I CAN'T STAND IT ANYMORE!

[bmasters1981]

"Little House on the Prairie"...my family always watched it when I was a kid and I usually found it tolerable, if not mildly entertaining. I can't hardly stand to think about the show now, let alone watch it.

I never liked it. Two of my brothers truly enjoy it; one has almost the whole series on DVD. I never liked it because it was set out in the middle of nowhere in the 1800s, and to me, that made it very slowly plod on.

 

[ShawnHill1]

I find it hard to watch a lot of old TV because my taste in TV has changed somewhat since the days when many of those shows were first-run. If I could watch those shows the way they were presented in those days, once a week, even if one chose to run the entire series that way rather than have them for 39 weeks then run reruns the rest of the year, it might not be so tiring. However, it's hard to flip on those oldies and be at the point where I can turn down the volume and recite the scripts. I'm not a couch potato. I try to live a life with a job and workouts and family and so forth. It just happens that one can turn on the TV and find shows that are running ad nauseam, on so many networks.

You make a very interesting point; I'll take it a little further...I don't like the idea where stations (and even cable networks) are double-running episodes of certain shows everyday, some even more than twice a day. Not only do I think it's lazy programming by the stations and networks, but it also burns shows out a lot quicker. However, there could be certain exceptions, especially for series with at least 200 or more episodes (such as The Simpsons, Cheers, Friends, etc.).

I know we're in an age of where television operations are cutting costs so they can keep profits, but I would like to see a bit more variety in programming scheduling.

 

[Mitchell H]

I find it hard to watch a lot of old TV because my taste in TV has changed somewhat since the days when many of those shows were first-run. If I could watch those shows the way they were presented in those days, once a week, even if one chose to run the entire series that way rather than have them for 39 weeks then run reruns the rest of the year, it might not be so tiring. However, it's hard to flip on those oldies and be at the point where I can turn down the volume and recite the scripts. I'm not a couch potato. I try to live a life with a job and workouts and family and so forth. It just happens that one can turn on the TV and find shows that are running ad nauseam, on so many networks.

You make a very interesting point; I'll take it a little further...I don't like the idea where stations (and even cable networks) are double-running episodes of certain shows everyday, some even more than twice a day. Not only do I think it's lazy programming by the stations and networks, but it also burns shows out a lot quicker. However, there could be certain exceptions, especially for series with at least 200 or more episodes (such as The Simpsons, Cheers, Friends, etc.).

I know we're in an age of where television operations are cutting costs so they can keep profits, but I would like to see a bit more variety in programming scheduling.

Agreed. There are very few series, even when talking about my absolute favorites, where I'd want to watch one episode after another. Not saying there's anything wrong with it, just not my style. And that goes for shows on currently as well as those I have on DVD. And even with those favorite shows, I don't start all over at the beginning once I've reached the end. Got to have some time off!

 

[onairb]

Speaking of All In The Family and jumping the shark.... I think AITF jumped when the Jeffersons moved on up. I really enjoyed the banter between Archie and Lionel. Never liked the show- The Jeffersons.

Don't you mean between Archie and George? Not saying that Archie never bantered with George's son, but that might be like picking on a kid.

Lionel was a semi-regular on 'AITF' almost from the beginning, two years before we finally saw George(Henry Jefferson, played by Mel Stewart, was there first, because Sherman Hemsley had Broadway commitments that kept him from playing George; Norman Lear kept the part open until Hemsley was free).
Lionel was always screwing with Archie, pretending to appease him by acting like Stepin Fetchit ('I'm gonna be a 'lec-tric-al en-gi-neer, mista Bunka!'), or apparently going along with Archie's stupid comments('You're right, Mr. Bunker, we'se just don't know better!), but finally getting the best digs in, without Archie realizing he'd been insulted.

 

[dtuba]

This might come as a surprise to some of you, but I believe that this has been mentioned on these boards before: Peanuts specials! Charlie Brown could never call "the little red-haired girl" by name? (Heather) Neither could anyone else in these specials? And she was almost NEVER shown? Otherwise, the specials just seemed dated, but I enjoyed them back in the day, and still watch them from time to time.

Most of the Peanuts specials are, admittedly, awful. But the original Charlie Brown Christmas (and to a lesser degree, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown) is a bona fide classic that I will never, ever tire of.

As for me.... I loved Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids when I was little. But watching those shows now, it is just painful and awful how the animators used racial stereotyping when they drew Fat Albert and his gang. :-\

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

I'm another viewer burned out on Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley, and especially the latter. L & S's characters sound obxnoxiously shrill and irritating, although I admit never noticing this back when the show was current.

