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

[williamjm]

BBC News were talking about Gorden Kaye's funeral earlier, which reminded me that back when I was in primary school I did think Allo Allo was very funny, I'm not sure how well it would stand up today if I watched it again, I think even at the time I noticed that every episode was basically the same catchphrases arranged in a slightly different order. I do wonder a bit if any nation on Earth other than the British would ever have made a sitcom whose premise was based on the Nazi occupation of France.

I did watch a lot more sitcoms back then that I do now. I do wonder a bit how many would still stand up, although there are some from that era like Blackadder or Red Dwarf that I think still work.

[Relic]

7 hours ago, Channel4s-JonSnow said:

I'd go as far to say most of it was utterly stupid and braindead. I think back to all the shows I watched in the 80's and none of them had even the slightest level of sophistication, nor did it ever really require you think think. This is probably by design as they were all shows viewed purely as entertainment to work around advertising, with little viewer commitment. They seemed to take an almost insulting view of their audiences that maybe isn't the case any more. 

 

agreed.

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

1 hour ago, williamjm said:

BBC News were talking about Gorden Kaye's funeral earlier, which reminded me that back when I was in primary school I did think Allo Allo was very funny, I'm not sure how well it would stand up today if I watched it again, I think even at the time I noticed that every episode was basically the same catchphrases arranged in a slightly different order. I do wonder a bit if any nation on Earth other than the British would ever have made a sitcom whose premise was based on the Nazi occupation of France.

I did watch a lot more sitcoms back then that I do now. I do wonder a bit how many would still stand up, although there are some from that era like Blackadder or Red Dwarf that I think still work.

I think there some British comedy institutions that will never age because the timing is simply so good. Blackadder, Peter cook, faulty towers are always going to be great. I can still watch any of them and love it.

Red Dwarf I think is slightly showing it's age, some of the humour is pretty basic and is pushed along by the laughter track. Still a good show but can't say it makes me cry with laughter like when I was a kid

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

1 hour ago, williamjm said:

 I do wonder a bit if any nation on Earth other than the British would ever have made a sitcom whose premise was based on the Nazi occupation of France.

 Yup, we can match you for Nazi themed sit-coms. See Hogan's Heroes. A sit-com set in a Nazi POW camp. Pretty damn funny show on top of all that.

[dajamieson]

3 hours ago, williamjm said:

BBC News were talking about Gorden Kaye's funeral earlier, which reminded me that back when I was in primary school I did think Allo Allo was very funny, I'm not sure how well it would stand up today if I watched it again, I think even at the time I noticed that every episode was basically the same catchphrases arranged in a slightly different order. I do wonder a bit if any nation on Earth other than the British would ever have made a sitcom whose premise was based on the Nazi occupation of France.

I did watch a lot more sitcoms back then that I do now. I do wonder a bit how many would still stand up, although there are some from that era like Blackadder or Red Dwarf that I think still work.

<answers phone>

'Flick the Gestapo?'

'No, I said Flick, the Gestapo'

The one and only funny joke in Allo Allo.

[Werthead]

Quote

Red Dwarf I think is slightly showing it's age, some of the humour is pretty basic and is pushed along by the laughter track. Still a good show but can't say it makes me cry with laughter like when I was a kid

Red Dwarf definitely still stands up when it is mining the characters for humour and pathos, with a little bit of the maudlin loneliness of being trapped in deep space (Seasons 2-5, basically). Later on the show fell back on catchphrases and recurring stock jokes, some of which were amusing but really did not add much depth.

Episodes like Thanks for the Memory and Marooned, which are nearly 30 years old, have not aged nearly as badly as most of Seasons 7-8 from ten years later.

[Aemon Stark]

On 2/7/2017 at 6:12 PM, Astromech said:

It's usually sitcoms that don't age well for me. A lot of comedy is only really funny when it's current. It's rare to find sitcoms that retain their humor through the years. Seinfeld and Cheers are two of the few I can laugh at just as hard as when they first aired.

In regards to technology, I do chuckle seeing some of the old technology used in series. The beepers always seem so ancient when watching The Wire. Or old cell phones.

I can't say I ever got into Cheers, but I was probably too young to really appreciate it much (or most non-TGIF sitcoms). I still watch Frasier regularly now, and it's held up tremendously. Rarely if ever feels dated, even with the late-90s flip phones and wide lapels. Seinfeld is really as good as ever, particularly the earlier episodes when you realize how different it was from almost everything else at the time. Friends I only ever watched sporadically, and I still think it's funny. 

On the other hand, laugh tracks generally are harder to take these days than they used to be, even with the popularity of things like Big Bang (you can almost guarantee it will not hold up). I did watch all the TGIF shows back when they were the likes of Full House, Family Matters, Perfect Strangers, and the like, and they don't hold up in my memory let alone anything approaching real life. I watched ALF a lot as a kid too, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't hold up well...

In terms of "beepers", I still have a pager now and there seems little indication I'll be rid of it soon. 

On 2/13/2017 at 11:29 AM, Werthead said:

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.

I've rewatched some X-Files lately and find it holds up well. It was so well made for its time, but I have to say I never liked it that much after they stopped filming in Vancouver. But I haven't watched much of any Buffy or Angel lately. I'm pretty sure Angel would hold up (especially after the first season), but not so sure about Buffy. 

On 2/13/2017 at 8:45 PM, DunderMifflin said:

Cop and hospital dramas don't seem to hold up. Do they make TV dramas about anything else??? 

It's like if it's not a sitcom your only other choices are cop show or hospital show

The original Law and Order holds up, though it's interesting to see how deliberate the pacing was early on. It was arguably much more "serious" back at the start, and it's a bit jarring to the comparably "pulpy" tone of SVU. 

On 2/16/2017 at 4:36 AM, DunderMifflin said:

Just tried to watch St Elsewhere. It's so bad now. It was groundbreaking for its time to the point every hospital show since has been heavily influenced by it.

But it's just really bad now, despite its huge cast of many fine actors. Even a young Denzel Washington doesn't save it from sucking hard.

See I'd never watched a single episode of St Elsewhere until relatively recently. It has a very early-80s way about it, but still seems much more raw *and* less melodramatic than any current comparisons. 

On 2/17/2017 at 9:00 AM, Regular John Umber said:

A show that I love but don't really enjoy every episode of any more is Due South. The characters are great, Diefenbaker is great, the over-arching storylines are great, and then there's freakin' Leslie Nielsen, but individual episodes can be a bit painful when immersed in very heavy 90's pop culture, as well as sometimes being a bit on the nose with its moralising.

Haven't watched this in a long time, but I feel like it wouldn't age well, perhaps mainly because the romanticized RCMP image is so ludicrously out of touch with reality. 

Otherwise, classic Simpsons is still exceptional and witty. 

Most Trek shows hold up as well as ever: TOS is still cornball entertainment with occasional glimmers of intelligence and depth; TNG is pretty good for all its limitations from, oh, season two (or midway through it) onward almost to the end; DS9 gets more timely and politically relevant with each passing year; Voyager remains a mixed bag with a few great characters and episodes and a wasted premise; Enterprise I barely watched when it was on and didn't "hold up" when it was new. 

Batman: The Animated Series remains the finest "kids" cartoon ever made.