Retro TV

I remember some family participation shows - one being Sing Along With Mitch, Interenational Circus with Don Ameche and the Sat nite Chiller Theater on 3D nite with the glasses - Going back to the beginngs of UHF TV I remember watching a grainy show with Zacherly called Disco Teen and recently discoverd Uncle Floyd on Facebook and a site called StageIt (where for 5 bucks once a week Uncle Floyd hosts some reruns and guests including BonJovi, Cyndi Lauper and Howard Stern)


softparade said:

I remember some family participation shows - one being Sing Along With Mitch, Interenational Circus with Don Ameche and the Sat nite Chiller Theater on 3D nite with the glasses - Going back to the beginngs of UHF TV I remember watching a grainy show with Zacherly called Disco Teen and recently discoverd Uncle Floyd on Facebook and a site called StageIt (where for 5 bucks once a week Uncle Floyd hosts some reruns and guests including BonJovi, Cyndi Lauper and Howard Stern)

 I remember when Uncle Floyd played the basement of the Maplewood Library!


as I was watching the clip I posted earlier, when I came across The Jack Benny Show with it's violin theme song, I went back to a very old memory of me crawling behind my mom on the couch as the theme was playing and wailing - I was very upset while listening to it. I don't know if I though it was too sad or what, but it was very affecting.


I loved Miss Francis on Ding Dong school, a short lived nursery school type show that was a forerunner of Romper Room. Miss Francis was special, tho. 


The Merry Mailman, Dragnet, 

Who remembers Junior Frolics with Uncle Fred Sayles?


Even before the streaming TV era, it seemed like Uncle Floyd and other public accessy kinds of shows disappeared.  


bub said:

Even before the streaming TV era, it seemed like Uncle Floyd and other public accessy kinds of shows disappeared.  

 I think maybe the Advent of widespread cable television which provided entertainment content 24 hours a day made it more challenging 4 shows like that. Why would you go spend time looking around the UHF dial on your TV at odd hours when there were 57 channels to surf on cable.


Formerlyjerseyjack said:

The Merry Mailman, Dragnet, 

Who remembers Junior Frolics with Uncle Fred Sayles?

 I remember them along with a silent cartoon with a farmer chasing after mice.... Ah simple days of six channels


In my earlier years in NJ, those public access channels were part of my cable package and there were some cutely amateurish shows on.  But those channels are not part of the stream-only packages available to us.


Had to eat dinner fast to get out of the kitchen in time for Ramar of the Jungle!  And i loved Queen for a Day, but my mom thought it was truly awful (she was definitely a stiff-upper-lip sort of person).


One of my favorite shows of the mid 60's was The 21st Century hosted by Walter Cronkite. It attempted to show us what life would be like in the 21st century. I lived for that kind of stuff.

Here's a sample episode


My dad and I loved the 21st Century.


yup. Sunday evening, at around 6:30-ish, I believe.


My dad and I watched all of the mystery shows. Inspector Mark Saber,  Mr. Lucky.

I lived for old Charlie Chan movies. Everyone in the dark then the light came on, "The murderer is....."

Best of all old Sherlock Holmes movies.


Anyone remember the live drama shows? I believe one was The Philco Theater.

One broadcast was "Requiem for a Heavyweight," staring Jack Palance. There were shows of this quality every week for a couple of years.


A lot of those great live performances were lost, but some are still around and on Youtube, including the Palance "Requiem" (written by Rod Serling!) 

Formerlyjerseyjack said:

Anyone remember the live drama shows? I believe one was The Philco Theater.

One broadcast was "Requiem for a Heavyweight," staring Jack Palance. There were shows of this quality every week for a couple of years.


I sort of remember the Philco Theater also Playhouse 90 and some early Channel 13 grainy drama - The only one I recall vividly was late 1960's Live tv production of "Laura' with Lee Radizwell.  It got terrible reviews but I thought it was good.   I remember the TV soap Dark Shadows was live as well.  Our tv reception was bad LOL!


softparade said:

I sort of remember the Philco Theater also Playhouse 90 and some early Channel 13 grainy drama - The only one I recall vividly was late 1960's Live tv production of "Laura' with Lee Radizwell.  It got terrible reviews but I thought it was good.   I remember the TV soap Dark Shadows was live as well.  Our tv reception was bad LOL!

 As for TV reception, I remember pictures shrinking as the tube became old. Tinkering ran in my Dad's family and I loved looking behind at the tubes. When I complained that the image didn't fill the frame my Dad left the room and returned with tape and surrounded the image with the new "frame."  I've inherited the family sarcasm.


Lately, TVLand has been running the following disclaimer before episodes of Bonanza and Gunsmoke.


I always enjoy watching Perry Mason winning case after case in a manner that actually never happens in a real court room, -getting someone other than the accused to confess on the stand.


