Things you miss about TV

I miss the test pattern, after the National Anthem was played as the plane soared.

I miss the movie of the week.

I hated those freeze frames. I miss a good, catchy theme song. 30 seconds to a minute that matched the theme of the show, and remained memorable for decades.

Of course, that minute is more profitable as commercials.

I miss flashing my pussy

I miss self-contained episodes.

Definitely theme songs, movies of the week and Battle of the Network Stars.

I miss anticipation and excitement over such things as "The Wizard Of Oz". It was shown once a year when I was a child and it seemed like a special event. We looked forward to it with much excitement. Kids now have all sorts of streaming/on demand/ DVD / Blue Ray options and they can see whatever they want whenever they want. They are quite blase about something that gave us excitement. I'm glad I was a child during those years.

I miss getting up to change the channel.

And TV dinners on little stands.

I miss the excitement of the new season, especially all the theatric movies the networks would be airing.

The TV Guide Fall Preview! Or just TV guide, period.

I miss the collective, unifying experience of having just three major networks.

I miss Saturday morning cartoons on all three networks -- not just staples like Bugs Bunny and Road Runner but also shows like Shazam and Isis, Elektra Woman & Dynagirl, Land of the Lost, etc. I also miss how every year at the start of the new TV season, you always knew when the new cartoons were premiering because each network would air a preview special the night before.

Love all these posts, couldn’t agree more, thank you fellow eldergays.

[quote]Definitely theme songs[quote]opening

I can't believe they left out one of the most iconic theme sons of all time-Route 66

I miss how during Sweeps Week, every network show would go crazy with plot twists (there always seemed to be a helicopter crash on ER).

Mark VII Productions with the hammer.

One thing I don’t miss is having to put aluminum foil on the rabbit ears to get good reception.

R12, I loved the cartoon preview the night before the new season began. That was always my favorite!! Thanks for the reminder.

I miss Quinn Martin Productions.

And its epilogues, R19.

I miss my MTV.

I'm sure the production crew and the unions miss actual end credits on TV shows.

I miss Fractured Fairy Tales.

I miss UHF, where you'd turn the knob through static until you got to a local channel, and you had to stop the dial at the exact right spot in order to get the best picture quality.

"It's 10 o'clock [on TV4], do you know where your children are?"

I miss being young and getting so excited when the celebrity I liked (Shaun Cassidy, Andy Gibb, Olivia Newton John, Kristy & Jimmy McNichol) would show up on the silly variety shows.

Speaking of Andy Gibb, I loved Solid Gold. My parents used to go out on Saturday nights when I was in middle school/junior high and it was a treat to stay home and watch Solid Gold. I ate up all that cheeezy goodness.

I don’t know if I miss or don’t miss this…but before VCR and then DVR, it was a fleeting moment of magic when you were watching your favorite tv show, unless you were lucky enough to catch a summer repeat.

R15 and a record breaking hurricane would suddenly wreak havoc on all of South Florida!!

I miss getting up early on Saturday for cartoons and sugar cereals.

Now kids can watch whatever, whenever. It's nice, I'm sure, but it's also helping to make them obese.

When we were kids, eventually there was nothing on that you wanted to watch, so you went outside.

I miss banging on the side of the TV until you finally hit the sweet spot and the picture cleared up.

I realize now that my post sounds very sexual but it wasn't my intention! LOL

I miss the Rescue 911 / Unsolved Mysteries double feature at noon on summer weekdays.

I miss the glacial elegance of Barbara Bain.

I yearn for a time when there were only two genders.

Going back to the movie of the week thing, I am so surprised that some network has brought those back. Also the mini-series. Movies of the week and mini series can't be that expensive, if you use TV stars.

I miss the idea of, "Hey did you watch (that show name) the other night?" when you met up with a friend or co-worker. I think it was more pressing to pay attention to the shows as they happened, because you expected to talk to friends/co-workers about them the next time you saw them. Even after VCRs became more commonplace as a teenager, we all tried to watch things in real time, so we wouldn't be left out when everyone else was talking about that show.

I miss the creepy psa's that would always traumatize me in the 80s...Aids, drugs, drunk driving, child abuse. They would always show them in the dead of night or early in the morning where my parents weren't around to calm me down.

What can I say, I'm a masoquist.

Also those long sweeping epic miniseries and family sagas spanning several generations that lasted several episodes. They always seemed so glamorous.

R35, the streamers have tons of new mini-series.

I miss the Linda Blair "I'm a complete juvenile mess" TV movies that are not suitable for all audiences.

I miss getting stoned with friends and wasting the late night hours watching MTV's 120 Minutes, Liquid Television, and VH1's Pop-Up Videos.

Most of the streamer mini-series are high end, Emmy bait shows. I miss those cheesy mini-series from the 80s.

When I was a kid, after soaps went off, the channels would show old syndicated repeats. That's how our generation because some infatuated with Brady Bunch and The Munsters and all those other old shows.

I'm watching the episode where Ann has to turn down the role in the Italian director's movie because she doesn't want to do the nude scene. Ann and Don are reading a NYT and the back of the paper had a quarter page ad for The Promise with Eileen Atkins and The Ians Mckellen and McShane.

I miss season ending cliffhangers. Had to wait all summer to find out Who shot JR!

I miss hearing this and getting all excited about upon hearing this as a kid on Sunday Nights (though I was too young to watch most of those movies, I could sneak watch it from the top of my stairs)

[quote] I miss Saturday morning cartoons on all three networks -- not just staples like Bugs Bunny and Road Runner but also shows like Shazam and Isis, Elektra Woman & Dynagirl

Don’t forget Super Friends, especially once they added the Wonder Twins!

Getting up to watch cartoons on Saturday morning and finding only static because the local stations weren't broadcasting yet. Then color bars would come on the screen, followed by a waving Canadian flag and O Canada. Then claymation Davy and Goliath and finally the reward of cartoons.

I miss the Dumont Television Network.

[quote]I miss Saturday morning cartoons on all three networks -- not just staples like Bugs Bunny and Road Runner but also shows like Shazam and Isis, Elektra Woman & Dynagirl, Land of the Lost, etc. I also miss how every year at the start of the new TV season, you always knew when the new cartoons were premiering because each network would air a preview special the night before.

Saturday mornings for me meant the Smurfs, Snorks, Monchhichis, the Littles, Shirt Tales, Alvin & the Chipmunks, Mr. T and the Bugs Bunny Roadrunner Show. Schoolhouse rock was incorporated into the lineup like commercials.

My two favorite cartoons came on weekday afternoons after school: G.I. Joe and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

R46 - where I lived, there was some farm show, then a guy talking for half-an-hour in front of a set of encyclopedias (no idea what that was about), then Davy and Goliath, then cartoons. So it was pretty similar in the US!

And there was a little yellow guy named Timer.

We're all tubs of lard because we no longer have the motivating...

OMG, I remember Timer. He was the guy who taught you how to make frozen popsicles with orange juice in the freezer. They tasted like shit.

R48 we must be the same age, that was my Sat morning lineup too. Plus the Gummybears - bouncing here and there and everywhere.

Creepy logos

Boris and Natasha

George of the Jungle

The Jetsons

The Flintstones (yabba dabba dooooo!)

Thunderbirds (are go!)

The Conelrad tests (This is a test. This is only a test. For the next 30 seconds . . .)

I miss the cheesy horror movies on local stations late at night …. “Hosted by MMM Carpets” or by some regional auto dealer … the commercial breaks weren’t all that annoying when you and your friends were stoned to the gills …

I still watch Saturday morning cartoons. 7-8 its Popeye/Betty Boop, 8-9 it's MGM/Tom & Jerry and 9-10 it's WB/Looney Tunes. This one was on this morning.

When your parents would tell you to go to bed because the show was over, but you knew after the commercials there would be that one last joke before the closing credits, and you would argue the point.

Omg

When you got that deep voiced "The following film contains material that may not be suitable for children, Viewer discretion is advised" before a movi or show and you and your siblings would cough in unison or make other noises so your parents didn't hear and switch the channel.

