Movies and TV Series From Your Childhood That You View Quite Differently as an Adult

Herbie, the Love Bug.

I was 7-12 yrs old when The Wonder Years originally aired, of course then paid more attention to the children's storylines. Watched the full season again in my 30's and enjoyed it. Some observations:

- Arnold & Winnie was more "pining for" than dating, for some reason as child it felt like they were always together. Though I admit I wasn't invested in their relationship as a young child. - I was indifferent to Winnie as a child, annoyed with her as an adult. Felt she was rather cruel. - Surprised at how many storylines I did recall relating to the adults & teens. The intrigue as an adult was observing that moment in history like Mad Men. - Now in an era where Boomers bitch about Millenials (as they once did the reality-bites Xers in the early 90's), surprise surprise they could be selfish & insufferable (on the plus side progressive in ways) and their parents generation were not exactly thrilled with them either.

In the first season, THE WONDER YEARS takes place in 1968, 20 years prior to the shows debut in 1988. 20 years ago was 1995. *mind blown*

I loved FULL HOUSE as a kid. It came out in 1987 when I was 7. I watched it 'til around 1991. Now, the show is going through a revival, and my 5-year-old niece watches it. I've caught a few episodes with her, and I can't believe how awful it is. The writing, the humor, the acting, etc. Just awful! But she seems to enjoy it, just like I did as kid. I guess you have to have the mind of a child to appreciate it.

OP, I have to sadly agree with you about L, AS. As a kid I loved it. It was part of my Friday lineup that began with THE BRADY BUNCH. A year or so back I tried to watch an old ep of it featuring Victoria Principal. It was so bad I couldn't make it through. Sad. Makes me wonder whether I'll still find my old favorite ROOM 222 enjoyable. On a positive note HERE COME THE BRIDES was still a good watch.

Not from childhood, but when I was teenager, I liked Mad About You a lot. I watched it last week and didn't find it funny at all.

Hogan's Heroes was so cool when I was a kid. The secret tunnels, the sneaking out to blow up trains, and all the other cool stuff they did every week was the best. Now it's the dumbest show on television, and the whole Nazi/Gestapo thing is just plain creepy.

Except when I watched it on German television once. In German it's fucking hysterical.

I may have mentioned this in another thread, but my husband had never seen "Footloose" (he's older than me). So we watched it on Netflix for a laugh . . . I was so embarrassed, that I hid behind a pillow and screamed through most of it. With a horrified look on his face he said "did you guys really like this show when it was out?" Yes. "How old were you?" 14. I almost died of embarrassment.

I watched Roseanne when I was a child, liking it for being light comedy with a bit if an edge. Was even more interested when she introduced gay storylines further into the seasons - as I was growing up. I lost interest somewhat in the last season when it became overly camp and disjointed.

As an adult I bought the DVD box set and watched it, seeing much more depth in it, especially in relation to finacial struggle and worry, which is the backbone to all but the last season. When I was a child I didnt relate to or notice that about the show, as the seriousness of issues like redundancy, the humiliations employment and financial pressures weren't relevent to me back then.

I have a lot of respect now, as an adult for Roseanne, for some of the agendas it had and the messages it sent out. The show wasnt perfect, especially the crazyness of the last season. But the introduction of gay characters at that time, I think was quite ground breaking. I think the world is a better place for having Roseanne in it

Mad About You was never funny. Especially Helen Hunt.

When I was little I liked the Canadian TV show The Friendly Giant. My family didn't own a color TV so I had only ever seen it in black and white. Years later I went to a CN Rail touring exhibition of CBC television and saw the original model of the Friendly Giant's castle and couldn't get over the fact that the towers looked like big pink dicks.

Look up, R11. Look waaaaaaaayyyyyyy up!

R11, I grew up on the Canadian border (northern NY State) and we got 2 Canadian stations. I LOVED "The Friendly Giant", especially the theme song.

For probably the past 15? years, I've watched "Twilight Zone" marathons; also the occasional episode airing on SyFy. I find several of the episodes to resonate differently now that I'm an adult (an OLD adult, I might add.) When I watched the original "Deep Pool" (or some such title), I was fascinated at the "secret world" the kids had found; now, I just find it depressing (and creepy.) Another episode - can't remember title, sorry, but starred the late Diana Hyland as a young bride, married to a rich man with an estate; she would go horseback riding, and some hideous crone was chasing her. Episode scared the SHIT out of me as an 11-12, or so (told you, I'm old!)-year old; watching it 40+ years later, I could "get" that it's about someone old trying to "chase" their youthful self. Oh, BOY, do I "get it". THanks, OP, for this thread!

Mostly because the first time around I was too little to understand the adult undertones and jokes/innuendos: The classics: Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, any of the Hanna Barbera produced shows like The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Scooby Doo Most of the 90s Nickelodeon cartoons (I.e. Rugrats, Doug, Rocko' s Modern Life, Ren and Stimpy, etc.) Ditto for Cartoon Network (I.e. Animaniacs, Tiny Toons, Dexter' s Lab, Cow and Chicken, Johnny Bravo, etc.)

The short sketches on Love American Style that starred Stuart Maurgolin were the best thing about this series.

As a kid in the late 1960s, I ADORED the Archie and Sabrina cartoons series.

So a decade or so ago when they were released on DVD, I bought, excited to relive such a happy part of my childhood. Unfortunately, neither Sabrina nor Archie held up. Couldn't even get through but about 4 episodes before calling it quits. Average artwork, primitive plots. I was so disappointed.

That said, a few years later, the Boomerang cartoon cable channel ran the entire Josie and the Pussycats cartoon series. That series held up very well, I'm pleased to say. Stories worked on both a kids level and an adult level and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

My sister and I used to fight over who got the rocking chair on the friendly giant. Ahhh memories.

[quote]Years later I went to a CN Rail touring exhibition of CBC television and saw the original model of the Friendly Giant's castle and couldn't get over the fact that the towers looked like big pink dicks.

The disillusionment never ends. I once read a transcript of a speech given by Peter Mansbridge, which included a description of early days when his news show shared a CBC studio with The Friendly Giant. He described how disconcerting it was, while covering a serious story, to look just to one side of the camera and see Rusty hanging on a nail.

I thought Blazing Saddles was funny when I was child. Now it just seems incredibly racist and homophobic.

I agree some shows like Roseanne, Will and Grace, and Friends are just as good if not better as an adult because you identify with it in a different, more mature way than before. Other shows like Full House do not hold up from child to adult.

"Bewitched" I absolutely loved this show as a child. These days I can't look at it for it's being such shit.

Also, why didn't the rednecks and such protest this show ? It portrayed beings with powers normally belonging to god.

The Carol Burnett Show sets the bar for the show I liked the most as a kid that I find mostly unwatchable today.

I loved Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang as a kid but oh, what a long, saccharine slog it is to re-visit.

R22 - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - Yes I dont think I could sit through it all again now. Perhaps with self- edited highlights (by way of fast forward)

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is not as good as I remembered it either.

I can only watch the Tim Conway/ Harvey Korman skits from the Carol Burnett Show these days R22. All that other shit with her singing and dancing should be forgotten immediately.

The Flying Nun - what drivel.

Theres some movies I first saw as a child which I watch again by choice every year or two in adulthood. Star Wars, the original Planet of the Apes, Raiders of the Lost Ark., to name a few. Theres some escapism and comfort in watching them over and over. I can't assess how much my experience of seeing them has changed because of the amount of times Ive seen them. I guess theres more insight from all the info absorbed from DVD commentaries and IMDB triva ive absorbed. So I watch them in a more critical way.

I was a huge "Time Tunnel" fan when it originally aired (I thought James Darren was dreamy!). I then watched it a few years ago on SyFy and couldn't believe how bad/formulaic it was after several episodes into the first season. But James Darren (and the other guy, whom I never noticed as a child) were hot!

I'm amazed by how cheap the sets and costumes look for "ST: The Next Generation." The bridge looks like a real fancy Best Western lobby, and all the minor crewmen have split ends.

The Love Boat: It's on some channel called POP, and it comes on just about everyday. Goddamn was this show terrible. Bad writing, acting, sets, etc. But I think everyone in Hollywood was on it at some point. This used to be my show on Saturday nights growing up.

Friends: Cannot even watch it these days.

And I agree wholeheartedly about the comments about Roseanne. While the last 2-3 seasons were terrible, the first six or so are pure gold.

Two kid shows that are currently on ME tv on Saturday morning- HR Puffenstuff and Land of the Lost. HR Puffenstuff is just bad! The "story lines" are awful as is the acting, sets and costumes.

Land of the Lost is a little better. As a kid, you just don't notice all the small things that stick out. I'll still watch Land of the Lost but I can't suffer thru HR Puffenstuff!

I was a young adult in the early 80s when syndicated episodes of "Barney Miller" aired every weekday around the time I ate supper. I'd never really thought of it as anything other than what I watched while stuffing my face. Recently, Amazon had a great sale price on the complete series, so I bought it.

