Vintage TV thread

[GuitarGeek]

Anyone else watching lots of old TV Programs, now that there's suddenly like a thousand TV channels catering to that? My latest obsession has been Route 66. Strange name for a show, because very few of the episodes seem to take place anywhere NEAR Route 66, but one thing I do find intriguing is they filmed the show on the road. There's been no fewer than three episodes set in Cleveland, all filmed here, with prominent placement of Cleveland landmarks (the Terminal Tower is seen in a couple of them, and another one has the old Russian Orthodox church on St Tikhon Avenue).

Lots of interesting guest stars too. One of the episodes I watched today had Rip Torn and Gene Hackman in it. Another one had Robert Redford, yet another had Lon Chaney Jr and Ed Asner in it. Actually, Lon Chaney Jr was in a couple episodes. Alan Alda was in an episode, playing a doctor (!!!). Both Tommy Norden and Luke Halpin, the two boys from the TV show Flipper, appeared on the show, but not in the same episode.

And the music was done by Nelson Riddle, so it has that swinging big band sound.

[Dave (in MA)]

A few years ago I was watching several episodes a week of Have Gun, Will Travel on Netflix, and when I was about 1 or 2 episodes away from the end of Season 5 (there were 6 altogether), they pulled the series down.

[ronmac]

MeTV is showing "The Honeymooners" every Sunday night, which is nice to see. I have the entire series on DVD, but this is more convenient, despite the inexcusable edits. What's pretty cool is that they are also showing the corresponding (sometimes loosely) episode of "The Flintstones" before it. For those who don't know it, The Flintstones was a direct knock-off of The Honeymooners.

When I was out of work many years ago, I got hooked on "The Fugitive."

[Staun]

MeTV is showing "The Honeymooners" every Sunday night, which is nice to see. I have the entire series on DVD, but this is more convenient, despite the inexcusable edits. What's pretty cool is that they are also showing the corresponding (sometimes loosely) episode of "The Flintstones" before it. For those who don't know it, The Flintstones was a direct knock-off of The Honeymooners.

When I was out of work many years ago, I got hooked on "The Fugitive."

Love the Fugitive. They did an episode close to my home town. We recognized all the outdoor scenes.

[ronmac]

Love the Fugitive. They did an episode close to my home town. We recognized all the outdoor scenes.

Yeah, I never watched that show until that time. I got hooked. I was never a big David Janssen‎ fan, but he was good in it.

[3LockBox]

My wife is totally into that type of programming. There's one channel that shows Hill Street Blues reruns. I can handle that.

[StarThrower]

My wife is totally into that type of programming.

Same with mine. The daily winter routine. Perry Mason, Matlock, Rifleman, and Adam 12.

[Staun]

Same with mine. The daily winter routine. Perry Mason, Matlock, Rifleman, and Adam 12.

Mason takes on a whole new look and feel when you see the episodes uncut. I've had the dvd's like Columbo, for a long time. Adam 12 was alright but Dragnet was better. I even liked the original movie from the 60's. wasn't bad.

[Vic2012]

I've been watching The Flintstones on MeTV. Fred and his "eh heh heh heh" chuckle..... It was a pretty violent cartoon too.

[GuitarGeek]

Turns out Sundance is showing Hogan's Heroes now, so I guess for the time being, that and Route 66 are the two things I'm watching.

[progmatist]

Anyone else watching lots of old TV Programs, now that there's suddenly like a thousand TV channels catering to that? My latest obsession has been Route 66. Strange name for a show, because very few of the episodes seem to take place anywhere NEAR Route 66, but one thing I do find intriguing is they filmed the show on the road. There's been no fewer than three episodes set in Cleveland, all filmed here, with prominent placement of Cleveland landmarks (the Terminal Tower is seen in a couple of them, and another one has the old Russian Orthodox church on St Tikhon Avenue).

Lots of interesting guest stars too. One of the episodes I watched today had Rip Torn and Gene Hackman in it. Another one had Robert Redford, yet another had Lon Chaney Jr and Ed Asner in it. Actually, Lon Chaney Jr was in a couple episodes. Alan Alda was in an episode, playing a doctor (!!!). Both Tommy Norden and Luke Halpin, the two boys from the TV show Flipper, appeared on the show, but not in the same episode.

And the music was done by Nelson Riddle, so it has that swinging big band sound.

Route 66 has the distinction of being the first TV series shot entirely on location.

