I am a 45 year old American, and have watched a lot of television, literally my whole life.

Has there ever been an old television program that you have never seen before and are now discovering decades after said program went off the air?

The show I recently discovered is McHale's Navy. This show came on in 1961 and was on until 1966 on ABC. A successful run, and when Ernest Borgnine recently passed, a lot of the obituaries places highly him headlining this show.

McHale's Navy is a funny show, sort of formulatic, especially for that time period. I would have liked this show a lot more as a kid, and I think that McHale's Navy is much better than Gomer Pyle USMC, a show I saw a lot of as a kid.

Sort of a longer question, which shows have you rarely seen growing up because they never syndicated it to your area? I never really watched The Partridge Family because my local stations or the 1980's cable companies ever show it (like TBS).

Any shows you discovered, and why wasn't McHale's Navy in any TV rotation?

Thanks to Youtube, I've discovered a number of vintage TV Series that I never heard about until I saw an episode on that site. An example is Ripcord which is about some Skydivers who get themselves into various situations where they solve various problems such as apprehending Crooks, find Lost Children, etc. Liking what I saw on Youtube, I checked to see if it was available on DVD. Nope! :( So I checked out ioffer where I found someone who did have this series available. So I got me a copy. :D Another way I found about old series was through the "Shovelware" Box Sets offered by Mill Creek such as Best of TV Detectives and Western TV Classics, among others. Here too if I found a series that I liked I would go to ioffer.com and sell.com to see if any of these were available, and if I found one, I'd get it! :lol:

Car 54 Where Are You?
Mister Ed

with the hub antted tv & metv for me its
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
the wonder years
batmanwith adam west
the waltons
big vally
hawie five o the orgianl
dragnet
riffle man
mister ed
parry mason
cannon
famiy afair
mork&mindy
McHale's Navy

As a fan of vintage fare, I always kept an eye out for programs I'd not encountered, and I eventually ran across most older shows that were available in syndication. But with the advent of dvd's, a whole slew of rare material suddenly appeared, and I've enjoyed watching many things, from "Mr. Peepers" (whose low-key humor is often pretty hilarious, and still comes through via those old kinescopes) to "The Champions" (a really nifty sixties British adventure series about some agents who gain super-powers).

I suppose my latest 'discovery' of a series I'd never encountered is "The Tall Man," a western from the early-1960s, which Timeless released. I didn't expect much from it, because it just seemed rather contrived in the way it ludicrously altered history in its depiction of main characters Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. I mean, good grief, even in its casting of Clu Gulager as Billy. Gulager is a tall guy and in his 30s! Added to all this is a rather quirky, modernistic music score, which lent an extra awkwardness. It just seemed like a series I was very skeptical about, going in. But, it's been actually a pretty lively, entertaining series. A rather pleasant surprise.

A few months ago when I received the "This TV network" I started watching Highway Patrol a show that was on from 1955 - 1959. My mom would watch and I was age 2 when the show ended. Now 50+ years later I am seeing it as adult never thinking a show I maybe slept through as tot I would see again. The way police apprehend criminals is a little hokey but the show is entertaining.

I've been that way with a lot of shows, although not necessarily old old ones. Frasier is a good example of this; never watched it at all in prime time and now it's my all-time favorite show! Caroline in the City is another one. I found Dobie Gillis by watching Nick at Nite years ago, as well as Patty Duke, Donna Reed, Car 54 and Bachelor Father.

I been watching parry mason and family affair