Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler I used to like this show but....

OY! Now I REALLY feel old! The "decades" list starts with the 1940s and I remember watching nearly all of the shows listed in that decade....only because they were still on in the 1950s. We got our first TV in 1951.

I was raised on black and white media (our first color set was purchased around 1960). As the copyrights on Black and white movies of the 30s and 40s would expire, they often were telecast which is why I'm still such a huge fan of the movies of those decades. Even if newer color movies were broadcast (which the movie industry rarely permitted due to being terrified that TV would kill the movie business) we got them in black and white. Needless to say the dramatic change from B&W to color in The Wizard of Oz had little impact on me until 1960. So, not only does black and white stuff not bother me in the least, I'm actually drawn to it (nostalgia?).

Buck Rogers comes to mind. Airwolf was another. Airwolf wasn't bad though, even to today's standards.

Duke's of Hazard was a favorite too. What teenaged boy wouldn't like that show?? Hot brunett's in cutoffs and a cool car.

Jack, maybe you're drawn to black & white movies/shows because they were actually entertaining and well acted by classically trained and talented people....like "Attack of the Giant Leeches" (1959)

Seriously, I was born in the 60's("19"-60's, before Mark makes a joke!) and I really enjoy a lot of the b&w movies and shows, I guess some of it's nostalgia, but they're just fun to watch and entertaining, which really is why we watch isn't it?

Ha! I was thinking exactly the same thing a few days ago while watching a Friends re-run. It’s so cheese and corny is not even funny. I couldn’t stand watching more than 10 minutes of it. How could a show get so dated in such a short time? I can understand shows from the seventies and 80’s becoming unwatchable, but a show from the late 90s? Weird. I agree, Sienfeld is still funny. The other day I watched a Married with Children re-run; still somewhat relevant, edgy; not the best script but funny nonetheless.

Awwww, Adrian..... I'd post here whether you watched Night Court or not.

I gotta agree with Buck Rogers. I'd TiVo'd some on the Retro channel and that stupid robot sidekick was really, really lame.

LOL! Well, the leeches aside (every decade has a lot of really terrible movies), I agree with the entertaining and well acted part. I am reluctant to try that approach with younger folks simply because I fear things (the world) have changed so much they are unable connect with the acting/humor/culture of the old movies. Perfectly understandable if they can't.

Watching the culture/moral attitudes/manners change as one's life progresses is both interesting and saddening. I think if one lives long enough the world changes into something unfamiliar and unsatisfying. Makes it easier to face one's own death.

I can remember my mother (born 1912), during the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, wistfully looking out our front window and sadly sighing "they changed the rules on us."

I suppose the day will come when the culture will have changed so much that the movies of the 30s and 40s, which I so love, will simply not resonate with the current population. Fortunately, for me, I won't be around to see it.

That is cool. I wish they had of left the original commercials in some of my 'classic' DVD's like 'Perry Mason' or on my 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents" where he says "and now a word from our sponser...".

Haha! can't believe I'm saying this but....Leave the comercials in, it adds to the show.

"....and now, our new improved Skowl chewing tobacco, tastier than ever, 4 out of 5 doctors chew it, for the REAL man...try some now, she'll love a man who chews and spits Skowl".

Gone with the Wind
Dr. Zhivago
Night of the Living Dead

Some movies are timeless. TV series seem to have missed that quality somehow.

I think that the writers/directors these days lack some of the creativity that was around years ago. People like Hitchcock and to a lesser extent, Rod Serling, made you 'think', and didn't assume the audience was ignorant and needed the story spelled out for them. Hollywood has taken the low road with either "reality" shows or "confrontational" shows because it's cheap, no real actors, writers, storyline ect....just do something stupid, we'll film it, just pretend there's no camera.

I believe the difference between 'then' and 'now' is that 'then' you were an actor first and foremost, today all that seems to matter is 'celebrity', talent doesn't really mean much anymore.

Still, it's up to this generation, and the next...to demand better.

HEY! YOU KIDS! GET OFF MY LAWN!!

I'll argue that the best TV shows of today are better than the best shows of the past. Naturally, comparing the unexceptional trends of today to the classics of other eras is going to make it seem like we're falling short.