Shows you liked way back when that probably don't hold up

[DunderMifflin]

Stand up comedy ages terribly.

I want to watch Xena again just to see, but it was done badly even for its time. The acting was bad for its time, the overall production was lower budget. It was never a primetime show. It was one of those things that came on weekend afternoons in between hour long infomercials. 

It had a very culty fanbase who for the most part loved it while still being aware of its cheese.

[ljkeane]

14 hours ago, Astromech said:

Seinfeld and Cheers are two of the few I can laugh at just as hard as when they first aired.

Frasier's still good too.

[Mladen]

I think, as people said, comedies age badly...

I am watching "Everybody loves Raymond"... I loved that show... Now... It is borderline frustrating.

[Fez]

23 hours ago, MisterOJ said:

I never watched Farscape back in the day for some reason. I tried to watch it a couple years back on Netflix. I made it through maybe four or five episodes and gave up. 

As I recall, most of the first season was pretty rough even when it originally aired. It was one of those shows that took a little while to find its feet.

 

23 hours ago, Corvinus said:

I think that one still holds up for me. It's been some years since I watched it, but I did re-watch it and I still liked it.

22 hours ago, red snow said:

when I watched it 5 years ago , if anything, I realised it was even better than I remembered. Definitely ahead of its time in terms of characters being unpleasant and fractious.

That's good to hear. I may need to watch it again sometime soon then. It had some frustrating moments, but overall I think its my favorite long-running sci-fi series (which is why I've been afraid to revisit it). Or I guess, fantasy-in-space series; the actual science was so soft you could cut it with a wax knife.

 

[MisterOJ]

3 minutes ago, Fez said:

As I recall, most of the first season was pretty rough even when it originally aired. It was one of those shows that took a little while to find its feet.

Hmmm... maybe I should give it another try then. Would I be able to just pick up with the second season and be okay, since I know how the whole thing starts? Or would I need to power through the entire first season for it to make sense?

[Fez]

6 minutes ago, MisterOJ said:

Hmmm... maybe I should give it another try then. Would I be able to just pick up with the second season and be okay, since I know how the whole thing starts? Or would I need to power through the entire first season for it to make sense?

You're going want to watch at least episodes 18-20 ; they introduce the main antagonist for the rest of the series.

Looking at the episode list again, as I recall the show started to figure out what it was going to be at episode 16. The plot of that episode makes it an odd one to jump right into though. I'd recommend watching the premiere and episode 2 (unless you still remember the premise from the last time you tried), and then episodes 7 & 15 (they are connected), followed by episodes 16 through 22 (end of the season).

That's assuming the show holds up at all though; but it sounds like it does.

[red snow]

36 minutes ago, MisterOJ said:

Hmmm... maybe I should give it another try then. Would I be able to just pick up with the second season and be okay, since I know how the whole thing starts? Or would I need to power through the entire first season for it to make sense?

When it first aired, I also gave up after around 4 episodes. I tuned back in during the mid season 2-3 parter and was hooked. I think Fez's recommendation is probably better. The introduction of Scorpius and the events surrounding him at the end of season 1 pretty much set up the rest of the show.

Be warned there are episodes that are a bit crazy and can be off-putting. There's one episode that is essentially a homage to roadrunner and wile e coyote. When the show is good it's untouchable. Come to think of it- I wonder whatever happened to the film that was in development

[Jaxom 1974]

Comedies...that's an interesting one...on their face, their generally more in tune to the pulse of the nation at the time they were made, or in some cases they were ahead of the populace culture/societal curve...because they're only 30 minutes, they were such staples of the syndicated stuff you'd see...I mean, in the 80s I remember feasting on Lucy, Green Acres, Brady Bunch, Happy days, MASH, etc.  

So while format and some content can feel dated, the best ones still hold up.  I can watch Golden Girls all day long.  Same with Night Court, Cheers, a number of others...

[A Horse Named Stranger]

21 hours ago, Astromech said:

Seinfeld and Cheers are two of the few I can laugh at just as hard as when they first aired.