On school nights I'd run to the bathroom as one sit-com ended, singing the closing theme and then opening theme to the next show to myself -- that allowed me to time my shower and make sure I could change into my pajamas and be back in the family room before the next show really started.

I miss the money that Nielsen would send us to rate and track our viewing. It was like $1.50 !

I miss the sound of this special bumper!

[quote]Most of the streamer mini-series are high end, Emmy bait shows. I miss those cheesy mini-series from the 80s.

I agree it's just not the same. They were such "an event" when they aired on the networks back in the day. In those days a miniseries would preempt a network's entire schedule for all or most of the week, usually during sweeps, and they would have large starry casts with big names who'd get star billing often for roles that only lasted one night (and if there was one actor in particular you wanted to see, you usually had no idea on what night they would show up, so you just had to keep watching).

Do you?

How short were your showers R61?

The spinning CBS special presentation intro before Christmas specials.

There was a realluy creepy "Do you know where your children are" thing sometime in the late 80's that would traumatize me. It was of an empty schoolyard at night focusing on a swing sort of swinging in the wind and a really ominous voice. I've never been able to find it but I always found it unnecessarily creepy.

Regional television. My family would argue about who was the best weatherman. The thrill of seeing a local anchor lady I’m your school! All this, and TV trays. Mine was a Dukes of Hazzard.

The opening theme of the ABC Sunday Night Movie:

I miss hugely popular/watercooler discussion type mini-series: Roots, V, Thorn Birds, rich Man/Poor Man, & even lesser ones like North & South, Celebrity, etc etc. they don’t make em like they used to…if at all!

They played this for the late movie.

R70 thats before my time but there’s one that’s better (it must have been from the early or mid-80s). Mr. Stratton looks cute, though.

I miss those distinctive TV announcers, too.

R66 -- sing the theme to Good Times or MTM to yourself -- they were that long. I was 8 or 9 and not a child coal miner, so they were long enough. I knew the commercials between episodes would give me enough time to towel off and get into my pajamas.

[quote]Going back to the movie of the week thing, I am so surprised that some network has brought those back.

In addition to miniseries, the networks also used to show theatrical movies as part of their sweeps programming -- movies like Jaws, Superman, Close Encounters, The Shining, Neil Simon movies, etc. Because back then, unless you saw them at the theater or on cable, those movies showing up on regular TV were a rarity and usually drew big ratings.

[quote][R48] we must be the same age, that was my Sat morning lineup too. Plus the Gummybears - bouncing here and there and everywhere.

Born in November 1977.

I've been watching a few of the old ABC Movie(s) Of The Week, when I can find them on YouTube or elsewhere. Duel, That Certain Summer, In Search Of America, Maybe I'll Come Home In The Spring. I was an old-movie lover (The Great Films Of David O. Selznick was also on ABC, I think) but I watched the TV movies all the time, and when I watch them now they bring back my childhood/early teenage years...I can't believe how simple and basic a lot of them were - with a lot of interesting casts. Helter Skelter was another one I watched recently (not a Movie Of The Week). A two-parter. I also miss the funny, clever commercials of those days.

I miss big cheesy network promos!

Nothing. It's a disposable medium and if I enjoy something I move on, I don't watch things again.

The days when the networks actually gave a damn about Saturday nights.

I miss the lurid subjects of made for TV movies

Sarah T Portrait Of An Alcoholic

Dawn Portrait Of A Teenage Runaway

Fallen Angel - child pron

Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night

And Born Innocent - plunger rape on network TV!

I'm also really fun at parties too!

Movie Of The Week opening...it was an orchestral version of the song Nikki by Burt Bacharach.

Some other titles: The Over-The-Hill Gang, Tribes, Crowhaven Farm, Alias Smith And Jones, Brian's Song, Go Ask Alice and a lot of others

[quote]I miss the lurid subjects of made for TV movies. Sarah T Portrait Of An Alcoholic

I just watched this - for the first time - on YouTube last week. haha

The very early days of MTV, VH1, and HBO were good. IIRC, it coincided with the early days of VHS / Betamax tapes.

Going back even further, watching games shows (daytime) during the summer was great. The Price Is Right was a favorite and my parents took us to a taping when we were older (teenagers).

As others have said, I really miss the catchy full minute long theme song. I also miss hearing the opening theme during the credits roll.

Some of those very rare ones I’ve only heard over at sitcomsonline.com. Very rare versions for some series.

Going with Dad to check the tubes when the TV went out.

I miss big surprises. Too many spoilers these days!

[quote]I miss anticipation and excitement over such things as "The Wizard Of Oz". It was shown once a year when I was a child and it seemed like a special event.

Before we had cable, I miss the excitement when a theatrical movie would come to TV—[italic]Carrie,[/italic] for example.

Opening credits!

I remember when, back in the '70s and early '80s, our local ABC station would show a movie at 3:00 in the afternoons right after General Hospital. They would often do theme weeks like showing every Planet of the Apes movie for the entire week.

I miss TV movies of the week that aired on broadcast networks. Related to that, I used to love when Lifetime and late LMN reaired a lot of TV movies that originally aired on broadcast networks. It was sometimes fun to watch TV movies over and over again.

I miss the Hallmark Hall of Fame movies - not to be confused with the crap they churn out now.

I watched a recreation of 60s daytime TV a while ago. I was amazed at how harmless, pleasant and wholesome the ads were (aimed at housewives). Soap, shampoo, appliances, whatever. Nothing loud, or harsh. Nothing about how some medicine will give you a 4 hour erection. lol Lots of announcers with smooth voices, and pretty graphics.

Game shows, sitcom repeats - no rock music was used in anything at all - much slower pace - much quieter. It was very soothing, for a change. TV is now very frenetic but you don't realize it until you see this old stuff.

I loved those miniseries. The first one I remember watching was Rich Man Poor Man, I was only 10 and watched some of it with my Mom. When I was a teen North and South came out and it was a huge deal, Elizabeth Taylor had a cameo and I remember the entertainment shows hyping it up. The Last Convertible, Lace, The Thorn Birds, The Winds of War, War and Remembrance. Murder In Texas, Scruples. Loved them!

[quote]Game shows, sitcom repeats

I remember when ABC used to show repeats of its sitcoms in the mornings -- Bewitched, Happy Days, Three's Company, etc. -- for several years until they finally stopped and replaced them with either game shows or talk shows (this was the '70s, early '80s).

I miss actors wearing short shorts.

Adding to the mini-series lists: Centennial and Lonesome Dove

Cast of Centennial:

[quote]Michael Ansara, Raymond Burr, Richard Chamberlain, Robert Conrad, Richard Crenna, Timothy Dalton, Andy Griffith, Mark Harmon, Gregory Harrison, David Janssen, Alex Karras, Brian Keith, Stephen McHattie, Lois Nettleton, Adrienne La Russa, Lynn Redgrave, Pernell Roberts, Robert Vaughn, Dennis Weaver, Anthony Zerbe, Stephanie Zimbalist

I miss this-

Roots

Shogun

Masada

The Winds of War

Scruples

East of Eden

Lace

Princess Daisy

Schoolhouse Rock

Who could forget Lace with its most iconic tv miniseries moment of all time:

I miss soap operas.

I miss Joya's Fun School and Hodge Podge Lodge.

R104, I miss how soaps used to be. Now they are a complete joke and they should put the ones that are left out of their misery.

R105 - What about Patchwork Family?

I remember when ABC used to show repeats of its sitcoms in the mornings -- Bewitched, Happy Days, Three's Company, etc. -- for several years until they finally stopped and replaced them with either game shows or talk shows (this was the '70s, early '80s).

I don't remember that period because I didn't watch TV in the morning then, but I remember a little earlier when I was a little kid and they showed reruns of I Love Lucy on CBS in the morning, I wouldn't got out to play until it was over - they showed Father Knows Best reruns on network TV around noon because that's when I came in for lunch. I also remember the game show, Concentration (hosted by Hugh Downs, who I think hosted the Today show earlier in the morning - and later in the day, Password and To Tell The Truth - and the original Match Game.

