Soothing TV programs

All manner of cozy mysteries: "Rosemary & Thyme", "Murder She Wrote", anything on "Mystery!". I also watch 1970s sitcoms for that purpose: "Alice", and lately, "Rhoda".

Love it or list it.

R1 Here: I also find "Two Fat Ladies" incredibly soothing, humorous, & educational.

My husband (only 28) has been watching old episodes of supermarket sweep. I love 90’s design and corporate sanctioned cheese but I have no idea why it’s so comforting for him

Barefoot Contessa

Great British Bake Off, The Repair Shop, Call the Midwife are three examples.

All shows that have kindness and civility in common. In the US we have competitions to see who can be the most evil person - a generalization, but not far off.

I’m watching gilmore girls. Never watched it back then. Thought it was a teen show. It is but i love the rich gilmore mother. So far i don’t really get what was so bad that the daughter left her home at 16. The soothing part is i really don’t care. It’s easy to watch. I also like the character of paris .

Alice & Golden Girls

I find the shopping channels good for my digestion. Everything is pretty and new and must-have, all presented with ebullience.

Stay Here on Netflix. Basically an Airbnb fixer upper show, but it’s well done and very soothing for me.

Law and Order before "Lenny" dies. I don't like the later ones or SVU. L&I Criminal Intent is pretty good as well.

Hart to Hart reruns on Cozi TV.

I have said it here before, and even though it is shit television, the old 70s show “Family” is oddly like taking Klonopin. I mean that. It physically sedates you. The low lighting. The mom’s organized kitchen activities. The low volume dialogue. It’s weird. It’s a sedative. You can find old reruns on youtube.

Murder She Wrote & Matlock. Throw in In The Heat of the Night and I’m sleeping like a log.

Cheers, Wings, Frasier

Alfred Hitchcock - the 10,000 episodes are on Peacock.

Anything with Martha Stewart cooking or doing crafts

Any of those auto restoration shows like Overhaulin’, Wheeler Dealers, Jay Leno’s Garage, etc.

I started watching a Japanese show on Netflix, "Midnight Diner," about a Tokyo chef open for business from midnight to 7:00 a.m. and the various kooky personalities who eat there. Strangely comforting.

This is a YouTube cleaning/organizing channel. It’s soothing to watch people clean, make things look nice.

Midsomer Murders. They’re about an hour and 40 minutes long so each episode is a nice, long escape.

R17 do you like Martha more than Ina?

[quote]All shows that have kindness and civility in common. In the US we have competitions to see who can be the most evil person - a generalization, but not far off.

And then we elect the hosts to political office.

Definitely Murder She Wrote.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

The ship’s crew all get along.

Then they solve the family-friendly space mystery.

Fin.

Bob Ross and QVC

Simpsons on Disney+

Wtf watched Disney +?

ME TV: Barnaby Jones, The Beverly Hillbillies, Cannon, The Powers of Matthew Star, Star Trek, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

Bob Ross and Lidia

Little House on the Prairie, the pre-Albert years

Bewitched, the Dick York years

Match Game, the early years before Richard Dawson turned into a sour puss

Downton Abbey, the Matthew years

Frasier, prior to Niles and Daphne getting together

The Saint b&w series with young Roger Moore

Elvis movies like Blue Hawaii

Twilight Zone (originsa)

Any Martha Stewart show except the series in which she had a studio audience.

The Andy Griffith Show, only the black and white episodes though, when Barney was still the deputy.

Cooking and baking videos on YouTube. I follow and enjoy many channels, but the ones like this from Asia are particularly soothing.

troof R33

Patti

Coronation Street

I like a wide range of cooking shows, but only ones without a studio audience. There used to be several gardening shows I enjoyed, but now I usually go to Youtube for gardening help. I really like watching amateur aquarists put together planted tanks on Youtube.

none of you cunts thought to mention us?

On YT I like "A Day in the life..." of anyone living in Japan or S. Korea.

