I can't stand the average crime dramas from Thriller (1960-1962).
Wonder Woman: I used to enjoy it as a kid of the seventies but, now, I find it terrible, contrived and deadly cheap.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.: same pattern here too except for season 1.
Cannon: I should enjoy it but the lead and the leaning leave me indifferent.

 

[bmasters9]

Cannon: I should enjoy it but the lead and the leaning leave me indifferent.

How do you mean, "the lead and the leaning"?

 

[Purple Wig]

Interesting. So far, I like most if not all the titles people have mentioned, and a few of them are favorites (Outer Limits, Fugitive, Cannon).

Untouchables I’ve had only limited exposure to but have a feeling I’ll be delving more deeply into.

Haven’t seen Thriller since the 70’s, when it was on Saturday afternoons at 4:00. Remember liking it but not being crazy about it.

It’s only been in recent years that I’ve warmed to Perry Mason.

 

[jcroy]

This may sound like "blasphemy" to sci-fi purists.

For reasons I don't quite understand, I found I liked watching the revived 1990s era Outer Limits.

In contrast, I found the original 1960s Outer Limits difficult to watch.

 

[The 1960's]

Blasphemy isn't the word I'd be thinking of.

It's all good!

 

[Jeff Flugel]

Fun thread, Alan, with some interesting responses!

There are a great number of series that I used to not like when I was younger that I have come to enjoy as an adult. Chief among these is Gunsmoke. I used to find the main cast dry and uninteresting (especially Amanda Blake as Miss Kitty), possibly from exposure to the show as it aired in its last few seasons in the early '70s, with what seemed like tired, washed out prints. I've since grown to really like and admire the series, in part because of how beautifully remastered it is on DVD. Still not a big fan of Amanda Blake, though. I also remember not really enjoying all those '70s cop and detective shows that proliferated the airwaves back then (Columbo, Streets of San Francisco, Cannon, Barnaby Jones, etc.) Now I pretty much love them all.

Some shows that I liked as a kid I have a hard time with now. I used to enjoy Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Space: 1999. Now I find them dull as dishwater for the most part. I know both of these shows have rabid fanbases and I don't wish to crap on anyone's favorites. These two just don't do it for me. It's a controversial opinion, I'm sure, but I don't find Richard Baseheart, fine actor though he was, a compelling lead in VOTTBOTS. That show is just crying out for a William Shatner larger-than-life figure to pump some life into it. And Martin Landau and Barbara Bain - both so good in the first three seasons of Mission: Impossible - seem so dramatically inert and robotic on Space: 1999. The tech, props, ships, music etc. on both of these shows are great, but the stories and characters fall flat for me. I want to like these two, but it's a struggle for me to make it through an entire episode these days.

Then there's a third category: shows I didn't like as a kid and still can't stand today. Pretty much any '70s U.S. sitcom falls into this group for me, other than Barney Miller, which I like OK. (Conversely, I like and enjoy many '70s-era U.K. sitcoms very much). Any Norman Lear show (All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Maude - God, especially Maude, yuck!) is not my cup of tea at all. I concede that these shows were well written and acted for the most part. Just don't care for 'em.

I'm also not a fan of soaps, prime time or otherwise, so have no interest in beloved programs like Dallas, Falcon Crest, Knots Landing Et al.

 

[Purple Wig]

Fun thread, Alan, with some interesting responses!

There are a great number of series that I used to not like when I was younger that I have come to enjoy as an adult. Chief among these is Gunsmoke. I used to find the main cast dry and uninteresting (especially Amanda Blake as Miss Kitty), possibly from exposure to the show as it aired in its last few seasons in the early '70s, with what seems like tired, washed out prints. I've since grown to really like and admire the series, in part because of how beautifully remastered it is on DVD. Still not a big fan of Amanda Blake, though. I also remember not really enjoying all those '70s cop and detective shows that proliferated the airwaves back then (Columbo, Streets of San Francisco, Cannon, Barnaby Jones, etc.) Now I pretty much love them all.

Some shows that I liked as a kid I have a hard time with now. I used to enjoy Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Space: 1999. Now I find them dull as dishwater for the most part. I know both of these shows have rabid fanbases and I don't wish to crap on anyone's favorite shows. These two just don't do it for me. It's a controversial opinion, I'm sure, but I don't find Richard Baseheart, fine actor though he was, a compelling lead in VOTTBOTS. That show is just crying out for a William Shatner larger-than-life figure to pump some life into it. And Martin Landau and Barbara Bain - both so good in the first three seasons of Mission: Impossible - seem so dramatically inert and robotic on Space: 1999. The tech, props, ships, music etc. on both of these shows are great, but the stories and characters fall flat for me. I want to like these two, but it's a struggle for me to make it through an entire episode these days.

Then there's a third category: shows I didn't like as a kid and still can't stand today. Pretty much any '70s U.S. sitcom falls into this group for me, other than Barney Miller, which I like OK. (Conversely, I like and enjoy many '70s-era U.K. sitcoms very much). Any Norman Lear show (All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Maude - God, especially Maude, yuck!) is not my cup of tea at all. I concede that these shows were well written and acted for the most part. Just don't care for 'em.

I'm also not a fan of soaps, prime time or otherwise, so have no interest in beloved programs like Dallas, Falcon Crest, Knots Landing Et al.

I think we’re about the same age (mid-50’s) and I feel pretty similarly to much of what you said in this post. Gunsmoke was on when I was a kid, it was ok but I was usually reading something while it was on and not paying attention. Started watching it about 10 years ago and love it. Liked the cop shows ok when they were originally on but really got into them in repeats during the 80’s to now.

Space: 1999 is another one I haven’t seen since the 70’s. Liked it but didn’t flip for it like I did the Jon Pertwee Doctor Who episodes shown at the time.

 

[bmasters9]

Some shows that I liked as a kid I have a hard time with now.

You bet-- one for me is the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon; when I was a boy, I couldn't get enough of it (both in syndication and on CBS); nowadays, it doesn't have the same magic for me as it did then (and I have given my copy of the all-in-one to my great-niece and great-nephew to possibly enjoy).

 

[Joe Lugoff]

I find myself agreeing with almost everything that's being said!

Which raises the question, if I find so many of them so bad, why do I keep watching old TV shows?

Because I'm a nut, that's why!

Actually, a good case can be made that most highly praised TV shows are overrated.

I absolutely do not understand how anyone can find Perry Mason worth watching. How did that thing last for nine seasons? Isn't every episode basically the same?

Perry Mason is always right. Yet, every single time he shows up on a case, Lt. Tragg says something like, "Oh, no! Not you! Get out of here." Since Perry is always right, wouldn't you think Tragg would say, "Oh, am I glad to see you! Tell me who did it, which will save me a lot of time and trouble!"?

Similarly, Hamilton Burger (and isn't that a silly name?) loses every time, but every time he enters into it with such confidence that this time he's going to win! You know what they say about people who do the same thing over and over, expecting different results.

And then, usually, someone will jump up in the courtroom and confess, which I've heard has never happened even once in the history of trials.

And it turns out to be some very minor character who was in the story about three minutes and I couldn't care less about.

And I'll close with my thoughts, such as they are, about Ozzie and Harriet.

I doubt any reasonable person could make a convincing case that the series was some kind of great show. Could anyone seriously say it was funny?

I think the people who like it would like to think that that's the way life was back in the '50s and early '60s. The same could be said for Father Knows Best and Leave It to Beaver (which are much better shows).

I was there. In some ways, things were better back then, in many ways worse. But they were not as depicted in Ozzie and Harriet. That series is just as much a fantasy as The Outer Limits or Lost in Space.