I agree on Cheers, that show was and is simply awesome. But Seinfeld is one of those shows that I never got into, and I never understood the hype about.

Same with Friends and King of Queens. Ok, not exactly the same. Since I thoroughly hated King of Queens.

[Ded As Ned]

Quantum Leap... I watched every episode of that as a tween and tried to rewatch a few years ago and couldn't hack it.

[Greywolf2375]

On ‎02‎/‎07‎/‎2017 at 11:31 AM, Jaxom 1974 said:

Most of the "fun" shows of the late 70s, early 80s.  A-Team, Knight Rider, CHiPS, and their il.  That they exist on a specific formula that is so unique to their own time period, it's likely why any modern movie or television adaptation or reimagining just blow.

Not surprisingly, I'm going to say the same.  A-Team would not hold up.  Used to love The Fall Guy but that just wouldn't work today.

[Joe Pesci]

I recently watched a few episodes of Welcome Back, Kotter. While I always enjoyed it when I first saw re-runs of it in the 90s when I was a teenager, I think it's basis would get utterly destroyed in today's PC environment. It doesn't hold up too well outside of some laughs and nostalgia, but hey it was the 70s.

M*A*S*H is back on AMC now too, and it definitely holds up imo. One of my favorite shows ever.

[Rorshach]

23 minutes ago, Notone said:

Same with Friends and King of Queens. Ok, not exactly the same. Since I thoroughly hated King of Queens.

I've tried to rewatch Friends. I can't. Doesn't hold up. And I completely agree on King of Queens. 

 

3 minutes ago, Joe Pesci said:

M*A*S*H is back on AMC now too, and it definitely holds up imo. One of my favorite shows ever.

M*A*S*H is excellent. But the quality dropped as the show progressed. Somewhere around the change of colonel, it started going downhill for me.

[Joe Pesci]

3 minutes ago, Rorshach said:

M*A*S*H is excellent. But the quality dropped as the show progressed. Somewhere around the change of colonel, it started going downhill for me.

The trio of Hawkeye/Trapper/Henry is far superior to Hawkeye/BJ/Potter. I'd say after maybe the first two seasons of the latter trio (s4-s5) it wasn't nearly as good to me. I did like some Charles Emerson Winchester though in the last years.

[Ded As Ned]

1 hour ago, Joe Pesci said:

The trio of Hawkeye/Trapper/Henry is far superior to Hawkeye/BJ/Potter. I'd say after maybe the first two seasons of the latter trio (s4-s5) it wasn't nearly as good to me. I did like some Charles Emerson Winchester though in the last years.

BLASPHEMY!

Apologies, I was confusing Trapper and BJ.... so we are in agreement

[DunderMifflin]

20 hours ago, Ded As Ned said:

Quantum Leap... I watched every episode of that as a tween and tried to rewatch a few years ago and couldn't hack it.

Well Al's bulky and kiddy looking smartphone sure doesn't seem so amazing anymore.

I remember he used to always smack the side of it because it never worked right.

[felice]

Farscape and Babylon 5 definitely hold up in my opinion, as long as you can make allowances for the technology of the time.

I've got Robin of Sherwood on blu-ray in my queue; it was the definitive version of Robin Hood in its day, and it will be interesting to see how it holds up. Not entirely coincidentally, they've recently made an audio play with the original cast, and hopefully will be making four more this year (if they get enough pre-orders - UK postal addresses only).

[Calibandar]

On 2/8/2017 at 1:35 PM, ljkeane said:

Frasier's still good too.

Frasier is still excellent and doesn't feel dated to me at all, as of the second season.

King of Queens is another comedy that I really like and which has held up well.

 

On 2/11/2017 at 2:56 AM, felice said:

Farscape and Babylon 5 definitely hold up in my opinion, as long as you can make allowances for the technology of the time.

I've got Robin of Sherwood on blu-ray in my queue; it was the definitive version of Robin Hood in its day, and it will be interesting to see how it holds up. Not entirely coincidentally, they've recently made an audio play with the original cast, and hopefully will be making four more this year (if they get enough pre-orders - UK postal addresses only).

