tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post4892980649842856415..comments2024-03-27T22:27:16.556-04:00Comments on It's About TV: What's classic about classic TV?Mitchell Hadleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08695771505209080030noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-16378156638627052932016-08-08T15:14:48.571-04:002016-08-08T15:14:48.571-04:00I'll be interested to see what you think of th...I'll be interested to see what you think of this Wednesday's piece - does the memory (mine, at least) play tricks on you? Can you ever view a program from a time period to which you didn't belong in the same way as if you did belong? Ah, such questions - and such a great group of people I have making comments - what a blessing!Mitchell Hadleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08695771505209080030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-36020547969795346432016-08-08T15:12:48.005-04:002016-08-08T15:12:48.005-04:00Ah, classic vs. vintage - very interesting! Going ...Ah, classic vs. vintage - very interesting! Going back to what David said above, is this the word that describes it best?<br /><br />I don't go for the binge watching either, although most of the time we have a set schedule of shows that doesn't change from week to week (which I think I've discussed here - Hawaii Five-0 every Thursday, the same group of series every Saturday, etc.), but like any network schedule that doesn't prevent us from "preempting" our regular shows for something special from time to time, as we did a couple of weeks ago.<br /><br />Excellent summary about what people are missing - really like that!Mitchell Hadleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08695771505209080030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-6761349489826095252016-08-08T15:09:29.796-04:002016-08-08T15:09:29.796-04:00Thanks much, Alex! I'm very glad you like it!Thanks much, Alex! I'm very glad you like it!Mitchell Hadleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08695771505209080030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-19289551496590037832016-08-08T15:08:57.970-04:002016-08-08T15:08:57.970-04:00Thanks, Jack. I think you're right about that ...Thanks, Jack. I think you're right about that - I don't want to be embarrassed by the content of something I'm watching, even if I'm by myself. And if this ever gets to the point where watching classic TV becomes a chore instead of fun, you'll see this blog take a hiatus. I don't ever want to lose my enjoyment of it all.Mitchell Hadleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08695771505209080030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-3313896785305782002016-08-08T15:07:24.503-04:002016-08-08T15:07:24.503-04:00Thanks as always for the kind words, David! I thin...Thanks as always for the kind words, David! I think you've hit it on the head - this week, I'm going to speculate on just how accurate some of our memories are. In my case, the mind's probably played tricks on me from time to time, which explains a lot!Mitchell Hadleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08695771505209080030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-25669488575740472862016-08-06T00:40:20.328-04:002016-08-06T00:40:20.328-04:00As you'll note, I took my own sweet time worki...As you'll note, I took my own sweet time working this up:<br /><br />See, I never use the term <b>classic TV</b>.<br />My term would be <b>vintage TV</b>.<br />Or, if I'm not feeling pretentious, <b>old TV</b>.<br />I might have mentioned a time or ten that I was born in 1950; thus, my memories of TV are both long- and wide-ranging.<br />Back in the day (God, how I hate that phrase), when your family had TV, you watched <i>everything</i>.<br />If you lived in a city like Chicago, with all four commercial networks available, plus Educational TV (starting in '55), that was an embarrassment of riches - if you didn't care for what you were seeing, you could get up out of your chair and change the channel knob ... or if you were our dad, you could tell one of the kids to do this (I could get from 2 to 5 to 7 to 9 and back as fast as any kid on the block, if I do say so myself).<br />As a <b>TV Guide</b> reader since I could read, I would get interested in whatever I wished, with no "demographics" to tell me what I was supposed to like or not like.<br />I had almost everything to choose from: game shows, comedies, variety, mysteries, westerns ... even on rare occasions, a "kiddie show".<br />The shows could be old movies (mainly Poverty Row programmers from the '30s and '40s) or newer filmed shows (from the '50s and '60s - with many of the same performers and crews from the '30s and '40s).<br />I read credit crawls from an early age, and the connections I made even then contributed to a sense of the history of it all - the continuity, if you will.<br /><br />These days I have my DVD wall, representing movies and TV going back to well before I was born - and continuing to the present day.<br />I don't believe in "binge watching" or nostalgia nights as proffered here. What I do is select various shows at random, from different years and different circumstances, not looking for a "theme" of any sort; I think that's more fun, to surprise myself.<br />... which doesn't mean that on some occasions, a theme will present itself, unbidden.<br />Like the same character actor turning up in shows made 20 or 30 years apart (that's the most frequent one).<br />Or finding episodes from the same writer or director, covering a similar time frame.<br />Or seeing episodes of the same long-running series that had the same story - one from the '50s, one from the '60s - with little or no change in the dialog (a practice that continues to this day).<br />Or any number of other examples you or I could come up with.<br /><br />My point here (I think) is that the TV and movies of my youth(?) (and the years before that) were, intentionally or not, timeless - no thought was given to their being "up to the minute" or "up to date" or "hep to their jive" or any other such nonsense ... which we now call <b>demographics</b>, the #1 Junk Science of the Millenium.<br /><br />So anyone who decries Old TV just because it <i>is</i> Old TV - <br />- they're missing several points.<br />Points of time, context, continuity ... points of history, really.<br />And it's their loss - their failing, really.<br /><br />(This is what happens when you think too much about all this - maybe it's better to just enjoy what's there - and be grateful that so much of it <i>is</i> still there.)<br />Mike Dorannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-56955552584279574402016-08-04T10:01:51.541-04:002016-08-04T10:01:51.541-04:00Well said. I have noodled with similar ideas at my...Well said. I have noodled with similar ideas at my blog lo these many years, although my particular prism is pop music and Top 40 radio. The past always seems seductively right in a way that the present does not, and there's a natural desire in uncertain times to re-experience times that felt more certain. One can do the same thing with old songs, and I do. jabartletthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12856624710742851189noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-24021902282887103412016-08-04T00:45:51.957-04:002016-08-04T00:45:51.957-04:00This piece is so spot on, Mr. Hadley.This piece is so spot on, Mr. Hadley.Alex Isabelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05457221207511829649noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-4870478833506255552016-08-03T18:24:33.420-04:002016-08-03T18:24:33.420-04:00You ask interesting questions and provide even mor...You ask interesting questions and provide even more interesting answers. I agree with every word of this insightful piece. The definitions are indeed tricky here, but I think "classic TV" is subjective, while "quality TV" is not. Which is why The Twilight Zone is both, and Gilligan's Island qualifies only in the former category. And as much as I appreciate the medium's most acclaimed programming achievements, I can take just as much pleasure in a Saturday morning cartoon from the 1970s, because it brings back happy memories of when the world seemed less angry and less complicated. Even though it probably wasn't. David Hofstedehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15288510542472710879noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6042603612494762084.post-70469439337803371562016-08-03T12:01:30.657-04:002016-08-03T12:01:30.657-04:00Good article! Classic TV is just plain fun! I like...Good article! Classic TV is just plain fun! I like some current TV shows but few of them compare to the best old shows. It's also more comfortable to watch the old shows with your family, since there's less that could be considered offensive. For me, the decade with the least to offer on TV was the '80s.Jack Seabrookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02216640325305820140noreply@blogger.com