"Why I Love Vintage Television"

[mahatmakanejeeves]

There was a thread earlier today in the DU Lounge about "Gunsmoke." I spent the weekend binge-watching Chuck Norris movies and a "Twilight Zone" marathon. I took breaks only to go to the bathroom, do the laundry, and eat.

Your holiday edition of my
@TheAtlantic
newsletter, with visits from Frank Cannon, Barnaby Jones, The Seaview submarine, Lee Meriwether, Carl Kolchak, some mean giants, and of course, Joe Mannix and
@morgfair
|
Why I Love Vintage Television

newsletters.theatlantic.com
Why I Love Vintage Television
It's like time travel, only safer.

Link to tweet

[Jade Fox]

1. "Like time travel, only safer!"

Carl Kolchack

[highplainsdem]

2. I like a lot of what Tom Nichols has written, and this column is no exception.

I don't watch a lot of MeTV because I simply don't watch very much TV any more, period. But the shows are great as time travel.

And I noticed this paragraph at the end of the column:

Finally, I watch because I miss my mother, who passed away 23 years ago. Watching TV with her was one of the few nice things in my otherwise tumultuous childhood. When Mannix solves the case or Barnaby rides off in his big car, I know that my mother probably saw the same episode, and that makes me smile. And then I drift off to sleep.

My parents' marriage was a very unhappy one, and I have so few memories of time spent inside the house with my family that I think I just blocked much of it. (I have lots of memories of being away from the house at that age.)

But when we were watching a TV show we all found worth watching, for a while there were no fights, and we seemed almost like a happy family. I didn't have to grab a book and try to find a quiet corner to be undisturbed (I didn't have my own room till I was a teenager) or head outside to climb a tree or ride a horse (it's quite possible to read a lot while up in a tree or on horseback). Or just sit on the porch because it was too dark for climbing trees or riding.

And some shows in particular remind me of some family members who particularly liked them. Family members who are gone now, or who never or rarely talk to one another now. (I still talk to all of them.) We were a family. Just a family watching TV, but with just one TV for much of my childhood, we did have those shared experiences and memories.

[brush]

3. Chuck Norris? That winger?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

5. You've heard of him! I've seen every episode of "Walker, Texas Ranger." NT

[brush]

7. Certainly, and that he's a winger trump supporter.

I don't watch or support anything to do with him, Eastwood, or Michael Richards or any of the wingers and N-word spewers once they reveal who they are.

As Maya Angelou said: "Once someone shows you who they are, believe them."

[mahatmakanejeeves]

8. I'll cry all the way to the commercial break.

Hat tip, Liberace

[brush]

9. Keep crying. And you're on DU?

[highplainsdem]

11. A lot of people, maybe most of them, can separate the art from the

artist. That's their choice and their right.

If you require that an artist share your views on any particular subject or you'll reject their art, that's your choice and your right.

You don't have the right to impose that view on others.

You don't know, either, how many people with views you'd admire you're rejecting if you decide you can't enjoy a team effort like a TV show or film or professional recording.

[gainesvillenole]

4. Love MeTV

I watch MeTV a lot and this piece does an excellent summation of why….

[mahatmakanejeeves]

6. I'm in northern Virginia. The local affiliate shifted its frequency about a month ago.

I used to get it on a subchannel of the local Fox Broadcast affiliate, WTTG, at channel 5.3. It was a flamethrower.

Then they moved to a new frequency. The transmitter is on the same tower at WRC, also a flamethrower.

It takes safecracker fingertips to adjust the antenna so that I can get MeTV now. It's on virtual channels 48.1 through 48.4, real RF channel 20. I have to change the position of the antenna from day to day to bring in MeTV.

[Auggie]

10. Lot of vintage popping up on streaming services ...

Crackle, especially, is right now streaming vintage series that had one or two season runs or were never syndicated. You never see this, even on cable. YouTube is a good source too.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

12. About five or six years ago, MeTV (I think) was, for a while, running

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, the TV series, not the movie.



It starred Richard Dean Anderson, before he was MacGyver, as well as River Phoenix.

That series lasted barely over six months. I managed to tape one episode. It's on YouTube, if you feel like paying.

I'd like to see those one- and two-season series on the air again.

[Auggie]

13. Never knew that was series.

Haven't watched MeTV in years. My issues with their broadcast channel were the number of commercials and the editing of original material.

Some of the dramas -- sitcoms too -- didn't make sense because a lot of original footage had been removed to squeeze in ads and promos. There's the continuity angle too. Yeah, I know I grew up with it. Just so spoiled now.

BTW, always liked your username. Subtlety ... It's a Gift.