Lately we’ve been getting our retro tv kicks with Wings, Taxi, and WKRP in Cincinnati.  


drummerboy said:

Lately, TVLand has been running the following disclaimer before episodes of Bonanza and Gunsmoke.

I suppose they have to.  Either that, or go into every program and delete great slabs of content or try to change the dialogue in some manner, or not play the program at all.

By coincidence, I caught a re-run of the Dambusters movie a few weeks ago.  One of the main characters had a black dog named 'N**ger'.  Every time the dog's name was mentioned, I could hear where they (someone) had tried to change the word to 'Digger'.  Not very successfully, mind you.  The changed name stood out like the proverbial ...


drummerboy said:

I thought I'd start this thread (with filmcarp's permission. 
cheese
   ) so as to avoid hijacking the What Series Should I Watch Next thread.

so, talk about favorite old series and are you watching any of them now.

Or whatever.

I've been watching The Andy Griffith show for a while now. I just started watching Bonanza, and I'm surprised at how entertaining it still is.

I'd love to re-watch the original Superman, but I can't find it anywhere.

I never knew this thread existed. Frankly I think discovering or re-watching older series should be posted in the main thread: What series should I watch next. So many folks during Covid or downtime discovered series they never knew about. But given this thread now exists I'll say this and probably say it on the original What Series thread too.

After watching and enjoying Madam Secretary for the firs time I went back to West Wing which I saw only when it originally aired. Oh my. It's as good as I remember it. Whereas I may not ever re-watch Madam Secretary highly suggest a re-watch of West Wing. Now on HBO Max.


I never knew this thread existed either!

I loved the detective shows. Colombo, matlock , Rockford files and anything with Agatha Christie’s involvement. Poirot !!

Johnny Carson’s reruns still cracks me up. I used to watch three’s company but I can’t now. 
I think the UHF thingy was for the antenna on the rooftop? 


I have a channel on FIOS called DECADES which airs old Dick Cavett shows, among other old TV shows. I'm enjoying them very much. Cavett was quite bright and clever and quick on his feet with a cultural reference or wisecrack. 

Jimi Hendrix was a guest on a show I saw last week, filmed the week after Woodstock. Hendrix was exhausted and didn't participate all that much in his interview. 

Also, an old family friend was the drummer/bandleader on that show so seeing him is a real gas. 


Sorry for the thread drift, but we're dropping cable and we have Hulu live TV for now, but I may drop that after the Mets season ends. We watch so little cable.

Does anyone have an antenna to recommend for over-the-air broadcasts, preferably a visually unobtrusive one?


Can't help you with antenna suggestions but just curious how you watch various shows without cable. IOW do you add the various networks you may want to watch as an app? Like msnbc.com or if you are on the other team foxnews.com? grin IOW any network that the cable company provides that you want to watch something on live you would just add that app to your TV? Asking as a complete luddite of course. 


wendy said:

Can't help you with antenna suggestions but just curious how you watch various shows without cable. IOW do you add the various networks you may want to watch as an app? Like msnbc.com or if you are on the other team foxnews.com

IOW any network that the cable company provides that you want to watch something on live you would just add that app to your TV? Asking as a complete luddite of course. 

Hulu Live TV is an app that you can find on Roku or AppleTV or any other streaming box and has many of those news stations. There are others like the DirectTV app and YoutubeTV that have many channels as well.

I chose Hulu because they carry SNY. 

65/month compared to the 125ish that I was paying for the FIOS “The most” package with the 3 set top boxes. I will probably add HBO max which would bring it to to 80. 


I found that the only thing I was using the cable for was the networks, SNY, and HGTV/Magnolia. I’m not a cable news junkie, preferring print and the network coverage.



jimmurphy said:

Sorry for the thread drift, but we're dropping cable and we have Hulu live TV for now, but I may drop that after the Mets season ends. We watch so little cable.

Does anyone have an antenna to recommend for over-the-air broadcasts, preferably a visually unobtrusive one?

I got one of those under $25 digital antennas from Amazon and attached it to a beam in the attic. It gets a decent reception, but I so rarely watch live TV these days that it doesn't bother me that much. 

Example here: https://www.amazon.com/Antenna-Amplifier-Antennas-Supports-Designed/dp/B07R1N9KRS/

Edited to add that Decades is available over the air on Channel 5.5.


ridski said:

I got one of those under $25 digital antennas from Amazon and attached it to a beam in the attic. It gets a decent reception, but I so rarely watch live TV these days that it doesn't bother me that much. 

Example here: https://www.amazon.com/Antenna-Amplifier-Antennas-Supports-Designed/dp/B07R1N9KRS/

Edited to add that Decades is available over the air on Channel 5.5.

So do you have to run coax from the attic to the TV?


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