Also enjoy watching tea ceremonies from Japan.

....

Antenna TV: That Girl, Three's Company

The Sopranos, oddly

A third vote for 1970s "Match Game" -- we're on Episode 115. I keep meaning to write Dick De Bartolo a fan letter.

Sometimes I go down a rabbit hole and watch things like a 1972 "I've Got a Secret" where Nanette Fabray, Richard Dawson, and Gene Rayburn discover Charles Nelson Reilly is painting on "The Price is Right" model Janice Pennington.

IMDB TV (free): (old) Dallas, Dark Shadows, St. Elsewhere

puppy bowl

One watches when one can.

....

Colombo, the 1970’s episodes.

^ “Colombo”, dang it.

I give up. Damn autocorrect.

lol!

Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Currently, Match Game, Jeopardy, and Roseanne. Once when things were pretty bad about six years ago, it was the Brady Bunch.

Columbo for me, too.

The Nanny never fails me.

Anything narrated by Richard Attenborough.

I Love Lucy. They just reran the Van Johnson episode. Lucy was so elegant, charming and sophisticated. Yet she was still Lucy Ricardo, still lovable.

And they also reran the Don Loper episode with Mrs Bow Wow Richard Carlson

Each weekday morning on BUZZR, I enjoy watching "To Tell the Truth" and "What's My Line?" from the 1970s.

r37 Pati, not Patti.

R41 I love watching tea ceremonies, too! Are you into ASMR?

^ I like a lot of the ASMR ambience videos on YouTube

Shark Tank Family Feud

I used to love “Just Shoot Me”, but it’s never on anymore.

“How It’s Made” is soothing to me, but they changed the voiceover narrator and it’s not the same.

And a long time ago, “The Triplets of Belleville” was on my DVR and I’d watch it to fall asleep.

PBS: EastEnders, Grantchester (hot vicar!)

I only watch Match Game reruns when Fannie Flagg is a panelist.

R64 David Spade was a laugh a minute on JUST SHOOT ME. As was the fabulous Wendie Malick.

McMillan and Wife.

It's a pity that none of the constituent series of the NBC Mystery Movie Theater (Columbo, McCloud, McMillan and Wife, The Snoop Sisters, etc) are aired or released with that famous Henry Mancini opening. One has to put it back one's self.

R66 where is America up to with the EastEnders timeline, now? Last I heard you were around ten years behind.

Contempo EE is utterly unwatchable shite and you’re missing nothing by not seeing it, jsyk. I watched EE all through the mid-late nineties and naughties and on, til around 2013-2014 when even I was forced to admit defeat and switch off. I don’t miss it, at all, and actually regret sticking with it so long knowing how awful it has become.

Now I just rewatch old nineties episodes of Brookside alongside naughties Hollyoaks, far superior soaps to begin with. The siblingcest Brookie storyline of ‘96 is my favourite, and still holds up today.

Father Brown

Ditto what r44 said. The Sopranos, weirdly enough, keeps me calm. Maybe because I’ve watched the whole series so many times, I can practically recite every episode word for word.

Also, Food Network is like a warm bath. Odd, because I can’t really cook and have very little interest in cooking. I especially like Guy's Grocery Games (which makes no sense because I can’t stand Guy Fieri).

EastEnders: Here in Washington, DC, we can watch two episodes on Saturday morning. Right now the episodes are from the summer of 2008. Roxy is pregnant with Jack's baby (but Sean thinks he's the father), Tanya and Max are divorcing (and she's now living with Jack), and Bradley and Stacey are back together (after she had an affair with his father, Max, which everyone discovered on Christmas Day 2007).

Apparently I've turned into my grandmother -- Antiques Roadshow, which I've turned my nose up at forEVER, is currently TV comfort food for me. I like the UK version the best because they film episodes at stately manors, etc., while the US version always looks like it's filmed in a couple of side rooms at the Phoenix Convention Center. Plus, the UK one (usually) has better/more interesting antiques from around the world when it was a colonial power. I'll watch a US one in a pinch, though. (On the US ones where they update the auction prices from older shows I guess right about 40% of the time.) I am always shocked -- shocked, I tell you! -- at how much military medals go for.

