Paraphrasing someone elses quote in the thread about TV-Land : RTV puts pretty much anything on the air that they can acquire the rights to. I know they need to fill a schedule but most of what they air is the bottom of the barrel. Most don't even qualify as mediocre. Kate and Allie? Amen? Delvechio? These are shows (with a few exceptions) that I totally avoided when they were new because, in my opinion, they just weren't good. And age hasn't done them any good. And that "Midnight Monster" thing on Saturday nights...good Lord, is that taped in someone's basement? Looks like their owners would try to get a cash infusion or someinvestors so they could afford some better shows, attract a larger audience, charge more for spots and make money. They could be what TV-Land used to be. Why aren't they trying to do this?
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RTV IS AWFUL
- Thread starter Al Timiter
- Start date
Al Timiter said:
There's no pleasing you TVLand goobs, is there? You say you want a place to watch old TV shows, then get mad when RTV picks up the 'wrong' old shows. Go buy the DVD box sets and stop complaining so much--it's TV!
I barely remember Kate & Allie, except for knowing Jane Curtain was one of the stars. But there are plenty of The Jeffersons fans who liked Sherman Helmsley's antics on Amen, and I'd be all over those reruns. Being an 80s/90s kid, I'd also tune in for Airwolf and Harry and The Hendersons, too! If only they had Perfect Strangers, Weird Science (aired on USA in the 90s), My Secret Identity or Small Wonder (syndie shows), and the 80s version of Mike Hammer (with Stacy Keach).
Just because you don't like them, that doesn't mean RTV won't have anyone watching. You may want them to be the 'old' TVLand, but perhaps they want to be a more thorough TVLand! You can only watch Andy Griffith, All In The Family, and Leave It To Beaver reruns so many times.
Nate Wesley:There's no pleasing you TVLand goobs, is there? You say you want a place to watch old TV shows, then get mad when RTV picks up the 'wrong' old shows. Go buy the DVD box sets and stop complaining so much--it's TV!
First, I'm not a "goob". Secondly,"There are a lotof disaffected ex TVLand viewers. Maybe not the right demo for TVLand because advertisers and agencies have written us off. But there's got to be somebody who wants us. RTV is the television equivalent of an Oldies radio station playing songs that weren't hits and doing it without any panache at that. Thirdly,Some of us can't afford to "go buy the DVD box sets." Yes, "It's TV" and for a lot of us, that's our major source of entertainment. In fact the name of this Discussion board is "National TV." Hence, all the TV talk.
First, I'm not a "goob". Secondly,"There are a lotof disaffected ex TVLand viewers. Maybe not the right demo for TVLand because advertisers and agencies have written us off. But there's got to be somebody who wants us. RTV is the television equivalent of an Oldies radio station playing songs that weren't hits and doing it without any panache at that. Thirdly,Some of us can't afford to "go buy the DVD box sets." Yes, "It's TV" and for a lot of us, that's our major source of entertainment. In fact the name of this Discussion board is "National TV." Hence, all the TV talk.
DToTheJ said:
Or how about...
227
Anything But Love
Doogie Howser, M.D.
Gimme a Break
Growing Pains
Head of the Class
Just the Ten of Us
Mr. Belvedere
My Two Dads
Punky Brewster
Silver Spoons
The Ropers
The Facts of Life
Three's a Crowd
Too Close for Comfort
Valerie/Valerie's Family: The Hogans/The Hogan Family
Webster
The Colbys
Dallas
Dynasty
Falcon Crest
Flamingo Road
Jake and the Fatman
Knots Landing
Max Headroom
Miami Vice
The Fall Guy
And does RTV have to be limited to sitcoms (and dramas?) Do they have the opportunity to acquire classic cartoons and game shows? Or do Cartoon Network and GSN respectively have the exclusive rights to those?
Any network that has the potential to be what another network used to be also has the potential to become whatever that second network is now. In other words, the potential to "jump the shark!"
justthenumbers said:
Of course, my original post given the attitude of this thread was under the guise that we were talking about bad programs. I suppose I should one day update my signature in the interest of full disclosure...
- DtotheJ
Resident Perfect Strangers hater on Radio-Info.com
I won't defend RTV - I don't find much to watch there. But I'll defend Kate & Allie and Amen.
Both were well written sit-coms that garnered fairly high ratings and ran for multiple seasons. Kate & Allie starred Susan Saint-James a couple of years after McMillan & Wife; and Jane Curtin a few years after SNL. If I remember, it was about two single mothers living together as roomates and raising kids. A decent show - played about 5 seasons on CBS.
In Amen, Sherman Hemsly played the deacon of a small church. The under-rated comic actress Anna Maria Horsford played his daughter. Clifton Davis was the minister. It played 4 or 5 seasons on NBC.
Isn't this better than TV Land - running Sanford & Son or I Dream of Jeannie for year after year ad nauseum?