Anyone remember the miniseries Wheels from 1978, with Rock Hudson and Lee Remick? Also starring the handsome John Beck.

IIRC, Davey & Goliath aired on Sunday mornings on the NBC affiliate in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I remember because for the longest time it was really the only thing to watch on a Sunday morning other than church shows.

R109, I think I remember Wheels. I don't believe we watched it at the time (even though my mother liked Rock Hudson) but I do recall when it aired.

Rockford Files, my first adult male crush when I was young.

Schoolhouse Rock -- I'm Just A Bill:

Schoolhouse Rock -- The Constitution:

After School Specials

Sufficient to say I never called but I always got a kick out of these late at night

When everyone wasn't so sensitive

I miss jiggle TV!

I watched the Farm Report and I lived in suburban Boston. I did live across the street from a small chicken farm, so I guess that made sense to me then. I actually also miss Lawrence Welk, because my dad and I used to go next door on Saturday night and watch it with some elderly neighbors, who I also miss.

R116 you reminded me of another thing that was fun - public access channels (for those from NY)

Robin Byrd

From the 80s, watching reruns of Mr. Ed with my dad.

From the 90s, Miss Cleo!

1. Common News! I'm tired of "alternative" news. Cable News' 24 hour news cycle destroyed uniformity of news.

2. Lack of uniformity for commercial breaks. Some shows have commercials right after theme music (which is often abbreviated or absent)

3. Talk show hosts promoting products of their sponsors (still done on YouTube and Radio btw)

4. Network TV going off at night. You knew it was time to go to bed after the National Anthem.

5. Night Time Soap Operas of the 80s. It was a nice escape from our lives to a life of glamour.

6. Talk shows with newsworthy everyday people as guests. It's all celebrities now pushing their products.

7. Must See TV! Networks planned your whole evening.

8. Good scripted "free" shows on network tv. They are few and far between. You're forced to subscribe to a streaming service.

9. Original TV Commercial Jingles. Unfortunately the trend is now towards revamped pop songs.

10. Daytime Talk Shows that actually talk to the audience about the topic of the day.

"Special Guest Stars" on Network TV Shows. We loved seeing our favorite stars show up on a weekly series.

The Love Boat perfected this pattern in that every week the special guest stars were the passengers!

As someone posted early in this thread, self contained episodes. Problem was introduced at start of episode and resolved at end of episode. NO real continuing story lines though matters may slowly evolve (for instance on family sitcoms kids getting naturally older and growing up). ONly the daytime soaps and a few obviously soap opera nighttime shows had continuing storylines. Now it seems nearly every genre has it so you can't just watch an episode here and there but follow it from the start, or at least get up to speed.

ah yes, good old public access tv

Really weird and cheap local commercials.

When they had special presentations, sometimes they would run the announcement, "This show is presented with limited commercial interruption."

I second locally produced commercials. Geoff Burkman ran a record store, was in local theater, and entertained diners at an Italian restaurant with his magic act.

In 1975-1976, at 7:30 pm (in our market), stations would present the Bicentennial Minute. I wish someone would dig them out of the archives and make them available again. So much research went into these and I would love to see every one of them again. I think they had one every weeknight for a year, so I guess we're talking about over 250 episodes.

Thanks R130, I remember those Bicentennial moments very well. I was about to comment on Jessica Tandy's extreme mid-Atlantic accent until I remembered she's actually British.

R115- Like Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack 1978.

celebrity production numbers

"TV Specials". Sometimes they would "interrupt our regularly scheduled programming" and you would be pissed because you were looking forward to the Partridge Family, Mannix, or whatever it was. But then the special was usually good. Music specials with stars like Frank Sinatra, BIng Crosby, Barbra Streisand Julie Andrews, etc. Bob Hope comedy/variety specials (they usually weren't very good, but I always watched them), Jack Benny... There were also occasional documentary specials on things like The Louvre, or something.

[quote]Like Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack 1978.

Which was probably the worst book to movie adaptation ever made.* This was the literature of my child/teenage years and the producers regularly messed up these stories, which were so well written. The 80s and 90s had to make every child cutesy, even when the material didn't support it.

*I am purposefully not considering the abomination of Harriet the Spy with Rosie O'Donnell as the nanny because it is so ridiculously bad.

I miss knowing what all the new shows for the fall with be each year with the TV Guide Fall Preview issue. They still have it but it is a jumbled shit show with little structured flow. And since most of the better new programs are on pay screening apps, you have to spend a fortune for numerous streaming sources to watch what you want, as opposed to seeing your favorite shows for free.

^^ TV Guide Fall Preview was a definite must... Pre internet... it really was the first idea of what the year was going to offer. Amazing to think about really.

Meryl remembers those, r91...

I loved the old Entertainment Weekly from the 90s/pre-Internet era. It was one of the only places to find backstage gossip about the tv industry.

I miss opening theme songs.

[quote]I miss big surprises. Too many spoilers these days!

[quote]"Special Guest Stars" on Network TV Shows. We loved seeing our favorite stars show up on a weekly series.

These two comments from R88 and R124 go hand in hand. Not only were there special guest stars, the guest stars were kept a secret until the show aired.

I miss the truly spirited pivots of say...Ellen Travolta.

People in the audience saying “oooOOOOOOooooh” when a character walked on screen or did something scandalous.

My favorite Dolly Madison commercials. It meant it was holiday season.

I miss limited commercials. Damn you, Ronald Reagan!

Zoom and speaking ubbi dubbi talk.

Did they teach you to fly...high... r146?

Melodramas.

Channel 5 in Phoenix would show the BEST movies on the weekends. Old horror and sci-fi films, especially Godzilla and Hammer Horror films. Channel 8 (PBS) had a series of Goldwyn movies every Saturday, and the local Prescott station on UHF showed a different '30s-'40s movie every night of the week. I really got to see a lot of old films back in the old pre-TCM days. And now none of those channels ever show old movies.

Soap opera organ music...

I miss locally-produced stuff like Stairway to Stardom. Airing on the same channel as PBS stuff. Yes, we have YouTube now.

I miss the day when they would air reruns in the day of nighttime shows still in production, but would use a different title, like Andy of Mayberry.

I think I speak for us all when I say that television is a lesser place without Debbie Drake.

I miss voice over promos for upcoming TV shows, ABC announcer Ernie Anderson is the one I remember most.

I miss promos like this.

I don't remember any of these promos but maybe someone else will enjoy a walk down memory lane

I miss precocious orphans. I always thought my life would be much better with at least one dead parent.

I became an orphan at 40 and life got much better.

I miss when I actually knew who the guests on talk shows were.

Anyone remember Family Classics on Saturday or Sunday afternoons? They'd show older movies like Swiss Family Robinson, Treasure Island, Moby Dick, Old Yeller, etc. with an intro and a little commentary before the "and now back to..." moment. The set was an old library with a fireplace and a red leather chair.

I also miss 24-30 episode seasons and only 8 minutes of commercials per hour. It's funny watching older shows now where there isn't a commercial break every five damn minutes.

I miss Davy & Goliath on Sunday mornings.

Link to Family Classics history and film list. There are some great films. Didn't realize it was a Chicago-based thing but, being on WGN, maybe it aired nationally in different markets.

I miss when channels went off the air late at night, and night owls like me were left alone with the PTL club for company.

R159, are you talking about Frazier Thomas -the mean drunk who despised children?

I worked with two people who had their childhood fan dreams crushed by that man. He was meaner than Ray Rainer.

Fractured Flickers

TV shows like SIghtings which was similar to Unsolved Mysteries, but focused more on UFO, ghosts, and other paranormal subjects.

Proctor & Gamble produced soap operas Goodson Todman game and panel shows Variety shows Specials, especially Christmas specials TV movies

I was a little kid and the idea of Bigfoot scared the fuck out of me. I think it was the 6 Million Dollar Man episode along with those sightings type shows.

r165, before Sightings, there was In Search Of. The theme music used to give me the chills.

I miss promos like this-

Grand introductions to movies - which were usually duds.

