When I was a teenager, one of the stations out of Chicago went all classic TV reruns for a couple years. Sunday night was all British action shows - Prisoner, Avengers, Saint, Secret Agent. It was great stuff. I'd love to see some of that available streaming. I don't buy DVDs anymore, but I would buy a digital version of The Prisoner on Amazon in a heartbeat. It was the first thing I searched for.
It still baffles me that none of these classic British shows are on BBC America. I suppose some of them aren't owned by the BBC, but surely there must be some they could air instead of American reruns and reality shows.
The Prisoner is, for my money, one of the greatest shows in the history of television. I just hate how they have released it commercially! One episode at a time on VHS, 3 or 4 a pop on DVD. I guess there has been a complete series set released in the past few years, it's just really expensive. Grrrr. And you can't stream it, either.
Same with The Avengers. Used to be available through Netflix instant, but it hasn't been for a while. Doesn't A&E control the video rights for both these shows? Get with the program, guys!
Started watching the original Star Trek in the past few days... originally I had been going through for a "good parts" re-watching, but now I'm thinking I'm going to rewatch the whole series, since I haven't seen most episodes in years and years. Plus, it helps me to rediscover episodes I enjoy that I might have otherwise skipped, like "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" You get Ted Cassidy in the typical Ted Cassidy role, a climactic reveal from one of the characters that I remembered scaring the hell out of me as a little kid, and then you have Sherry Jackson as the android Andrea.
Great googly moogly. :x I'm sorry, where was I?
I remember her being similarly distracting in those Batman episodes where the Riddler was trying to steal a rare silent film. Hard to believe she was one of the daughters on Make Room for Daddy!
A&E typically does a bad job of releasing the classic shows they acquire the rights to. They did finally release a blu-ray of the complete Prisoner that looked like it might be decent, but so many of the sets they've released over the years either nickle and dimed consumers by parceling them out an episode or two at a time, or had mistakes. I remember years ago they actually made customers mail in their Prisoner DVDs for replacements because one of the episodes included was an un-remastered copy that looked so bad it was as if you were watching it on a blurry old television screen.
I believe they still have the rights to Monty Python's Flying Circus, which also vanished from Netflix a few months ago.
Yeah, I bought all those single episode Prisoner VHS tapes back in the early '90s. Had to have it. I also have the most recent DVD collection, but I got that as a Christmas present so I didn't have to shell out the money for it. I agree, A&E is horrible when it comes to their releases. I'd love to get the Poirot series on DVD, but not for what they charge.
I've never seen the original Saint series, only the Roger Moore episodes. I saw them, along with The Avengers, in the late '70s when CBS ran them in rotation with shows like McCloud and Cannon at midnight.
There haven't been much mention of some great British shows from these eras. I feel as a Brit it's my duty to name a few. Dads Army is an all time great. Watching reruns as a kid had me in stitches. I thinks that's the sign if a true great. A show that crosses eras and is loved by many generations. "Don't tell him Pike!" Still one of the funniest jokes I've seen on tv. Period.
Fawlty Towers. Another great sitcom. Made all the better because there were only 13 episodes. All if which are TV gold.
Monty Pythons Flying Cirus. The first and arguabley best sketch show. Paved the way for so many greats to follow. And that dead parrot sketch still makes me laugh out laugh just thinking of it.
What about the PBS block? Are You Being Served? Waiting For God? Keeping Up Appearances? The Last Of The Summer Wine?
No Benny Hill? No Dave Allen (and that cool theme song his show had)? No Steptoe & Son (sans the "clean" old man)? No Meet The Wife?
I love me the METV and Antenna, I have watched so many westerns on there that I have missed thru the years, Daniel Boone, Big Valley and Bonanza. Rewatching Wild Wild West in order is cool and the comedies, WKRP, Barney Miller on Sundays are what my dad and I watch each week. Dragnet and Adam 12 and Emergency are cool too. AHHHH memories
How's about I Am The Law (a detective show starring George Raft)? One Step Beyond? The original Outer Limits? The original Twilight Zone? Chico & The Man? Police Woman? The Rookies? S.W.A.T.? Starsky & Hutch? Have Gun, Will Travel? The Jock Mahoney Running/Jumping/Climbing Things Double-Shot (The Range Rider and Yancy Derringer)? The Lone Ranger? Checkmate (with Doug McClure and Sebastian Cabot)? The Chin-tastic Chuck Connors (The Rifleman and Branded)? The Six Million Dollar Man (in 1970s dollars, of course)? The Bionic Spin-Off...I mean, Woman? The Deputy (starring Henry Fonda)? Kolchak: The Night Stalker (the REAL one with Darren McGavin)?
Oh boy. I could go on and on in this thread and name dozens of shows I'm fond of from this era. Here's just a few that come to mind:
The Monkees, I Spy, Route 66, Green Acres, Mr. Ed, Car 54 Where Are You?, The Fugitive
There's some kind of a DVD release for each of these shows.
