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Which B&W shows hold up now - and why?

M

MattParker

We've been talking about how The Andy Griffith Show and I Love Lucy from the black and white era of television hold up well. A lot of shows were produced in the 50s and early 60s. Some were immediately forgettable (like now). Some were popular at the time but did not wear well.

What are the shows from that period that hold up well, can still draw and interest an audience? And what is different about them?

In addition to I Love Lucy and B&W Andy Griffith, I'd nominate as timeless:

The Honeymooners.
Maverick
The Dick Van Dyke Show
Black and White seasons of The Beverly Hillbillies.
 
I watch a lot of B/W on "This" and "RTV" I think most of the westerns hold up. I enjoy watching The Rifleman and the B/W episodes of Daniel Boone. On "This" I occasionally catch "Mr. ED" and "Bat Masterson" I also like old Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Twilight Zone. You rarely see these on regular Broadcast anymore but I still enjoy them. I know its been over played by TV Land, I still like Leave it to Beaver, what a great show. Thanks to the subchannels, they will play things that the main stations won't touch. Its much better than the awful colorized junk that was popular a few years back.

I would like to see the B/W episodes of Gunsmoke. I've never seen any of them. Broadcast TV just won't touch them. The only ones I've ever seen are the ones from the late 60's and 70's.
 
I've always wondered why some indies won't broadcast B&W versions of shows when the ads they play are directed specifically at 50+ viewers (the very people who would watch those old shows).

Whyizzat?
 
Three shows with their roots in vaudeville that I wish still held up:

1. The Phil Silvers Show (Bilko): knockabout humor, and the episode
where Fort Baxter inducts a chimp is a classic. Also the chance
to see soon-to-be-familiar faces like Dick Van Dyke, Dick Cavett,
Fred Gwynne, Alan Alda, and Peggy Cass. Silvers' daughter Catherine
praised Steve Martin for not trying to imitate her dad in the "Sgt. Bilko"
movie.

2. Burns And Allen: by today's standards Gracie's "illogical logic" would make
her appear to be a bimbo but you can't help loving exchanges like this one
with a neighborhood high-school girl when Gracie asks her what she's learning:

GIRL: Pi r square.
GRACIE: Pi r square? Is that what they're teaching now? Pie are round.
Cookies are square.

3. You Bet Your Life: Groucho, with some help from writers, drew on a whole
career of wisecracks in talking to the contestants and Fenneman. And it's
even better when he gets squelched, such as the time he (as usual) kept
interrupting a woman contestant who was trying to tell a story.

WOMAN: Groucho! You're stepping on my lines!
Groucho looks at the audience, takes a beat.
GROUCHO: The contestants are striking back!

Or this one, with an 80-something woman:

GROUCHO: What were people wearing when you were a baby?
WOMAN: Diapers.

You just don't get humor like that anymore.

Another show that still pops up but I think has lost some of its luster
is "The Addams Family," ever since some critics thought Raul Julia's dark
Gomez was more like you'd expect the head of a "creepy, kooky" family
to be; John Astin, they said, was too amiable (but maybe that's how he
is in real life).
 
What I'd like to see to see if they hold up, but no one ever runs these shows for whatever reasons:

The Roaring 20s; (I was crazy about Dorothy Provine back then, she passed away earlier this year :-[)
Mr. Adams & Eve; (50s sitcom starring Howard Duff & Ida Lupino, who were husband & wife back in that day.)
Trouble With Father, a/k/a The Stu Erwin Show.
The Ray Milland Show.
The David Niven Show.
Men of Annapolis. Dramatic anthology series.
How To Marry a Millionaire; (Co-starring a very young and foxy Barbara Eden as Loco Jones)
You Are There; CBS News show where Walter Cronkite talks to "historical figures", portrayed by actors.
Person To Person; Edward R. Murrow interviews newsmakers, celebrities, and such who appear on an in-studio TV screen.
Juke Box Jury; I would love to see original kinescopes of this show to see what songs that are now "golden oldies" that they didn't predict correctly.
December Bride; Seemed to be funny and popular when I was a kid, I'd like to see if it holds up nowadays. Probably not, but I'd like to find out.

Thanks to YouTube, I've been able to see a lot of old shows, but so far, none of the above listed. I hope that they can turn up somewhere.
 
Leave It To Beaver also holds up now.

I love the George Burns and Gracie Allen Show on radio and the TV version is way below their radio efforts. If you like the TV show, you'd love the radio show a 100 times more.

I think the My Three Sons episodes in B&W with Mike, were better than the colored episodes.

We get Father's Knows Best on ME-TV and that doesn't really work today. It is way to sappy and sugary, though after listening to the radio version I found it hard to stomach the TV version as the radio version was a lot different and much better
 
Twilight Zone
My Favorite Martian
I liked the b&w episodes of Lost in Space as well as the colored.
Munsters
Family Affair(some were in b&w, weren't they?
 