I miss having more than a dozen or so episodes of shows I like for a full year. There used to be around 26 episodes for a full year. and even more in the 1950s. Reruns only happened in the summer.

R151 wasn’t that Public Access?

They also had the Prank Call Show.

Yes r171! I was watching Family on Tubi recently and was shocked at how many episodes there were in a season.

R163, what does that have to do with the tv show? Almost all people are assholes. Still introduced me to tons of old classic movies and probably had a hand in my love of movies to this day.

I used to love the shows Real People and the original Ripley's Believe It or Not. Always something interesting and crazy to see.

R1, I would have to turn the channel before the static started. Ever since watching Poltergeist.

[quote] I miss when channels went off the air late at night, and night owls like me were left alone with the PTL club for company.

Why would you miss PTL?

In that vein, though, the infomercials of the '80s were superior to those of today. Cathy Mitchell (Snackmaster), Caruso Molecular Hairsetter, Bedazzler. I could go on.

Shamwow came later, IIRC. That was obnoxious.

We now pause for Station identification

This is WABC TV, New York

We now return to our program

The Mighty Heroes.

Where I lived, be sure it really early in the morning so actually I could watch it before going to school.

The local kiddie show...

[quote]Why would you miss PTL?

Pure nostalgia (I'm not religious at all and didn't really pay attention to the show, but I remember the comfortable feeling of having Tammy Faye on in the background). And when the PTL scandal broke my prior acquaintance with the show made the scandal all the more interesting.

Saw the other night - Ed McMahon reading the Station News to Johnny Carson at the beginning of the Tonight Show, after the monologue.

“We are welcoming station CKRZ in Zooloo, now a part of our NBC family.

We wish a happy anniversary to station GHTV in Tahomy, an NBC affiliate for 25 years.

WXYZ TV in upstate Mintokky, celebrates its founding this year in a little 2500 watt station out on the plains of Nebrasota. Now a big station with a very large audience.l

Johnny: “Glad to have all these stations in all these places tuning in tonight. It’s an honor. Can I say that? (Nods his own head reassuringly) It’s a great honor”

I miss the Mao Zedong Hour on the UBS Network!

[quote] Stairway to Stardom. Airing on the same channel as PBS stuff.

Never in a million years would channel 13 air such bilge.

Recall too that television used tubes for a good long time. I remember turning on the TV and the audio would come up before the video did. Then of course they went hybrid with transistors and the big CRT which stands for Cathode Ray Tube. Now it's all flat panels and umpteen channels over the air. When I hooked mine up it grabbed 66 channels. Part of it is I refuse to pay for cable tv.

Of course the flat panels die because of cheap ass Chinese capacitors. But I guess I could buy another one and just yank the power supply and replace the capacitors with good ones. Parts would likely cost as much as the TV.

I miss:

The Fairness Doctrine. After School Specials MOWs Mini Series Late night movies that started at 10:30CT/11:30ET after the local news

[quote] Not only were there special guest stars, the guest stars were kept a secret until the show aired.

Until Betty Ford and Nancy Reagan became the Special Guest Stars on tv shows and ruined the whole concept.

I miss being able to change channels quickly and not having to wait a split second between channels to wait for the image to resolve.

The production logo fanfare at the end of the closing credits.

I just changed the channel and this is what popped up...

I miss the absence of trans storylines.

The Morning Movie, The Afternoon Movie, the Million Dollar Movie, and the Picture for a Sunday Afternoon.

Miniseries: North and South, Captains and the Kings, Roots.

Saturday morning cartoons

The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew Mysteries

Well-written shows with talented actors

The era before 24/7 cable news

I miss the Miss America pageant being a big deal on network tv every September.

Less commercials. A LOT less.

I miss the pre-internet days when, at least in larger cities, the local news people were very big deals, with commensurate salaries. Salaries that, in actual numbers, far outpaced what their present-day descendants earn.

When I was very little, we'd watch Captain Kangaroo before school while eating breakfast, but only on every other day, because my older brothers wanted to watch Jonny Quest, which was on at the same time.

[quote] Soap, shampoo, appliances, whatever. Nothing loud, or harsh. Nothing about how some medicine will give you a 4 hour erection. lol Lots of announcers with smooth voices, and pretty graphics.

Postwar consumerism. The war machine of production in the US turned to making consumer products. Housewives of the 50s and 60s had a memory of the Depression. Everything had to be saved during the depression. Everything was drab. Few people owned their own homes. Then came WW2. Deprivation as food and gas were rationed, metal and paper were collected for the war.

Then…postwar prosperity.

Since people had been deprived of things for over 20 years and most Americans were poor or working class pre-WW2, they had to be taught about consumer goods. They had to be told what they needed. They had tooth powder before the war. Postwar, they needed toothpaste. Not just any toothpaste but toothpaste that tasted good, that left your teeth sparkling white and your mouth refreshingly clean and that had red and white stripes. .Then they needed mouthwash to thoroughly rinse their mouths & kill germs.

Pre-WW2, germs were a huge killer. Germs were fatal. A skin cut could get infected and you could get lockjaw. There were few vaccines & no antibiotics. The germ-killing properties of products were emphasized. The cleanliness of products was extolled. [italic] Looks, feels and smells clean. [/italic]

Listerine Kills germs.

Lysol for germ-free living

Iodine for cuts!

Bandaids protect your child from germs & dirt.

Glade leaves your house smelling fresh and clean

Kitty litter absorbs odors and leaves your house smelling clean

Canned soup is healthy for your child and has vitamins!

Enriched Wonder bread is fortified with iron!

Fab laundry detergent leaves your laundry clean

Raid kills bugs dead

Cleanliness to a fault was pushed on housewives because they feared disease. Disease killed their siblings & parents. Typhoid fever, pertussis, diphtheria, lockjaw, blood poisoning were feared by women born in the 1920s & 1930s. Polio was still a threat in 1960, as whole families lined up on Sabin Sundays to take a sugar cube that, along with Salk vaccine, eventually ended polio.

So women had to learn what to buy to keep their families clean & safe. They needed to show everyone they were not poor. Poor was dirty. Poor people were sick. White people were healthy, red blooded Americans. Even their cats and dogs were clean and well fed with wet, nutritious cuts of meat and pelleted foods made with dried gravy, full of protein their pets needed.

Children were taught on Saturdays to want board games, action figures, talking dolls, cards, comic books, candy, gum, hula hoops……Turns out kids didn’t really want hula hoops.

[quote]I miss when channels went off the air late at night

I remember how every New Year's Eve, we used to hate for Dick Clark's "New Year's Rockin' Eve" to end because the station always signed off right after (and the only thing left to do was go to bed). And speaking of New Year's, back in those days you didn't have all the options we have now. Then you only had two, Dick Clark and Guy Lombardo, but Lombardo was for the old folks, so we never watched him.

He likes it! Hey, Mikey!

Commercials that tried to be funny and cute and suceeded, instead of coming across as corny and stupid like today.

Cereal wars. Cap’n Crunch.

Count Chocula. Frighteningly delicious.

Wheaties, breakfast of champions.

Rice Krispies have snap crackle, pop.

Tony the Tiger Loves Sugar Frosted Flakes….they’re GREAT

Post Grape Nuts were grandpa’s cereal so now we’re making Post Toasties instead.

Corn Chex. Rice Chex. Wheat Chex. You don’t even need to relegate them to the breakfast table. You can eat them laden with salt as a snack.

Raisin Bran…because you’re parents think it’s good for you.

Eat white bread, so we can take the rest of the grain and feed it to pigs. White bread is soft, yiu can spread sugary peanut butter and jelly on it and pretend you’re eat8 h something healthy because it’s lunch! It has rp be good.

Coming up for Gen X babies in the 1970s…snacks! Sugar laden yogurt! Sugary peanut butter on Ritz crackers! Sugary peanut butter on sugary apples to fool your mother into thinking “protein and vitamins!”

