29 Comments
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Melina Rudman's avatar

I am not laughing ... we are watching MASH again.

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Susan Campbell's avatar

SUCH a great show…

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Lola's avatar

Great idea to watch MASH again!

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JoanG's avatar

Most of our pandemic binging was new (to us) on Netflix, but shows we watched reruns of were The West Wing (which also got me through TFG's 4 years), MASH, The Dick Van Dyke show and The Big Bang Theory. We needed comedy more than drama. More recently we tried the original Bob Newhart Show. It holds up.

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Susan Campbell's avatar

Oh, I think so, too. That drill delivery. The goofy characters.

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Lou's avatar

Between the show and its theme song, it was the ultimate (for it's time) legal whodunit show.

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Susan Campbell's avatar

I love the theme song. So elegant.

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Paul Ashton's avatar

Da da da, DA DA!!! Da da da, DA DA!!

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Susan Campbell's avatar

Thanks for the ear worm, which I was barely avoiding anyway.

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Joan Sheehan's avatar

There’s a comfort in watching old tv shows, a reminder of simpler times . ❤️

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Susan Campbell's avatar

Or, at least for me, times when I didn't realize a quarter of what was really going on. I don't miss those days, precisely, and I watch these old shows noticing things like Paul Drake's lechery lite and Della Street's ability to be an attorney but she remains a secretary.

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Paul Ashton's avatar

I was pretty little when I started watching Perry Mason with my parents. I had a crush on Della. I didn’t understand it that way at the time, she just made me feel funny. I was still fuzzy on the reality vs. drama thing the first time I was allowed to watch “Rear Window” (BTW, released three years before Perry Mason’s first season, I just found out on the Googly). When Raymond Burr showed up as the villain, my parents told me I got a little confused. Sometimes I wonder what my parents were thinking.

I haven’t watched either in a while but I’m always surprised how well “The Twilight Zone” and “The Andy Griffith Show” holds up.

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Susan Campbell's avatar

Oh, Andy and crew still make me smile. I never really watched "The Twilight Zone," but I probably should.

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Paul Ashton's avatar

Rod Serling was a fascinating guy. His struggles with censorship and control of his scripts. Addressing directly or indirectly filtered through a sci-fi plot, racial relations, gender, war, power, status, religion, existence. He left a big impression. For the most part through half hour shows though he wrote longer scripts, “Requiem for a Heavyweight” probably being the most well known.

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Thomasina Levy's avatar

We watched an old Perry Mason episode at a friend’s house last year. I loved the clothes Della Street wore. So classy and couture. We laughed at the end of the episode because the murder case went to trial in weeks. Which is pure fiction today.

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Susan Campbell's avatar

Isn't it, but yes. Della Street's clothes were the bomb.

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Debra Cohen's avatar

Around here it's Murder She Wrote. Episode after episode, time after time. I think if I were to come across an episode I haven't seen before I'd collapse from shock.

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Nancy O's avatar

I love Perry Mason, it brings back memories of watching it with my grandfather during summer visits. We have a lot of the episodes on DVD, if you ever want to watch again.

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Susan Campbell's avatar

Oh, thank you!

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Mike's avatar

It holds up fairly well... except for people just blurting out murder confessions in open court (not even on the witness stand)

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Susan Campbell's avatar

THAT doesn’t happen. But maybe it should…

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Mike's avatar

And I think to myself...

What a Wonderful World

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Mary Ann Dimand's avatar

I'm a Parks and Rec man, myself, plus Star Treks, all of them but Prodigy.

ST: TOS was post Second World War unconsciously celebrating and exploring the value of community and structural cooperation, but with the others, it's entirely deliberate, and I find tha choice very comforting. Not that that's the only appeal of he shows.

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Susan Campbell's avatar

I LOVED “Parks and Rec” but watched it so many times it became my small-screen “Rocky Horror Picture Show.” I know I’ll return to it, though.

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Amy Mirchandani's avatar

Quincy was formulaic as well. Still, made me fall deeper in love with (forensic) science

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Susan Campbell's avatar

And when we used to watch it on FETV, “Quincy” was on just before Perry. I liked watching Jack Klugman throw a gasket.

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Amy Mirchandani's avatar

Yes! A very different Jack Klugman from his stint on the Odd Couple

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Theresa Taylor's avatar

I haven't taken a deep-dive into old TV series, but we have watched some old movies "The Russians are Coming The Russians are Coming" was a riot. We also watched "It's a Mad Mad World", and opined that some of the jokes would not land well in today's world. However, many, many laughs were had. Our latest borderline "vintage" (*sob* I have a very clear memory of seeing this when it first came out.) flick was Carrie. I forgot about the opening girls locker room shower scenes. It was the 70's... um... *blush*

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