You remind me again of the episode where Yemana comments on how he doesn't like cop shows because of how unrealistic they are. The guy he's talking to says "Ya know, on TV, they catch the criminals", and Yemana says "Good example!". Brilliant bit of satire.Originally Posted by soundsweird
But yeah, I've heard on at least a few occasions that it was the one "cop show" that actual policeman liked to watch.
I have a hard time believing that Barney Miller was a very "realistic" cop show.
I never saw Honeymooners with such a clear B+W picture before. When I was a kid they were always showing washed-out copies that were more like grey on grey on the local UHF stations. This explains how they were able to get such a good picture. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ho...ers#Production
Norton: Hey, Ralph, mind if I smoke?
Ralph: I don't care if you burn.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
It's not at all hard for me to believe. For the longest time, The Daily Show has been the best source of news in the US. Not because the Daily show are news gods, but rather the piss poor state of the news media in the US...that which The Daily Show satirizes.
"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama
You take away the obviously sitcom oriented stuff, what you'd have left strikes me as very believable. On any other show, back then, if a cop shoots a suspect, they carry on as if nothing happened. On Barney Miller, Chano totally freaked after he shot a bankrobber. They were working out of a rundown, decaying, out of date building (in at least one episode, there's a joke about it being warmer outside, during the winter, when the building's heater goes down). Those things right there probably spoke to every urban cop in the nation at the time.
Then you've got the people who'd show up. A man who thinks a werewolf, that crazy vigilante sporting goods store owner, lawbreakers who have diplomatic immunity, a guy who tries to commit suicide in the squadroom toilet, and all the people who they'd have to send to "The Enchanted Kingdom" (as Harris liked to call it every time he had to call for the psych ward to come pick up someone).
The show wasn't trying to portray cops as heroes, as most other cop shows did back then. It was showing day to day life in a police precinct was like. And then it played it for laughs.
Yerah, that's the way it was most stuff that was on TV back in the 70's and 80's. I remember sometimes you'd see a movie on one channel, then see it another, apparently taken from a better print (though could touch what you'd eventually see when it came out on DVD 20-30 years later). And all the old sitcoms tended to looked washed out, as you say, and the b&w episodes were...well, still in b&w.
Of course, another reason a lot of that stuff looked the way it did was because, as you point, we were typically watching on UHF, sans cable, and it was kinda like shooting craps getting a clear picture back in those days. It's funny to think about it now, but I can still remember having to go to bed early when the TV went out (I don't mean the electricity, I mean the TV signal) during a thunderstorm. Happened several times.
I don't think it was until the 90's that they started remastering things and cleaning them up, some. And eventually "colorization" technology caught up to the point where it actually pretty good (though I still have no idea why you'd bother). But there's stuff I either have on DVD (like Doctor Who) or I seen the current reruns and I can't believe how good they looked. OK, maybe I never really noticed how washed out things looked back when I was watching Hogan's Heroes or whatever on channel 43 or channel 61, but you see stuff now and it's just startling what some of it looks like.
Damn it, I can't find the reference, but I recall this exchange between two catty '40s actresses:
Do you mind if I smoke?
Darling, I don't care if you go down in flames.
Cobra handling and cocaine use are a bad mix.
I know Barney Miller is satire, but I've always heard that cops think it's realistic. It's comedy. It's baloney, and it's hilarious.....
Really, the only characters that crack me up are Luger, Deitrich, and Barney and sometimes Ron Glass.
Ron Glass was great as Harris. I lvoe the episode where he managed to "misplace" his uniform when he "slimmed down his wardrobe", which became an issue on "uniform day" (when all the detectives have to wear their uniforms for the day). Him and Dietrich fighting over who'd get a particular vacation week (Harris had pre-booked the week at some "exclusive" resort, while Dietrich was going to the Goethe festival) was another good one. Also, Harris facing a libel suit from an ambulance chasing lawyer he'd based one of the characters in his novel on was great (especially when the lawyer finally admits how miserable he was after winning the libel suit). And I always loved the way he'd call the psych ward at Bellevue and say things like, "I've got two for the Enchanted Kingdom" or whatever.I know Barney Miller is satire, but I've always heard that cops think it's realistic. It's comedy. It's baloney, and it's hilarious.....
Really, the only characters that crack me up are Luger, Deitrich, and Barney and sometimes Ron Glass.
I liked Chano too. Greg Sierra was a good actor but they should have just let him use his natural, New York accent instead of the stereotyped, token, Rican accent. But it was the 70s. He wasn't that funny but he was a good character. I saw the episode a couple days ago where he shot two armed robbers and then loses it emotionally. That was a bit ahead of its time. A sitcom with some real drama.
