TV shows...

[butters]

Some of my favorite older authors are like that - john Buchan and particuarly Sapper's Bulldog Drummond books - the villains are desricbed in racist terms.

I just have to ignore the parts that would be offensive now and accept that was the mindset of the time.

yeah, i kinda always felt that way about conan the barbarian books (the sexist thing)

i do try to read/view all the older stuff bearing in mind the cultural norms of their times, often succeeding, but maybe it hits harder in film than the written word, the whole visual aspect. there have been times i've rewatched a film i remember enjoying only to turn it off because i simply cannot watch it given the cultural awareness of today. i guess that's what the term 'woke' is about. waking up to the realities that existed but we were blissfully unaware of back in the day.

i see sexist and racist stuff that people regularly laughed at as entertainment, now with a sense of shock and, often, real anger. hell, as a white child in 1960's britain (very few people of colour ever seen in my neighbourhood), people really loved the black-and-white minstrels show--there was no concept of the racist tropes it was depicting and i enjoyed watching the dancing and singing. ignorance of why something's 'wrong' explains so much about people's acceptance of being spoonfed it.

 

[rae121452]

mrs. brown's boys

absolutely fabulous

 

[oggbashan]

When American GIs started to arrived in England during the second world war, most of us thought all GIs, black or white, were the same. The black GIs were appreciated for their music, and particularly by the women, for their dancing.

The Empire troops we had seen before, were much more inhibited and tended to treat the general population with reserve but the black GIs? They were fantastic.

The US Army had to teach the English that black GIs weren't the same. Many of us refused to learn... to us, they had all come to help with the war and all were welcome (well perhaps not so much by British troops who didn't have as much money, drabber uniforms and no supplies of chocolate..).

We still love our Gurkhas.

 

[islandman]

M*A*S*H.

I recently subscribed to locast (OTP rebroadcast of OTA channels) and came across a classic TV channel called 'MeTV' that plays a block of episodes in the early evening.

It's also where I learned that Ron 'Ronnie' Howard was on The Andy Griffith Show well before Happy Days.

 

[SissySalina]

Ran across the West Wing the other day, still good as ever.

 

[blkjames]

Mork and Mindy

I grow up with my aunt and uncle and he loved watching Mork and Mindy. Always had the hots for Mindy.

 

[jomar]

wasnt that a USA version of Steptoe and son?

Colditz .

Huh, I dunno.

 

[jomar]

mrs. brown's boys

absolutely fabulous

Haha, old school abfab was boozy fun.

 

[ThePlumTiger66]

It's always sunny in Philadelphia.

I love how the characters are so disgusting as human beings. It's very cleverly done.

Dolf has a sense of humor?

 

[silver gurl]

How will you make it on your own
This world is awfully big
Girl this time you're all alone

Cause it's time you started living
It's time you let someone else do some giving
Love is all around, no need to waste it

You can have a town, why don't you take it
You might just make it after all
You might just make it after all

MTM

 

[AngeloMichael]

I used to love it. But re-watching a few episodes more recently, I just couldn't get past the shitty attitude towards women. Hawkeye, who used to leave me in creases, harasses and sexually assaults women almost constantly. It's cringe worthy. Why did we use to feel comfortable with this shit?

Dolf, have you seen the episode "Inga"? MASH was on so long (11 years) it had time to evolve. Alan Alda had become increasingly disturbed by his character's treatment of women and finally refused to be a womanizer any longer. He wrote the episode Inga to bring in a character that would turn the tables on Hawkeye, humble him,make him see how he treated women by having himself be treated that way. Hawkeye was never the same in his attitude after that.

It was still 1979 when that episode premiered and there was still a long way to go in changing attitudes that needed to be changed, but it showed progress and an awareness of the problem.

I also hope you wouldn't be insulted by American actress Mariette Hartley's portrayal as a medical officer in the Swedish military. Another thing MASH often tried to do was respectfully show that the "Korean War" was participated in by many countries all over the world. It was an American show so it focused on an American army medical unit, but it tried to be aware and to show that other countries were important participants as often as they could. Sometimes they even got an actor of that country to actually play the role, but usually they just got the actor they liked best and usually that was an American.

 

[Wonderer67]

For me it's M*A*S*H.

M*A*S*H.

I recently subscribed to locast (OTP rebroadcast of OTA channels) and came across a classic TV channel called 'MeTV' that plays a block of episodes in the early evening.

It's also where I learned that Ron 'Ronnie' Howard was on The Andy Griffith Show well before Happy Days.

My wife and I watch mash every night on me tv. It’s been our go to the last few months while we eat dinner. The episode with 5 O’clock Charlie was on tonite.