Both were well written sit-coms that garnered fairly high ratings and ran for multiple seasons. Kate & Allie starred Susan Saint-James a couple of years after McMillan & Wife; and Jane Curtin a few years after SNL. If I remember, it was about two single mothers living together as roomates and raising kids. A decent show - played about 5 seasons on CBS.
In Amen, Sherman Hemsly played the deacon of a small church. The under-rated comic actress Anna Maria Horsford played his daughter. Clifton Davis was the minister. It played 4 or 5 seasons on NBC.
Isn't this better than TV Land - running Sanford & Son or I Dream of Jeannie for year after year ad nauseum?
landtuna said:
Not sure if this is what you meant...but none of those shows I listed are on RTV. It was just a (somewhat) tongue-in-cheek list of suggestions I put together.
landtuna said:
Or "trash" !! I have heard that term a LOT lately in describing old shows like "I Love Lucy" for example.
Amazing how many people I have ran into in recent years who really really HATE old TV shows either because they believe they are either "outdated" or they don't want to be accused of "living in the past".
Strange how some parents don't have a problem letting to kids to watch a show like Showtime's "Dexter" or "Weeds" but they do have a cow if they kids watch an old show like The Banana Splits or The Jetsons. My old neighbors some years back had no problem allowing their pre-teen age kids watching HBO's OZ but The Flintstones? Totally off limits !! Strange but true.
And people want to know why TV Land is the way they are.
justthenumbers said:
That is an awesome list. I would love to see most of those shows again. I think part of the problem (why they never air anywhere) is because networks have trouble getting the rights to those shows. WGN America aired a few episodes of Too Close for Comfort and The Ropers earlier this year - but that was only a one-time thing. SoapNet was airing Dallas and Knots Landing about a year ago but I don't think those are on anymore.
mleach said:
I Love Lucy is the landmark TV sitcom. You won't find any other period shows being broadcast some 60 years after they first aired. But that isn't to say they are worth watching time after time either. Even Lucy gets a bit old after awhile.
As a parent I had great trouble getting any of my kids to watch anything in black and white no matter what it was. I finally broke through with several of them watching Casablanca (which they all thought was a good story almost ruined by terrible SFX).
One of the great kicks I get out of watching some old shows is watching the actors when they were almost as young as I was then. Most are gone now of course so the old stuff is the only material that remains "new" if you didn't see it way back when.
I haven't watch TVLand in over ten years (and no longer have cable/sat so won't be watching it anytime soon either) but RTV seems to be in a sixties rut. Too many second-tier westerns. But the main problem I have with them is the repetitive episodes and shoddy presentation. Some of the fun in watching old shows is identifying the actors and when credits are rammed through at light speed or omitted altogether it makes watches all the less enjoyable.
Lkeller said:
Exactly! It's 'retro' TV, nobody said anything about them being 'classics'--and for that matter, who gets to decide what is or isn't 'classic'?
justthenumbers said:
Most of your suggestions I'd watch. A lot of these wouldn't necessarily be considered 'classics' but they were still good shows.
Random thought: With football season here, wouldn't it be 'sporting' of TVLand or RTV to have a block of Coach or Evening Shade reruns on? Evening Shade, that's another show I'd add.
I've only been able to watch RTN/RTV occasionally when visiting relatives in IL, but it was better when they had a deal with CBS for programming. That was under the former owners though, and the deal fell through when they went bankrupt. Most of the new programs are from Universal now, and they've definitely gone downhill.
WGN America is actually better now than TV Land or RTN during the times they have retro programming. Unfortunately it's mostly on Sunday night. I'm beginning to wonder what is going to happen there though as well, since The Honeymooners and WKRP are now off the Sunday night schedule. I just wish they'd do more.
WGN has been running Coach as part of the Sunday retro night, and had a Coach marathon last Sunday.
WGN America is actually better now than TV Land or RTN during the times they have retro programming. Unfortunately it's mostly on Sunday night. I'm beginning to wonder what is going to happen there though as well, since The Honeymooners and WKRP are now off the Sunday night schedule. I just wish they'd do more.
Nate Wesley said:
WGN has been running Coach as part of the Sunday retro night, and had a Coach marathon last Sunday.
ansky212 said:
Besides renting or purchasing DVD sets or itunes downloads, some of those shows are available on Netflix on Demand, which can be viewed via a regular TV (not just in front of a computer), if you have broadband and the equipment.
Some of the retro shows on Netflix on Demand:
I Spy
Dick Van Dyke Show
Munsters
Leave it to Beaver
Charles in Charge
Kate and Allie
Gimme a Break!
Alfred Hitchcock
Columbo
Miami Vice
Emergency!
Quincy ME
Dragnet
Adam 12
Kojak
Magnum PI
Doctor Who
The Incredible Hulk
Hopefully, the list of classic TV expands.
According to wikipedia, this is playing on Comcast On Demand Tube Time:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tube_Time List maybe old.
And there is hulu and aol, but shows on those are ad-supported and require a computer.
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