So far, I'm only on Season 2, but it's much funnier than I remembered. What a really gifted team of writers and actors managed to do with a simple premise and a one-room set is a small miracle. Along with "Mary Tyler Moore," I now think "Barney Miller" reflects the best of the 70s.

I'm not sure, but "Barney Miller" might have been the first series to include a recurring gay character (Marty) who was played mostly as a stereotype, but also treated with dignity and affection. In that sense, it was way ahead of its time.

I can't watch the last two seasons of "Roseanne", but I also can't watch the very first few seasons. Her stiff acting and her constant breaking of character (she smiles when she or Dan Goodman has a funny line) drive me nuts. She amazingly became a decent actress about the time her character started working at the hair salon, but before that she was terrible.

As well boy did I think the Carol Burnett show was one of the best shows ever when I was a kid. Thought it was hilarious.

Now I think it's godawful and unwatchable.

When I was young I thought Blazing Saddles was a steaming pile of homophobic shit and was mortified by it. I'd probably feel even more so today.

Mel Brooks killed off the considerable goodwill he had built up with The Producers and The Twelve Chairs for me. Totally hate that borscht belt rodent. Those flouncing fairies should have kicked Brooks to death. If it's ever put on stage they can finally get their chance and take care of that tap dancer Stroman as well.

Anything from the comedy genre that featured lovely families with happy endings. When I was a kid, I wished I had a family like that. To watch any of them now makes me want to puke.

Agreed r22! I can't believe how PAINFULLY UNFUNNY I find those Carol Burnett sketches are. Carol seems especially awful to me, and I used to love her!

I have fond memories of the Friday night lineup of the early 1970s, especially for LOVE AMERICAN STYLE. It's definitely a product of its time, but it's quaint to see these days. Fun to see the mix of old-timers, TV perennials, and up-and-comers in those opening credits. Still remember a sweet episode with Diane Keaton.

r7 - I also watched Hogan's Heroes in German. After the surreal nature of it wore off, it really started to drag down like the OST version. My dad loved this show. I was rather indifferent to it as a kid, though I did like the tunnels.

r9 - I have actually avoided watching Roseanne since its original airing because I don't want to tamper with the memory I had of it. Maybe your report will inspire me to move forward (or backward) with viewing. She really did bring a piece of missing Americana back into US television. A reprieve from the beige interior of the upper-middle class home and a re-introduction to the struggling working class - with authentic gay characters (Sandra Bernhardt, Martin Mull, and Fred Willard) to boot. It really rode off the rails near the end, but before then, it was grand.

r33 - I concur that Roseanne was still transitioning from stand-up to acting in the first season or two, but I hold that the show was still a success despite her greenness.

r32 - I was only mildly entertained by Barney Miller as a kid, but maybe some of the humor was above me. I will say that Wojo really caught my eye.

I'm a bit disheartened to hear all the complaints about the Carol Burnett Show. I have only watched some sketches on youtube, and while I found them a bit slow and repetitive, I didn't find them awful. The original bits with Mama's Family are in a way a very dark forerunner to Roseanne. I couldn't believe how unpleasant some of it was. I think it softened a lot when it turned into its own series.

I loved Rocket Robin Hood and Hercules cartoons

The Wonder Years - Borrowed sesaon 2 from the library. SO glad I didn't spend the money to buy the set on disc. As soon as it was available I almost did. It seems to have lost its magic.

Bewitched - Enjoyed it in syndication as a kid but it seems so lame today.

Carol Burnett Show - As someone said, the Korman/Conway bits seem to hold up. Also, the Mama's Family bits are still pretty funny.

Friends - Saw every ep as a youngster in the 90s but now it seems hard to watch.

R33 Roseanne began working in the salon in Season 2 -- S2E17, to be exact. Season 1 ended with her (and Jackie) quitting their factory jobs. In Season 2, Jackie goes to the police academy and becomes a cop, while Roseanne works a bunch of odd jobs, e.g. fast food, selling magazines over the phone, sweeping hair at salon. Roseanne gets the diner job in the fourth episode of Seaosn 3.

Some years back I bought some old Disney cartoons as a gift for children in my family.

One of the cartoons was the original "Three Little Pigs" which I think came out in the 1930s. I watched it myself and was delighted to discover that Disney had included funny bits that a kid would never notice, but which would generate laughs for parents taking their kids to the movies at the time.

An example I remember was a shot of the outside of the Big Bad Wolf's house, complete with his mailbox with his name written on it as "B. B. Wolf".

The Brady Bunch - Robert Reed was a huge raging queen

Another vote for Roseanne's early seasons, where she stood at the stove, delivered joke, sat at the table, delivered joke.

He-Man - Prince Adam and Stratos were soooo gay. And they had characters named Fisto and Tung Lashor. I'm guessing many people behind the scenes were gay.

Agree with r17. I loved Archie as a kid and my sister bought me the box set, but it's unbearable.

Smurfs is another one that is torture to sit through (Don't leave the DVD menu screen on - the endless looping of La-la-la-la-la-la is my version of hell).

r30 Love Boat was terrible but it's still cheesy fun to watch (especially spotting guest stars and when Julie is high).

Shows that still hold up for me are Alvin and the Chipmunks, Scooby Doo (the original series), Gimme a Break (except the dreadful last season with Rosie O'Donnell), the first six seasons of Dallas, the first five or six seasons of Roseanne, Golden Girls.

As for movies, Short Circuit was fun as a child but watching it recently it was terrible.

The Jewel of the Nile is a terrible sequel but the final film Michael Douglas/Kathleen Turner did together, The War of the Roses gets better with age, especially if you have been through a bitter break-up. Both Douglas and Turner are terrific in it.

[quote]Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - Yes I dont think I could sit through it all again now.

I can sit through that from start to finish before I can stand one frame of [italic]Mary Poppins[/italic] again.

Rocky and Bullwinkle. I loved it but didn't get the Cold War and all the other adult references (e.g. Boris Badenov vs Boris Godunov).

Can I add My So-called Life to the list. I was roughly the same age as the main character during the run and found certain nuances relatable. I just tried re-watching on Hulu- oh shit this show is dated. As. 34year old black gay dude i cannot get into this show. The parents are fine but the Angela is just unnerving.

At age five or six, the "Batman" TV show seemed like the stupidest thing ever imagined. Not only did I lack appreciation for camp, I had NO idea it was a comedy!

I also had long debates with my brothers over whether the "Thunderbirds"were real people.

DARK SHADOWS for one.

Hogan's Heroes. Because of Bob Crane.

More DARK SHADOWS bloopers.

"Laverne and Shirley" - I genuinely found them both hilarious as a TEEN! When I should have known better! Shirley especially with her dry retorts. Box sets of each season came out and it is major headache time. The screeching, the supporting players that all suck, the bad production values. Awful. Always hated "Happy Days" so no disappointment there, is still as awful as I remember it.

"Love, American Style" I still find charming -- certainly as a period piece. But so associated with the last years of my boyhood that it can feel a little sad watching it sometimes ("Brides" too). Not that I loved being a kid so much but that period, the turbulent 60s via Mad magazine for me, were the best. Because adulthood was right around the corner, thank God.

Hill Street Blues was edgy and hip when it first broadcast, but I tried watching it the other day and it's now cringeworthy, especially the parts where they dance around race relations.

God forbid that the gangs were all minorities, so they had that stupid Irish gang, The Shamrocks, with a young David Caruso wearing a costume that's more at home in a Lucky Charms commercial than Chicago in the early 1980's.

The relationship between Frank Furillo and Joyce Davenport was also such a big deal back then, but you watch it now and there isn't a speck of chemistry between them.

David Caruso looks so cute in that photo R53!

I was a 90s kid so I loved the original 90210 growing up. Tried to do a nostalgic marathon of it recently and (with the exception of the famous slumber party episode) I was bored out of my mind. The plots move SO slowly. The original Melrose Place on the other hand is still entertaining as hell and hasn't aged at all.

I was obsessed with Buffy as a teen but now I can't watch it at all. Apart from the first two seasons (which while cheap looking still has a dark, filmic vibe), its just so visually bland and cheesy and the 'quippy' dialogue is painful. Willow was one of my favourite characters and watching it now she's just AWFUL. Her voice and mannerisms are excruciating and phone.

I also went through a period of trying to rewatch 90s kids cartoons to see if they were as good as I remembered as kid. Most sucked but surprisingly the old X-Men cartoon still held up . It has a dark, brooding vibe that I way prefer to Bryan Singer's bland films.

Freaks and Geeks was so refreshing and 'real' when it first aired. I used to go through the DVD set annually back in the day. But now that most of the kids are A-list celebrity millionaires I just can't watch it anymore, its not the same. Its like if the awkward cast of Degrassi Junior High in the 80s suddenly became famous, its just WEIRD and distracting watching F&G now and pretending they're these underdogs.