The Zoo in all its iterations: New York, Columbus, Tampa, and San Diego. Seeing how much the keepers and the animals love one another is very comforting.

Wings and Night Court.

R73 you’re 12 years behind? Goodness me. And the lag is only going to get worse from now, as well, given that current EE has had a hiatus of many months and a culled schedule thanks to COVID.

From what I recall 2008-10 era was a mixed bag, some gems of stories & moments and some decent fresh characters in amongst an unfortunate amount of shit. It was still far better than 2011-present, but not nearly as good as early-mid naughties. ‘Mediocre/passable/just ok’ is a fair assessment. If you aren’t a superfan or totally invested I’d think about slowly phasing out of watching it in the next year or two, just to save your sanity and preserve your appreciation for the show (maybe going back to rewatch the O.G. eighties run, or switching soaps to Emmerdale or Corrie or Oaks instead). Seriously, don’t bother with mid 2010s-era EE; it will only depress and frustrate you.

SPOILER ALERT⬇️

Would it shock you to know that in the current continuity, half of the characters you mentioned in your post are now dead?

I know, I've been watching the current episodes on various sites since September 2014 (when Sharon and Phil married, and the murder of Lucy Beale was still unsolved). LOVE!

^^forgot to add; watching EastEnders in the mornings and on a Saturday is such a strange idea to my Brit ears! Just weird. To me it’s weekday dinner-time telly, and that’s that.

We did used to have an omnibus recap on Sunday lunchtimes, back when there were five episodes a week, but that stopped long ago and no-one really watched it anyway.

West Wing.

It was SO idealistic and preachy when it was on, but now it's comforting.

I think I've watched the whole run three times since 2017.

Jeopardy

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Scrubs

MST3K

America's Test Kitchen

(and a recent one for me) The Durrells in Corfu

I don't get why but the TV show Mom with Anna Faris and Allison Janney just makes me feel better about things, I find it soothing even though much of it is arguing which is something I normally can't tolerate. I am a gay man and normally prefer to watch shows with hot men, but my day always seems better if I can watch a rerun of Mom.

Rupert Murdoch is an enormous thundercunt who needs to burn, but to my chagrin I can’t pretend Sky Sports Football (soccer, to most of you) hasn’t been a massively helpful distraction from mental weirdness of late.

Course I refuse to pay outright for their evildoing, but I confess that I do give them hits going to their YouTube channel. When I feel down or panicked about global circumstances, I pick any random 1-1 interview or roundtable discussion or match hilights reel and just dive in.

As Mitchell & Webb once sagely pointed out: “the football never ends, and no-one ever wins”. The continuity and the triviality in the face of Apocalypse is comforting.

R79, even stranger is that EE is on "public" television here in the U.S., which is renowned for showing educational/classy/high brow programs. EE is crazy and somewhat trashy. LOL.

I'd only ever heard of Barnaby Jones as a joke but I found it in the wee hours on MEtv and it's actually kind of fun. Buddy Ebsen is such an old coot but he gets his man every time. I hated Andy Griffith repeats when I was kid. Couldn't figure out why anyone would ever watch black and white tv. And now I'll watch only the b&w episodes. I've been enjoying some British mysteries that I have on the DVR but never got around to watching like Endeavour and repeats of Sherlock. And for more recent American tv shows i've been enjoying repeats of Elementary and Person of Interest. Jim Caviezel might be a pill in real life but he so easy on the eyes.

I'm mostly ignorant about London geography -- but is "East Enders" set in the same part of town that "Call the Midwife" was (several decades before)?

Escape to the country (YouTube) is my xanax

The Great British Baking Show. I've rewatched all eight seasons on Netflix. Quirky, lovable bakers. Funny hosts. Brutally honest judges. Only in Britain.

