Saturday, July 27, 2013

Classic Retro TV Nights

 
For most people an evening spent watching old television shows is something that is settled for, when more exciting activities are too costly or unavailable. But for those of us who love this stuff, it’s an entertainment option we not only prefer even when other opportunities present themselves, but also something we look forward to, sometimes all day.

Comfort TV fans all have their preferences when it comes to classic TV viewing. Some like to marathon episodes from one show, while others mix and match at random. More ambitious fans may create theme nights built around a specific writer or actor or subject.

For me, one of my favorite Comfort TV activities is to recreate an evening of television from 30 or 40 years ago. It’s a way to vicariously travel back into the past and watch the programs that people watched back then, in the order in which they watched them.

If you’d like to try it, and you have access to the DVDs or a good streaming service, here are some noteworthy retro TV nights that will bring back memories, and renew your appreciation for the consistency of quality that we used to take for granted from our television networks.

CBS: Saturday, 1973

All in the Family
M*A*S*H
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Bob Newhart Show
The Carol Burnett Show

This is, and most likely always will be, the best night of television ever scheduled. Spend an evening with episodes of these five classic series, all now ranked at or near the top of their respective genres, and you’ll wonder why anyone would go out on Saturday nights in 1973.




ABC: Thursday, 1964

The Flintstones
The Donna Reed Show
My Three Sons
Bewitched
Peyton Place

What makes this lineup interesting is how these shows now seem to belong to different television eras. The Donna Reed Show has a 1950s vibe, while Bewitched is definitely a classic ‘60s series. The Flintstones could have emerged from any decade, though most wouldn’t connect them historically with the year the Beatles invaded America. And Peyton Place looked forward to a time when the medium was open to more mature content. 





NBC: Thursday, 1985

The Cosby Show
Family Ties
Cheers
Night Court
Hill Street Blues

One of the preeminent “must-see TV” nights of the 1980s, with some logical symmetry in the pairing of two family sitcoms followed by two workplace sitcoms, each with escalating maturity in subject matter, and capped by one of the decade’s best dramas. 



ABC: Friday, 1971

The Brady Bunch
The Partridge Family
Room 222
The Odd Couple
Love American Style

Great memories here for late Baby Boomers like myself. Room 222 has not been as widely syndicated over the years as the other sitcoms in this standout ABC lineup, but it’s a brilliant show worth rediscovering on DVD. The weakest link here is Love American Style, though the diverse guest-star lineups help to offset its sophomoric sensibilities. 




CBS: Wednesday, 1965

Lost in Space
The Beverly Hillbillies
Green Acres
The Dick Van Dyke Show

What seems eclectic at first actually makes perfect sense. Lost in Space and Beverly Hillbillies both deal with families coping outside of familiar environments. There’s an obvious rural connection between Hillbillies and Green Acres, and while the latter might seem incompatible with The Dick Van Dyke Show, it was actually a much smarter series than it seemed at first glance. 



ABC: Tuesday, 1977

Happy Days
Laverne & Shirley
Three’s Company
Soap

Here’s an ideal retro lineup after a tough day at work, when all you want is to set your brain to autopilot and take in some lighter TV fare that does not require careful attention. 



And for those that really want to recreate a retro TV night as closely as possible, if you have access to YouTube streaming on your television you can fill the gaps between episodes with commercials from the same era, or perhaps network bumpers or promos. See you in the '70s!



Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Friday on My Mind: Dragnet

NOTE: This post is part of Me-TV's Summer of Classic TV Blogathon hosted by the Classic TV Blog Association. Go to http://classic-tv-blog-assoc.blogspot.com to view more posts in this blogathon. You can also go to http://metvnetwork.com to learn more about Me-TV and view its summer line-up of classic TV shows.


 
Authority figures – particularly police officers – make a lot of us nervous. We may not be doing anything wrong but the moment we spot a police cruiser in our rear view mirror, it’s hard not to tense up.

I have always had a contentious relationship with authority, so it might seem surprising that I love Dragnet so much. But I think if all police officers were more like Sgt. Joe Friday (Jack Webb) and Officer Bill Gannon (Harry Morgan), only criminals would shun the police. The rest of us would want to buy them a cup of coffee and thank them for their service.

Dragnet is not a show about the cool renegade cops who “play by their own rules.” It’s not an action-packed series with tire-screeching car chases and guns blazing. It’s a meticulous, dialogue-driven series about two middle-aged LA police officers (played by actors whose faces will never grace a poster on a teenage girl’s wall) who show up for work every day and do their best to serve the city that pays their salary. 



From 1967 to 1970, viewers tuned in to watch Friday and Gannon solve the most routine cases, while wearing the same drab suits in almost every episode. They ran down leads that didn’t pan out. They sat at their desks filling out reports. They made awkward small talk until the boss called them into his office.