Dark Shadows terrified me when I was a pre-schooler.

Now it brings me no end of pleasure. Seldom scary, but always funny, and despite the bare-bones budget, everyone puts their all into it.

My father took my sister and me to see "The Legend of Boggy Creek" at a movie theater. I sat through it gripped by fear. I was eight, and my sister six.

Now I watch it and literally laugh through the entire picture.

I saw the 1962 movie Lolita when I was about 10. Peter Sellers was so funny in it and Shelly Winters was so over the top. Loved it. Ended badly, but still...

Then, I saw the 1997 version when it came out and, watching it as an adult, it was definitely not funny. The later version was just creeper Jeremy Irons pervertedly chasing after a 12 year old. Don't get me wrong, James Mason is also very creepy, but a lot of it went right over my head at the time.

[italic]Hill Street Blues[/italic] does not hold up because nothing that depicts police in a positive light holds up in the face of the reality of how American police-thugs operate today and how they have always operated. That and the fact that Barbara Bosson was one of the worst actresses ever to get a job on prime time TV. She wasn't pretty, and there wasn't anything she could do that somebody else could do better, and if she hadn't been Mrs. Steven Bochco, no one would ever have known her name. And the reason there's no chemistry between Frank Furillo and Joyce Davenport is because Daniel J. Travanti is gay. I had an acting teacher who was on this show a few times, and he was the biggest asshole who ever lived and has no idea how to create a show that isn't completely excruciating to sit through. The only reason the industry kissed their asses is because of how utterly ridiculous and unrealistic most of the cop shows that predated it were.

[quote]I loved FULL HOUSE as a kid. It came out in 1987 when I was 7

Just admit it, you were not 7, more like 27

I always watched "I Love Lucy," and imagine my dismay when I grew up and realized you can't fool anyone into not knowing who you are by putting on a fake mustache.

I don't think Ricky was ever fooled by any of Lucy's disguises; I think he just went along with them because The Show Must Go On™.

[quote]"Bewitched" I absolutely loved this show as a child. These days I can't look at it for it's being such shit.

I've recently been watching both Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie again (I was obsessed with both as a child). I had always thought of them as equals, but Bewitched is by far the smarter of the two. Not saying much, however.

Still, I love them for the actors and the decor and styles of the '60s.

In The Three Little Pigs there is also that portrait of Dad which is just a link of sausages.

Another Disney adult joke: Mary Poppins having a spoonful of rum punch.

"Laugh-In--" As a kid I just thought it was funny: The Farkle family, "Verrryyyyy Inttterrestiiink" etc. When I watched it again as an adult, I had new appreciation of just how subversive and even raunchy the humor was for the time period ( late 1960's / early 1970's)

"I Dream Of Jeannie--" as a gayling, I wanted Jeannie's fabulous genie bottle to live in. As I got older, I thought that there was something going on between Major Nelson and Major Healy.

I was recovering from surgery awhile back and was out of work for several weeks. Since I had to get rid of cable for financial reasons, I watched a lot of "MeTV" COZI" "Decades" etc. Maybe it's just me, but there is a LOT of gay undertones in quite a fewof those older shows. "Starskey & Hutch" "Adam-12" not to mention the westerns like "Gunsmoke" Bonanza" and "Rawhide"

And yes op----I like 'Love American Style" too!

My family and I dutifully watched M*A*S*H every week as if we were at church, so magnificent did we find it.

We would have been better off gouging our eardrums with screwdrivers! It is unwatchable hokum!

I could watch "Bewitched", "Gilligan's Island", and "The Beverly Hillbillies" reruns all day. They're hilarious, and hold up incredibly well for me.

Ii worshiped Punky Brewster. Revisited it and couldn't make it through one episode. He-Man was another favorite. They show it on an off channel here and it's like some animated Christian after school special.

I loathed AITF and Mash when they were huge hits in the 70s.

I wondered how people could love these rotten shows.

I still have no idea.

[quote]seeing much more depth in it, especially in relation to finacial struggle and worry, which is the backbone to all but the last season.

Being a stupid liberal I guess you failed to see every single financial struggle, was the Connors own making and they could've had a great life but chose to do stupid things and bitch endlessly about it.

[quote]I don't think Ricky was ever fooled by any of Lucy's disguises

Then you don't think much, do you?

"I Love Lucy", "Bewitched " "I Dream of Jeanie?" Shit- how old are you bitches?

You think they're old?

I was going to second act Our American Cousin but that ham actress Booth fucked it up.

I wanted to slap the bitch.

Gidget holds up better than Flying Nun and Peter Duel in Gidget is hot as hell! Its so funny watching Gidget as she lives in Hazel' s house and visits friends who live in Jeannie' s house and people who live in Samantha' s house from Bewitched.

Dennis the Menace is unwatchable while I think Leave it to Beaver has aged very well but as a kid I like Dennis better.

When I was little, I thought that THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. was terrific to watch. Now it's shortcomings are quite evident mainly from both being dated as well as a tight budget.

Gunsmoke has held up well, especially the early B&W episodes, but Bonanza is another story.

Hoss and Little Joe come across as borderline retarded without an ounce of common sense between them, and Ben Cartwright is a rich old white man with a sense of entitlement that's as big as The Ponderosa.

Mission:IMPOSSIBLE was another that was great fun to watch in the mid to late 60s. Once Bain & Landau were let go, the show really went downhill.

R66, I never missed LAUGH-IN back in the day, but much of the adult humor was over my head. I thin I was in my mid 20s when I finally realized why the Farkle children looked like Ferd Berfle.

Agree with all those who find "The Carol Burnett Show" has lost its charm. I was so looking forward to nightly reruns on ME but gave up after two episodes. Wanted my misty watercolor mem'ries untarnished but the damage has been done....alas.

Another who loved the ABC Friday night line up of the late 60s/early 70s back then. Hadn't seen "Here Come the Brides" since the early 80s and was pleased that it holds up so well and that so many on DL know and love it too. There's a show that could possibly work in a new, more expensively produced and gritty version. ABC or even CW?

I've a weird back and forth with "All In the Family". I hated it when it premiered-too much screaming, unattractive actors and sets, hated how Edith was treated. It grew on me and by the time of Edith's attempted rape episode I loved it. Didn't see if for years and got it from the library about ten or so years ago and hated it again-SO dated. Took another look at it when it came up on Antenna TV and loved it again. Appreciate it from a nostalgia and acting perspective-seeing Carroll O"Connor and Jean Stapleton build those characters.

Like "The Rifleman' even more that when I was a kid. Appreciate the supporting characters like Miss Hattie the storekeeper (Hope Summers-Hail, Satan!) more now and Lucas and Mark's devotion can bring me to tears now (MARY!!!)

Preferred "Bonanza" to Gunsmoke" then, now it's switched. The latter feels more "adult" in tone.

Didn't quite get "Batman" as a kid. Love the camp and guest villains hamming it up and bad puns now. (I wrote the guest villain ideas for Golden Age Hollywood stars last week on the Joan Crawford on TV thread.)

A movie from child that I love more than ever is "The Adventures of Robin Hood" with Errol Flynn and Miss Olivia de Havilland.

My reaction to movies as a kid I still have when I see them today.

The only turnabouts I've done were seeing Oklahoma in Todd AO and 2001 in Cinerama.

They were completely different films and positive experiences.

Eight is Enough turned out to be pretty bad on this other side of 20.

Just about everything I watched as a kid. We couldn't wait for that Sunday night lineup. Alice, One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons, The dying years of All in the Family and/or Archie Bunker's Place. All shit now. Especially Alice. We all LOVED that show when we were kids. It's shit as an adult. In the teen years I would say Facts of Life is pretty horrid.

But Alice. Yeah. Oh Alice.

I didn't see Gidget as a kid but have watch it on one of those did you son grow tits channels. That show stands up extremely well. As a nostalgia piece no doubt but it holds up. Gidget most certainly did NOT live in Hazel's house.

I used to watch MASH when it was first on, but I gradually found it insufferable...especially Alan Alda. I see promos for it these days on one of the OTA channels and to see Mike Farrell talking about that show as if it was really important reminds me again how insufferable that whole bunch was...except for Henry Morgan and Charles.

[quote]In The Three Little Pigs there is also that portrait of Dad which is just a link of sausages.

Thanks R65. I think there was also a portrait of an uncle which showed a big ham.

Yeah. With all the fanfare about MASH. Especially the finale. I watch it occasionally, usually when I'm surfing during commercials, and I wonder what all the fuss was about. The beginning was good but the last four seasons just became a soapbox for the actors. They were no longer playing characters. It started to suck when Trapper left. Jumped the rotten cabbage when they took Klinger out of women's clothes.