Monkees and the Dynamic Duo of Kelly and Scotty! Nice! Looks like someone remembers the old Nick At Nite line-up. :) Why no Mission Impossible (which kind of gets stale after Season 5, but you will get to see a young Sam Elliott as a recurring cast member)? No Munsters? No Addams Family? No Andy Griffith Show?
Question: Do animated series/cartoons and anthology dramas (Playhouse 90, The U.S. Steel Hour) count? Saturday Morning Live-Action (i.e. the Filmation stuff like Ark II, Jason Of Star Command, and Space Academy)?
Is it just me, or does anyone else often find PBS' selection of British comedies lacking? "Are You Being Served?" is enjoyable enough, but it certainly gets stale after seeing the same episodes over and over. The rest all seem to be the safest and blandest options available. I get that they're popular in the UK, but I've seen far better stuff (Steve Coogan's shows, for example) that never makes it to PBS.
Is it just me, or does anyone else often find PBS' selection of British comedies lacking? "Are You Being Served?" is enjoyable enough, but it certainly gets stale after seeing the same episodes over and over. The rest all seem to be the safest and blandest options available. I get that they're popular in the UK, but I've seen far better stuff (Steve Coogan's shows, for example) that never makes it to PBS.
The last UK show that my local PBS showed that I enjoyed was Red Dwarf. They did show Doctor Who ,the new stuff, for awhile. But were like 2 years behind on them. Plus I am not a big fan of the new Doctor Who stuff.
PBS around here airs Are You Being Served? several times a week. On Saturdays they air stuff like Last Of The Summer Wine and Waiting For God. It seems completely geared to older viewers with nowhere to go on a Saturday night. They usually slip the Lawrence Welk Show in there at some point, too. It's the television equivalent of chugging Ensure.
PBS around here airs Are You Being Served? several times a week. On Saturdays they air stuff like Last Of The Summer Wine and Waiting For God. It seems completely geared to older viewers with nowhere to go on a Saturday night. They usually slip the Lawrence Welk Show in there at some point, too. It's the television equivalent of chugging Ensure.
My local PBS now shows AYBS,keeping up appearances and last of the summer wine every Saturday night. They use to show AYBS,My Hero and Red Dwarf.
The PBS station where I grew up in Maine always had their British comedy block on Friday nights. They'd cycle through the standbys fairly regularly, like Fawlty Towers, The Good Neighbours, Are You Being Served?, To the Manor Born, and the like, but they'd cycle in a lot of other stuff, too: it's where I discovered Red Dwarf, of course, and also came to really enjoy a show called May to December, about an older lawyer falling in love with a gym teacher who hired him to handle her divorce (Anton Rogers was awesome as the Perry Mason-obsessed lawyer). There was a fun spy one, too, called The Piglet Files, about a math teacher who was recruited by MI-6 (or maybe 5, don't remember).
Could never watch Keeping Up Appearances, though. Hyacinth was the older British TV version of my mom, and it all hit WAY too close to home. Would-be aristocratic airs, henpecked husband, weird-ass relatives, the whole nine.
The PBS station where I grew up in Maine always had their British comedy block on Friday nights. They'd cycle through the standbys fairly regularly, like Fawlty Towers, The Good Neighbours, Are You Being Served?, To the Manor Born, and the like, but they'd cycle in a lot of other stuff, too: it's where I discovered Red Dwarf, of course, and also came to really enjoy a show called May to December, about an older lawyer falling in love with a gym teacher who hired him to handle her divorce (Anton Rogers was awesome as the Perry Mason-obsessed lawyer). There was a fun spy one, too, called The Piglet Files, about a math teacher who was recruited by MI-6 (or maybe 5, don't remember).
Could never watch Keeping Up Appearances, though. Hyacinth was the older British TV version of my mom, and it all hit WAY too close to home. Would-be aristocratic airs, henpecked husband, weird-ass relatives, the whole nine.
PBS around here airs Are You Being Served? several times a week. On Saturdays they air stuff like Last Of The Summer Wine and Waiting For God. It seems completely geared to older viewers with nowhere to go on a Saturday night. They usually slip the Lawrence Welk Show in there at some point, too. It's the television equivalent of chugging Ensure.
PBS used to show a wide variety of Brit shows, as mentioned by others. It's also where I first saw The Prisoner. But, yeah, now it seems mostly geared toward the senior crowd.
I may have mentioned this on another thread a while back, but back when I worked for the newspaper, every Sunday night at 6:00 p.m. PBS would show a random episode of The Lawrence Welk Show. They would always show an opening number before displaying the original air date, so everyone would make their guess based on the opening number. The trick to winning was to remember that the fashions on the show were about five years (or more) out of date and to always add five years to your guess before answering.
The PBS station where I grew up in Maine always had their British comedy block on Friday nights. They'd cycle through the standbys fairly regularly, like Fawlty Towers, The Good Neighbours, Are You Being Served?, To the Manor Born, and the like, but they'd cycle in a lot of other stuff, too: it's where I discovered Red Dwarf, of course, and also came to really enjoy a show called May to December, about an older lawyer falling in love with a gym teacher who hired him to handle her divorce (Anton Rogers was awesome as the Perry Mason-obsessed lawyer). There was a fun spy one, too, called The Piglet Files, about a math teacher who was recruited by MI-6 (or maybe 5, don't remember).
