Sure, You Loved Lucy, but Vintage Has Limits A Case of Retro TV Overload

[Mr. Television]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/28/ar...timesarts&_r=0

Television
Sure, You Loved Lucy, but Vintage Has Limits
A Case of Retro TV Overload

JULY 27, 2014



Critic’s Notebook

By NEIL GENZLINGER

Maybe you’re one of those irritating people prone to complaining, “Why can’t they make shows as good as [name of a vintage TV series] anymore?”

For years, that was a safe whine because the shows existed only in the memories of those who had seen them the first time around. But then, in addition to releases on videotape and DVD, came cable. Outlets like Nick at Nite and TV Land discovered that they could live off rebroadcasts of ancient series, and now, in case you haven’t noticed, all sorts of imitators have discovered that, too.

This past Saturday afternoon at 1:30, a Comcast customer in central New Jersey like me could choose from among “7th Heaven” (on a channel called Up that promises “uplifting entertainment”), “Good Times” (TV One), “The Virginian” (Inspire), “The Bill Cosby Show” (Aspire), “The Golden Girls” (TV Land), “Maverick” (Encore Westerns) and others. Expecting to feel nostalgic on Thursday night at 10:30? Cozi has “Magnum P.I.,” Antenna TV has “Sanford and Son,” and Aspire offers “The Flip Wilson Show.”

The problem with the ready availability of this old stuff — don’t even get me started on Internet streaming — is that it forces us into a wistful but abstract longing for what was. And the reality is: All this retro TV is too much of a good thing, or, more correctly, too much of a thing that wasn’t really as good as memory makes it seem. It’s fine to pay respect to the shows of yore, to acknowledge and admire them for delineating and expanding the form and so on. But to actually watch 50-year-old shows all day? I’d rather rip out my eyeballs.

Sure, it’s fun to indulge occasionally — once a week, say. Maybe you’ll get lucky and stumble on a 1966 episode of “Bewitched” called “Man’s Best Friend,” where a young actor named Richard Dreyfuss, still a teenager, made one of his first appearances. Or perhaps you’ll hit upon one of the two “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” episodes from the 1950s directed by the unknown Robert Altman.

But if you’re watching this fare all day, every day, you need help, because “venerable” doesn’t necessarily mean “still watchable.” Sluggish pacing, wooden acting, wince-inducing jokes and obvious plot twists abound in the television of the distant and even not-so-distant past. Too much of this will turn your brain to mush as surely as too much of today’s reality TV will.

I know this is heresy to some, but since I’m in this far, I might as well go whole hog. Here are nine great, important, fabulous vintage (or soon to be) shows that I never want to see again. I don’t know if they are currently being shown on any of the channels mentioned above, but surely somebody has programmed them or plans to in the future. No! Back in the vault, please:

‘I LOVE LUCY’ (premiere: 1951) Yeah, I know; it’s at or near the top of a lot of Best TV Series of All Time lists, and rightly so. In its time, it was defining. But today the broad humor draws only the occasional chuckle. The show is like your high school girlfriend: Just because you loved Lucy once doesn’t mean you still do.


‘THE HONEYMOONERS’ (1955) Same problem, only louder. Couples defined by screaming seem more sad than funny today.

THE MANY LOVES OF DOBIE GILLIS’ (1959) Considering that it gave us one of the most memorable characters in television’s first half-century, the beatnik Maynard G. Krebs (Bob Denver), this series is remarkably drab. Teenagers perhaps found that it spoke to them. If those same people, with a lifetime of perspective now in their heads, were to watch it today, the memory of that would make them flush with embarrassment. At their age, that would constitute a health risk.




‘GILLIGAN’S ISLAND’ (1964) Considering the cultural impact it had, this show wasn’t around for long, but if you were a child when it was on, it looms large. Such characters! Such a predicament! Preserve that innocence by not watching it again, because most of the episodes were actually kind of lame, and some dismaying stereotypes floated through the island from time to time.

‘GREEN ACRES’ (1965) Speaking of stereotypes, there was this empty-headed series. Along with “The Beverly Hillbillies,” “Gomer Pyle” and a few others, it made sure “rural” and “stupid” would be wrongly linked for years to come.

‘WELCOME BACK, KOTTER’ (1975) Love the John Sebastian song; hate the hair and the sight of John Travolta. Even if Mr. Travolta hadn’t mangled Idina Menzel’s name at the Oscars, I don’t think I could take hearing the phrase “up your nose with a rubber hose” again.