 

[AngeloMichael]

So many great picks that I wholeheartedly agree with.

My top 10 favorite sitcoms of all time:
1. Community
2. The Office (U.S.)
3. Taxi
4. Barney Miller
5. All in the Family
6. Newsradio
7. Frasier
8. MASH
9. Arrested Development
10. Titus

I find Barney Miller is an often forgotten series when remembering older sitcoms and that's sad because it is an amazingly funny and relevant show. What's also pretty amazing is that the sitcom that was Barney Miller's successor as in many of the same writers, directors, and production staff, is ... Night Court.

Amazing because of how gritty and down to earth Barney Miller was and how silly and surreal Night Court was. But if you watch the first couple seasons of Night Court you can see how it was a much closer show to Barney Miller. If there was a more sitcom-like Law & Order series, I could easily see the 12th precinct as the "Law" part of the show and early seasons of Judge Harold T. Stone's court as the "Order" part, both seeming to easily fit in the same universe.

So, other classic sitcoms I enjoy rewatching:
Mad About You
Mork & Mindy
WKRP in Cincinnati
Night Court
Cheers
Wings
Everybody Loves Raymond
Yes, Dear
Becker
Seinfeld
3rd Rock From The Sun
That 70's Show
Soap
King of Queens
Malcolm in the Middle
Freaks and Geeks
Sportsnight
The Job
The Larry Sanders Show
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Bob Newhart Show (psychiatrist)
Newhart (Inn Keeper)
Murphy Brown
Good Times
Just Shoot Me
Happy Days
The Wonder Years
Three's Company

Friends (used to like this one a lot more but I like it less and less as years go by)

The Cosby Show (a shame how it's become problematic to watch, but when possible to divorce art from artist it is a top notch show that should be mentioned.)


More recent (21st century) comedy shows I like:
Scrubs
My Name is Earl
Raising Hope
Better Off Ted
30 Rock
Brooklyn 99
Last Man on Earth
Parks and Recreation
Modern Family
The Middle
Neighbors
The Goldbergs
Fresh Off the Boat
The Good Place
The Big Bang Theory
Young Sheldon
Glow
Derry Girls
Sex Education
Louie
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Atypical
Weeds
Shameless
Orange is the New Black

 

[Mello_SixtyNine]

Some faves of mine.

https://i.imgur.com/wDZh7ai.png?1 https://i.imgur.com/HDvJrLu.png?1

https://i.imgur.com/88yiji3.png?1 https://i.imgur.com/8MJ9Dvn.png?1

https://i.imgur.com/fk9hivO.png https://i.imgur.com/8gILvh9.png

https://i.imgur.com/id1lMU7.png?1

https://i.imgur.com/CTwDwWJ.png

https://i.imgur.com/ZZYGhMZ.png?1

https://i.imgur.com/7wPo2Fn.png

 

[dolf]

Dolf, have you seen the episode "Inga"? MASH was on so long (11 years) it had time to evolve. Alan Alda had become increasingly disturbed by his character's treatment of women and finally refused to be a womanizer any longer. He wrote the episode Inga to bring in a character that would turn the tables on Hawkeye, humble him,make him see how he treated women by having himself be treated that way. Hawkeye was never the same in his attitude after that.

It was still 1979 when that episode premiered and there was still a long way to go in changing attitudes that needed to be changed, but it showed progress and an awareness of the problem.

I also hope you wouldn't be insulted by American actress Mariette Hartley's portrayal as a medical officer in the Swedish military. Another thing MASH often tried to do was respectfully show that the "Korean War" was participated in by many countries all over the world. It was an American show so it focused on an American army medical unit, but it tried to be aware and to show that other countries were important participants as often as they could. Sometimes they even got an actor of that country to actually play the role, but usually they just got the actor they liked best and usually that was an American.

I'm going to have to look that one up.

Thanks

 

[rae121452]

So many great picks that I wholeheartedly agree with.

My top 10 favorite sitcoms of all time:
1. Community
2. The Office (U.S.)
3. Taxi
4. Barney Miller
5. All in the Family
6. Newsradio
7. Frasier
8. MASH
9. Arrested Development
10. Titus

I find Barney Miller is an often forgotten series when remembering older sitcoms and that's sad because it is an amazingly funny and relevant show. What's also pretty amazing is that the sitcom that was Barney Miller's successor as in many of the same writers, directors, and production staff, is ... Night Court.

Amazing because of how gritty and down to earth Barney Miller was and how silly and surreal Night Court was. But if you watch the first couple seasons of Night Court you can see how it was a much closer show to Barney Miller. If there was a more sitcom-like Law & Order series, I could easily see the 12th precinct as the "Law" part of the show and early seasons of Judge Harold T. Stone's court as the "Order" part, both seeming to easily fit in the same universe.