Happy Days, so warm and charming back in the day, today appears shallow and stale. I didn't like Potsy's character then, and I certainly don't like him now. Off the cuff prediction: twenty years from now, Big Bang Theory fans will suffer a similar contempt for that prime-time loser.

 

[ixnay]

As for me.... I loved Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids when I was little. But watching those shows now, it is just painful and awful how the animators used racial stereotyping when they drew Fat Albert and his gang. :-\

The token black on ABC's Mission: Magic! starring Rick Springfield (then just starting to hit it big in rock) was drawn similar to Fat Albert's bunch (thick lips and all). Both shows were from Filmation.

OTOH the black kids in ABC's Kid Power, from Rankin/Bass, had lips not quite as thick. BTW Kid Power was based on Morrie Turner's comic strip Wee Pals.

ixnay

 

[The Voice of Reason]

Lost in Space- That eventually turned into the Jonathan Smith comedy hour which is one reason that Guy Williams couldn't wait for the show to be cancelled and even threatened to quit the series.

Shazam- One of the corniest TV shows that ever aired. It ranks up there with Superboy (not the one that Whitney Ellsworth tried to pass off following the death of George Reeves in 1959.

Family Affair- Could not stand the show when it was on and IMHO still sucks rocks. Brian Keith must have needed a paycheck in order to appear on that show: Similar to Fred McMurray on My Three Sons. Both actors must have figured their movie careers were coming to an end so get the money while they can by appearing in a dorky TV show.

Lois and Clark- Once Deborah Joy Levine was removed as Executive Producer, this show from Season #2 to its conclusion two years later, went from mediocre to just plain stupid.

 

[rnigma1]

Shazam- One of the corniest TV shows that ever aired. It ranks up there with Superboy (not the one that Whitney Ellsworth tried to pass off following the death of George Reeves in 1959.

Family Affair- Could not stand the show when it was on and IMHO still sucks rocks. Brian Keith must have needed a paycheck in order to appear on that show: Similar to Fred McMurray on My Three Sons. Both actors must have figured their movie careers were coming to an end so get the money while they can by appearing in a dorky TV show.

"Shazam" and "Superboy" both had changes in lead actors, and both were done on the cheap. The former I recall with disappointment because many liberties were taken with the comic. Billy Batson was now wandering aimlessly around the country in an RV with some old guy called Mentor (played by radio veteran Les Tremayne, who somehow retained his dignity). No Shazam the wizard; Billy was often talking directly to the six deities that gave him his powers - and they always gave him advice that would be the moral of that particular episode. I never liked the lessons that were shoehorned in.
In one such "Shazam" episode, Captain Marvel had to stop a runaway RV (I don't think it was Mentor's RV; some kid was driving). Does he pick it up? Does he fly beside it, get inside and stop it? No, this was Filmation. The Big Red Cheese stands atop the RV with his feet against the rails, and grabs the top of a tunnel they are entering. This somehow manages to bring the vehicle to a dead stop. Even then, I thought this was ridiculous.

But we were talking about shows we used to like that lost their appeal later on, and for me it was another superhero show: "Batman." I thought it was the greatest thing ever when I was 6 or 7.

 

[visaman]

I find it hard to watch a lot of old TV because my taste in TV has changed somewhat since the days when many of those shows were first-run. If I could watch those shows the way they were presented in those days, once a week, even if one chose to run the entire series that way rather than have them for 39 weeks then run reruns the rest of the year, it might not be so tiring. However, it's hard to flip on those oldies and be at the point where I can turn down the volume and recite the scripts. I'm not a couch potato. I try to live a life with a job and workouts and family and so forth. It just happens that one can turn on the TV and find shows that are running ad nauseam, on so many networks.

You make a very interesting point; I'll take it a little further...I don't like the idea where stations (and even cable networks) are double-running episodes of certain shows everyday, some even more than twice a day. Not only do I think it's lazy programming by the stations and networks, but it also burns shows out a lot quicker. However, there could be certain exceptions, especially for series with at least 200 or more episodes (such as The Simpsons, Cheers, Friends, etc.).

I know we're in an age of where television operations are cutting costs so they can keep profits, but I would like to see a bit more variety in programming scheduling.

PeachTree TV (Atlanta) has been airing double episodes of Cheers and Frasier forever. They air starting at 7:00 am EDT (4:00 am PDT), although they have cut it back to one episode of Cheers, but for a time one could see 2 hours of Frasier Crane!