Why was this so compelling? I think it starts with the authenticity and attention to detail that Jack Webb insisted on in his depiction of cops at work. Dragnet humanized the men who wear the badge, and made them admirable not because of super-heroic deeds, but through their decency, compassion and dedication.

This was also a series that sounded like nothing else on television. The unique staccato rhythm of the dialogue was often parodied in its day – some readers might remember a famous skit on The Tonight Show featuring Webb and Johnny Carson, and some missing copper clappers. 




But it was a technique that worked, and when Friday would launch into one of his speeches about the importance of respecting the law, or the privilege of being a police officer, you feel like getting up from the couch and applauding.

One of the show’s best moments occurred in an episode called “The Big Interrogation,” when a rookie cop (played by future Adam-12 star Kent McCord) is wrongfully accused of robbing a liquor store. Friday’s moving monologue on the policeman’s life should be required viewing at every police academy graduation. 

It’s no wonder that real cops felt tremendous respect for Jack Webb, and the honor he brought to their profession. The Los Angeles Police Department actually retired Friday’s badge number – 714 – to acknowledge his contribution to the law enforcement community.

Viewers, too, wished more cops were like Friday. During the show’s original run the LAPD frequently received calls asking to speak to Sgt. Friday. The response was always the same: “Sorry, it’s Joe’s day off.” 


Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Checking Into Comfort TV Hospital

 
Here’s another under-appreciated pleasure of classic television from the Comfort TV age: it makes places you’d never want to visit seem less terrible.

I was in the hospital recently and found nothing pleasurable about it. You’re away from your home and your bed, in a big building full of monotonous hallways and colorless rooms. You try to rest but are disturbed by the buzzes and beeps of strange machinery. And the food is worse than what they serve on Delta’s red-eye from Minneapolis to New Jersey.

But watch any popular situation comedy from the 1950s to the 1970s, and there was probably an episode featuring one of the main characters logging some hospital time. And for them, it didn’t seem so bad.

What’s the difference? Classic TV hospital stays typically begin with the patient safely ensconced in their room, skipping past the multiple blood tests, book-length insurance forms, questionnaires that ask male patients if they’ve ever been pregnant, and being asked one’s height and weight by every doctor, nurse and administrator, all of whom write down the responses but none of whom apparently share this paperwork with anyone else in the building.

Of course, the best of part of visiting a classic TV hospital is that everyone gets to leave. Healthy.

Do you have a favorite hospital episode from a classic series? Here are some of mine.

“Lucy Plays Florence Nightingale”
The Lucy Show

Lucy is a volunteer nurse at the hospital where Mr. Mooney is recovering from a broken leg. From the moment you see Mooney in his hospital bed, his injured leg suspended above him, you know he’s about to be subjected to every form of comedic torture the writers can devise. There’s also an inventively choreographed wheelchair chase that plays like something out of a classic silent movie. 

 “Hi!”
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
Mary has her tonsils out and gets saddled with the roommate from hell, played by the wonderful Pat Carroll. The episode is probably best remembered, at least among the show’s male viewers, for the sexy nightgown Rhoda slips into Mary’s overnight bag before she leaves for the hospital. 




“That’s My Boy?”
The Dick Van Dyke Show
A flashback episode in which Rob recalls how, after Ritchie was born, he became certain that the hospital gave them the wrong baby. The final scene received the longest laugh in the history of The Dick Van Dyke Show.

“The Candy Striper”
Family Affair
Cissy gets a candy striper job and the head nurse provides only one warning – never give a patient food or drink without consulting with a doctor. And just like Gremlins, you start counting the minutes until she forgets the rule. On the verge of quitting, she returns to the hospital after a pep talk from Uncle Bill and finds a way to balance her compassion with responsibility. 



“Bob Has to Have His Tonsils Out, So He Spends Christmas Eve in the Hospital”
The Bob Newhart Show
The title says it all. Bob is subjected to the indignities of peekaboo hospital gowns, Howard’s hospital horror stories, and an ancient nurse played by the veteran character actress Merie Earle, who gets a laugh with every line she utters. 

“Operation: Tonsils”
The Patty Duke Show
Classic sitcom misunderstanding- Patty overhears her handsome doctor praising the trim lines and beauty of his new boat, and thinks the compliments are all for her.  The doctor is played by one-time matinee idol Troy Donahue. 



“And Then There Were Three”
Bewitched
Tabitha is born in this milestone second season episode, that also features the first appearance of Serena, the ever-acerbic Eve Arden as a confused nurse, and a rare moment in which Darrin and Endora are actually kind to each other.