I appreciate that agreement! BTW, here's, IMO, a great example of the way things used to be, from an ABC show called Ripley's Believe It Or Not!, from a 1983 broadcast of that same show (Columbia Pictures Television 80s Torch Lady at the end of it):
I loathe continuing story-lines. The writers just seem to be making it up as they go along. Give me a fresh story every week.
I wish TV sitcoms would return to using more than two or three sets, and used more physical acting instead of just dialogue. An old-fashioned laugh track would be a nice change over using a studio audience. For dramas, i'm also tired of continuing stories. I understand a network wants to keep an audience, but if a show can't retain an audience with a strong ensemble and stories, maybe it shouldn't be on the air.
TV stars who look like real people, like Roy! He co-hosted the Mickey Mouse Club for three years. Can you imagine seeing a mug like that today on TV?
Prior to Sopranos we were missing pacing, humor, unpredictability, multidimensionality, and several other things that not even old TV shows could achieve. After that there was a tremendous leap forward in shows that took many of them beyond what was possible even in movies.
That's pretty much how it's been w/The Streets of San Francisco, for one-- outside of that "Thrill Killers" fifth-and-final-season two-parter, which I haven't made it to yet, every show I've seen on DVD of that 1972-77 ABC police/detective series has been a single story.
Or, on QM shows, "(name of show), a Quinn Martin Production...starring (names of cast members)...with guest stars (insert where applicable)...tonight's episode, (episode name)." This wasn't on all QM shows all the time, though-- Cannon (w/the late, great William Conrad as Frank Cannon) didn't have the spoken QM credit until the fifth and final go of that one (1975-76). Here's an example, from a third-season episode of The Streets of San Francisco called "Mister Nobody," OAD 12/19/74 on ABC:
And the way they spoke the title so ominously, like one of the plagues of Egypt: "Tonight's episode: Death Walks Behind Us"
Sorry can't agree with this or the last sentence especially. While I admit there is a lot of crap quality movies, the best of the best, TV shows aren't even close.
I can make an argument that shows like Sopranos, GoT, The Wire and to a lesser extent Breaking Bad are close and because they have a dozen or more hours over the course of a season, they can surpass what is possible with even a trilogy of good movies. Prior to 2000 I would have agreed with you. But the quality of writing, acting and directing in HBO shows in particular meets or exceeds that of most films. Heck, take even a not-so-serious show like Entourage for example. The pacing and humor of the show was far better than the movie turned out to be.
I could care less about wholesomeness and language. But I miss themes sung by the characters. But I also think tv these days has a lot that we would have envied in the day. Shows like Happy Days and Lavern and Shirley and dozens of others running on fumes and not being cancelled; short, tight seasons instead of long, sprawling ones with unrelated episodes and little continuity; story arcs in general, although some shows had them (Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres did to some extent)...