Watching a Stooges short where if anyone says Niagara Falls they go .... slowly I turn, step by step. . Inch by inch......
^^ That article mentions Abbot & Costello doing the routine, but theirs was the Susquehanna Hat Company.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
Tonight on "The Honeymooners":
Norton: "Hey, Ralph, is that the crunchy kind of peanut butter?"
Ralph: "Yes. When this jar hits your head, you'll hear a crunch."
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
45-50 years ago if there was much more than just a breeze I'd have to sit right at the TV so I could keep fiddling with the loop antenna and fine tuning knob to watch hockey games.Funny you should mention that, because the standard filler after Bruins games was to play Hogan's Heroes 'already in progress' to use up the remaining portion of the half hour.OK, maybe I never really noticed how washed out things looked back when I was watching Hogan's Heroes
When I was stationed in the San Joaquin Valley while in the Navy, I was struck how every TV station was on the UHF band. Every network affiliate in Fresno, and affiliates of the same networks in Bakersfield are on adjacent channels. For example, the Bakersfield ABC affiliate is channel 29, and the ABC affiliate in Fresno is 30. Anyone living in between the 2 cities could balance their UHF dial between the 2 channels, and get a good clear, strong signal. There's the added bonus of having 2 different local commercials playing simultaneously.
Since TV went digital, that's no longer possible. And BTW, all digital channels are now on the UHF band, even if their "channel number" denotes a VHF channel.
"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama
I grew up in the Lehigh Valley in Pa. We had both Philadelphia and New York City affiliates. Plenty to choose from.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
Niagra Falls? Slowly...Watching a Stooges short where if anyone says Niagara Falls they go .... slowly I turn, step by step. . Inch by inch......
Thats Abbott and Costello. In both movies and their TV show. Also morphed into , Susquahana Hat Company ? Slowly I turned....
I learned something here. But Niagra Falls ? , will always be associated with Abbott and Costello for me. Abbott was so good in it.
The main TV we had in the living room was hooked up to an aerial mounted on the roof I think, because you got lousy reception in our area if you just one mounted on the TV itself. You could pick up all the broadcast channels in the Cleveland area, ABC (channel 5), CBS (channel 8), NBC (channel 3), PBS (channel 25, I don't think we could get 45/49), and two indie channels, 43 and 61.
We also got the mostly redundant Akron ABC affiliate, channel 23, which was useful for watching the first hour of Good Morning America. Channel 5 would show Morning Exchange from 7:00 to 8:00am. That was the local show that ABC copped Good Morning America from. Back in the 90's, when all the companies that owned the various stations started swapping around the affiliates (e.g. here in Cleveland channel 8 became a Fox affiliate, while channel 19, the former Fox affiliate, because the CBS affiliate), ABC basically cut a deal with channel 5's owners that they wouldn't switch their affiliation to another station if channel 5 started showing both hours of Good Morning America. This forced them to move Morning Exchange to after Good Morning America, and it's ratings dropped, so it eventually got 86ed altogether.
Anyway, beyond that first hour of GMA, the only thing you really got on channel 23 was the occasional late night movie. I have no recollection of what other local programming they aired, say during the gap between the soap operas and the evening news during the week. Eventually, during the mid 90's, channel 23 got sold to a "new network" the PAX network, which used to show, among other things, the new version of Flipper, which was a good show, and then eventually that became the Ion Channel (whihc mostly shows 12 hour long marathons of things like Law & Order SVU, Chicago PD and NCIS: Los Angeles).
We had an old black and white TV with what looked like an oversized radio antenna in the basement for a number of years, and poor reception was a persistent problem. As I recall you could get the VHF channels ok, but the UHF channels were a pain (or was it the other way around?). The b&w TV you had to wait a couple minutes for it to warm up, I have no idea how old it was, but it was big, I think it had it had it's own stand. It had like a radio style antenna, ya know, like on a boombox or one of those large portable radios that preceded the boombox phenomenon.
Ahem.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_D...nd_early_years
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_M...inaugural_year
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Langhart
Your point being what?
And I had it reversed, it was the first hour of Good Morning America that WEWS ran, then from 8:00 to 10:00 they'd have The Morning Exchange. That actually makes more sense with my memories, because once we had a VCR, I remember recording The Morning Exchange a few times when they were gonna have something on that I wanted to see (though the only one I actually remember was when they interviewed Debbie Gibson, I thikn I might still have that VHS tape around here someplace).
Cobra handling and cocaine use are a bad mix.
That at least around here, ABC's Good Morning America is considered to be based on WCVB's Good Morning show.
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