Nigella Lawson. The first show she did, the one called "Nigella Eats."

Her voice is soothing as is her cooking.

R86, the EE set is in Borehamwood (north London). I don't know where Call the Midwife (which is still on, and airs in the U.S. on Sunday evenings every spring) is filmed, but I'm sure the answer is googlable.

R86, Call the Midwife is set in Poplar (a real neighborhood of East London). EE is set in Walford (a fake neighborhood of East London). Near Poplar is Whitechapel, Jack the Ripper's hood.

Little House on the Prairie. Streaming all 9 problematic seasons on imdb!

R11, Agreed, especially the first couple seasons before even Lenny appears. There's something about the NY realism and the twist weren't done for shock value but were really fleshed out and fit the story arc. I also think the court room scenes and the legal mumbo jumbo were better written.

Girls

Sitcoms from the 1960s & 1970s

I agree with the OP about The Match Game; the show is still hilarious almost 50 years later.

Kate and Allie, every season on YouTube, thanks to the DL thread about that show! Currently on season 3.

Shu & Tree on YouTube

Anything on MeTV. Particularly The Twilight Zone and Perry Mason.

Well, i'm going to go WAY off the chart and say i've been watching "Forensic Files" to go to sleep for over 15 years. it's Peter Thomas' soothing, calm voice discussing interesting scientific stuff. Puts me right asleep.

And Bob Ross has always been a nap inducer. Some AMSR stuff, but i become interested sometimes and it doesn't work as a sleep inducer. GentleWhispersingASMR is great.

R99, Forensic Files is very addicting. I used to put it on when I was in a hotel in Vegas because I knew it would put me to sleep.

A Football Life in NFL TV.

ATWT circa 1986

The Office (US)

Any murder mystery or show like Columbo. Even L&O

Doc Martin

I would love to find All Creatures Great and Small

Beautiful English countryside and good stories.

Any of the Burns documentaries. Something about Peter Coyote's voice. Just finished his Country Music documentary. I never liked country music - and still don't - but I now appreciate it. Plus Marty Stuart is a doll!

R6 The Repair Shop is so soothing!! I’ve had to slow down on my viewing because I’m running out of episodes.

R88

I watched the entire series at the beginning of Covid. My favorite Nadiya has her own show!

White House on the Hill

It's a Youtube series of a real family who are running a homestead.

Cool animals and a hot husband.

R105, I loved All Creatures Great and Small! I remember watching it on Saturday mornings. There was another British show on PBS that was shown on Saturday or Sunday mornings. It was about 2 sisters who were/wanted to clothing designers. Does anyone remember it? I was going to buy the box set for my sister one year but the cost was way out of my league at the time.

Trisha Yearwood Southern Kitchen. Some of her recipes are dumb, but I like the people she hangs out with and seems like she'd be fun after a couple of drinks.

Murder She Wrote and Columbo!!!!

My sister is staying with me and she watches old episodes of Forensic Files before she goes to bed because she finds it "soothing." I don't understand it; shows like that just make me anxious.

R107

Yes, unfortunately Netflix only has two seasons. I zipped through them before I realized Netflix didn't have all six seasons. I've tried to investigate but have not found any information about when or where or if we will see more seasons. (Plus I developed a thing for all the quirky or hot, or quirky AND hot men on the show. For some reason I have a serious thing for Steve, the watchmaker. No logical explanation. Just do.)

Thanks to the poster that mentioned 'Doc Martin'; another kind and civil show. There's some word that one more series will be filmed. It's one of those shows that I wish I had never seen so that I could watch it for the first time, again, if that makes any sense.

Also another British show - although it's about crime, we oddly find 'Vera' great soothing TV. So much so that it's very easy to fall asleep watching it. Or specifically using it as a sleep aid.

I think the British have it all over us in the USA for this type of viewing experience.

