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

And he must have been expelled from every university in North America, as he wore a different school sweater in every episode.

 

Maybe a little. Good diagnosis

 

See, this is what I remember of TV in the 70s. When people (usually Boomers) complain about how awesome TV used to be and how horrible everything is now, I remember sitting with my family and mindlessly watching wretched sitcoms with obnoxious acting, middling (at best) writing and utterly lousy production values. There were gems for sure, no doubt about it. But the vast majority of it was at best equal to 'One Day at a Time' or 'Alice' or whatever.

dan c

 

That is so true! I have METV, which shows old shows, and I watched an episode of 'Green Hornet', a favorite as a child. It was awful! They also have 'Emergency' & 'CHIPS', which are also terrible. Lotsa junk made then, but memory tends to be selective.

 

It was all junk but it was also the peak of American culture, imo, and there were all kinds of new ideas about gender and sexuality and race that were popping out and not all of them were positive, but it was far from being intellectually dead. This is why I'm actually grateful to have grown up in that period, and probably why so many carry fond memories of it. It was an interesting time to be forming your ideas about the world.
Now every sitcom is either a copy of Seinfeld, Friends, or Everybody Loves Raymond, and every drama seems to spring from the Law and Order and NCIS family - all autopsies and orange and blue hyper-real cinematography. It would be frightening and boring to be a child today. They don't even watch TV that much anymore. At least as much as we did.

 

Lol @ Alice :"FIX ME A OMELET! FIX IT YOURSELF LARDO!"

 

As far as Alice goes, it wasn't too bad though I wasn't crazy about Linda Lavin (and her singing).
However, she was great in The Muppets Take Manhattan and that short lived show with Sean Hayes.
Sorry to veer off topic but it's my thread

 

I loved One Day at a Time and most of the others mentioned here, I even liked Bonnie Franklin. I was a latch key kid at the time... my mother worked full time and was often out at night as well, so it was usually just me and my older brother at home... I guess "M S Romano" became sort of a surrogate mom to me. And naturally, I was completely smitten with Valerie.

 

Hmm, I see your point. But it does seem like some sort of peak in terms of a unified cultural influence via the TV. On any given night, much of America could be found watching the same thing. And the industry itself must have booming.

 

A friend and I were commenting on that very same point a week ago while watching, with grim determination, an episode of Archie's Place.

 

1976-1977 was grim... recession going on, oil prices skyrocketing, Carter struggling with the economy, disco pissing all the rock fans off. Not a cultural peak by any means. To me, this era was bad hairstyles, ugly cars, and shag carpeting.

 

I feel the same way about Linda Lavin (and her singing).
I also heard she wasn't very nice toward Polly Holiday (Flo).
I'm not sure about this, but I'm thinking Vidiot would most likely know about it.

 

Mel, KISS MY GRITS!

 

I kind of like One Day at a Time. The early shows were ground breaking in regards to the life of a single woman and a single mother. I'm shocked to see the dislike people have for Bonnie Franklin, she grated on my nerves too.

I always thought Mackenzie Phillips was attractive and of course Valerie Bertinelli was and is really cute. Always did hate Glen Scarpelli. The show basically ended when they killed off Ron Rifkin's character.

After that it was grim, it seems like they made Schneider boring, Barbara got married to a boring character. Ann got married to that character's father, as played by a sleepwalking Howard Hesseman. Dreadful. I think a writer for My Three Sons ended writing for those later seasons. That says a lot.

 

My older sister almost always controlled the TV (Most households only had 1 or 2 televisions back then) so I usually ended up watching shows like One Day At A Time, Alice or The Love Boat. At the time, it seemed to me that the worst show that she always watched was Little House on the Prairie. But looking back, even that was probably better than the shrill sitcoms. I just zoned out on most of them, but on the positive side, having these shows on drove me to listen to more music rather than watch TV, and eventually learn how to play guitar competently.

 

That's sad to hear.
I liked him on Happy Days.

 

"Seindfeld" and "Friends" ripoffs? Maybe a decade ago but I don't know about now. The best comedies now tend to be single camera and downright cinematic in look, and acting and delivery that is much more subtle than in the 70s. The writing on my favorite shows just blows my mind. I marvel at how clever, smart and quick the better TV comedies are now. And as for drama...seriously, this is a friggin drop dead amazing golden age. The L&O and NCIS era ended years ago.

There's a ton of utter crap on right now, but that's because there's more need for mindless content spread over dozens of channels. There also happens to be programming that is light years smarter and more sophisticated than anything anyone could've imagined in the 70s.

dan c

 

You're right. All is well with the world. How could I miss that?
I think that today's TV could be said to be on par with that of the 70s and 80s in QUALITY (meaning, there is none), except perhaps that it's more depressing and overly concerned with realism (of the darker kind) and far less interesting and engaging to watch. Most of the "golden age" dramas are actually lesser versions of films that were made awhile ago. Sorry to not be overly thrilled with serials about sexy vampires or apocalyptic zombie scenarios.

 

I do miss the warm, cozy feelings I got watching sitcoms.

 

Every modern show makes me want to puke. Heck, some of the scenes in CSI, Greys Anatomy, and Law and Order look like something out of a Fulci film

 

I haven't had those since the 1960s. Not much warm or cozy in the 1970s, 1980s, or 1990s.

 

"There's a new girl in town and she's Looking GOOD"

 

From deadline dot com:

 

Ever hear of 'The Sopranos', 'The Wire', 'Homeland', 'Breaking Bad', 'Treme', could go on with a bunch more, they all lack quality?