One Day at a Time. I hate it but can't stop watching (Discussion of 2017 reboot added at page 5)*

antenna TV plays it. I watch it. The song is abysmal. I can't stand Bonnie Franklin. Pat Harrington is great but not enough to carry such a lousy show. Why do I watch? (Try to refrain from assassinating my character but if necessary, by all means)

 

The former Mrs. Edward Van Halen. That is all.

 

I wish it were that simple

 

After much discussion, my brother and I decided once that this was the most annoying show ever to be a major, sustained hit. It's so absolutely smug and condescending about its viewpoints that to watch it is an exercise in disbelief. A mirror of its times for sure. I can see someone hate watching it, because there is so much to dislike.

 

So what do you like about it?

 

not a fan of the show, but I did watch the network reruns years ago ...just because they were on.

 

The fact that Pat Harrington is seen as the "great" part of the show would seem to say that maybe it wasn't aimed at the OP's demographic. I'm curious if you have a sister, and if so what did she think about it. Definitely a show built on feminism, which I found refreshing, and makes me think of how far we still have to go in that area.

 

Awful show. But god knows, it was consistent and it had an audience for many years.

 

I can't think of any show more smug and condescending than "Picket Fences", but it was never a hit.

 

I hated it, whenever I saw bits of it ... so I never watched it.

 

Right up there with "Alice."

 

So you have something to complain about on this forum. It's the thing to do here- talk about what you hate.

 

I especially hated the later shows where the sisters get married, bringing on the husbands I suppose to mix it up a bit with new characters, couldn't stand them. I watched the show because it was part of Sunday night's classic line up of All in The Family, One Day, Alice, The Jeffersons, and Trapper John MD - there's no other explanation.

 

When it was first on my aunt told my mom she shouldn't let us watch it because the Bonnie Franklin character was divorced.

 

I watched it when I was a kid and remember liking it quite a bit, tho I'm sure that was mostly due to my raging pre-teen crush on Valerie Bertinelli.

(hey, maybe that's why I never got whole hog into Van Halen as a kid... because Eddie soiled my dream girl! Haha)

My wife and I watched some reruns a few months ago on one of those "retro TV" stations and the show had, unsurprisingly, aged terribly.

 

My crush was on Bonnie Franklin.

 

That's what I'm trying to figure out

 

This must be the phenomena of "Hate Watching" that I've read about. Where you encounter something so awful that you get hooked, can't look away.

I may have gone through this myself with Law And Order a few years ago.

 

Feel the same about Facts of Life. Those later episodes are painfully unfunny, but strangely fascinating. And why was Nancy McKeon always billed last in the credits? "And Nancy McKeon as...Jo".
Anyway, those shows make a good sociological lesson for what was going on at the time, if you read into it. It's also interesting to know all the sordid backstories like with McKenzie Phillips and such.
Oh... the worst has to be "Too Close For Comfort".

 

Awww c'mon. Henry Rush was a genius. When he drew the "Cosmic Cow" comic strip, he held the pencil in the cow puppet's mouth. THAT takes talent!!

 

Middle of the road given the scale of the good, the bad, and the ugly of north american network television in the 70's. By far the most fascinating tv era for me.

 

I didnt know until I just wiki'd, but One Day was developed by Norman Lear who is behind a number of well known 70s shows

All in the Family
The Jeffersons
Sanford and Son
Good Times
Maude

 

I watched the reruns of ODAAT every day growing up in the seventies, and the newly run episodes too. And I too didn't like the show, lol. I had an almost visceral dislike of Bonnie Franklin...her character, demeanor, acting, etc etc......and I didn't much like MacKenzie Philips either. The ONLY reason that I, and many of my friends watched, rhymes with Mallorie Shnertinelli.

Hey, when you're a kid and watch C.H.O.M.P.S. just because Valerie is in it, you know you are smitten ;P

 

I can't think of a remotely nice thing to say about it. From what I saw at my young age, it was a tutorial in "this is the fate of obnoxious, overbearing women." In looking back, I can say the mom was one of the first females I ever encountered where my mind completely shut off whenever she spoke. VB only looked attractive next to rest of them. The daughters looked nothing alike, I assumed the mom was a reformed bad girl and that they were from different baby daddies. The set was tacky and depressing, like everything was bought at the Jefferson's moving sale. Just a vile show and production.

 

Let's face it - some TV is just meant to be watched once! I remember being hooked on Law And Order re-runs back in the late 90's - a few years ago I tried to watch it, and couldn't get through one episode!