Eat sugary cereal at breakfast with milk, then eat sugary cereal dry for a snack! Don’t just play with boring board games and dolls…get Hot Wheels! Cars that go vroom vroom vroom! Forget rubber ducks that float…you need wind- up plastic ducks that scoot around the bath tub. Forget your big brothers paddle that has a ball attached with a string…you need toys that shoot projectiles at each other!

Now that you’re brainwashed into memorizing slogans from advertising and eating sugary crap, you can have politics based on slogans! You can sit on your ass in front of tv drinking endless empty calories disguised as “lite beer,” and “low fat” chips and cookies. You can watch 24 hour sloganeering and blaring chyrons disguised as news. Talking heads will tell you that you need to be angry because black people moved north, brown people took your jobs and you’re the real brave, true, red blooded, clean and fresh, sexy, snack-a- licious patriots who support our military and police heroes.

9/11! Never forget! Make America great again! Plandemic! Hoax! Where we go one, we go all! Taste great! Less filling!

Does anyone else remember mid show bumpers? "Falcon Crest will continue in a moment" or "Dynasty will continue"

R201, YES!

Talk shows, all the nationally syndicated ones- Mike Douglas, Merv, Dinah, JOAN RIVERS "That Show" (in the 60s), Della Reese, Virginia Graham, and the local NYC ones. Though I think Joan's was local. Anyone remember Les Crane opposite Tonight Show?

Childrens shows we got in the New York area - besides Soupy Sales (syndicated), there was Wonderama with the hot and handsome Sonny Fox (successor Bob McAllister was a dud), Sandy Becker, Chuck McCann. Lots of imaginative sketches, puppets (much better than Muppets). Anyone remember Chuck McCann's Little Orphan Annie? Then there were hosts on channel 11 who introduced cartoons and shorts from their elaborate sets. Officer Joe would introduce a Three Stooges episode, and when the camera came back to the studio, the Three Stooges were sitting there live. I used to see Captain Jack on the train 20 years later, and he was very friendly to everyone who recognized him.

I miss just THREE networks: ABC, NBC and CBS. Tv used to be special, with just those three networks to watch. Now you can see anything, anytime, anywhere. There's no fun in that.

They used to say that talk is cheap, but talk is expensive. They had to pay people like Oprah too much money. Talk shows needed staff to come up with new ideas and bring guests to the studio.

Turns out political talk is cheap. Fox News spends a fraction of the cost of all those talk shows and they just repeat the same topics night after night, using the same script night after night….just substituting a few words here and there. They only have to pay a few hosts and they have the same guests on retainer, showing up on remote cameras night after night. Millions of people, they found, will tune in to see the same shit shoveled every night by the same people with the same guests. No more celebrities or pace setters or artists or fashion designers. No authors of books besides ghost-written polemics.

No parties, no glamour, no movie reviews or theater critics, no stories on current cultural quirks. No interviews of community leaders or organizers, no high school dances, no silly college kid fads. No scripted drama.

Just all bad news and anger. We’ve given up all talent except the talent to hurt. No more imaginative creativity. Just say bad things about other people, then get mad.

r167 I was afraid of quicksand, The Bermuda Triangle, Bigfoot, and sharks thanks to 70's tv and movies

Real drama series.

Talk shows where the host walked out into the audience with a microphone and let the audience members ask questions.

^ Only on Phil Donahue and Oprah, R208. And their imitators.

R206 I forgot about quicksand. Yes, that was a big thing in the '70s for some reason. I was terrified of the thought of it. And I thought Bigfoot might come to the woods behind our house at night after watching "In Search Of" with Leonard Nemoy.

The Bermuda Triangle was a big thing in the '70s too.

Not For Women Only

I miss the shows they never rerun like Mayberry RFD and The Courtship of Eddie’s Father

I miss no credit crunching. I think that started around 15 years ago.

Cigarette commercials with catchy slogans/jingles like Virginia Slims "You've come a long way, baby" or "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should" and Benson & Hedges " a silly millimeter longer 101".

The ending credits of Lassie , where he offered his paw in the final seconds.

[quote] Going back to the movie of the week thing, I am so surprised that some network has brought those back. Also the mini-series. Movies of the week and mini series can't be that expensive, if you use TV stars.

These days some TV actors will do Hallmark and LIfetime movies during TV show filming hiatuses.

. I miss the time periods when the broadcast networks(ABC, NBC, CBS and later FOX) used to do movies of the week and would use some of their stars from sitcoms and one hour dramas and mixed in with then unknown actors who later became well known. A lot of those movies cheesy especially the ones based on true stories. It was sometimes fun watching a couple of sitcoms or a one hour drama show and then the broadcast network airing a TV movie before the local news. I also remember when the broadcast networks would sometime rerun TV movies during the summer time.

I miss channels not becoming unwatchable whenever there's even the slightest breeze outside.

I wonder why Donahue never got back into the talkshow game? What's he been doing for the last 20 years?

Expert, in-depth TV interviewers like Bette Rogge!

I miss good acting in TV movies.

I miss competent American actors.

TV sitcoms with a heavy/sappy but ultimately uplifting message.

I miss gossiping about signs of active drug abuse.

It was an ongoing debate in my house that had everyone throwing one another's favorite actors under the bus. My brother ruined Stacey Keach for my dad and he stopped watching TV all together.

[R 146] YES! I remember this...Dad taught me and my sister to speak "Ob" - I tried to teach it to some friends in college, but only a couple could do it.

This used to air after the Saturday morning cartoons. The movie I still remember was a Japanese film called “Skinny and Fatty” about two boys who become unlikely friends.

I miss Jack Paar interviewing glamorous stars like Hildegarde Neff....I miss the Arthur Murray Dance Party.....I miss everything, and I hate having infinite choices twenty-four hours a day.

Siskel and Ebert every weekend 😢.

p.s. I thought the cab driver who picks up Siskel was hot!

[quote] I wonder why Donahue never got back into the talkshow game? What's he been doing for the last 20 years?

Marlo’s bitch.

Great one, R226! Yes, I really miss S&E on the weekends. Also, Casey Kasem's America's Top 10 on Saturday mornings.

R213 - yeah, I thought I missed The Courtship of Eddie's Father, too (used to watch it all the time as a kid), but then I watched an episode on YouTube and it was terrible!

Local TV. There was way more of it. Now usually limited to news and maybe a show or two in big markets.

On Saturdays, after cartoons, Soul Train would come on.

On Sundays our local independent station would play those cheesy Filmation cartoons, followed by Blondie and then Three Stooges. In the afternoon it would be all old B&W movies.

R226 I miss their talk show appearances like Letterman.

I miss the days when a big TV event could mesmerize the entire country, like when the Beatles made their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. My entire family was transfixed as was everyone we knew. There’s nothing comparable nowadays.

I miss the Ancient Chinese Secrets.

[quote]Anyone remember Les Crane opposite Tonight Show?

Anyone remember Irv Kupcinet out of Chicago? He had a late-night (in San Francisco) interview show "Kup" in the early 1960s, interviewing not only celebs and politicians, but also discussing social issues other that talk shows wouldn't go near for at least another 10 years. All these years later, and I still remember him saying "After the break, I'll be interviewing X, a lesbian. Send the kiddies to bed".

Tom Snyder and his Colortinis instead of the hyper kiss ass Fallon.

I miss the old fashioned lighting before everything had a washed out blue tint. Shows like Dynasty had almost a yellow tint and it just looked more majestic IMO.

I miss the Charlie commercial.

R237 that's due to incompetent lighting designers who choose the wrong color temperature in the LED lighting. You can get LED lighting in warm white (2700 Kelvin or lower) that looks much like traditional incandescent lighting. The higher the Kelvin temperature, the cooler (more blue) the light.

Story lines that make sense.

R206 yes! Quicksand was a great fear of mine as a child & used to think our beach might have a patch of it here & there.

R196 and r200 are you the same poster? Your posts are fascinating.

R155 That was cheesy as fuck but I loved every second of that!

No network today has that many universally recognizable shows!

I miss: THE MORE YOU KNOW!

Great Moments on CBS!

What Gay Boy didn't love "That Broad"?