So, other classic sitcoms I enjoy rewatching:
Mad About You
Mork & Mindy
WKRP in Cincinnati
Night Court
Cheers
Wings
Everybody Loves Raymond
Yes, Dear
Becker
Seinfeld
3rd Rock From The Sun
That 70's Show
Soap
King of Queens
Malcolm in the Middle
Freaks and Geeks
Sportsnight
The Job
The Larry Sanders Show
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Bob Newhart Show (psychiatrist)
Newhart (Inn Keeper)
Murphy Brown
Good Times
Just Shoot Me
Happy Days
The Wonder Years
Three's Company

Friends (used to like this one a lot more but I like it less and less as years go by)

The Cosby Show (a shame how it's become problematic to watch, but when possible to divorce art from artist it is a top notch show that should be mentioned.)


More recent (21st century) comedy shows I like:
Scrubs
My Name is Earl
Raising Hope
Better Off Ted
30 Rock
Brooklyn 99
Last Man on Earth
Parks and Recreation
Modern Family
The Middle
Neighbors
The Goldbergs
Fresh Off the Boat
The Good Place
The Big Bang Theory
Young Sheldon
Glow
Derry Girls
Sex Education
Louie
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Atypical
Weeds
Shameless
Orange is the New Black

jesus, in this situation just tell us what you didn't like.

 

[AngeloMichael]

jesus, in this situation just tell us what you didn't like.

2 and a half men


Sorry I was a latchkey kid who grew up in the 80's. TV has been my life.

 

[Tigersman]

Sanford and Son...stumbled across it and it holds up and I lol’ed.

What works for you?

Although I like Sanford and Son, I really dislike Fred calling Lamont "dummy" all the time. This was happening when my son was about 5-7 years old. He picked this practice up from the show and started to call me and his mother "dummy." I told him if he called his mother or me "dummy" again I would wash his mouth out with soap. He apparently didn't believe me and called me "dummy" again. I washed his mouth out with soap. He never called anyone "dummy" again.

 

[hobbit.]

as for the 'virtue signalling' aspect of people noticing the changes and feeling uncomfortable about them, maybe it's just another thing too many men simply don't 'get'.

just pop down the library with a box of highlighter pens then.

Stereotyping much there are you?

 

[hobbit.]

"Sanford and Son is an American sitcom television series that ran on the NBC television network from January 14, 1972, to March 25, 1977. It was based on the BBC Television programme Steptoe and Son, which had its original broadcast run in the United Kingdom from 1962 to 1965."

from a quick wiki search.

the UK series mainly portrayed working class Londoners as work shy con artists with spiv like tenancies, a bit like the characters in ''only fools and horses'' but with a horse instead of a Reliant Robin.

strange that no one has mentioned ''the Benny Hill Show'' or the equally obnoxious 'Kenny Everett Show'' which both frequently used none males as mere sexual gratification props. Arlene Philips should have been tarred and feathered for the way she made those poor girls dress in little more than their underwear and gyrate provocatively.

For that matter, Cleo Roccos should have been tried for crimes against women, as should Mae West.

Should Peter Paul Rubens also be reevaluated by history for promoting obesity in women and banned from art programmes on tv?

 

[jomar]

Although I like Sanford and Son, I really dislike Fred calling Lamont "dummy" all the time. This was happening when my son was about 5-7 years old. He picked this practice up from the show and started to call me and his mother "dummy." I told him if he called his mother or me "dummy" again I would wash his mouth out with soap. He apparently didn't believe me and called me "dummy" again. I washed his mouth out with soap. He never called anyone "dummy" again.

Yeah, he gives Archie Bunker a run for the money.

@AngeloMichael - I’m rewatching Everyone Loves Raymond and it’s still relevant. Doris Roberts is brilliant.

Newhart had the best finale ever, bar none.

The Murphy Brown reboot was sad.

On the other hand, the Lost in Space reboot turned the original camp upside down and was pretty awesome. And who doesn’t love a little Parker Posey as the evil Dr. Smith!

 

[bowlerhat]

Excellent choice

Cadfael with Derek Jacobi.

Also Joan Hickson as Miss Marple and David Souchet as Poirot.
On a slightly different point, I fail to understand why shows like Love thy neighbour and Til death us do part are demonised for being racist when they mostly show the racist characters as stupid idiots.

 

[LLCox]

With sex doll Loni Anderson in the sitcom WKRP Cincinnati, it got my undivided attention.

https://64.media.tumblr.com/bc38ae21354d41a23c7b98ee077a5675/tumblr_mt0pv2nlcY1rs4x66o1_500.jpg