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What happened to these shows?

T

therealjm12

Got into a conversation with some friends over the weekend about shows seem to never show up in reruns. There are some pretty good quality shows that don't seem to run among those:

Moonlighting -which started the conversation
Northern Exposure
L. A. Law
Hill Street Blues
St. Elsewhere
and:
 
Between 2005 and 2007, Lions Gate Entertainment released all five seasons of Moonlighting on DVD, but the series hasn't been shown on television since Lifetime aired reruns in the early 1990s.

There is a relatively new channel called MeTV---"Me" stands for "Memorable Entertainment"---that reruns series mostly from the 1950s-60s-70s. Maybe someday the shows you named will appear on MeTV. Their program list is at http://metvnetwork.com/programs.php
 
Very few one hour show survive in syndication. Gunsmoke, Bonanza and Perry Mason are the only one hour shows I can think of that continue today in syndication. Hill Street recently ran on Nuvo TV for about a year. I couldn't tell you the last time I've seen the rest beyond a run on TV Land years ago.
 
therealjm12 said:
Got into a conversation with some friends over the weekend about shows seem to never show up in reruns. There are some pretty good quality shows that don't seem to run among those:

Moonlighting -which started the conversation
Northern Exposure
L. A. Law
Hill Street Blues
St. Elsewhere
and:
Click to expand...

"Perfect Strangers" ;D ;D

Seriously, on the comedy side it would be great to see these classic '70s/'80s hits again, including: "One Day at a Time," "Alice," "Different World," "Gimme a Break," "Kate and Allie," "Laverne and Shirley," "Valerie"/"Hogan Family," "ALF," and "Newhart," plus some dramas like the Robert Urich "Vega$" (ABC, 1978-81), "Eight is Enough," "Charlie's Angels" (the original), and "Hart to Hart." (among many others).
 
I saw a few reruns of Hill Street Blues in the early 00s - can't remember what cable network. As "cutting edge" as it was first run, it seemed quite dated compared to the one hour dramas we see today. It did not age well. Though I haven't seen St. Elsewhere since its original run, I imagine it might seem dated too, compared to faster moving and more realistic hospital dramas like ER,etc.

The sitcoms just seem to age better. The westerns, too. Since they take place in the 1800s, being dated isn't as big a problem.
 
Perhaps when Rural TV merges with FamilyNet in January we might see some of these shows mentioned especially Eight Is Enough. Better still, I would like to see The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres and Petticoat Junction since these shows haven't been on TV anywhere in reruns in a while.
 
Tim from Springfield said:
therealjm12 said:
Got into a conversation with some friends over the weekend about shows seem to never show up in reruns. There are some pretty good quality shows that don't seem to run among those:

Moonlighting -which started the conversation
Northern Exposure
L. A. Law
Hill Street Blues
St. Elsewhere
and:
Click to expand...

"Perfect Strangers" ;D ;D

Seriously, on the comedy side it would be great to see these classic '70s/'80s hits again, including: "One Day at a Time," "Alice," "Different World," "Gimme a Break," "Kate and Allie," "Laverne and Shirley," "Valerie"/"Hogan Family," "ALF," and "Newhart," plus some dramas like the Robert Urich "Vega$" (ABC, 1978-81), "Eight is Enough," "Charlie's Angels" (the original), and "Hart to Hart." (among many others).
Click to expand...
I have seen Alf and Newhart but I can't tell you which channel. I think Newhart was on METV but Alf was somewhere else.
 
johnnyu said:
Tim from Springfield said:
therealjm12 said:
Got into a conversation with some friends over the weekend about shows seem to never show up in reruns. There are some pretty good quality shows that don't seem to run among those:

Moonlighting -which started the conversation
Northern Exposure
L. A. Law
Hill Street Blues
St. Elsewhere
and:
Click to expand...