Summer replacement shows.

Variety shows. (Starring some singer, or comedian, or Ed Sullivan. The Hollywood Palace. Etc.)

Specials.

Builder's Showcase.

French with Madame Slack.

Half-hour drama shows and police shows. Dragnet, Adam-12.

This is Your Life.

Mutual Of Omaha's Wild KIngdom.

In-depth interview shows (Dick Cavett, etc.)

Actual investigative reporting of serious news and issues.

Medical shows that focused on medical cases. not who the doctors and nurses were screwing. School shows that focused on school problems, not who the kids were screwing. More of a focus on adult shows in general, teenagers and young adults didn't usually have whole series devoted to them and didn't intrude much on the adult dramas.

[quote]^^ TV Guide Fall Preview was a definite must... Pre internet... it really was the first idea of what the year was going to offer. Amazing to think about really.

I used to work for TV Guide (best job I ever had), and fall-preview time was beloved by the staff, too, because we'd get piles of screeners of the pilots for all the new fall shows and could watch them before everyone else. Our editors and staff writers would also get all kinds of series-branded swag (T-shirts, mugs, hats, etc.) when new shows launched, which they'd pass along to us underlings.

R203, And Roller Derby! I'm in PA, but when we visited my grandparents in Bayonne, I'd watch Pretty Judy Arnold!

I also miss my area getting both Philly and NYC major channels, so I could avoid the Mummers on New Year's Day! Alas, we were dropped from the NYC Zone some decades ago. I LOVED WABC NEWS with Roger Grimsby!

I miss music and/or dance shows: Your Show of Shows, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Bandstand, Shindig, Hullabaloo, Hootenanny, Soul Train, Dance Fever, MTV.

Add me to the "Miss the Communal Water-Cooler Talk" times.

Comedy sketch shows. OMG, the brilliance of yesteryear! Steve Allen, Ernie Kovacs, Red Skelton, Jack Benny, Milton Berle, Carol Burnett---their guests, their inimitable characters! We lived for Percy Dovetails, Jose Jimenez, the Nairobi Trio, Clem Kadiddlehopper, Schmock! Schmock!,...

Of course, the Ed Sullivan Show was the apex of the Variety Genre. From low-brow plate-spinning to high-brow opera, Ed entertained and enlightened us. And sometimes changed us: The Beatles, 1964.

His only rival on Sundays was The Wonderful World of Disney. Zorro, the fabulous Zorro! But also Spin and Marty, Swamp Fox, and Davy Crockett! And that's not even counting Fantasyland!

Of course, there were the Westerns! Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy, Gene Autry, The Cisco Kid, The Range Rider, Wagon Train, Sugarfoot, Kit Carson, Annie Oakley, etc., etc.

Great cartoons, many voiced by the amazing Mel Blanc! The Bugs Bunny stable, with Bugs, Elmer Fudd, Foghorn Leghorn, Porky Pig, etc. Rocky and Bullwinkle, with Boris, Natasha, Dudley Dooright, Snidely Whiplash, Mr. Peabody and Sherman. My local favorite on Sunday mornings---Bertie the Bunyip, with Fussy and Gussy and Sir Guy de Guy.

Shows for us Boomer Babies: Winky Dink and You, Ding Dong School, Howdy Doody, Pinky Lee, Captain Kangaroo, Andy's Gang with Froggy the Gremlin and Midnight the Cat.

So MUCH MORE! I'm turning 72 soon, and what I've mentioned gets me only to about age 17! Haha! But television was my best pal in those days.

Original Sit-Coms: Molly Goldberg, I Married Joan, My Little Margie, The Honeymooners, etc.

And the more heart-warming Family shows: Leave It To Beaver, The Lennon Sisters, Father Knows Best, Bachelor Father, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Gidget. When kids would be funny and maybe impertinent, but never vulgar with double-intendres.

Law& Order with Handsome Guys: Hawaiian Eye, Hawaii 5-O, Surfside-6, Wild, Wild West, I Spy, T. H. E. Cat, Peter Gunn.

High-Brow: Bishop Sheen, NBC Opera, Omnibus, Playhouse 90.

But what I miss the absolute most is that I can't go back and experience again the life-affecting moment of Mary Martin's Peter Pan.

I still won't grow up!

[quote]Anyone remember Irv Kupcinet out of Chicago? He had a late-night (in San Francisco) interview show "Kup"

In the 1970s, there was the syndicated Kup's Show that I remember, still a diverse cast. I remember Walter Matthau there totally drunk, and Irv Kupcinet saying "happy new year, 1948." Someone corrected him on the date, it was 1978.

[quote] I'm turning 72 soon

OMG THATS SO OLD!!!!!!

R217, Phil Donahue did come out of retirement to host an MSNBC prime time show around the turn of the century, but the show didn’t last long.

[quote]On Saturdays, after cartoons, Soul Train would come on.

r231, Didn't Soul Train come on after American Bandstand or am I not remembering correctly?

R254, I don't think Donahue was retired, just not working. He did a 30 min cable opinion show with Vladimir Pozner the Russian. The DL said he was hot (Pozner, not Donahue).

[quote]Summer replacement shows.

IIRC, the networks also used to air some of the pilots for shows that didn't get picked up for the fall. Do they still do that? I pay so little attention to TV in the summer anymore.

[quote]Mutual Of Omaha's Wild KIngdom.

Also, Wonderful World of Disney, which aired on NBC on Sunday nights. I think it was usually followed by The NBC Mystery Movie, which rotated the shows Banacek, Columbo, McCloud, and McMillan & Wife.

I miss the days before they would advertise something as your watching my 600 Pound Life and too much station identification on the lower right of your screen. Up until about 2001 you could watch something on regular commercial channels and there was NOTHING on the screen at all. I miss that.

Or short lived shows that were never rerun. Love on a Rooftop was a 1966 sitcom that got the summer treatment five years later.

Music summer replacements - they would run old music shows and specials with stars, but they'd produce music series as summer shows. Glen Campbell was a summer replacement for the Smothers Bros, and he got his own variety series. Likewise, Sonny & Cher were a summer replacement for Campbell. The Manhattan Transfer came to my attention because they were a summer replacement for something I can't remember in 1974 or 75.

*3* GIRLS *3*...a summer show

^ Very good show, I remember it!

Sorry if this has already been posted! It was a Friday night staple. I used to alternate between this and MTV in search of all my music crushes.

Omg I LOVED Friday night videos back in my wee days when I thought music videos were like this big adult thing and before we could afford cable and Mtv.

SHE TV...another summer show

I loved FMV too, it was necessary for those of us who had cheapo parents who wouldn't get MTV.

Interesting to see that a 1983 episode of FNV was just so, so rock heavy.

I loved Friday Night Videos also! ABC had one, too, that came on even later up into the night called "ABC Rocks," but I don't think it lasted very long.

But before there was FNV, there was NBC's "The Midnight Special" hosted by Wolfman Jack:

Schoolhouse Rock: Tea Party - No More Kings:

Procter and Gamble produced soap operas. Goodson Todman game and panel shows. Variety shows. Specials, especially Christmas specials. Great singers singing great songs (not the absolute crap that passes for ‘music’ today).

Wonderama- with Paul Lynde

Tell me, r253. Since 2014, my husband, two close friends, and my mother died. On Thursday, my best friend is getting out of a nursing home---until her next fall.

Whatayagonna do?

"Oh, yeah, I said life goes on,

Long after the thrill of livin' is gone."

It really does, r270....

Wow r270, I've heard those lyrics many times without thinking through the meaning. It's really profound.

I saw The Beatles on Jack Paar Show in 1964. Had no idea who they were. My aunt was married to a lousy drunk who used to leave their 8 kids alone without any food. My aunt worked 2jobs while her skunk husband drank up his salary & was never home. She’d tell him “You have to come home right after work tonight & buy groceries to feed the kids. There’s no money left.”

And then my mother would get a call from the oldest boy at dinner time. “There’s no food here & the little ones are hungry.” My mother would grab hot dogs & bread, milk and a couple of cans of beans and we’d go over there til my aunt came home late at night from the restaurant where she worked.

