Uncle Earl's Classic TV is gone!

[Sal]

One of the best Classic TV web sites and my primary go-to site for the playlists that I use for my fantasy TV channel is now history, with its domain having expired earlier this month without any warning. That site was called "Uncle Earl's Classic TV" and it was a large one-man operation that had been running since the late 1990s, when the Internet first gained popularity. That man was "Uncle Earl" Oliver, a retired musician now in his 70s who created the site as a spinoff of another popular site called "Solie's Vintage Wrestling" which showed highlights and full matches from all the popular wrestling organizations (WWF, WWE, WCW, etc.) The site had full episodes and playlists from classic TV series of the 50s, 60s, and 70s of all types: sitcoms, dramas, westerns, sci-fi and more. It was a valuable and informative source for me and now I will have to find other alternatives to use. If anyone can suggest any for me, I would appreciate it and I would love to see them. Thank you.

Thank you, Uncle Earl!!!

[TJ]

According to his Wikipedia page, Uncle Earl is 75. It's possible he passed away or had a medical issue. I couldn't find an obituary.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Oliver

His personal website earloliver.com doesn't work either. He was still performing as of December 22, so it doesn't look like he was fully retired. This is his Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/earl.oliver.33/

I once forgot to renew our domain name. Thankfully I was able to quickly reactivate it.

It looks like solie.org expired on December 22. It seems like he would have renewed it by now. Hopefully it comes back in some form.

[kk-likes-tv]

There was show upload news on his updates page a few days ago.

Here's the main links from the Wayback Machine. They were last archived three weeks ago and you can still access the show pages but the videos don't play.

https://web.archive.org/web/20231216...s://solie.org/

https://web.archive.org/web/20231208...org/ClassicTV/

https://web.archive.org/web/20231204...ary/index.html

[franciis]

did uncle earl go off line once b4 several months ago ?

[24/7 reruns]

I've emailed suggestions to Earl in the past so I've been on his general email list.

A few days ago he wrote, "I wanted to let everyone know that the Uncle Earl site is down. Ther appears to be some problems with my web server - at the moment I am working to solve the problems, but it could be down for a while. I will let you know if and when I get it back up."

So hopefully things will be up and running soon.

[cloggedmind]

Earl is done with the websites for good according to his recent FB post. Sad for us, but good for him to move on with his life and other interests.

[Sal]

I was thinking of doing my own Uncle Earl's type of webpage myself with the same type of setup that would focus mainly on classic sitcoms from the 50s to the 70s that would be found on YouTube and other video sharing platforms where you can find them easily. Earl never used any of the streaming sites to get his shows, just the ones that had been there before streaming became popular. The big risk of course is that a show could be on YouTube one day and gone the next before you know it. In cases like that, I would look to use more than one link. I could start it here in the DVD section but it could get moved somewhere else after I'm done. One site I like to use is OK.RU where I could make playlists like this:

The Brady Bunch

The Partridge Family

Gilligan's Island

Happy Days

Addams Family

This is just a small sample of what I wish to accomplish. I hope you will like it.

[24/7 reruns]

Originally Posted by Sal

I was thinking of doing my own Uncle Earl's type of webpage myself with the same type of setup that would focus mainly on classic sitcoms from the 50s to the 70s that would be found on YouTube and other video sharing platforms where you can find them easily. Earl never used any of the streaming sites to get his shows, just the ones that had been there before streaming became popular. The big risk of course is that a show could be on YouTube one day and gone the next before you know it. In cases like that, I would look to use more than one link. I could start it here in the DVD section but it could get moved somewhere else after I'm done. One site I like to use is OK.RU where I could make playlists like this:

The Brady Bunch

The Partridge Family

Gilligan's Island

Happy Days

Addams Family

This is just a small sample of what I wish to accomplish. I hope you will like it.

Would internet archive be a better place for this? I know Earl has posted there and those post still exist.

[Hazel Anyday]

The most useful thing about the Earl site was that you were able to find what show you wanted. Which once you clicked on it would take you to access of those shows on the Internet Archive. It was then on Internet Archive where you could download those shows. The trouble with only using Internet Archive if you try to find a particular series it most likely will not show anything. BUT using the Earl site first to find the show you want and THEN clicking on Internet Archive from the Earl site that would get you to the shows on I.Archive that you wouldn't find by just searching for them without first going thru Earl.

So it may be the easiest thing to do is to create a site of yours that would show just the names of TV classics which when you click on it from there would then lead you to those shows already available on Internet Archive. Using your new site as the place to go to help people find the shows they want on Internet Archive.

I hope all that makes sense. I know I've tried to find shows just using Internet Archive and the search there won't show you what you want. But when I went to the Earl site to find the show and then clicking on the Internet Archive symbol from the Earl site now that would lead you to the shows available on Internet Archive. If you could do that same thing with your new site then that would be perfect.

Good luck!

[Sal]

When Uncle Earl's site disappeared, I was asking for someone to find for me a site like his that carries a number of classic series of all types all in one place. The Internet Archive was suggested to me and it is a good place to go to find lots of classic series both popular and rare. If you're looking for a one-stop site with a large catalog of shows all in one place, I found a site called PDTV.LIVE (formerly called PDTV.ME) which has a lot of great shows to watch from all genres from Abbott & Costello to Zorro. The display layout is a little crude and awkward but you should still be able to find what you want and many series are complete and able to be downloaded. Take a look here and see what you think:

PDTV.LIVE

[24/7 reruns]

Originally Posted by Sal

When Uncle Earl's site disappeared, I was asking for someone to find for me a site like his that carries a number of classic series of all types all in one place. The Internet Archive was suggested to me and it is a good place to go to find lots of classic series both popular and rare. If you're looking for a one-stop site with a large catalog of shows all in one place, I found a site called PDTV.LIVE (formerly called PDTV.ME) which has a lot of great shows to watch from all genres from Abbott & Costello to Zorro. The display layout is a little crude and awkward but you should still be able to find what you want and many series are complete and able to be downloaded. Take a look here and see what you think:

PDTV.LIVE

Thanks for sharing this. It is a difficult website to navigate.

[wench1109]

Is anyone else not getting an sound on the videos from this site?

[denny]

You need to cut the sound on, on the player.

[ShellyNoontime]

Originally Posted by Sal

When Uncle Earl's site disappeared, I was asking for someone to find for me a site like his that carries a number of classic series of all types all in one place. The Internet Archive was suggested to me and it is a good place to go to find lots of classic series both popular and rare. If you're looking for a one-stop site with a large catalog of shows all in one place, I found a site called PDTV.LIVE (formerly called PDTV.ME) which has a lot of great shows to watch from all genres from Abbott & Costello to Zorro. The display layout is a little crude and awkward but you should still be able to find what you want and many series are complete and able to be downloaded. Take a look here and see what you think:

PDTV.LIVE

Hello, I was enjoying the pdtv site but as of 3-18 I can no longer connect to it. It just times out and never comes up. Are you having that issue too?

[Sal]

Originally Posted by ShellyNoontime

Hello, I was enjoying the pdtv site but as of 3-18 I can no longer connect to it. It just times out and never comes up. Are you having that issue too?

I had that same issue for the last couple of days but it should be better now if you try again.