The Fugitive was best when it aired in B&W I felt since there was always this 'dark cloud' hanging over Dr. Kimble as he went from town to town searching for the real killer of his wife while Lt. Gerard was always trying to catch him. When the show debut in color I didn't have a color TV set at the time. It was only years later in reruns, that I saw the color episodes and wasn't that impressed with them. I think David Janssen was smart to halt the series after four years because the show was getting too predictable. Great ending by the way; one of the best on TV.
 
RicoGregg said:
What I'd like to see to see if they hold up, but no one ever runs these shows for whatever reasons:

The Roaring 20s; (I was crazy about Dorothy Provine back then, she passed away earlier this year :-[)
Mr. Adams & Eve; (50s sitcom starring Howard Duff & Ida Lupino, who were husband & wife back in that day.)
Trouble With Father, a/k/a The Stu Erwin Show.
The Ray Milland Show.
The David Niven Show.
Men of Annapolis. Dramatic anthology series.
How To Marry a Millionaire; (Co-starring a very young and foxy Barbara Eden as Loco Jones)
You Are There; CBS News show where Walter Cronkite talks to "historical figures", portrayed by actors.
Person To Person; Edward R. Murrow interviews newsmakers, celebrities, and such who appear on an in-studio TV screen.
Juke Box Jury; I would love to see original kinescopes of this show to see what songs that are now "golden oldies" that they didn't predict correctly.
December Bride; Seemed to be funny and popular when I was a kid, I'd like to see if it holds up nowadays. Probably not, but I'd like to find out.

Thanks to YouTube, I've been able to see a lot of old shows, but so far, none of the above listed. I hope that they can turn up somewhere.
Click to expand...

At least some of these shows are available on DVD. Check Netflix, Blockbuster and Amazon. I've rented Person to Person and Stu Erwin from Netflix. Which reminds me....

Another show which plays very well today is:

The Adventures of Robin Hood (starring Richard Greene). A repertory company of fine and classically trained British actors, good stories and outstanding writing by blacklisted American screen writers (including a couple of Academy Award winners). Production is primitive by today's standards but the actors and the writing remain outstanding. It's also available on DVD.
 
RicoGregg said:
What I'd like to see to see if they hold up, but no one ever runs these shows for whatever reasons:

The Roaring 20s; (I was crazy about Dorothy Provine back then, she passed away earlier this year :-[)
Mr. Adams & Eve; (50s sitcom starring Howard Duff & Ida Lupino, who were husband & wife back in that day.)
Trouble With Father, a/k/a The Stu Erwin Show.
The Ray Milland Show.
The David Niven Show.
Men of Annapolis. Dramatic anthology series.
How To Marry a Millionaire; (Co-starring a very young and foxy Barbara Eden as Loco Jones)
You Are There; CBS News show where Walter Cronkite talks to "historical figures", portrayed by actors.
Person To Person; Edward R. Murrow interviews newsmakers, celebrities, and such who appear on an in-studio TV screen.
Juke Box Jury; I would love to see original kinescopes of this show to see what songs that are now "golden oldies" that they didn't predict correctly.
December Bride; Seemed to be funny and popular when I was a kid, I'd like to see if it holds up nowadays. Probably not, but I'd like to find out.

Thanks to YouTube, I've been able to see a lot of old shows, but so far, none of the above listed. I hope that they can turn up somewhere.
Click to expand...

I can honestly say as a Gen Xer, the only show I have heard of on that list was You are there/Person to Person.
 
djhend1 said:
Correct me if i'm wrong but hasn't the Andy Griffith Show been in syndication longer than any show in history?
Click to expand...

I wish to correct you. I love Lucy debuted in 1951, so that has to be the longest running sitcom in current syndication ???
 
The Lone Ranger shows seem to be fairly-good in quality. They show up from time to time and what I really notice is the background music. Unfortunately, when those are shown on local stations, there are so many commercials that it seems a scene or two is cut out. I've got a number of the episodes on VCR and am always looking for more. One thing I do notice is in the early episodes - about 1949-1950 - Clayton Moore seems to be talking more slowly than the ones in later years. I've reasoned that there may have been a concern about early TV viewers picking up the dialogue along with watching.
 
visaman said:
djhend1 said:
Correct me if i'm wrong but hasn't the Andy Griffith Show been in syndication longer than any show in history?
Click to expand...

I wish to correct you. I love Lucy debuted in 1951, so that has to be the longest running sitcom in current syndication ???
Click to expand...
...actually, off-network reruns of Dragnet -- under the title Badge 714, to differentiate the reruns from the NBC runs -- were in syndication as early as 1954, before I Love Lucy hit the syndication market. However, I Love Lucy has indeed been in continuous off-network syndication in the largest TV markets in the U.S. longer than any other series, including The Andy Griffith Show...
 
You Bet Your Life with Groucho wouldn't be the same in color.
 
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