TVLand

Is it me, or has TVLand gone down the same path as AMC? (RIP, the Good Old Days!)...seems all of a sudden, they've swiched formats from truly classic and good programmes, to really recent stuff, like Cheers. And last night I saw an ad for NEWS RADIO, of all things! Really, I don't consider ANY television which aired within my teen/adult lifetime "classic"...or even worth watching.

Except, of course, for "Homefront." Please, somebody, air it again, and PLEASE put it out on DVD!

PS: Speaking of DVDs and TVLand's former lineup, what the heck happened to season five of The Bob Newhart Show on DVD?

No, you are 100% correct.

AMC was playing "Rambo" the other day. Really? "Rambo?" Again, the mind reels...

When I was younger, TVLand was all there was for the oldies. Now, all I get is garbage on there, when I tune in. I have the Tivo set for Lucy and Beaver, but that's about all..

TV land is dissapointing lately. I haven't seen The Honeymooners, Hazel, Lavern & Shirley or The Dick Van Dyke show in ages.

I have been waiting for Homefront to come out on DVD for ages. I have even signed petitions. I wish TV Land would air it again. It was on the good life channel for a while also put I don't have that Channel anymore.

Exactly. Sometimes I'll watch MASH on TVLand, but not usually, because I have it on DVD. It used to be SO much fun, though! Several years ago I went through a period of (literally) not sleeping at all, and I'd watch it ALL night long -- in the wee smalls they had a nice mix of true classics (Dick Van Dyke! Heart!), and a handful of things which I caught the tail end of as a child (Mary Tyler Moore, etc), which brought back warm and fuzzy memories of Back in the Day when families actually watched television TOGETHER.

Rambo! And what's up with the commercials?

Also, to my utter HORROR, I've noticed very recently that once in awhile, even TCM will play a contemporary movie...there was something just a few days ago...oh, what was it...completely inappropriate, whatever it was. I was utterly shocked. And I'm almost positive they aired Dead Poets Society fairly recently. Which, of course, is a really great movie, and one of my all-time faves...but should it be on TCM? No.

deadpandiva wrote:

I have been waiting for Homefront to come out on DVD for ages. I have even signed petitions. I wish TV Land would air it again. It was on the good life channel for a while also put I don't have that Channel anymore.

I know -- I think I've signed everything there is out there petitioning to make Homefront available. And it's funny, I get so excited when I see one of the actors on some random guest spot somewhere -- Seems Harry O'Reilly is on L&O a lot. ("IT'S CHARLIE!!!!") I adore Kyle Chandler like mad, but, alas, I just can't get into Friday Night Lights. Glad he has steady work again, though.

^I do the same thing. I see Tammy Lauren on alot of random things. I did like Kyle's other show. I think it was called Early Edition.

I liked Early Edition, too....the premise sounds silly if you try to tell people about it, but it was a nice little show, and good old-fashioned family viewing.

I can't think of her name at the moment, but the woman who played the sister? Apparently, she was supposed to be a regular on NCIS after the first girl left, and appeared in a few episodes, but they decided to focus on the other new girl instead. Rats.

John Slattery (swoon!) turns up a lot, too -- several years ago I saw him in a play about Dashiell Hammett and Lillian Hellman.

I liked Early Edition, too....the premise sounds silly if you try to tell people about it, but it was a nice little show, and good old-fashioned family viewing.

I can't think of her name at the moment, but the woman who played the sister? Apparently, she was supposed to be a regular on NCIS after the first girl left, and appeared in a few episodes, but they decided to focus on the other new girl instead. Rats.

John Slattery (swoon!) turns up a lot, too -- several years ago I saw him in a play about Dashiell Hammett and Lillian Hellman.

If it's any consolation, here in Los Angeles we have a new channel called ION that shows a lot of old shows. Granted they're mixed in with Mork and Mindy and Alice, but I can forgive that, given the heavy rotation of Ozzie and Harriet, Andy Griffith, Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie - TV Land staples oh so long ago.


The bummer is that the definition of "oldies" changes every decade. The Classics radio station that introduced me to 50's music back in the eighties now plays almost exclusively disco and Creedence 70's music, with only token songs splashed in by the Supremes, Buddy Holly or Elvis.

I'm afraid the only solution is to make our own collections and disseminate them later. Luckily we're in an era of information that makes it possible to access and collect whatever media we like, with minimal inaccessability. Twenty years ago, if I wanted to watch Route 66 again, I could only write to the oldies stations and hope they pay attention to me. Nowadays, it's a sure bet someone's got copies on ebay if not Youtube.