That’s why I was allowed to stay up late enough to watch ,Jack Paar. I felt very adult. I was in 2nd grade & the next day I went to school and told everyone “I saw these boys on tv last night. They were in a combo. They had hair *down to here* (placed finger on my eyebrow) and they were shaking their heads singing ‘I love you yeah yeah yeah, wooooo woooo’ and they shook their heads when they sang and their hair went *all over the place*! They were about 15 years old!”

It was shocking. At that time, boys wore crew cuts. My friends were like “Sure, Jan.”

Little did I know that just a few weeks later WABC radio was going to announce a Countdown to the Beatles, playing. Beatles song every hour (or half hour?] until the Beatles landed at Kennedy Airport. They were a hot new group from England and they were going to make their American tv debut on the Ed Sullivan Show.

“But GUYS!” I said to my school friends. “I already saw them! They’d were on tv already. They were the boys I saw on Jack Paar!” And my friends said, “We don’t believe you. Why would you be allowed to stay up late enough to watch Jack Paar?” And I had no answer except “Because my mom took me to my aunt’s house and we waited for her to come home late from work.”

My friends said, “Nobody comes home from work *that* late at night. People come home from work before dinner time…..especially moms”

I didn’t know know until years later the reason we went go to my aunt’s house was because her drunk husband left his kids alone without food so he could go out drinking and whoring. And my mother was also a waitress, but I was embarrassed to say so because the kids seemed to think that a woman who came home from work late at night was suspect.

For years I would hear that the Beatles made their US tv debut on Ed Sullivan and for years I swore I saw them on Jack Paar and couldn’t prove it until the internet came about, 30 years later. I was happy to be vindicated.

When PBS Shows were cool!!!

Zoommmmm!

[quote]I miss the days before they would advertise something as your watching my 600 Pound Life and too much station identification on the lower right of your screen. Up until about 2001 you could watch something on regular commercial channels and there was NOTHING on the screen at all. I miss that.

R258 And there were not ratings (PG-13) at the beginning. This is a great post because the things you mention drove me crazy, originally - and I guess still do. That goddamn network logo, and the ads for upcoming shows when you're watching something...and the numerous chyrons on the screen on the news newtorks like CNN. I suppose there are people who don't even remember what it was like to have a TV screen free of these things. Or seeing the end credits of a show, not squeezed but a full credit sequence where you could read who was in the cast or who did the makeup, or whatever.

R251. Great post. I don't remember all these shows, I'm more than a decade younger, but I remember some of them from when I was a kid (Bachelor Father, for ex.) and it brought back a lot of memories. I also liked a lot of those comedies in reruns and I loved the comedy in those days.

I miss the team that wrote these:

Jack Paar was a cultural phenomenon. He made more headlines than his guests. He was touchy, impetuous, vain, impulsive and paranoid. He got into it with Dorothy Kilgallen & the Hearst newspaper organization & called them on on the air. He famously walked off the show in 1960 over a joke about a water closet that NBC censored. He could be very rude to his guests. NBC was very grateful to Johnny Carson who mostly stayed away from being rude to guests unless provoked. Letterman was more like Paar, willing to insult guests to create buzz.

The Tonight Show was 105 monies long when Paar was the host. An hour & 45 minutes. It’s tough to keep people interested for that long.

But r273, The Beatles weren't actually ON the Jack Paar Show, not on the stage live; Paar showed a clip of British television.

Eddie [tm Topo Gigio] did it right!

R133, the video you posted is pure gold - from the introductions of his actress dancers, to Barry serving moose knuckle and John Travolta (circa PERFECT) moves! 😆

I miss the annual "Hallmark Hall of Fame" productions. It was an event. The films were of the best quality, in the history of television.

Here's "The Hallmark Hall of Fame" introduction. It was so elegant.

[quote]I miss the annual "Hallmark Hall of Fame" productions. It was an event. The films were of the best quality, in the history of television.

"When you care enough to send the very best."

I remember live plays - I also remember that it was on more than once a year, back then. I remember seeing Pygmalion - but I don't remember who was in it. I'll have to look it up. (I just did - it was Julie Harris and James Donald, with Geoge Rose, John Williams and Gladys Cooper.)

These little flourishes before each program on NBC (or CBS, ABC…)

OMG, R273, really blew that lie! (R279)

HOLLYWOOD PALACE

I miss music video shows showing controversial or banned videos after midnight (like Duran Duran's Girls on Film) and MTV's 120 Minutes.

I was kind of a night owl and also enjoyed those cartoon marathons on premium cable Disney (Disney's Gummi Bears, Higher for Hire, Chip & Chap Resuce Rangers, Darkwing Duck, etc.).

I remember I saw some show on Lifestyle doing some fashion feature about trendy beach and resort wear and out of nowhere they showed their female and male models wearing thongs, and I was like "wow!". It was filmed at some private harbor club set-up which made it extra weird for me.

r279 r273 Here's Jack Paar talking about the Beatles. I wouldn't have known the difference in second grade, either.

I can’t explain how, as a then-3 year old, I have a memory, albeit very vague, of the news surrounding Jack Paar’s 1960 separation from the Tonight Show, but none at all of the Beatles appearance on Ed Sullivan four years later.

Ed Sullivan wouldn’t pay $4000 for the beatles but he paid 3500. That’s why Paar mused that Ringo probably got shortchanged. Later on, when SNL offered the Beatles $3000 to appear, the joke was “This check is made out to the Beatles - you divide it up any way you want. If you want to give less to Ringo, that's up to you."

Carol Burnett explaining it in 2019 = "When I realize how incredibly fortunate I was to be there at the right time, what we did could not be done today. The cost alone would be prohibitive. 28 piece live orchestra. 12 dancers. Average of 65 costumes a week. And nothing like our show, and I might add other variety shows at the time, could ever see the light of day today, because the networks, they just wouldn't spend the money."...........The networks have no budgets. The streamers do. They pay Reece and Jennifer 2 million an episode for Morning Show. That is why we get garbage from networks now.

[quote]I was kind of a night owl and also enjoyed those cartoon marathons on premium cable Disney (Disney's Gummi Bears, Higher for Hire, Chip & Chap Resuce Rangers, Darkwing Duck, etc.).

Before Premium Disney or whatever it is, does anyone other than me remember the old Disney Channel, from the 80s? I wasn't a kid any more so I didn't watch during the day, usually, but at night they had the best programming. Mousterpiece Theatre, hosted by Geoge Plimpton (3 Disney cartoons an episode), Old Disney films, uncut - the classics like Bambi, and The Shaggy Dog, Pollyanna, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea - but also True Life Adventures features and shorts. They had Canadian programming quite a bit, like Danger Bay, and Anne Of Green Gables. And they had a lot of old movies, sometimes kid-oriented like Misty of Chincoteaugue, but also old Fox and RK0 musicals, Danny Kaye movies...they would have theme months, I think. I remember Ginger Rogers hosted the Fred & Ginger films. There were no commercials interrupting the programming (or commercials of any kind). And they showed old Disney shows like Spin & Marty, Mickey Mouse Club, Zorro, and old Walk Disney Presents episodes. All of it was basically G-rated. The whole presentation was very classy, but only lasted a few years, before being replaced at night by Vault Disney.

[quote]Also those long sweeping epic miniseries and family sagas spanning several generations that lasted several episodes. They always seemed so glamorous.

YES!!!!! Winds of War, The Thornbirds, Shogun...and so many more.

I am made of blue sky and golden light and I will feel this way forever

It was cool to watch, late at night, stuff like "Night Gallery" and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents." On the weekends, I enjoyed Agatha Christie movies.

Probably already mentioned by many, but it’s too bad kids today don’t get to experience Saturday morning cartoons and kid oriented shows (ex., Land the the Lost, H.R. Pufnstuf, etc.) the way we did.

It’s too bad they don’t get to experience a lot of things.

Kukla, Fran, and Ollie

Henrietta Hippo and the New Zoo Revue!