‘DALLAS’ (1978) What’s dismaying isn’t so much that this series was ever on, it’s that it ran for 13 years and then was revived in 2012.

‘BOY MEETS WORLD’ (1993) This was and still is a wonderful show. I just don’t want to see it on TV again, because its mere presence might remind me of the sequel that just started, “Girl Meets World,” which doesn’t come close to clearing the bar the original set.

‘SEX AND THE CITY’ (1998) It’s perhaps not quite “vintage” yet, but this series already has the feel of a show whose original fans, when they’re older and wiser, might upon revisiting it say: “Gosh, I really didn’t know anything back then, did I? And some of those clothing choices didn’t age well.”

[robyrob]

i fail to see how the majority of current shows are any better in terms of lazy writing, wooden acting, old/recycled jokes etc - the only real difference is that today's shows are aimed at an audience that is used to mind-numbingly fast pacing and absolutely zero tolerance for any lull in the action and EXPLOSIONS.

I think the problem with the classic shows they are airing on TV now is that they have a small handful of them that they run into the ground and they edit and cut them so badly that they sometimes don't even make sense.

[boechsner]

I totally disagree with the author of this article. If you could pick what cable/over the air channels I could receive, I would pick: Me-TV, Antenna TV and Cozi TV and that's probably about it. Those three channels and my DVD collection which consists of everything from The Addams Family to Dallas, to the Cosby Show to old episodes of Days of Our Lives. I love the past! What can I say!?

I agree with robyrob, the issue here is that certain networks run classic shows into the ground. TV Land, Nick at Nite and even Antenna TV to an extent, run the same shows over and over.

Originally Posted by robyrob

i fail to see how the majority of current shows are any better in terms of lazy writing, wooden acting, old/recycled jokes etc - the only real difference is that today's shows are aimed at an audience that is used to mind-numbingly fast pacing and absolutely zero tolerance for any lull in the action and EXPLOSIONS.

I think the problem with the classic shows they are airing on TV now is that they have a small handful of them that they run into the ground and they edit and cut them so badly that they sometimes don't even make sense.

[bmasters9]

Originally Posted by boechsner

I totally disagree with the author of this article. If you could pick what cable/over the air channels I could receive, I would pick: Me-TV, Antenna TV and Cozi TV and that's probably about it. Those three channels and my DVD collection which consists of everything from The Addams Family to Dallas, to the Cosby Show to old episodes of Days of Our Lives. I love the past! What can I say!?

Likewise! I have Shout!'s complete release of Barney Miller, and I'm a third of the way through season 4, and that ABC police comedy has had more laughs than pretty much everything today.

[broadmoor]

I have a strongly opposite view from this author. Oh, I agree that there are some vintage 'warhorse' shows that have been run to death of which I don't particularly crave to see again anytime soon. And some of the shows he cites have never necessarily been favorites of mine. But given the chance of limiting my tv viewing-time to exclusively old-time shows versus exclusively modern-day shows, I'd choose the former with immediate and emphatic certitude.

In fact, the notion of somehow living my life with a daily diet of watching only current fare is something I'd regard as a horrifying torture... the trashy talk-shows, the crime-shows wallowing in dark perversions, the reality shows with their pathetic look-at-me self-absorbed characters, the sitcoms' reliance on sleaze and uber-cynical 'ironic' humor, and everything in-between. I find the whole modern-tv landscape incredibly bleak and depressing. It imparts with me a very, very negative view of both society and humanity. A really sour taste, that lingers and drags me down. Older shows might admittedly vary in quality, but they (in contrast) leave me feeling upbeat and energized. Anything from an old black-and-white western to Quinn Martin crime-dramas to "Cosby." Vintage fare exudes a different attitude, different mindset. Regardless of genre. It boosts my spirits, almost always leaving me in a good mood and positive frame-of-mind. So I obviously don't agree with the author of this piece. Not even remotely.

[SitcomsOffline]

I also disagree with his opinion, though I understand where he's coming from. Sometimes, when living in the past, you can lose focus on the present and future.

That said, I don't think people watch older shows for just the nostalgia. But they also watch it because those shows were simply of better quality, and original for their time. I wish he would have perhaps suggested some shows that are in production that he thinks are entertaining to support his opinion.