I've tried catching up on some of the classic sitcoms from the 50s/60s/70s I used to watch in the 80's when I was a kid in the afternoon. Hazel is great, love Shirley Booth and the show holds up well before that last season when they basically rebooted the show. Leave it to Beaver and the Andy Griffith Show hold up the best of all the classic shows i've watched. I Dream of Jeannie is just horrible, haven't tried watching Bewitched again. I remember when Full House was getting ready to come back into syndication in my area back in the late 90's, I was so excited and wow...was I disappointed. That show just doesn't work that well, especially when it became the Michelle show later on.

I like I Dream of Jeannie more as an adult than when I watched it as a kid in afternoon repeats. Agree with Hazel. Agree so much I bought the series on DVD. I've lent it to a few people who never heard of it and everyone who has borrowed it loves it. I won't watch fake Darrin episodes of Bewitched. In fact I usually won't go beyond the black and white episodes. Talk about a show getting lazy.

Sadly, I have to agree with many of the posters here about Carol Burnett. I and seemingly everyone else loved her show when it aired originally. I recently purchased a DVD of classic skits from the show and most of them aren't all that funny. I also agree that Roseanne Barr became a much better actress as the series progressed. She deserved most of the Emmys that that no-talent Candace B. got. And yes, Leave It to Beaver holds up way better than Dennis the Menace.

Leave it to Beaver holds up way better than almost all TV.

True. "Beaver" always had the most realistic kids, the bratty Judy girl, mean Eddie Haskell who was nice when the mom was watching, Lumpy and his dad... the opposite of precious. It's a great show to this day.

Hazel

An aging woman whose life is devoted to making beds and dusting for an up-tight, stuffy upper-middle class couple and their desperately lonely son living in a seemingly joyless household.

Did Shirley Booth ever do anything that wasn't depressing?

You forgot Wally's ass.

Wally, the perfect brother. Ass and all.

I hated [italic]Full House[/italic] and [italic]Friends[/italic] when I was a kid, hated them as a teenager, and still hate them as an adult. Nice to see former fans coming around to what I already knew about them in the first place: those shows weren't just bad, they were anti-good. Both had the same basic premise and were from the same production company, one stuck us with Kirk Cameron's sister and the other actively contributed to the closeting of Matt LeBlanc while the lecherous pigs who wrote for the show used every heterosexual couple combination they can think of.

Some of the live-action Disney movies of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s actually shocked me with the frequency of shirtless men; even some of the worst ones often have that as a redeeming factor.

SNL has been unwatchable for more years than it was ever good, but very few sketches even from the "good" years hold up now. The topical humor in shows like that really doesn't have a long shelf life. In Living Color - I don't think I could watch it now without wondering what the SJWs would say about "transphobic" Jim Carrey and the Men on Film skits.

Married with fucking Children.

It is odd how enjoyable "Leave it to Beaver" reruns are. I always laugh at one thing or another, the cast is fantastic, and there are little subversive looks and moments that crack me up. I don't think anyone ever suspected it would even be a hit, but it was and remains one.

Friends did not age well, I loved it while it was still in first run, but now I can't stand reruns, it's just so dated and all the main characters are whiny. If I were to think of a 90's TV show its this one and Seinfeld...but at least Seinfeld is funny.

I too have been watching Carol Burnett on MeTV and wow, talk about unfunny. The bad part is I bought the damn box set a few years back and now I'm thinking why. The only good parts are the q&a at the beginning, the Famiky sketches and anything where Conway cracks someone up. Those retrospectives really oversold the show to me and made it seem more relevant than it is.

I like Mrs Wiggins too but that's it...the questions, the family, and mrs wiggins.

Have to keep a firm hand on boys nowadays, Ward. My Clarence answered me back the other day. I smacked him right in the mouth. None of this psychology for me.

My favorite Beaver moment:

[June has prepared a lovely dinner of barbecued pork ribs] Ward Cleaver: Well, you boys are very quiet tonight. What are you thinking about? Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver: I was just thinkin' what I'd do if I was a pig eatin' peoples ribs. June Cleaver: Beaver, please.

R83-you can't tell me that the kitchen used in Gidget and the dining room are NOT the one and the same that Hazel used. The front entrance is different as they moved the staircase and the den. The living room is the same as Hazel as is Mr.B' s den. The outside of the house is the same as is the back patio where Bobby Buntrock skips backwards in the opening credits of Hazel.

Leave it to Beaver is still so great, even with the dated slang. Judy Hensler was a classic tv bitch, and Wally was just dreamy.

Little House on the Prairie seems awfully fucked up for a "family show," in retrospect. A couple episodes definitely gave me nightmares. Also, there are scenes where it's way too obvious to me as an adult that they were filming in California and not "on the prairie."

We could start a whole thread on "Beaver" moments alone. Mine:

Beaver is missing after an argument. Wally to Ward: "Dad, he told me he was going to run off and join some pirates." Ward and Wally share a hearty laugh -- until they see June glaring. June: "Ward Cleaver, if he does that, I will never speak to you again."

And, of course, Beaver climbing into the giant coffee cup on the billboard and getting stuck -- which kept me from making the same mistake as a child. Those ornate billboards were all the rage then and I, too, wondered if there was real coffee in the cup.

That and getting his head stuck in a wrought iron fence, another childhood nightmare I avoided as a result.

My little sister locked herself in the bathroom just like "Puddin", that bratty little girl that Wally and the Beav were babysitting. My brother and oldest sister put a ladder up to the window to get in and unlock the door.

I thought it was a giant soup bowl that Beav got stuck In? Jerry Mathers cites that as his fave episode.

Yeah, soup though that bowl looks close to coffee too, ha. And that's Whitey in foreground who dared him to go up there. I forgot about him, another great kid character.

The son on "Hazel", Bobby Buntrock.... best name ever.

Unfortunately killed in a car crash at age 21.

"Warner Bros. Ranch", aka "Columbia Ranch" in Burbank, one of the most famous neighborhoods in America.

[quote] Also, there are scenes where it's way too obvious to me as an adult that they were filming in California and not "on the prairie."

How so?

[quote]Also, there are scenes where it's way too obvious to me as an adult that they were filming in California and not "on the prairie."

[quote]How so?

A landscape of rolling mountains and hillsides thickly covered in mature oak trees?

I thought The Nanny was just a run of the mill tv show when I was in middle school but now that I'm older and rewatched the show, I can say it has actually held up much better than most of the 90s sitcoms, including Friends. One of the few sitcoms where the lead character/actor ISN'T the least funny person on the show.

R114 so true! Fran Drescher/Fran Fine is such a hoot! She definitely holds her own against would-be scene-stealers, Niles, C.C., and Sylvia

Furthermore, the double-entendre became all the more evident as an adult. Take this scene, for example, when Fran and Mr. Sheffield play ping-pong. As a child, I thought their facial expressions and grunting/moaning were hilarious, but as an adult I can clearly see that it's supposed to be an allegory for their sexual frustration. I mean, it looks and sounds almost like they're fucking! I'm surprised they got away with it.

I forgot to add that at the very end, Sheffield literally shoots (the ball) on her chest. haha

Watching them now on the retro channels, I find they mostly all suck. Magnum, PI is esp. ridiculous. Ditto the Carol Burnett show.

I'll add to this thread... I remember "EMERGENCY!" as being action-packed and exciting but boy am I wrong. My aging mother keeps MeTV on all day long and I recently watched several episodes. Dull program with far too much forced humor at the station house. The scenes at Rampart aren't bad, but man it is not the show I remember as a child.

How dare you, R81???? We were very hard on each and every episode of EIGHT. Daddy Dick wanted us to be the best quality show on television that we could be. Ingrate. You're probably just jealous of our talent.

I disagree R118. I think even today, "Emergency" has a nice mix of action, comedy and softer scenes. It's not perfect but too much action would have made it too dramatic, too much comedy would have made it a sit-com. The best scenes were either the rescues or the medical exploits at Rampart, but the scenes at the station were often fun.

I watched a few Emergency episodes with a friend recently. He commented on the slowness - and the inevitability that they would take someone's blood pressure no matter the situation.

Yeah Emergency! is still fun today. FOR KIDS. God I loved that show as a kid. As an adult...fucking boring. I remember as a kid loving the sound that started the emergency. BWWWWW BWOOOOOO

I still like "The Andy Griffith Show" and it still holds up. Great cast and great supporting characters.

I finally saw the episode where Opie has to confront the bully. He drops off an extra set of clothes at his Dad's office, "just in case". Andy and Barney are waiting at the office when Opie comes in. You only see Opie from the back at first. His clothes are disheveled, etc, and you can tell he's been in a fight, but his stance shows that he was successful. Great scene.

Ron Howard was great as Opie. There are plenty of kid actors that I found annoying, but he always had the right touch.

The Leslie Caron vehicle Lili, which I saw at 13 and again at 21 - very different experiences, though I can't really remember them very well. Nice movie. Chuck Walters knew how to piece together a musical. He was very attractive, too.

Andy Griffith Show, Leave it to Beaver, and The Dick Van Dyke Show...you can't go wrong.