[GuitarGeek]

Route 66 has the distinction of being the first TV series shot entirely on location.

Didn't know that, but it makes sense, since it began in 1960. Everything I've seen from the 50's looks like it was mostly shot in a studio. It must have cost a fortune to run a show that way.

[nosebone]

Kung Fu 72-75

I have the DVDs and never tire of them.

[GuitarGeek]

Kung Fu 72-75

I have the DVDs and never tire of them.

H&I was showing that a few years ago, but I kept missing when the series would start over, and I kinda was giong through this thing for awhile where I wanted to see a show from the beginning, and watch all episodes in order, etc. I think maybe I'm just driving myself crazy trying to do that, though.

[hippypants]

The Invaders--Me TV
Buck Rogers--a bit corny, but fun too Me TV
Adam 12
Dark Shadows--old soap opera, shown on Roku's Tubi TV
Have Gun Will Travel Me--TV on Saturdays early
Johnny Carson sometimes on Antenna TV and Amazon Prime
Leave it to Beaver Me TV
Mannix--comes on late nights on Me TV
Cannon--same after Mannix, both are pretty good detective shows

[GuitarGeek]

The Invaders--Me TV

I remember seeing that a bit in the 80's, and I think maybe again a decade or so later, when we first started getting the sci-fi channel

Buck Rogers--a bit corny, but fun too Me TV

ANother show I revisited in the late 90's, again thanks to Sci-Fi. I also remember watching virtually ever episode when they originally aired. First season was great, second season not so much. I remember hating Twiki's new voice in the second season from the get go. BUt it was only watching in the reruns 18 or whatever it was years later, that I realized how bad the second season was in general.

Adam 12

I was watching that a few years ago on FETV. I enjoyed watching it, but it was basically Dragnet but with patrolmen instead of detectives. Martin Milner even delivers a few of those patented Jack Webb style monologues.

Dark Shadows

I haven't seen that show in about 33 years. When I was in the sixth grade, in 1985, a new indie channel came on the air here, Channel 19, WOIO, and Dark Shadows was part of their lineup. The thing was, they showed it at around noon, and I remembe rI was watching it regularly that summer, and I remember my mom, who remembered the show's original run, saying "Ya know, when you go into the 7th grade, you're not going to be able to watch it anymore". I don't know if it had occurred to me to try recording on the VCR. So I really haven't since it since that time. I think I maybe saw a couple episodes later on, but that was about it.

Have Gun Will Travel

We got that H&I, but I haven't really watched it yet. Too many good shows I want to watch it that I can't get to.

Johnny Carson

Johnny was awesome. I really only saw him during the last 5 or 6 years he was on the air, but I thought he was great. I don't know why, but the abiding memory I have, and I think I talked about it this once before, was when he had nose flutist Abby Jay on. She was scheduled to be on, but they ran out of time (because Johnny was futzing around with Don Rickles or whomever) so they had heard on the next night. And the same thing happened. My memory was that this went on for like a week, but the video is on Youtube and it was really only about 3 or 4 days, with her finally appearing on the 4th.

Leave it to Beaver

That was another one of the local channels used to run when I was a kid, either channel 61 or 43, I think. Then later, I think it was on Nick At Nite. Great fun. Always loved the one where Beav gets punched by a girl, and Wally says "You're lucky! That means she likes you!", and Beav says "Gee, I wonder what she'd do if she didn't like me!". Also remember the one where Beav falsifies his report card (that was back when report cards were still written out), and Ward figures it out because he could tell the difference in the ink. And there was one where Beav gets stuck in one of those billboard signs with a giant coffee cup with steam pouring out of it.

I also remember the thing they did on Roseanne in the early 90's, where Roseanne is visited by all the TV mothers of the past. So Roseanne is talking about the time they found a bag of pot, and Mrs. Cleaver doesn't know what she's talking about. "Ya know, pot! Grass? Marijuana", Rosie says, but Mrs Cleaver still doesn't know what it is. Finally, Roseanne says "Ask Eddie Haskell!" and Mrs Cleaver finally understand, "Ohhhhh!", as if whatever it is, if Eddie Haskell knows about it, it must be bad!

Mannix

I first saw that on TV Land back in the 90's, I thikn it was one of the shows that was on at like 3:00am, so I'd end up watching it sometimes when I got home from work, just before going to bed. H&I was running it about 2 or 3 years ago, really enjoyed it. In one episode, they used the Brady Bunch living room set!