In the 1960s, I loved the duets and medleys from great adult pop talent - people who could sing without amps and electric guitars. Even if I didn't know who the singers were, I loved seeing the pros who knew how to sing live do it.

Yes, r299...

R188, also the production company logo at the end of a program:

Another local program, this one from Detroit, a travelogue that, as I recall aired weekdays at 5:30 pm, right before the evening news.

I remember Sir Graves Ghastly when I was a kid growing up in Detroit. He would introduce classic horror movies Saturday afternoons after the cartoons. You could send in coloring pages to the show and they'd feature several every episode. I remember being so tickled when they showed mine! I bragged to my friends for weeks!

Actual programming in between the program-length commercial "break" marathons, I guess??

Night Tracks

Before we sign off...

UP All Night

Rhonda Shear was no Kathryn Kuhlman...

r308 Your post brought to mind Ruth Buzzi's turn as an evangelist. She put Miss Kuhlman and Aimee Semple McPherson to shame.

R203 Yes, I remember Les Crane and that shotgun mic he prowled about with.

And I remember his late-night radio talk show on KGO before he went to do TV in NY. Broadcast from the hungry i. Anyone who was anybody either appeared at that nightclub or visited it, and usually stopped by for a chat with Les.

He was much better on radio, by the way. Too "hot" for TV of the times.

Dear Ruth...

Les was Mr. Ginger Grant for five years, r310.

R310, You reminded me of Tom Snyder. He was fiiine!

R297, I meant to mention that show! It was a hey-day era for puppeteers and ventriloquists.

Kukla and Ollie; Howdy Doody; Jerry Mahoney; Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd; Topo Gigio; Lamb Chop; Pookie; and the entire Jim Henson stable, which has managed to enjoy a unique longevity.

But for me, the "puppet" I loved the most came about because one day, a train destroyed his Master's trunk with his real puppets, so he had to improvise.

And that is how we met the inimitable Johnny, the left-hand "puppet" of the brilliant Senor Wences!

R313 Tom Snyder was great indeed. He had this way of talking straight into the camera like he was talking straight at you.

Tom Snyder was goofy and awkward, smoked incessantly, and that HAIR! I loved his late night show.

I miss sitcoms when they were just funny. Now they are all about the characters problems and teaching moments. I stopped watching most of them because instead of laughing and feeling good when it was over and wishing it hadn't ended so soon, they now make you feel depressed.

Señor Wences

R316 to be fair that started in the 80s with “very special episodes.”

R317 'Sawright.

[R316] to be fair that started in the 80s with “very special episodes.”

Actually I think it started in the 50s with sitcoms like Father Knows Best. And continued into the 70s with One Day At A Time and other Norman Lear sitcoms. Non?

A very special episode of One Day at A Time would be an episode where they just tried to be funny, with no important issues to explore or a lesson to be taught.

Cigarette commercials

R321, before the Surgeon General's Report of 1/64, the dangers of smoking were known even to the very young.

Where is the new "last tv show you watched" thread? Can someone please bump it?

[quote]When I was a kid, after soaps went off, the channels would show old syndicated repeats. That's how our generation because some infatuated with Brady Bunch and The Munsters and all those other old shows.

I was watching [italic]The Brady Bunch[/italic] after school when they broke in with the new bulletin about Elvis's death.

^ *news* bulletin

[quote]A very special episode of One Day at A Time would be an episode where they just tried to be funny, with no important issues to explore or a lesson to be taught.

R320 Okay, then other Normal Lear sitcoms, as I said. All In The Family always had important issues to explore, and sometimes a lesson to be taught (implied, anyway). The episode where the Bunkers get a swastika on their front door, for one example.

R320 they were always in a million parts (Diffrent strokes too) I’d watch them on reruns and I swear they would have the same to be continued episode going for a week.

R292 my favorite Disney show was their “travel” show Inside Out, which went behind the scenes of Disneyland & Disney World. One of their “reporters” was Talia Osteen who I used to think was Joel’s daughter. And Brianne Leary was the main one, along with JD Something who’s now a really big reality show producer.

Fantastic Theme Songs that often turned out to be more iconic than some of the best shows!

I haven't read through this thread, but has anyone mentioned that the inventor of that freeze frame convention used to post on DL?

r329 -

Hill Street Blues

Hill Street Blues

Hill Street Blues, I've got those

Hill Street Blues

I miss the telethons.

How I loved the slow motion action of my favourite tv shows from the 70s - The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman and The Incredible Hulk all come to mind.

Last night after I took in my Halloween decorations MeTV showed Halloween episodes of old tv shows. Carol Burnett, Dick Van Dyke, etc. I miss Halloween episodes that were a little break from the ordinary. But that horrible Everybody Loves Raymond had a Halloween episode last week that was typical “everybody fights about something stupid and yells.”

Joe Franklin interviewing a panel of something like Barbara Barondess, Bing Crosby, and Sid Vicious, and asking them about Eddie Cantor.

I miss old game shows where celebrities teamed up with regular people.

Very few are still on in their original iteration.

What's My Line?

Password

25K Pyramid

Hollywood Squares

I miss game shows with no contestants or big prize money -

To Tell the Truth (the old one, 1950s-60s). it was a game for fun, not money

The Movie Game, 1970 - two teams of three celebrities compete with old movie trivia. Teams won points, which I guess became money for charity. Lots of movie stars would be on it, including Jane Fonda at the height of Hanoi Jane.

R326- That was from an early episode (1971)

Alice seasons 1-9

Comparing the original TTTT, or even it’s Garry Moore-helmed syndicated, ‘70s show with the current version is blasphemy.

"Don Adams' Screen Test" - that was so much fun!

Shows that were IN STEREO!! (“Where available”)

"Love in the afternoon!"

Three straight hours of soap operas in the afternoon (sometimes 4 if you were lucky).

Now it is an afternoon of cackling hens and their boring talk shows. Whether it is one moderator or 4, very one of those talk shows is exactly the same!

I miss interviews with Capucine on local Swiss TV when she'd talk about Old Hollywood.

I miss putting my plant on it.

(When I try to do it on my flat screen TV, the plant keeps falling off!)

The cat also misses sitting on it, R345.

Cats loved sitting atop TV sets. Nice and warm.

Great old black & white movies after midnite.

Battle of the Network Stars, with various hunky actors in pasted-on singlets and short-short bulgy shorts.

I miss everybody knowing the same TV shows. Even if you didn't watch the show in question, you still knew the overall premise and probably the star. I never saw an episode of Mannix in my life - it wasn't on my family's watch list - but I knew it was a detective show that starred Mike Connors. I knew what Connors looked like because his picture was frequently featured in the mainstream mags that everybody read.

I miss a common national culture, trashy as it may have been.

[quote]I miss the freeze frame at the end of the final act. It was usually a freeze frame and then the Executive Producer credit shown over the freeze frame.

My father & I nearly died laughing at the end of every episode of "Police Squad!"

I liked when TV specials, especially around the various calendar year's holidays, had certain sponsors. It was kitschy, but fun. Like Dolly Madison baked goods sponsoring all the "Peanuts" animated specials. Singer as the sponsor for the King Family TV specials. Today it's jarring sometimes to watch an old, now beloved movie or program rerun each year that is set in a particular time period or theme and all of a sudden have the network switch you to an ad for an insulin drug or tampons or Popeye's latest fried chicken sandwich. Kind of ruins the viewing feels.

Gale Storm...

I loved the cheesy, network all-star preview shows at the beginning of each Fall, introducing new series & generally celebrating, "Yay! We're _ _ _!"

The totally fantastic soap opera anniversary promos

The Star-Spangled Banner played at station sign-off around 2 a.m.

I miss Davey and Goliath, which despite not having a religious childhood or upbringing AT ALL,

am certain shaped some of my perpective about life and prisspot morals

[quote] When PBS Shows were cool!!!

Masterpiece Theater (when they actually did broadcast masterpieces) being the apex.

With your host Alastair Cook filling in important bits of context to un-read Americans

This was also a traditional sign off, r356...