A young Aunt Bee LOL

LOL R58, I had the same reaction to Legend of Boggy Creek. When I was a kid, my brother and I were terrified of the movie. I used to love to play in the woods but was too scared to go in them alone for weeks after seeing the movie. I watched it a few years ago as an adult and laughed at it.

Bad Ronald fucking creeped me out. I remember in 6th grade everyone was reading that fucking book. Then when the movie came on TV it was a fucking event.

Thanks [R49] That as hilarious!

Beverly Hillbillies stands up especially Jed. His dry monologues are much funnier now than when I watched reruns as a child.

R20 You had a better sense of satire, as a kid. There's nothing racist and homophobic about it. it's making fun of racists and homophobes.

I loved "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" which I wasn't allowed to watch until I was a little older because of the adult innuendo. It's a great show, though and watching it today, the writing was great and you can see why Will Smith became a star.

Friends was never very good. But that didn't stop me from watching every damn Thursday evening because the cast was so attractive. My elderly mother is a huge fan of the show in reruns. I think she has a girl crush on Jennifer A. Whenever People or Us run a cover story on Jen, my mother buys it.

I loved The Beverly HIllbillies as a kid and still do today. It had a cast of first-rate comic actors right down to those in the smallest parts. The biggest shortcoming of most modern sitcoms is their highly attractive, unfunny casts. I love Ed O'Neil on Modern Family. He looks like a character straight out of the old "Herman" comics.

Sesame street, looking at it now as an adult I find the show so creepy and uneasy. Big bird, pigeons and all those puppets on the show look like they are about to molest little kids.

[quote]Big bird, pigeons and all those puppets on the show look like they are about to molest little kids.

That's a terrible thing to say. You can't prove that! I'm innocent until proven guilty!

It seems like a lot of writers just don't care if adults like their shows as long as kids do.

New trivia re" Hugh Beaumont from Wiki:

"Beaumont retired from show business in the late 1960s, launching a second career as a Christmas-tree farmer in Grand Rapids, Minnesota."

That's Judy Garland's one-horse hometown! The Grand Rapids in Michigan is very well known, and was the birthplace of Betty Ford, but the one in Minnesota is not really known for anything other than Garland's birth....until NOW!

Eddie Haskell: Gee, your kitchen always looks so clean. June Cleaver: Why, thank you, Eddie. Eddie Haskell: My mother says it looks as though you never do any work in here.

Leave It to Beaver has the reputation of being representative of a white bland idealized version of middle class America that never existed.

Now it turns out to be quite terrific. Was binge watching it recently and loved it.

Many of the 80s family sitcoms I adored as a kid are beyond awful trying to watch as an adult:

Family ties

Growing pains

Who's the boss

Cosby show

The only character from any of those shows who holds up well is the dad from family ties...

On the flip side, I think Sanford & Son is even better than I remember. I caught a run about a month ago and it had me in stitches. Redd Foxx was a national treasure

R115, same here. There were a LOT of double-entendre jokes on the show and they were very well played.

R140, I agree with you. I was quite surprised to find that Family Ties didn't hold up well at all. It was such a huge hit along with Cosby and Cheers until they moved it to Sunday night. Cosby was pretty good its first couple seasons, but then the show just kept hitting repeat and got stale. Who's the Boss is just abysmal. Growing Pains was a Family Ties rip-off, so since the original didn't hold up, I'm not surprised the poor imitation didn't.

There are some things I saw as a younger ADULT that I can't imagine ever liking now.

Barney Miller holds up really well. Starsky and Hutch are so affectionate and loving, by today's standards they were an out gay couple. It's obvious the writers were looking for opportunities for the two to be physically demonstrative. They even edited the opening sequence to make it more gay.

The 1970s cop show concept of cops caring about the people in poor communities, instead of looking at them as uniformly ravening predators, is long gone. If you watch any of these old cop shows, the difference is immediately apparent and shocking.

Veronica Hamel's character Joyce Davenport of Hill Street Blues was a cold, wooden, emotionless bot. In those days, I guess people read it as reserved and composed, today it looks very out of place compared to all those naturalistic and talented actors. She gave an interview saying she turned down Charlie's Angels to do Hill Street. Too bad, it was more her speed. In real life, costar Daniel J Travanti (Furillo) is rumored to be gay but is in the closet.

When I was a kid, my family went on a road trip through California and Nevada looking for old mining ghost towns. We came upon the "Little House" town. Don't remember the name, but it was a very old, western-looking town. I think it was a gold mining town in the old days.

It was very small, a Main Street and not much else, and lots of dry grasses and open fields around. What you saw on the show was pretty much it, there wasn't a big downtown around the corner. There were signs everywhere about Little House. Tourism was probably supporting the town, there was nothing there. I think there was an 1800's looking hotel and maybe a restaurant and bar. Not much else. There's a lot of abandoned or very small former gold rush towns in California. They're tourist attractions now and the only employment is tourism and the post office.

R144: I thought they blew up the little house set in the series finale

That was probably a set on a soundstage. The townspeople there said the actors would come out at the beginning of the year, late summer I think, and shoot outdoor scenes. That's what you would see in the opening credits, with the kids running through meadows.

I think "Bad Ronald" is long overdue a remake. For the big screen so it can get more sexy. Though Scott Jacoby was hot back then.

I stuck it through Mr Belvedere on Antenna TV when they started airing it again a few months back, that show didn't hold up, and of course Small Wonder, which I thought was awesome as a child is just horrible beyond belief.

I like actually getting the Civil War jokes peppered throughout "The Beverly Hillbillies"!

Enjoy them now, those same jokes will soon get it off the air, I swear.

The B&W Beverly Hillbillies are fantastic, but the steam went out about the time they switched to color. Of course, that was true with almost every show back then.

The early B&W Gunsmokes had great writing and canvas backgrounds one step above a high school musical. Once color came they forgot about dialogue and spent their time filming Matt riding slowly across the plains with beautiful mountains in the background (You know, the mountains right outside Dodge City, Kansas).

Hey - coincidence - I just looked this up yesterday - "get the hell out of dodge" comes from Gunsmoke.

"Save yer Confederate money! The South will rise agin'"

My favorite scene in The Beverly Hillbillies is in the first episode when Granny inspects her new kitchen. She walks over to the refrigerator and mutters, "Who ever heard of putting the cool cupboard on the west wall of the house?" Then a few minutes later she's trying to get a fire started in the electric oven and after lighting half a dozen matches she yells, "Jed, this stove ain't got no draught!"

I wonder how many little kids watching Beverly Hillbillies got the joke.

BTW, one thing which really dates some older shows is when they featured musical groups from that time. "But dad, Strawberry Alarm Clock are the grooviest! You HAVE to let me go to their concert tonight!"

[R21] I agree with you about Bewitched. As a kid I loved it so much, but as an adult it is lame in the extreme, and Elizabeth Montomery's mugging is annoying too.

I used to love Kate & Allie as a kid in the 80s. For some reason I found Jane Curtain hilarious. Watching it on Youtube now is painful as I can see how crap it really was. Not funny at all. The best thing about it is the theme tune, and those 80s saxophones!!

Anyone else recall Huckleberry Finn and His Friends from the early 80s. I think it was a Canadian show? It still holds up quite well today. The theme song instantly takes be back to being 6 again 'Try looking back more on days that were slower, when living came easy and neighbours were friends, paddle wheels turning as kids on the river went seeking adventure or some pirates den....' ahhhh!

My Saturday nights revolved around "Adam 12" and ESPECIALLY "Emergency." "Emergency" is now on Netflix, and Randy Mantooth is as hot as I remember him.

Some things I think you can still enjoy BECAUSE of their nostalgia value. Take 'Dynasty' for example, that was a fave show of mine as a kid, I thought it was the most sexy and glam show on TV. Now I see how cheap it looked and the way they created boring repetitious storylines. Alexis breaks up with Dex, by the end of the season is back with him. The following season they break up again, but get back together by the end! Repeat for five or six seasons zzzzzzzz!!

Shit I love, love, love watching Gunsmoke on the Shirley couldn't afford to bury her husband because she had no insurance channel. Miss Kitty was the shit. A feminist hero to adore. Her feminism was out of strength not a mattress carrying victimization monger. Especially her episode with Bette Davis. Amanda Blake never got her proper due for that role.

Always hated how Miss Kitty died (in real life). Those were scary scary days.

Used to love The Flintstones as a child, and still do some of the eps. However the animation has really dated on most.

No "Dif'rent Strokes"? Or maybe it's so bad it transcends being mentioned? I loved it as a kid, along with "The Facts of Life". These shows are so bad now. SO BAD.

"The Jeffersons" is still kind of funny. "In Living Color" still makes me cry laughing. The dysfunctional home show is one of the best skits they did.

Does anybody like Sargent on Bewitched?

I find his episodes unwatchable.

His mugging and grimacing would be embarrassing in a community theater.

