Old TV Shows that don't suck (revisited)

This issue was addressed by the Gorts a year or so ago and they were pretty firm that old closed threads would not be reopened. Now I'm sure Mr Hoffman can overrule them but it seemed that it would take that kind of intercession. They recommended quoting from the OP of the closed thread in the OP of the new thread so people could easily find the older thread.

 

Magnum p.i. it doesn't get any cooler that a dude rolling a Ferrari, he buddy flying a Hughes 500d helicopter, and a guy managing a island club. Add in Higens, cool music, and some gun play, you have a winner.

 

The "A" Team, another awesome tv show from back in the day. I was fortunate to see Mr. T at the airport where I worked back then. T.v. was more fun back then......

 

Ok, well, I used the title of the closed thread and tacked on a (revisited). Hope everyone understands.

 

Yeah, I always thought of him as Jim Rockford's son who moved to Hawaii and was much more successful. And he was a chick magnet, we can't forget that!

 

Lance White

 

He appeared in a two parter towards the beginning of the last season called "Welcome Home."

 

The main one that holds up in every way to me is Kung Fu.

A little bit later done I would say Felicity.

Paper Chase deserves a mention as well.

 

We're also enjoying watching LOU GRANT, finally being released on DVD after all these years. Seasons 1-4 are all out. S5 is announced, but the date's allegedly been pushed back. Amazon still lists it as a May date. Anyway, this series always amazed me in that they took a funny member of a funny show and made him the focus of a top-notch drama that delved into newspaper journalism and how it related to the political and social issues of the day.

To be sure, it's totally a product of its time. Newspapers are a dying breed, these people started the series using typewriters, they have to fight for pay phones - and yet the underlying stories are as relevant today as they were then. Good show.

 

The second season is also single camera, and it's pretty much the same as season 1 except for the episode "Fonzie Gets Married" (I believe that's the title) which was their first multi-camera episode done as a test...

Yeah, once Richie left, it was down hill from there... Sure, there was the dumb catchphrase ("Sit on it") and Richie's singing of "Blueberry Hill" which got annoying, but when all the "new" & "replacement" characters started coming on, it *was* downhill from there, at a very fast speed...

 

Oh, agreed: "Kung Fu" is great... I'm glad to own the complete series on DVD...

 

Me too, that's how I know how well it held up over all those years. I had never seen any of it since original airing, and then watched all the DVDs. The show was even better than I had remembered it to be. How rarely that can be said about much of anything.

 

Back in the day I watched, and enjoyed, about ever old show named so far, at least on page 1 and, don't think they hold up compared to the best of 2000 and later. I do think Mary Hartman Mary Hartman, Fernwood Tonight (Greatness!!) and Soap would hold up fairly well. Good luck finding those on Dvd or reruns tho.

 

"Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" *is* available on DVD:


Amazon.com: Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman: The Complete Series: Louise Lasser, Greg Mullavey, Mary Kay Place, Dabney Coleman, Graham Jarvis, Claudia Lamb, Dody Goodman, Philip Bruns, Victor Killian, Debralee Scott, Bruce Solomon, Joan Darling, Ann Marcus, Jerry Adelman, Daniel Gregory Browne: Movies & TV

I forget which store it was at, either Target or Walmart, but I recently seen it at one of those stores while browsing their DVD section... It is out there...

 

I got to see some Fernwood Tonites again and I liked it so much better than when I originally saw it as a kid! I hope to see Mary Hartman once more as I'm sure it will be a similar situation.

 

There is a 3 DVD Volume 1 set that is very reasonably priced. The complete series box is 38 DVDs!

 

The three DVD set you're referring to must have been what I seen at one of the two stores mentioned in my previous post, because even though I only noticed it in passing, I'm sure what I seen was not a thirty eight disc set

 

Yes, earlier in the last season for a two part episode.

 

I did the last season of Magnum, and the people were really great to work with and the show was fun (but somewhat dumb). What was interesting about Tom Selleck is that he would occasionally do "departure" episodes that were actually quite serious and downbeat, including the final two-parter (which he also directed). It was actually a pretty good show for this kind of thing. Selleck came in to personally supervise and he really knew his stuff -- he's a much smarter guy than I suspect most people would think.

One of the producers told me they really wanted to say in that final episode that Higgins had been Robin Masters all along, but they hedged at the last minute and decided not to say it. I think the plan was to do a TV movie a few years later, but as far as I know that never happened.

 

Impressive Vidiot! I thought I saw robin masters on the episode where Higgins was off to join a british army for a secrit battle, he was on the phone, he had on shades, and had a nice looking gal in the room. So did they really shave down the foam in the drivers seat of the Ferrari so Tom could fit in it? I did notice the later episodes seem more grim than the campy first ones. I still love the snorkel gal and Tom checking out her booty, LOL!

 

So is Soap:

SOAP - The Complete Series https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VX21VR0/

Fernwood 2Night is still MIA as far as an official DVD release, but I'm fairly certain that the complete series can be found with a little digging.

 

Yes, I agree it's great that "Lou Grant" is being released in full on DVD. Kudos to Shout! Factory for getting this done.

I believe the first three seasons were (and maybe still are) available for streaming on Hulu, but it's nice to have DVD copies. And Seasons 4 and 5 can't be seen anywhere else to my knowledge (well, someone in recent years posted Season 4 episodes to YouTube, but the picture quality isn't very good).

I was born in the late 1970s and thus never saw "Lou Grant" in its original run (1977-82), but I became hooked when the A&E Network showed reruns in the 1990s. In fact, partially inspired by the series, I went on to become a journalist. I'm still working in that field and have to say that "Lou Grant" probably offers the most realistic portrayal of daily journalism that I've seen in a TV drama. Not that it's perfect, but I can tell that the producers, writers and actors all did their homework.

While the series certainly is dated in some ways, many of the story lines and issues it addressed remain relevant today. Above all, the series was very well-written and acted, typical of the great shows that the MTM production company was creating in that era.

I hope that Season 5 gets released in a timely fashion. I also saw on tvshowsondvd.com that its release date was supposedly being delayed, but Amazon still says May 9.

 

"Burns and Allen" holds up very well as it's based on people misunderstanding things. Even when you can see where Gracie Allen's "dumb Dora" is going to say, it is still a kick. Also interesting that Burns was in his mid fifties and they are doing some "George is old" jokes.

 

My favorites are The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Twilight Zone and Emergency! I usually end up stopping on them while channel surfing. It's easy to forget the most recent of them ceased production nearly 30 years ago. I enjoyed watching Emergency! on METV last year and my 5 year old daughter got interested in it too!

 

My mom was in the ICU last week (she's fine now) and she was on an IV drip. I looked at the bag and saw a familiar phrase from Emergency - Lactated Ringers!