"Perfect Strangers" ;D ;D

Seriously, on the comedy side it would be great to see these classic '70s/'80s hits again, including: "One Day at a Time," "Alice," "Different World," "Gimme a Break," "Kate and Allie," "Laverne and Shirley," "Valerie"/"Hogan Family," "ALF," and "Newhart," plus some dramas like the Robert Urich "Vega$" (ABC, 1978-81), "Eight is Enough," "Charlie's Angels" (the original), and "Hart to Hart." (among many others).
Click to expand...
I have seen Alf and Newhart but I can't tell you which channel. I think Newhart was on METV but Alf was somewhere else.
Click to expand...

ALF airs on the HUB channel. Newhart airs on Rural TV along with the original Bob Newhart show weeknights at 9:30 PM Eastern/8:30 PM Central.
 
I believe that LKeller touched on the issue here. Some shows, as successful as they were during their first-run days, just wouldn't "click" with today's crowd.

I would think that medical dramas would be quite dated, due to advances in the field each year. When PAX started up in 1998, I seemed to recall that reruns of "Medical Center" with Chad Everett would be on the sked....but it never came about. It had a 7-year run. "Ben Casey" & "Dr. Kildare"? Um, nope.

I love "Leave it to Beaver", and it still works today, to an extent, in its comedy. Mainly this is because "topical references" are few and far between. And get this....LITB was never in the top 20 for any of its seasons. Go figure!

I mentioned this before, and I won't totally elaborate.....but after ch 39 in Miami debuted in 1982, one show they grabbed was "Laugh-in." It was great in 1968.....but oh the topical jokes. Didn't work!

cd
 
I would like to see The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres and Petticoat Junction since these shows haven't been on TV anywhere in reruns in a while.

Those shows are on ME-TV although they are not showing Green Acres at the moment.
I don't agree about the shows being dated I mentioned above. For the most part, the quality was there, writing, directing, acting, etc. Quality never is dated.
 
^ I noticed this week that "Green Acres" is now on This TV, but 5 to 6 am EST. Better than nothing! GA has stood the test of time.

cd
 
I remember A&E (and I believe even Lifetime) ran reruns of L.A. Law for a long time throughout the '90s, but hasn't been seen anywhere on TV for a such long time. The show, as far as I recall, never entered broadcast off-network syndication either.
 
therealjm12 said:
Got into a conversation with some friends over the weekend about shows seem to never show up in reruns. There are some pretty good quality shows that don't seem to run among those:

Moonlighting -which started the conversation
Northern Exposure
L. A. Law
Hill Street Blues
St. Elsewhere
and:
Click to expand...

I think the problem with these shows, is that while they all had a "plot of the week", they also relied on ongoing soap-style storylines. Keeping up with that story line once a week (especially in the pre-DVR and to a lesser extent even VCR days of the 80s/early 90s) is one thing....trying to catch it every day (especially if you hadn't seen it the first time) is another. You miss one day and you have to wait until the cycle starts over again.

"Perry Mason" still works because each episode has a stand-alone plot.

Same for today's crime procedural dramas. For the most part, I can plop down in front of a CSI: or Law & Order rerun from any season without having to worry that I've missed something important in a previous episode. This doesn't always work...both CSI: Miami and L&O: SVU both rely on some form of a continue plot...and when the shows script a month-long "sweeps" story arc.
 
Mister nomad, I asked Fred Mertz if he agreed with your assessment and his reply was "Aw, for corn's sake!" :D

A lot of sitcoms had short intros and short closing scenes that can be---and often are---cut when the shows are re-run so there is more room for commercials. We all know how much more advertising there is now than in the 1950s-60s. Hour-long drama shows are probably harder to edit and shorten in such a way that the storyline still makes sense. What I wish would be re-run are the specials and variety shows: Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Jimmy Dean, Red Skelton, Carol Burnett, Ed Wynn, Ed Sullivan, Dean Martin, Sonny & Cher, the Smothers Brothers, Your Show Of Shows---those would be fun to see again.
 
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