I love watching TV shows that came out before I was born. Love Stanford and sons, leave it to beaver, good times, the jeffersons, i love Lucy, three company ended a year after I was born, but I enjoy jack tripper antics. John Ritter was just brilliant, great comedic timing. Another sitcom I still enjoy even though it is not yet considered nostalgic is Seinfeld. I just love watching it, I am a huge fan of Jewish humor, love curb your enthusiasm.

Love this Canadian show. I watched a few episodes and still think it holds up.

I fucking hate John Ritter. I watch Three's Company and all I can keep thinking is "they know he's gay don't they?"

I just started rewatching Adam-12 on Netflix and I have to say I'm enjoying the heck out of it. You can tell the early seasons are shot on a backlot and whenever there's a party to break up the same weird rock music is playing, some of the acting is awful, but I think it holds up well.

Officer Reed was my first major crush but as an adult I can see the appeal of Malloy as well. Two good looking guys.

Adam 12 is very chessy, the acting is terrible but the main actors are quite attractive.

I still find BEWITCHED great fun. EM is gorgeous(until the hippie chick takeover) and I don't find her acting at all too much. BEWITCHED has some of the best casting right down to the bit parts. Sargent, though, just can't compare with York, acting wise or in chemistry with Montgomery. Another oldie I still get a charge out of is GREEN ACRES. Its Bizarro World still makes me laugh. THE BEAVER and THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES are just as entertaining now as ever. One show I never saw as a kid that I find quite enjoyable is BACHELOR FATHER. And I love the houorsythe and company live in.

I had never heard of Bachelor Father. I funking love that show. They definitely put some money in the set because I love that house. York and Montgomery did have better chemistry. It's funny. It seems on the shows where the leads hated each other in real life they had great chemistry in front of the camera.

You can imagine York wanting to jump Montgomery's bones no matter what their relationship in real life was like.

Sargent looks like he'd be much happier having cocktails with Uncle Arthur and Dr. Bombay.

Should say "hippie chick makeover." Fucking autocorrect. Off topic---this new site is not at all Android user friendly!

The early Bewitched episodes are still entertaining camp. How can anyone dislike Endora, Uncle Arthur, or Gladys Kravitz? It was a silly show, but in small doses it's a lot of fun. I never did care for I Dream of Jeannie, apart from the theme song.

Needless to say, but I will never look at the Cosby Show the same way again. I dearly hope Lisa Bonet writes a tell-all book someday.

Montgomery was always pretty honest in interviews. She was clear that the only reason she did the last three seasons was because of the, then unheard of, money they were throwing at her and her production company to stay on the air. It shows. Until the day she died she owned about 40% of the profits from that show. She knew when she was doing it that she wanted to try and do what Lucy and Desi had done with syndication from I Love Lucy. That was her endgame. She came pretty close. I Love Lucy and Bewitched are two shows that just about everyone in the world knows and has watched. Montgomery made a fortune and never had to worry about a dime.

I can picture Peter from Bachelor Father being the one trolling CNN with Sum Ting Wong.

My absolute favorite line from "Leave It To Beaver": June (Mrs. Cleaver) to Ward (Mr. Cleaver): "You were awfully hard on the Beaver, last night, Ward."

I remember being mesmerized by Renny Harlin's revolutionary cinematography in A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4: THE DREAM MASTER. Plus, collecting superpowers from your friends to use against Freddy Krueger in your dreams felt so cool at the time.

But I re-watched it 2 years ago and realize the script sucks beyond repair. ELM STREETS 1, 3 and 7 still hold up, though :)

What kind of heartless reptile hates John Ritter?

Not only that R179, but his post seems to suggest the hatred comes from him supposedly being gay

The one who doesn't think getting eaten by the ironing board for the tenth time is funny. Or losing the rent money. Or thinking your roommate is a klepto. Or thinking that your roommate slept with your other roommate. Or having to find a home for another puppy again.

Clearly, Ritter should have been lynched.

No worries. The couch killed him. Hey. That sounds like an episode!

12 O'clock High -- all roaring airplanes and aerial derring do when I was a kid, but as an adult, I saw the series as an excellent look at the burdens of command, and how air warfare had become the opposite of derring do -- to win against Hitler, they had to become a passionless, brutal killing machine

Add me to the list of people enjoying Green Acres even more as an adult.

Loved it as a kid, but adore it now. It truly is Bizarro World with surrealist humor. So many jokes went over my head as a kid. It can be a slow in places, but overall it holds up very well.

"Superman" and "Batman" . What's up with the tights under the trunks?

I used to enjoy watching reruns of "Dragnet" (the Vietnam era version--they never ran the original 1950s version.) Now that I know what an evil fuck Jack Webb was I can't stand to look at him, even in "Sunset Boulevard."

If I got ready for school fast enough I got to watch Munster reruns while eating breakfast. Still all I have to do for a laugh is picture Grandpa racing that gocart.

Any love here for "The Great One" and The Honeymooners? I was too young when the B&W series aired, but never missed any of the one-hour musical Hooneymooner episodes on The Jackie Gleason Show. I also loved the Joe the Bartender skits with Crazy Googenheim on Gleason's variety show.

For me, the one I appreciate much more as an adult is taxi. My pops loved that show and I watched with him as a very young boy. Didn't really get why it was funny. Now, I can appreciate what a brilliant ensemble cast and writers were at work there.

Any plot that revolved around reverend Jim was pure comedy gold

I was bored the other day and watched Tim Burton's BATMAN on Netflix. Loved it as a kid, but it was sooooooooo fucking slow the other day. I don't need all the quick cutting of today's films, but jeez it was like watching paint dry at sone points.

Too bad Taxi took off a lot of its shine by focusing on that fucking Latka ...

I would say Will and Grace. The gay jokes now just are offensive and heavy handed. And the gay politics/issues doesn't register anymore.

What happened with Will and Grace is what happened to Murphy Brown and other topical shows. They don't age well and are soon very dated. I couldn't imagine watching Murphy Brown now.

Watch "The Lawrence Welk Show" and count all of the wigs and toupees. Nobody had their own hair. Who knew? Lots of tight bands too. It's a very strange show if you have never seen it before.

Murphy Brown was never the least bit amusing., just a tired rehash of MTM's show with America's worst actress in the lead.

I disagree, I've always thought Murphy Brown holds up well. Yes it is dated by the technology and the news references, but the writing and acting is still sharp.

One of my all time least favorite celebrities I ever met/dealt with was a regular on "Murphy Brown" so don't care if I ever see it again. Ruined it for me the first time. Ugh. One of those I will literally get up and switch channels if they are suddenly on my TV somehow -- which is thankfully less and less likely to happen.

R198 still hasn't made peace with the fact that Joe Regalbuto doesn't give it up to portly queens who still have to 'get up' to switch the TV channel

[quote]Murphy Brown was never the least bit amusing., just a tired rehash of MTM's show with America's worst actress in the lead.

Uh, she was Emmy-nominated 7 times for MB and won 5 Emmys!

[quote]I was bored the other day and watched Tim Burton's BATMAN on Netflix. Loved it as a kid, but it was sooooooooo fucking slow the other day. I don't need all the quick cutting of today's films, but jeez it was like watching paint dry at sone points.

JAWS was surprisingly boring for a blockbuster. The opening scene is great, but then it just drags until the end. I've noticed this a lot about '70s/'80s popcorn flicks. They take forever getting started. For example, SUPERMAN. First of all, the opening credits were 5 minutes long! Then the Krypton opening scene was 15 minutes! Then when young Clark goes to the Fortress of Solitude to talk to a vision of his father, we get an 8-minute planetarium show. Clark doesn't get to NYC... I mean, Metropolis... until almost an hour in. Even then, nothing of note happens until an hour and fifteen minutes. And the movie is nearly 2 1/2 hours! As a kid, I also found STAR WARS and E.T. very boring, and still do.

r201 and all the others complaining about how slow older shows go.

You can thank MTV for changing attention spans and demanding faster editing of stories. MTV debuted on Aug 1, 1981 and changed everything as far as pacing and editing.

The shows of the 60s and 70s that seem to be moving slow by today's standards, were not considered as moving slow during that era.

Speaking of pacing, try selling a Network a show with elaborate opening credits or, God forbid, a theme song. They think it taxes the viewer's patience.. Now you hook them in the first 20 seconds or forget it.

Just imagine the Brady Bunch without it's opening boxes, the whistling on Andy Griffith, the voyage of the Minnow, the Green Acres theme song, or Samantha's frypan.

I heard that using the iconic opening of Hawaii 5-0 was in doubt until the last minute on the re-boot.

In the "old days", screenwriters were allowed 30 pages or so for their First Act, where we meet the characters and set up the story. That changed, of course, though not as fast as one might think. "Tootise" was considered a master of structure and it takes what seems like forever to get him into that dress (Plot Point #1). He'd have it on in the first ten minutes these days.