We're lucky and unlucky all at once. It's a strange time.

I get ION on Satellite, but I had no idea it showed anything good!
I must set the Tivo!

Kittenwithawhip -- Route 66 Season One is out on DVD at last! (I just got it!) and Season Two is avalible for pre-order on Amazon.

Alas, it makes me feel SO old, not to mention depressed, to think that ANYONE considers, say, Duran Duran "oldies." It reminds me of something I saw somewhere quiite awhile ago -- I think it was a thread on imdb, perhaps. You know that Goo Goo Dolls song which was in that movie with Meg Ryan and Nicholas Cage, wherein NC is an angel? It was a huge hit when I was in college, or shortly thereafter. Completely overplayed. Iris? Or that other hit they had...I can't remember. Anyway, apparently it's been rereleased, or was put in another film or something, and a bunch of kids were going on and on about how they couldn't believe how OLLLLLD the song was, as if it'd been around a hundred years or so. Holy cow, I only graduated from college in '97!

Ouch!

Oldies???

Wow.

I tell you, kids today! The Goo Goo Dolls. For gawd's sake. (Plus, that movie is on television ALL the time! How can they never have seen it, thus never have heard the song?)

Seeing as I'm so ancient, I guess I might as well just go move into a retirement community....

[quote="BygoneKnits"]Kittenwithawhip -- Route 66 Season One is out on DVD at last! (I just got it!) and Season Two is avalible for pre-order on Amazon.
quote]


<<Panting!>>

Damn! And I got all excited when Voyagers! came out on DVD this year! Wow - talk about something you'd never expect to see on DVD!

I'm SO on it!

I know! Amazon sent me some email about it -- you know, one of those '"you've bought such-and-such, so we thought you'd like this totally random thing..." notices. I hadn't seen it since, oh, maybe jr. high? Back when there was Nick-at-Nite instead of TVLand. It's one of the best shows of the era, imo. I've always been suprised it doesn't seem to have a huge following. Tod and Buzz always sort of reminded me of a slightly older, travelling version of the Hardy Boys. (Whom I've always loved, of course.) And, like so many other great dramas of the period (Perry Mason, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Twilight Zone, etc), oh, the guest stars! Fabulous!

Speaking of Perry, he's out on DVD now too! yay!

So are the Hardy Boys. The 70's version, that is.

Da do ron ron!

And , um... Pippi Longstocking.

Oh, and I also meant to say that another Los Angeles channel, KDOC (Channel 56 in most areas) also plays a lot of old television shows like The Andy Griffith Show and Hogan's Heroes. I think they're also the station that plays "I Remember Television". Now, that one's hit or miss. I seem to tune in whenever they play Victory at Sea but I've also been lucky to see episodes of One Step Beyond or the Alcoa Hour. Every New Year's Eve they play a classic episode of the Jack Benny Show where Jack gets stood up and has no New Years party date.

That show is on Wednesdays and Sundays.

Kittenwithawhip wrote:

So are the Hardy Boys. The 70's version, that is.

Da do ron ron!

I saw that! (Nancy, too!)...but something tells me if I thought it was pretty stupid (and a Sheer Mockery of the superb works of Miss Carolyn Keene and Mr. Franklin W. Dixon) when I was six years old, it probably hasn't held up so well...heh. I distinctly remember getting all het up because the episodes would have the same title of a book, but bear absolutely NO resemblance to it otherwise. (I'm very protective of my Nancies and Hardy Boys, you know.)

Is anyone watching the "Pioneers of Television" series on PBS? It was the early late-night talk show hosts tonight. Dear god, how I miss thee, Johnny Carson! He was absolutley the best ever.

The best I can get over here for "vintage" tv is ITV3, which shows Ironside, The Rockford Files (I was a teenager in the 70s. Love that show), Cagney & Lacey and briefly ran a few episodes of Dragnet!

Oh, I LOVE the Rockford Files! (Those are out now on DVD as well, incidently -- up to Season Three, I think....I've been watching it recently.) Rockford was one of the shows which the entire family HAD to watch every week -- and we didn't watch much television chez moi, especially network stuff. Good ol' Jimmy Garner.

I ADORE Jack Benny--every morning, I get the radio show. I remember being a teenager and seeing his TV show on TVLand. But no more...

Also, I've got a big crush on 40s-era Phil Harris--what a card!

I guess it's not really retro per se, but does anybody like the Jack Webb production-->Emergency!

Speaking of Phil, have you heard his radio shows for Rexall? Great stuff.

I'm watching 23 Paces to Baker Street with Van Johnson and Vera Miles! London in 1956...too much!