Old shows that you enjoy?

[Mad_Jack]

Don’t know that was ever shown in the UK. I did watch Tailspin though.

It was shown on the BBC on Monday evenings, but the show only lasted one 20-episode season before being cut due to the ratings not justifying the show's budget. Talespin creators Jymn Magon and Mark Zaslove cite Tales as one of the inspirations for their cartoon.
One of the things that Tales did, which was unusual for an adventure-of-the-week show in 1982 (it also included a recurring character in a wheelchair), was to give the characters a bit of actual dramatic depth, and their backstories weren't just a descriptive sentence justifying their character archetype. It would have been a really good show if it had been continued - the box set included character bios from the show's story bible, and they go into greater detail about the past and future of the characters. The drunk mechanic, for example, has a family tragedy to blame for his drinking, and the German spy on the island, a comedy character, is noted as having later died in an infamous battle on the Russian front in WWII.

 

[Ryujin]

Deep Space 9, obviously. Though I personally don’t think that should count, because I’m going to count “stuff that was first on TV when I was a child.” So instead, I’ll promote these two, which first aired in the U.K. 1980-2 (I was 5-7 years old) and which I remember watching when they were first broadcast in England.

Star Fleet was the U.K. adaptation of X-Bomber, a Japanese puppet show and my first introduction to the tropes of sci-fi anime. It was awesome. The Brian May theme helped.



Huckleberry Finn and His Friends was a Canadian-German production and mostly filmed in and around Vancouver, where I now live, especially at the Burnaby Village Museum and on the Samson V paddlewheeler (which I can just about see from my window, it’s a museum now).

"Huckleberry Finn and Friends" reminds me of another old Canadian show I used to watch, on CBC. "The Forest Rangers." It was primarily shot in Klienburg, Ontario, which is also the home of The McMichael Canadian Art Collection; the home of many paintings by The Group of Seven (I'm a supporter).

 

[Richards]

Crossbow


This was a 1980s half-hour historical adventure series showing William Tell getting involved with righting various injustices in Switzerland. Season one was good, and season two was still okay (but once he got reunited with his bratty son the irritation factor rose significantly). Avoid season three at all costs, however, because the quality of everything dropped significantly, when they apparently decided what the series needed was a Mad Max style wasteland in the middle of Switzerland where mythical beings ran sway. The production values started looking like a junior high school play, and it sucked so much the lead actor wasn't even in the series finale (not that I can blame him).

Still, it provided one and a half seasons of quality entertainment, with interesting characters (the main villain, Gessler, was excellent) and decent action.

Johnathan

 

[Ryujin]

Crossbow


This was a 1980s half-hour historical adventure series showing William Tell getting involved with righting various injustices in Switzerland. Season one was good, and season two was still okay (but once he got reunited with his bratty son the irritation factor rose significantly). Avoid season three at all costs, however, because the quality of everything dropped significantly, when they apparently decided what the series needed was a Mad Max style wasteland in the middle of Switzerland where mythical beings ran sway. The production values started looking like a junior high school play, and it sucked so much the lead actor wasn't even in the series finale (not that I can blame him).

Still, it provided one and a half seasons of quality entertainment, with interesting characters (the main villain, Gessler, was excellent) and decent action.

Johnathan

It vaguely rings a bell, but I've never seen it.

 

[billd91]

I did watch Tailspin though.

Tailspin was pretty inspired. Shere Khan as a corporate. The behavior and mannerisms of Don Karnage and his air pirates.

 

[TiQuinn]

Twilight Zone marathons still suck me in every time I see one.

Ditto The Outer Limits and lastly a big shoutout to Night Gallery, which never got enough love.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Twilight Zone marathons still suck me in every time I see one.

Ditto The Outer Limits and lastly a big shoutout to Night Gallery, which never got enough love.

I miss the '90s Outer Limits. Some great imaginative thought there.

 

[TiQuinn]

I miss the '90s Outer Limits. Some great imaginative thought there.

That version has some solid episodes too.

 

[trappedslider]

Tailspin was pretty inspired. Shere Khan as a corporate. The behavior and mannerisms of Don Karnage and his air pirates.

Gargoyles is another good old cartoon from the 90s

 

[roger semerad]

Hmm... In general, I don't watch a lot of old t.v. series. Through most of it's history it has been a lesser form of storytelling, at least in the U.S.A.. There are some real stand outs though, particularly in the comedy genre.

Star Trek - is overall a great series with interesting concepts, good acting, and is very forward looking and ahead of it's time. There are some really silly filler episodes in the run, but most of those are at least still fun to watch.

I Love Lucy - Truely earns it's spot as a classic. I don't think I've ever seen an episode that didn't make me laugh, and a few are all time classics. It's amazing how well this show holds up, it's one of the oldest I've ever seen and it's better on writing and production values than most of the shows that came after for decades.

Three Stooges shorts - These are great physical comedy shorts, and they are a lot more clever than most give them credit for. It's not a series you'd want to binge, but every now and then I do love watching one of these.

Looney Tunes shorts - some of the best animation of the era, and all time classic comedy skits.

Super Dimension Fortress Macross - Anime bucks the trend with t.v. shows, they are usually the equal to movie and OVA releases. So I won't list every anime t.v. show that I like, just this one. Because the original Macross really is something special. I don't want to say too much, you really should watch this show. It's a war story about humans struggling to survive an alien invasion aboard the last capital ship in the fleet. It's dramatic, tragic, uplifting, and thrilling. The enemies in the story are not generic bad guys, and as things develop it gets complicated. It also has a fairly long coda that tells the story of what happens after the big climatic events. That's a story you rarely see, and it's not a clean feel good ending, but it also has tons of hope.

That's pretty much it for stuff before I was born (1982). I do want to see the Twilight Zone, I've heard lots of good things about it. I'll say less about the shows after I was born becuase most are very well known.

Batman: the animated series, Gargoyles, Animaniacs, Old Simpsons, Seinfeld, Scrubs, Malcom in the Middle, Star Trek TNG, these are show I come back to again and again. One show that I truely love that has been forgotten by most is Titus. The original creator uploaded the entire series to Youtube years ago, you can watch it here: Titus T.V. show. It's a comedy series that can sometimes deals with hard dramatic themes and stories. Like Scrubs it's mostly focused on the laughs, but when it gets serious it can really hit you. It's also absolutely hilarious, my family still quotes this show all the time.