I remember one game changer being, of all things, "While You Were Sleeping" -- because Sandra has rescued that guy off the tracks within the first ten or so, only after seeing her a couple of scenes. The first time I remember seeing a movie where they figured we had plenty of time to get to know who she is so get the story started. That was mid 90s. Shorter films and shorter attention spans were to follow quickly.

I don't care if Candace B. won 1,000 Emmys, she is still the world's worst actress.

Glad to know others thought Candace was a bad actress. I always thought the weakest thing about Murphy Brown was Candace's acting. She could occasionally nail a scene, and when she did, she was great. But generally, I thought her delivery was flat and lacking emotion. She was always outshined by the supporting cast.

I always assumed that when she won the Emmys, she submitted those above mentioned scenes that she nailed.

R206, isn't that what every actor does when going after an Emmy? They submit their best work from that series, not saying they aren't judged by the whole of the work of course b/c the system is flawed.

R203, Brady Bunch and its opening boxes, not it's opening boxes...

Candace Bergen is a dreadful actress quite often. Her first two seasons of "Murphy Brown" are REALLY rough, as she is by far the worst actor on the show. It was very popular with timely writing, and she was dragged up by its success.

I think Brady Bunch holds up better than Partridge Family although as kid I enjoyed PF better. Watching as an adult PF storylines are much weaker than BB. David Cassidy was hotter than anyone else though.

Have you seen Cassidy lately?

He's a wrinkled midget with severe alcoholic shakes who is selling his home to pay off his debts and an 18 month supply of Antabuse

Perhaps you can swoop in with the proper sized crack rock and fulfill your fantasy, Butcher Boy

Very sad about David Cassidy. He never seemed like a bad guy, but the booze will get you, and eventually kill you.

At least he still has both his legs.

Having the kind of success David did at such a young age has got to fuck you up in the head. It would anybody who experienced that kind of success at age 21.

Where else is there to go but down?

[quote] Where else is there to go but down?

And any one of you bitches who says you wouldn't go down on him is a liar.

R215: only if 'you bitches' means anyone over 50 & 300 lb

R214 so famous, so easily, so soon is not the wisest thing to be.

Shaun did it right. Became a producer instead.

Pokemon was very fun to watch back when I was 8-9? but now I feel really bad, they basically capture wild animals and train them to fight against each other to make money.

"I agree some shows like Roseanne, Will and Grace, and Friends are just as good if not better as an adult because you identify with it in a different, more mature way than before."

"Friends" was, always was, a piece of shit. Will and Grace doesn't really hold up that well, and it totally fell apart near the end of its run. Same with Roseanne; it was considered daring and original for its time (Wow! A sitcom about an ugly, lower-class family! How brilliant!) but it's not nearly as amusing now. I could never stand it. I always hated Roseanne Barr.

"SWAT" reruns were the first shows I really remember -- they were on during afternoons on a local channel, right after "Here's Lucy" reruns. And I remember "SWAT" because I remember Robert Urich.

A couple years ago I was at a Mountain Goats concert and they used the theme from "SWAT" as their intro music, and I about fell over. Good times.

Alice Pearce (the original Gladys Kravitz) and Marion Lorne are the best reasons to watch Bewitched especially Marion Lorne. The writing on Barney Miller was very good and it's the main reason it's held up, plus Wojo looks good in the tight 70's outfits. As for Carol Burnett, I never thought Tim Conway was funny when I was a kid and I still don't. Way overrated. Harvey's work is the best. As for the Beaver, Ward Cleaver was one hot daddy and could have spanked me anytime.

I think the early seasons of Roseanne still resonate today, up till the time when Becky left to get married then the show got more wacky. I love those early seasons/episodes; the writing I still think is fresh and it doesn't seem dated at all.

I thought Lindsay Wagner in The Bionic Woman was quality acting, especially when she played her "twin" in jail.

Roseanne was a fraud as a performer. Not only the awful acting as mentioned up thread, but also the fact she allowed her personal bullshit to drag down the show. That includes everything from her nouveau riche attitude, her multiple divorces, her insecurity working with talented people (writers, producers, actors), the false memories recovered by her analyst in reference to sexual abuse by her father, and her lazy brand of narcissism that demanded her character follow the same path as her real life (whether it fit or not).

No surprise do many people she ran off went on to become big and leave her on the dust: chuck Lorre, joss whedon, Amy Sherman, Johnny galecki, John goodman, and Laurie metcalf all went on to higher levels and continue today.

Where is Roseanne? Begging for a gig as a judge on last comic standing...

[quote]Alice Pearce (the original Gladys Kravitz) and Marion Lorne are the best reasons to watch Bewitched especially Marion Lorne. The writing on Barney Miller was very good and it's the main reason it's held up, plus Wojo looks good in the tight 70's outfits.

Danny Arnold, who created [italic]Barney Miller[/italic], was a producer on [italic]Bewitched[/italic] for its first two seasons.

[quote] Also, why didn't the rednecks and such protest this show ? It portrayed beings with powers normally belonging to god.

Because the Moral Majority wasn't even a twinkle at that point. People lived and let live, for the most part. And they realized that it was just a television show not out to corrupt their precious little crotchlings.

I'm another one who agrees about "The Carol Burnett Show". As a kid I thought it was the funniest show on earth. Believe it or not, I still remember it's debut in 1967.

Seeing clips of it again, it's just AWFUL.

With the exception of her work in the film "Annie" and a few moments as the "Mamma" character, Carol Burnett has to be the most overrated comic ever.

Of the sitcoms from the 1960s, much of the Beverley Hillbillies still holds up. The casting was perfection and the acting was great. They were so into it... they were not in on the joke, they did not play for laughs... and as a result, they were HILARIOUS:

And the Any Griffith show. Andy Griffith and Don Knotts were a great team. Add Jim Nabors and was comedy heaven.

At the link is an example "Citizens Arrest", it is as funny today as it was in 1963. Watch the acting here....it is a lesson in comedy. No one could do this today.

As a kid, I loved watching repeats of the 60s "Batman" series with my dad. But I genuinely didn't realise it was a comedy.

I first saw "Little Shop of Horrors" as an adult. When I discovered that Alan Menken and Howard Ashman had written the music for the 90s Disney films, I went back and listened to the soundtracks on Spotify. A lot of the lyrics had completely gone over my head when I was a kid.

[quote]and a few moments as the "Mamma" character

Excuse me?

OOPS sorry about that, I meant to say: "Eunice" character.

What happened to Roseanne in terms of the kids' character development is what happened to many shows. No way Darlene's character as written would not have hung around one moment than she had to. Becky giving up all her academic/career ambitions for a lug nut was equally absurd. And Roseanne's father evolved overnight from henpecked to abuser. (In Family Ties the Alex Keaton character wants to go to Harvard but ends up at Buttwad Community College which is as wonderful as the fabled mythic Hillman College in the Cosby Show.) Roseanne had some great shows and some great years but many weaknesses, most of which don't age well.

**No way would Darlene's character as written have hung around one moment longer than she had to**

The Mama and the Mrs. Wiggins skits were the best parts of Carol Burnett's show.

Carol's show was sometimes very pointed in targeting Old Hollywood's limited roles for women, but not in a mean-spirited way; [italic]Torchy Song[/italic] is one such example. And a lot of the humor depends on being aware of the popular culture of the era.

I don't agree about Old Hollywood's limited roles for women.

I've seen a lot of old movies and I think they had a pretty extraordinary range.

They were wish fulfillments for a lot of stay at home wives and secretaries who at the time made up a huge section of the audience.

"Old Hollywood's limited roles for women" is such BS. Women probably carried films as much as men did. And the variety of roles is vast.

When the Carol Burnett Show turned to old Hollywood, it was because of the camp factor more than anything.

Nothing very pointed about it.

Old Hollywood had much more varied roles of all sizes, shapes, and ages for women. Today's Hollywood doesn't even come close. Could you imagine Barbara Stanwyck being the highest paid woman in America today? She wouldn't even get a sitcom.

R222, I think you're the first person I've heard say that about Conway, and I've always felt the same. In my opinion the addition of Conway ruined THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW. I never found him funny. Carol, Korman, and Vicki Lawrence were all that was necessary.

The Patty Duke Show was my favorite when I was a kid. Now it seems bizarre that such a frumpy looking teen, with her thick unshaped eyebrows, bad hair, and bumbling dimwitted boyfriend, would be a successful TV character. Somebody upthread mentioned Gidget - these shows both came on in the same era but they couldn't be more different.

I never saw Patty Duke show as a kid. But did watch a few episodes on Antenna TV a few years ago.

Was very underwhelmed. Couldn't see what the fuss was about. Guess you had to be there at the time.

I remember watching the show "Buffalo Bill" when it first aired and being very amused by its wit. Watched it again about ten years ago and was a bit disappointed -- not bad at all, just not as funny as I'd remembered.

It may be that the TV I watch now is usually very well written and acted cable dramas so my expectations have been raised.