R114 I just discovered Doc Martin and agree that it is "a kind and civil show." Very soothing. I love the scenery of their village and countryside. Most of the actors - male and female- aren't very attractive but as you get into the show, they become more and more attractive because of their humanity and relatability. I'm so glad I stumbled on this series and that I have many seasons to look forward to. I'm not sorry to hear it is ending; I like discovering series that have a definite ending. Some shows just drag on too long.

I can second Doc Martin is a really good show. I've seen the entire series and I have the two movies made prior to the show on DVD, and someday I hope to see them

Speaking of British shows, two more I love are Mum and Upstart Crow.

And one not a lot of people know about: The Cafe

More ideas/answers at the linked thread (which began at the start of the pandemic). :-)

I'll add "Portrait Artist of the Year," which is like "The Great British Baking Show" in tone, and just as soothing.

R116

YES! I love 'The Cafe'! That's a sadly unsung show. I was very sorry it was cancelled. I repeat myself, but kind and civil. What we need for these times. (Also fun to see Ellie Haddington play a ditz, rather than the angry, officious characters she normally plays, such as in 'Foyle's War'. Also an early Phoebe Waller-Bridge .)

And, 'Mum"! Wonderfully low key. And though it is primarily about death (and lost love) it too, is soothing.

Sorry, but I loathe the young couple on Mum.

R119

Well, yes, they're idiots, but they aren't MEAN or EVIL idiots. They're harmless. And the brother and bitchy sister-in-law - their characters highlight the leads and their mundane but loving lives. I just think it all works together. They all play off and highlight each other.

All creatures great and small -- the original, and more recent All Creatures come and go on Britbox

The Yorkshire Vet -- spinoff on Acorn

Just a side note: If you're wondering where shows you want to see are streaming, JustWatch.com is your friend.

The joy of painting with Bob Ross

Cannon...starring William Conrad...large and in charge!

R4, I caught an episode of Supermarket Sweep on Youtube and found it comforting -- it was the show to watch after school for me, lol.

R112, I’m watching a Columbo right now and what??? That’s RHODA playing a high class hooker!

[quote] I’m watching a Columbo right now and what??? That’s RHODA playing a high class hooker!

RHODA wouldn't be a "high class" anything.

Even Phyllis’ gay brother Ben couldn’t class Rhoda up.

The Invaders (1967-1968)

Fuckin ID channel. Murder shows are soothing.

Old reruns of Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show. YouTube has a bunch of them. Puts me right to bed.

Teletubbies. Seriously. It mezmerises me and calms me.

Oh yes - Johnny Carson (on Antenna TV available over the air)

The middle

The Dick Cavett Show weeknights at 9pm on Cozi TV (where you can also see Little House on the Prairie, Murder She Wrote, and Hart to Hart mentioned above)

Amy Sedaris show on TRUtv.

Let's Make a Deal on BUZZR channel.

r136, I love that show

R114 it looks like YouTube has 91 episodes of The Repair Shop.

My mistake R114. It looks like they’re only clips of the show. Sorry.

Hyori’s Bed & Breakfast on Netflix

R140

Thanks, anyway!

Old spy shows which they used to rerun on our PBS station now seem comforting. "The Champions" was a British espionage series starring three sexy actors whose characters were given superpowers by mysterious mountain people when their plane crashed in Tibet. Lots of spy thriller, sci-fi/occult and hot three-way chemistry...

HGTV shows and My Hero Academia

r135 Dick Cavett is on DECADES.

The YouTube abridging (dubbed over clips) series NEV DROPS, by Alrightfans channel.

Seems contradictory, listening to loud obnoxious vulgar arguments between people doing impressions in horrible accents. The laughs it gives me chill me right out, though, and make me forget how everything’s going so epically to shit.

They won’t make sense or be that funny to anyone who isn’t a Brit and doesn’t know football, though.

Yes, Johnny Carson and esp. when he had Rodney Dangerfield on.

The Waltons

Hoarders on A&E is soothing to me. It makes me feel not-so-bad about my own life.