Robin of Sherwood- watched some of that 10 years ago for the first time and already looked really old. 

It has a certain charm though and I think if you're someone who saw it at the time, it will still hold up in some ways.

On 2/7/2017 at 5:03 PM, red snow said:

 

In terms of things I have rewatched

 

Babylon 5 - holds up but I found the final season unwatchable whereas found season one solid because the framework was there (even if some episodes/acting/dialogue is ropey)

Oz - still a great yet challenging show. Although a regular rewatch highlighted how the final season was a huge drop in quality

Ones I'd be worried about

X-files - one of the worst things about the recent season was the realisation it was possible the show had always been like that.

Lost and BSG - knowing how badly both shows ended for me would probably ruin a rewatch of shows I thought were amazing. I'd probably shout things like "you'll never resolve that" or "there's no fucking way you thought that character would wind up doing that".

Oz- now there's a show which I really enjoyed around 2004 but never re-watched a second of since.

I think it would hold up well given the sort of show it is.

BSG likewise holds up really well in my opinion. It is of course still a fairly recent show, to my mind anyway.

B5- Love that show but of course that looked a bit dated a few years after release already due to some of the CGI. Still a great show though.

Would probably agree with you on X-Files though, but that is really quite old now.

On 2/7/2017 at 6:46 PM, Maithanet said:

Batman: The Animated Series holds up very well, great voice acting, animation and storytelling.  The 90s X-Men show, not so much, I watched a couple of episodes and felt like it was just a kids show.  The action is usually lazily executed, and the characters left a lot to be desired. 

Mixed feelings on most cartoons from back in the day. Haven't really checked either of these two out but I suspect I could not watch most of it anymore if I tried. Though both of these series were memorable, especially X-men.

[Werthead]

BSG absolutely holds up, but the storytelling problems in the second half remain prevalent. That's got nothing to do with ageing, just the writing problems. The ending, of course, remains utter shit.

Lost has dramatically improved, I think, now you can binge-watch. The connections between episodes stand up a lot better and the gradual increase of pacing from the slow (but resonant) Season 1 through the fast-paced Seasons 4 and 5 works really well. Also, what at the time felt like interminable longeurs, particularly in Seasons 2 and 3, end up feeling like completely negligible 2-3 episode long bits of filler in a rewatch. Nowhere near as problematic. The iffy final season and the dodgy afterlife story remain problems, although if you are hardcore enough you can watch the edited fan version which completely removes the afterlife storyline.

The X-Files, in terms of episode quality, has held up really well. It works because the show was filmed in a very cinematic way that was way head of its time. However, Mulder's lack of scepticism and jumping from stupid tinfoil to stupid tinfoil now does feel really silly now. The big problem is knowing that the ending is rubbish and that the show is dicking its audience around. That makes sitting through all 200-odd episodes feel more challenging (especially knowing that Season 10, apart from one episode, is also utter pants).

Buffy has stood up well, but like Babylon 5 it was trying to do something way ahead of its time but still in the limitations of a 1990s TV format. That means that later episodes (from Season 2 onwards in both case) are still really good and watchable, but getting into the show in the early episodes is much, much harder for new viewers now. We were much more patient and willing to put up with crap to get to the good stuff back in the day.

DS9 has held up and even improved dramatically in the intervening years. Voyager has gotten considerably worse. TNG's first season is almost unwatchable.

Spaced has somehow improved a lot as well over the years. Of the big sitcoms, Red Dwarf has held up reasonably well from Season 2 onwards. Father Ted and Black Books are still brilliant (probably the slightly more surreal sense of humour from both is much more timeless). Seinfeld gets better with age as well.

[Joe Pesci]

8 hours ago, Calibandar said:

Mixed feelings on most cartoons from back in the day. Haven't really checked either of these two out but I suspect I could not watch most of it anymore if I tried. Though both of these series were memorable, especially X-men.

I watched a few episodes of Batman: The Animated Series over the weekend on Amazon, it's still a pretty good watch imo. Probably one of the most well done cartoons ever put on TV.