Carol Burnett did the movies skits because she spent as much time in her impoverished childhood as she could at the movies. And then she'd acted them out with her cousin and friends. (And usually she'd get the male parts.) So it was natural to go to the old movies that she loved when she had her sketches. She was the last of the sketch comics. (Mama's Family was the last of the sketch series; the characters aren't people, they're people in a variety show sketch.)

We had Romper Room with Miss Nancy - the woman who never saw me in her fucking magic mirror even though I really tried to be a "Do Bee" instead of a "Don't Bee". Drug references all over the place.

Yeah, her shit show didn't age well at all.

I recently saw some episodes of MASH and I enjoyed the show when it was on, but watching it last month, it struck me as weak, especially the first few years.

I always laugh at the Party Duke theme lyrics-"a hot dog makes her lose control!" Really?

Have too much time on hands (disabled these past 7 years), watch WAY too much TV. An excellent exponent of OP's question is, I'm sorry to say, "Seinfeld." LOVED the show (except for the last season and that HIDEOUS final episode); thought I would love watching the reruns (I realize they've been on a few years; I seem to have just discovered them now.) I don't HATE the reruns, but Christ on a cross: Michael Richards was actually HIDEOUS. I don't CARE that he won Emmys. Perhaps was the novelty at the time. Over-acting worse than the worse amateur theatre, at least in retrospect. I had read, when the show was on, that he painstakingly rehearsed his physical "bits"; one wonders now: WHY? IMHO, his work on this show compared to say, the performers of THe Three Stooges, is like comparing the worse piece of shit in the history of all amateur theatre, to Olivier or Meryl Streep (I realize Olivier was a ham; okay, through in ANY acclaimed great actor.)

And Julia Louis-Drefuss as Elaine: the most obnoxious JAP who ever JAP'ed; whiny, obnoxious - GREAT head of hair back in the day, though.

Seinfeld couldn't act, but cheerfully always admitted it.

Guess that leaves Jason Alexander - obnoxious, perhaps, IRL (though I certainly never met him), but probably the best thing on "Seinfeld". THe irony is he never won an Emmy.

Thanks for the opportunity to rant, OP!

R247 here: Sorry; apologies to all the grammar queens (of which I AM one) for "worse" instead of "worst", and "through" instead of "throw."

Elaine was not a JAP. There were multiple times throughout the show where they go out of their way to specifically reference the fact she is not Jewish

R247. I've only watched a very few episodes of "Seinfeld", both in its original run and in reruns, but I never understood why the Kramer entrances were so hysterically funny.

Funny, this thread comes along and I happen to catch a rerun of "Andy Griffith" (the color years) and damn if Opie isn't one of the best kid actors ever. Howard was downright subtle, the opposite of a cutesy kid. Perfect.

I will sound like an old fogie but I swear the reason some of these shows hold up and are still so warmly received is that they didn't/couldn't at the time count on gross bathroom humor or whatever. It's all behavioral and oddly not dated.

Howard? Wasn't he the gay one in Mayberry?

Clean humor does seem to hold up longer. Maybe because it's not so based on contemporary taboos that are soon dated?

R 223, 225, 232 regarding Roseanne, I think you all make some good points. R223, I agree the earlier seasons of Roseanne hold up well today. I think the last really good season was the one after the original Becky left. Darlene really made the show after Becky left. It was when Darlene left to go to Chicago that the show started to falter, for the reasons that R225 listed as well as others.

Roseanne did start to drag the show down with her personal bullshit. She also started to make the show more about her personal problems. Having the Conners win the lottery so she could make storylines about how hard it was for her being wealthy and famous was the stupidest decision ever. I have to wonder if any of her castmates--John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, Sara Gilbert--ever said to her that this was a bad direction to take the show? I think by that time, though, everyone associated with the show was just a yes man to Roseanne's whims.

Like any show about a family with younger children, as the child actors age, the storylines become more difficult to pull off. As they marched through their teens, Darlene's and Becky's storylines worked because both were good actresses. But as they became adults, Darlene's and Becky's storylines seemed forced because why would they still want to live with their parents? DJ was a horrible actor, though, and never became much of a character beyond the annoying younger brother.

Overall, Roseanne was a very good show for about 5-6 years. Then it started to unravel, then completely fell apart in its last infamous lottery season. It's really painful to watch its slow demise after Season 5 or 6.

[quote] Carol, Korman, and Vicki Lawrence were all that was necessary.

What about me?

Meatballs. A huge fucking hit when it came out. All the kids were seeing it multiple times in the theaters. Saw it recently on cable and it was completely laugh-free. Fucking unfunny, especially Bill Murray.

Porky's

When I was a kid (and I mean 8, 9,10), I loved (and had a terrific crush on) Marlo Thomas in That Girl. I mean, this was a show about an independent, unmarried woman, right? But now, when I watch it on Hulu, I realize that this show was even MORE sexist than the shows that showed women as housewives with children. Poor Ann Marie! No matter what she did, it got fucked up somehow, and her father or boyfriend had to come and bail her out. Hell, it makes me feel sick just thinking about it.

She sure was hot then, though. Even as a young dyke-ling, I had great taste in women.

Eighties sitcoms don't hold up well. The classics from the 50's-60's like BHB, LITB and TAGS still crack me up. So far, Frasier, Third Rock and The Nanny can still crack me up too out of all the more recent shows.

What show is BHB?

Someone might remember...

It was a late 60s show starring a British actress. The opening featured said blonde wearing a Sherlock Holmes cape and holding a magnifying glass.

I wasn't supposed to watch it, but adored her apartment.

Any ideas?

Nanny and the Professor

BHB is Beverly Hillbillies.

Why are some old shows shown and not others? I never see reruns of Julia or Mannix, which both my parents used to watch. Is it just mainstream popularity.

I've seen Mannix on MEtv...along with Streets of San Francisco. Streets is an awesome show that holds up well. It of course is date but what makes it hold up is the fact that it is dated. It captures the time period really well. The acting is topnotch and Michael Douglas really was hot when he was young.

I never really watched the Brady Bunch. I saw it a few times in afternoon repeats but never paid much attention to it. MeTv has got me hooked on it as an adult. I really like the show and Greg turned into a real hot piece of ass. Perfect tight body for those 70s clothes.

When I was a kid, I thought MASH was hilarious. It's excruciatingly unfunny now.

Daniel Travanti turned up as a geezer villain on Criminal Minds. I was watching it with a couple of people in their twenties. I told thrm that we had been very handsome and starred in a TV sho and they looked at me as though I was a befuddled geezer myself. Hill Street Blues is noteworthy for the number of young aactors who received national exposure on the show: Andy Garcia, Linda Hamilton, Mimi Rogers, David Caruso, Lynn Whitfield, Charles Fleischer (Roger Rabbit's voice), Ally Sheedy, Jennifer Tilly, and more I can't remember.

Blazing Saddles is funnier now that I get more of the jokes.

Referring to movies, I adored THE TIME MACHINE when I first saw it, when I was 11, back in 1960. It still holds up very well, though the time travel special effects, which won an Oscar in their day, seem quaint, compared to what one sees even on TV today.

I also loved ATLANTIS THE LOST CONTINENT, the next year, 1961, when I was 12, chiefly because of the sets and the special effects. Only later did I realize that most of the sets were taken from the MGM stockpile, and a lot of the process shots were from QUO VADIS. And now, sadly, the main storyline is poor, played by cheesy actors, Anthony Hall and Joyce Taylor, who never went anywhere, as well as a hammy, baggy Jon Dall. (Did he ever present as anything different but an effete gay man, in anything, even SPARTACUS?)

ATLANTIS still has its moments, but overall I find it mostly laughable trash. (I was all agog with it in 1961, when I made my older brother take me to see it.) However, ATLANTIS does have one of my favorite camp lines ever: When Atlantean princess wakes in humble hovel of Greek fisherman Anthony Hall, she refers to the burlap bag she's been dressed in, after being rescued, and says haughtily, "Where is my robe; this cloth offends my skin." Priceless...

Also, I loved TARZAN movies back in the 50's, especially the ones with Lex Barker, which usually dealt with Tarzan being involved with some lost city or other. Loved the settings, but only realized just how bad they were when I got older. And how poor Lex, a very good-looking hunk, was just no great shakes as an actor.

Trust me from experience, lez, all you have to do to get over any crush on Marlo Thomas is meet her.

Indeed, "The Patty Duke Show" sucks. Wish they had written up something for THIS off-her-meds, dosage wrong, no eye contact nutty Patty that we all know and love instead.

IP.S. I love how, in that clip, you can tell it's been a long night already for Desi Jr. (whose mom hated him dating Patty). And then she wins and he knows what's coming. "You okay?" ha... the answer is "No."

The X-Files. I thought the myth arc started out OK and slowly became a mess over time. But, no, it was a mess from season 1 on.

[quote]Some of the live-action Disney movies of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s actually shocked me with the frequency of shirtless men;

Hence, my constant rewatching of Swiss Family Robinson as a youngster. Loved me some shirtless James MacArthur