Cannon

I'm not sure when I last saw Cannon. I think that was on WOR ("Channel 9! Secaucus! New Jersey!") back in the 80's, or maybe it was on channel 55 when it first started. I think I might have seen it again in the 90's, but I don't remember now. The thing I do remember was my dad always remarking that he couldn't believe William Conrad was the voice of Marshall Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke in it's original radio incarnation! I guess he imagined William Conrad would look different.

Adam 12 was alright but Dragnet was better. I even liked the original movie from the 60's. wasn't bad.

Dragnet actually dates back to the late 40's, in it's original radio configuration, then it went to TV in 1951, according to Wikipedia. Apparently, Jack Webb was doing both radio and TV versions through most of the 50's, until 1957. Then in 1967, they revived the show. The movie you mention actually never aired until midway through the third season, though it was actually produced as a pilot before the series started.

We went through a phase of watching reruns during the 80's, though I can't remember which channel aired it. I think we'd watch one episode at 7:00, then switch over to channel 5 for the Ohio Lottery results, then back to Dragnet. Thinking about it, I think it might have been on the USA channel (back when they were capable of showing just two episodes of a program a day). I think saw it again on FETV, I believe, a few years ago. It was a good show, but I never got over their tendency to completely insult the counterculture of the day. I especially got sick of the anti-marijuana propaganda that popped in several episodes of both Dragnet and Adam-12.

Having said that, I still generally enjoyed watching Dragnet. My favorite episode is still the Christmas one, where the investigate the theft of the baby Jesus from the church nativity display, and it turns out a boy had prayed for a wagon for Xmas and promised Jesus he could have a ride in the wagon. I also remember an episode where Friday visits Gannon and his wife at home, to watch a football game or whatever, and they're perpetually being disrupted by Gannon's neighbors who want to engage in "official duties" or whatever. I also liked the time Gannon asked Friday to call Mrs Gannon and tell her that Frank was going to be working late and couldn't take her to see the new Paul Newman movie like he promised. Turned out there was another Paul Newman movie on TV that she wanted to stay home and watch anyway.

Mission:Impossible

I remember Mission: Impossible from when I was a kid, and I was watching it again circa 2006-2007, when we started getting a new channel on our Time Warner Cable service. I think it was the American Life channel or the Good Life channel or something like that. Anyway, they were showing a lot of good stuff. As I recall, they had a weekly Irwin Allen week, where they'd show episodes of all the Irwin Allen series. I think that was about the only time I really watched Time Tunnel.

[Dave (in MA)]

The Invaders--Me TV

I had this book when I was a kid.

[Staun]

I had this book when I was a kid.

Didn't the Invaders have a crooked finger or the like? Wasn't that the way you could identify them?

[Dave (in MA)]

Didn't the Invaders have a crooked finger or the like? Wasn't that the way you could identify them?

They were able to take on human form, but they couldn't bend their pinkies.

[Staun]

They were able to take on human form, but they couldn't bend their pinkies.

Luv sci-fi. What was their objective? Did they want the planet or were they like the aliens in "V"? Food and water?

[Halmyre]

They were able to take on human form, but they couldn't bend their pinkies.

Which is where the band Stiff Little Fingers got their name from.

[progmatist]

Johnny Carson sometimes on Antenna TV and Amazon Prime

I've been a lot of Johnny Carson reruns on Antenna lately. With most current late night shows in reruns due to the current crisis, I find it far more entertaining to go much further back to shows much less fresh in my memory.

EDIT: Watching a late night monologue from a couple or a few weeks ago is like watching a newscast rerun. Hopping in the way back machine to old Carson episodes, the monologue becomes more of a "remember when" situation.

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

The Invaders--Me TV

A friend and I have been watching this one, one ep at a time, when we get together on (most) Fridays. We're nearly done, and I note that somewhere near the 2/3 point of the second season it suddenly develops continuity, meaning episodes that it actually matters what order you watch them in, because of recurring characters with their own (sometimes fatal) arcs.

Good show, actually, given the limits of TV at the time.

[walt]

I'd like to watch episodes of the old Mission:Impossible tv series, but i can't find it on my FIOS directory.Hopefully some network carries it.

This post will self destruct in five seconds.

[Staun]

I'd like to watch episodes of the old Mission:Impossible tv series, but i can't find it on my FIOS directory.Hopefully some network carries it.

This post will self destruct in five seconds.

Liked it much better with Peter Graves.