 

[visaman]

This might come as a surprise to some of you, but I believe that this has been mentioned on these boards before: Peanuts specials! Charlie Brown could never call "the little red-haired girl" by name? (Heather) Neither could anyone else in these specials? And she was almost NEVER shown? Otherwise, the specials just seemed dated, but I enjoyed them back in the day, and still watch them from time to time.

The *original* specials, I felt, tried to stay 100% true to the strip. Schulz was consultant on these, wasn't he?*

cd

More than a consultant he wrote them or co-wrote them, After he died, unfortunately the series went off the rails, and I refused to watch them, and I was born just a few weeks before the 1st one! :'(

 

[BlueWanderer]

The shows I used to watch but can't stand now are too recent to be consider 'classic tv'.

I guess the oldest I can think of would be Knight Rider (1982). I like KITT and Devon Miles but I couldn't tolerate the rest of the characters anymore.

The Simpsons would be the next one if that's counts. I'd gotten so burnt out on the show that I can't sit through one entire episode now whether it's 'classic' or new. I was a big fan of the show a decade ago.

 

[Mark Giardina]

Battlestar Galactica-1978 version.

When this program first aired I thought it was fantastic. Now I can't believe how hokey the show was.
The same special effects scenes shown over and over again. Apollo and Starbuck always to the rescue while Loren Green walked around in that silly outfit. John Colicos' Baltar reminded me of Snidely Whiplash from the Dudley DoRight cartoons. But the biggest joke was the Cylon leader with the large afro haircut. (The show's creators must have felt the same way because the leader's face was just featured once during the series one year run).

In an interview shown on You Tube James Callis, who appeared in the most recent (and far superior) Galactica series, told the story of how his agent managed to land him an audition. When Callis inquired what character he would play, his agent told him Baltar. Callis' replied he didn't want to play "a creepy little guy in a cape".

 

[firepoint525]

I'm another viewer burned out on Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley, and especially the latter. L & S's characters sound obxnoxiously shrill and irritating, although I admit never noticing this back when the show was current.

I never sat through an entire episode of Laverne and Shirley that I can recall (although I thought the theme song was great, and still do! maybe that is a topic for another thread!), but I don't think that I could have tolerated Lenny and Squiggy for very long!

Happy Days, so warm and charming back in the day, today appears shallow and stale. I didn't like Potsy's character then, and I certainly don't like him now. Off the cuff prediction: twenty years from now, Big Bang Theory fans will suffer a similar contempt for that prime-time loser.

Another problem with Happy Days: dropping '70s pop-culture references into what was supposedly a '50s show! Remember the episode in which Richie repeatedly went around saying "yowsah, yowsah, yowsah"? That would seem even more dated now!

 

[firepoint525]

Alice
Facts of Life
Gimme a Break
Little House on the Prairie

All of these shows (and some more that I have either forgotten to mention, or just never saw) involved characters that constantly argued with each other. Putdowns, etc. And most of these, to make it worse, involved children arguing with each other. I never liked Facts of Life, but we were sort of force-fed the show because my sister liked it at the time. :

 

[cd637299]

Another problem with Happy Days: dropping '70s pop-culture references into what was supposedly a '50s show! Remember the episode in which Richie repeatedly went around saying "yowsah, yowsah, yowsah"? That would seem even more dated now!

That may be true---but would that be any more ludicrous than The Flintstones watching TV?

cd

 

[FreddyE1977]

The Flintstones jumped the shark for me when Pebbles & Bam Bam were introduced.

The Great Gazoo was the King of all Shark Jumping until Ted McGinley came along

 

[rnigma1]

"Yowsah, yowsah, yowsah" actually went back to the '30s when it was popularized by bandleader Ben Bernie.

 

[firepoint525]

"Yowsah, yowsah, yowsah" actually went back to the '30s when it was popularized by bandleader Ben Bernie.

Was there any attempt at reviving it in the late '50s or (giving ABC the benefit of the doubt here) the early '60s?

 

[onairb]

"Yowsah, yowsah, yowsah" actually went back to the '30s when it was popularized by bandleader Ben Bernie.

And it subsequently re-entered pop culture in a dance marathon scene from the 1969 movie, 'They Shoot Horses, Don't They?; the title of the 'Happy Days' episode mentioned above was 'They Shoot Fonzies, Don't They?' The episode aired in early 1976, so it pre-dated the Chic song, at least.
But the movie reference suggests that the phrase was commonly used even after Ben Bernie's heyday, usually when including a dance-marathon scene in something with a 'retro' setting.
It would still have been something of an anachronism in whichever year 'Happy Days' took place, but it was probably a combination of the writers being familiar with the movie reference, and Jerry Paris and/or Garry Marshall probably remembering Bernie's use of the phrase, and so it was worked into the episode.