Classic TV Shows
April 10th 2010 22:11
People would linger outside the windows of stores stocking this new form of entertainment and marvel at what the future held.
Of course, the early days of TV in both the US and Australia offered anything but the 24/7 content we're used to today with most programs screening afternoons and evenings.
The second thing you need to know is that it was black and white. Actually, it was various shades of gray.
You received your TV shows via an antenna which most of us still have proudly on show stuck up way above the roof line of our house.
Customarily this directional adjustment was accomplished by dad going outside to manually turn the antenna while someone with an eye on the TV yelled out an open window, "no, too far, come back a little."
The earliest TV shows were really radio and vaudeville moving to a new medium.
I Love Lucy and Gunsmoke were two of the earliest progams which come to mind while later The Dick Van Dyke Show, Leave It To Beaver, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Ozzie and Harriet, Father Knows Best, CIrcus Boy and The Andy Griffith Show just to name a few.
As technology beckoned and colour was introduced, some such as Bonanza and Gidget made an almost seemless transition - some simply like The Honeymooners or even The Abbott and Costello Show faded to grey and found a home in the archives - only to be dug out years later on late night revival re-runs.
But of those black and white classics which didn't discover the joys of Joseph's Technolocolour Dreamcoat - what were your favourites?
. . . of course, in the same way you don't have to be of pension age to delight in black and white photography - what gems sit at the forefront of your minds eye?
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Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
Screen Trek
QUOTE ME NO QUOTES!
I'm amazed no one has commented yet! More evidence that the bon homie has all but disappeared here, or is it more that I am soooo old, these shows seem like they were on air yesterday?
Anyhoo, taking into account your fab list, I loved them all but don't remember Ossie and Harriet, but,
here are a few more I loved, and nearly all by memory, just a few I had to look up for spelling!!!
The Real McCoys, (US)
The Cisco Kid, (US)
The Ed Sullivan Show, (US)
Bandstand, (US & Oz)
The MItch Miller Show, (US)
The Jackie Gleason Show, (US)
Jack Bennie Show, (US)
Red Skelton Show, (US)
Surfside Six, (US)
(...remember the music intro:."..in Miami Beach, tee tee dee tee tee!" )
77 Sunset Strip, (US)
Hawaiian Eye, (US)
Wagon Train, (US)
The Green Hornet, (US)
Alfred Hitchcock Presents, (US)
Hancock's Half Hour, (UK)
Steptoe and Son, (UK)
The Frost Report, (UK)
Beyond the Fringe, (UK)
Dragnet, (US)
George and Gracie Burns Show, (US)
(not sure exact title),
The Bob Hope Show, (US)
The Johnny Carson Show, (US),
The Roy Rogers Show, (US)
(with his girl Dale and his horse Trigger),
The FBI, (US)
The Twilight Zone, (US)
The Outer Limits,(US)
The Rifleman, (US)
Bonanza, (US)
The Farmer's Daughter, (US)
Gidget, (US)
The Fugitive, (US)
and lastly but never leastly,
The Mickey Mouse Club, (US)
(how I wanted those damn ears!!!)
Okay,
so that's enough for now and it impresses me, and in equal measure frightens me, how many I remember, just goes to show how many years of my life I wasted in front of the TV.
One last mention, the Aussie shows,
My Names McGooley,
The Mavis Bramston Show,
In Melbourne Tonight,
(I got to work with "Mavis" many years later and impressed her that I remembered and loved the show!)
cheers and thanks for stimulating the old grey sludge-matter, loved those shows and miss them!
fog
Comment by Nice Nice Guy
Pop Culturist
Pop Rock Factory
My Name's McGooley - OMG - I'd forgotten all about that classic . . .
Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
Screen Trek
QUOTE ME NO QUOTES!
forgot all about 12 O'Clock High...that was the WW2 fly boys wasn't it?
And Robert Taylor's Detectives, how dare I forget that!! We watched it religiously. And, Elliot Ness!!
Circus boy, I remember kind of being annoyed with him, I think I was jealous.
Talking about annoying twits, Rin Tin Tin!!! Loved the alsatian, hated the twerp kid in that too.
Then there was Charlie Chan, not the fillms, the series, Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, (how on earth did I manage to get any sleep or study? My family was fairly indulgent with me.
I remember being scared shyte-less watching Outer Limits and Twilight Zone, we'd turn the lights out and huddle together, all five of us kids, and pretend we weren't scared, the blue=ish glow of the large TV, its huge speaker hidden behind a woven fabric with gold thread through it, below the screen.... those were the days.
cheers
fog