Pizza boy...he delivers

China Beach (on DVD).

I love watching MeTV and Antenna TV...shows like Leave it to Beaver, Father Knows Best, Dennis the Menace, and Hazel just put me in a relaxing calm mood.

Are you being served. I'm Free!

Leave It To Beaver, Family Affair

House MD reruns

i watch those aliens shows that try to be "scientific" and sceptical.

they're mildly funny and put you right to sleep with their nonsense in no time. it won't do to watch anything too serious, or that needs paying attention to, before bed.

one has an announcer that seriously makes the show border on hypnosis tapes i had back in the 80s.

told y'all bitches

So I was watching my soothing tv, an episode of Barnaby Jones, which is ridiculous with the old coot Buddy Ebsen chasing bad guys and shooting up places. Of course every single time the bad guy fires first, misses Barnaby, then Barnaby gets them in one shot. Whatever. This episode's credits said "with guest stars Julie Sommars, Jim McMullan, John McLiam.....special guest star Andrew Prine" and I was like, fuck yeah he's a special guest star. It's so crazy to try and glimpse some bulge from the huge dick he's packing.

"Mister Rogers Neighborhood" was very soothing.

R158, I'm watching that, too. Love the guest stars! Joan Fontaine and Richard Hatch were on today's episode.

2 in my asshole

30Rock

I just watched an episode of Leave it to Beaver. It was surprisingly funny and genuine, without any of the tired clichés and saccharine corniness of typical sitcoms. Proves quality writing and acting is timeless.

The Waltons. Now on ME-TV. Just watched the episode in which the family deals with Grandpa's death. Sad.

R164 I happened on the Waltons the other day and heard just the theme song.

And I wept. Not tears. I **wept** at hearing that song.

It's definitely a lovely and evocative theme.

Mary Tyler Moore Show., Dick Van Dyke Show

Andy Griffith. Please he was kind of hot in his sheriff's uniform.

I recently watched the entire run of The Waltons. It's amazing how U. S. history and how the children grew up as central themes of the show. Brought back a lot of memories of my youth in the 70s and 80s. Cutting my grandparents' grass after dinner on Thursdays and then watching the show while cooling down.

Judge Judy. I DVR so I can watch during my breaks from remote work. Something about Judy taking down one idiot after another restores my faith in humanity.

[quote] Andy Griffith. Please he was kind of hot in his sheriff's uniform.

Gurl!

Andy Taylor seems like a nice guy to sit on a porch swing with of a hot summer evening. He'd play guitar and sing olde timey country songs.

How on earth did Gomer Pyle become a marine??!!

r173 Don't ask, don't tell.

I was watching an episode of Barnaby Jones earlier on the DVR and holy cow was Robert Pine hot back in the day! All I pretty much remember him from is reruns of CHIPs and he didn't really strike me as anything special. But from 1974's Barnaby Jones episode I had to look at some pics back from when he was younger. Now I see where Chris gets his looks.

Columbo. The 1970's seasons, and the 1990's T.V. movies.

Judge Judy

Square Pegs

Sanford and Son on TVOne channel.

I'm first-time viewing "A Place To Call Home" on Ovation On Demand. Great escapism! It's like an Australian "Downton Abbey."

I binge four episodes a day, trying to make the six seasons last as long as possible.

Kate & Allie on old VHS tapes fresh from a hot AF attic.

The Ghost And Mrs Muir on Youtube

I look at pics of guys feet to soothe myself at night and JO

Last night I watched “Annie Hall” and felt very comforted by the late 70s. I even laughed a few times.

The Waltons on ME-TV. Today's episode was about Pearl Harbor.

Agree about The Ghost & Mrs. Muir.

[quote]The Waltons on ME-TV. Today's episode was about Pearl Harbor.

And how is old Pearl doin' these days?

Law and Order - Mothership only

Newhart

St. Elsewhere

The Brittas Empire

And of course The Golden Girls