Ken Levine (who was a writer on Cheers and Frasier) actually had a good blog entry on the decline in the quality of TV shows. Basically, he concluded by saying he refuses to write TV shows for children, which is how he views the quality of many present day shows.

http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2014/0...-this-low.html

He also had a direct response to the NY Times Editorial...

http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2014/0...cy-enough.html

[Mr. Television]

Yea when I hear that today's tv is so much better I just shake my head. There are hundreds of channels and 90% of the stuff that is on it is crap. Sure there are still some good shows if you look hard enough.

[ABC1]

I would rather watch reruns of shows that will make me laugh, like Night Court, The Love Boat and numerous other shows than most of the "reality" garbage that's on now.

[Regulus]

Originally Posted by ABC1

I would rather watch reruns of shows that will make me laugh, like Night Court, The Love Boat and numerous other shows than most of the "reality" garbage that's on now.

-Seconded

[UMFaninMD]

I don't watch a lot of today's TV, except for Once Upon a Time, Doctor Who, current British crime dramas that PBS airs, Salem, true crime shows and most recently, Fargo. But I also don't watch the bulk of retro TV because it's the same shows over and over again. Maybe it's because stations can't get access, but the bulk of my retro viewing is on You Tube. They have the obscure horror anthologies I love, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and the Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and well-known retro TV that isn't on cable, like Punky Brewster, and vintage soap opera. I get what the author is saying, but the majority of modern TV just doesn't cut it for me and there's no shame in admitting that.

[Will and Grace Fanatic]

I love older tv shows and current tv shows. I don't agree with the article that we should just stop watching older shows so much. I can laugh out loud while watching shows like I Love Lucy all day. But I do love the great humor that is The Big Bang Theory as well. Fact is there has always been crap shows from each decade and great shows from each decade.

[TVFactFan]

The author and the article is a joke because none of these shows was on the list


All in the Family
Good Times
Sanford and Son

[Sal]

Originally Posted by TVFactFan

The author and the article is a joke because none of these shows was on the list


All in the Family
Good Times
Sanford and Son

What about The Jeffersons? It goes with all 3 of them!



As for the article itself, I also believe that the authour is full of horse testicles. If today's TV prime time shows overall were of a better quality then it would make more sense to watch a reasonable amount of both old classic series and new favourites and not feel cheated about it. Right now, the nightly shows as a whole are so bad I would rather spend those prime time hours watching sports live or classic sitcoms online and on DVD since I can't find any of them on any channel. Also, if you get tired of watching a certain older show over and over again (like "I Love Lucy", for example) there are plenty of others to choose from that you can turn to instead and enjoy as often as you like and you can always go back to "Lucy" anytime. That way, it will seem a little fresher even if you know what's about to happen. (SPOILER ALERT: The Castaways never leave the island! ) On my Classic TV links page there are over 100 classic sitcoms and counting to watch online. If that sounds like "retro TV overload" to you, then pass me a shovel and I'll keep the load coming!

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by Sal

What about The Jeffersons? It goes with all 3 of them!



As for the article itself, I also believe that the authour is full of horse testicles. If today's TV prime time shows overall were of a better quality then it would make more sense to watch a reasonable amount of both old classic series and new favourites and not feel cheated about it. Right now, the nightly shows as a whole are so bad I would rather spend those prime time hours watching sports live or classic sitcoms online and on DVD since I can't find any of them on any channel. Also, if you get tired of watching a certain older show over and over again (like "I Love Lucy", for example) there are plenty of others to choose from that you can turn to instead and enjoy as often as you like and you can always go back to "Lucy" anytime. That way, it will seem a little fresher even if you know what's about to happen. (SPOILER ALERT: The Castaways never leave the island! ) On my Classic TV links page there are over 100 classic sitcoms and counting to watch online. If that sounds like "retro TV overload" to you, then pass me a shovel and I'll keep the load coming!

The Jeffersons hasn't had a marathon every saturday for the past year like Good Times or aired on cable for 11 straight years like Sanford and Son or in syndication since 2000 like All in the Family

[Sal]

Originally Posted by TVFactFan

The Jeffersons hasn't had a marathon every saturday for the past year like Good Times or aired on cable for 11 straight years like Sanford and Son or in syndication since 2000 like All in the Family

There's a Jeffersons marathon this holiday Monday on DejaView starting at 11 am and running all day, and I know it won't be the last one. So there you go.