Could never watch Keeping Up Appearances, though. Hyacinth was the older British TV version of my mom, and it all hit WAY too close to home. Would-be aristocratic airs, henpecked husband, weird-ass relatives, the whole nine.
I hated Keeping Up appearances mainly cause of Hyacinth. I kept waiting for someone to knock her on her pompus ass.
PBS around here airs Are You Being Served? several times a week. On Saturdays they air stuff like Last Of The Summer Wine and Waiting For God. It seems completely geared to older viewers with nowhere to go on a Saturday night. They usually slip the Lawrence Welk Show in there at some point, too. It's the television equivalent of chugging Ensure.
PBS used to show a wide variety of Brit shows, as mentioned by others. It's also where I first saw The Prisoner. But, yeah, now it seems mostly geared toward the senior crowd.
I first saw The Prisoner when the Sci Fi channel first came on the air. After Sci Fi buzz every Sunday night at 9pm central they aired The Prisoner. I had heard about the show for years and got hooked on it. Ended up recording all the episodes and watching them over and over again. Then after finally getting to see the final episode and the ending of it I was majorly confused. But over the years I think I somewhat understand what happens.
I watched a lot of Porridge reruns over the Christmas period. Really was a great show. Ronnie Barker is comic legend. Mr MacKay has me in stitches throughout. They don't make sitcoms like that anymore!
PBS around here airs Are You Being Served? several times a week. On Saturdays they air stuff like Last Of The Summer Wine and Waiting For God. It seems completely geared to older viewers with nowhere to go on a Saturday night. They usually slip the Lawrence Welk Show in there at some point, too. It's the television equivalent of chugging Ensure.
I think the selection of British comedy (Brit shows in general, really) on PBS was better back in the 70s and 80s because there were fewer outlets for those types of programs. Now that there are so many cable channels and streaming services willing to show these programs, and especially because Americans are being trained to accept shorter and/or broken up TV seasons on those channels, there's a lot more competition, so shows that would've been a shoo-in for PBS are going to other places.
PBS around here airs Are You Being Served? several times a week. On Saturdays they air stuff like Last Of The Summer Wine and Waiting For God. It seems completely geared to older viewers with nowhere to go on a Saturday night. They usually slip the Lawrence Welk Show in there at some point, too. It's the television equivalent of chugging Ensure.
I think the selection of British comedy (Brit shows in general, really) on PBS was better back in the 70s and 80s because there were fewer outlets for those types of programs. Now that there are so many cable channels and streaming services willing to show these programs, and especially because Americans are being trained to accept shorter and/or broken up TV seasons on those channels, there's a lot more competition, so shows that would've been a shoo-in for PBS are going to other places.
I wish BBCAmerica would air more British shows. Seems like every time I flip past that channel they are showing a move,Star Trek TNG or X-files.
My kids have started this weird tradition of cheering when Daniel Boone throws his hatchet and splits the tree in half.
On a whim I bought myself a box set of Checkmate (Anthony George, Doug McClure, Sebastian Cabot). Fun show. I especially like the mix of young and old Hollywood that co-stars. One episode features a very young Elisabeth Montgomery.
Got the season 1 DVD set for The Monkees for Christmas and have been watching some of that with my son... it's great to see these shows again since I haven't for so long, but I'm so used to seeing the syndication versions that it's weird to see them with the original credits sequence, original songs (syndicated versions replace some of the earlier songs in the "romps" so you're not hearing just the first album tracks all the time), and all the ad placement in the closing credits!
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It still baffles me that none of these classic British shows are on BBC America. I suppose some of them aren't owned by the BBC, but surely there must be some they could air instead of American reruns and reality shows.
Same with The Avengers. Used to be available through Netflix instant, but it hasn't been for a while. Doesn't A&E control the video rights for both these shows? Get with the program, guys!
Great googly moogly. :x I'm sorry, where was I?
I remember her being similarly distracting in those Batman episodes where the Riddler was trying to steal a rare silent film. Hard to believe she was one of the daughters on Make Room for Daddy!
I believe they still have the rights to Monty Python's Flying Circus, which also vanished from Netflix a few months ago.
I've never seen the original Saint series, only the Roger Moore episodes. I saw them, along with The Avengers, in the late '70s when CBS ran them in rotation with shows like McCloud and Cannon at midnight.
No Benny Hill? No Dave Allen (and that cool theme song his show had)? No Steptoe & Son (sans the "clean" old man)? No Meet The Wife? How's about I Am The Law (a detective show starring George Raft)? One Step Beyond? The original Outer Limits? The original Twilight Zone? Chico & The Man? Police Woman? The Rookies? S.W.A.T.? Starsky & Hutch? Have Gun, Will Travel? The Jock Mahoney Running/Jumping/Climbing Things Double-Shot (The Range Rider and Yancy Derringer)? The Lone Ranger? Checkmate (with Doug McClure and Sebastian Cabot)? The Chin-tastic Chuck Connors (The Rifleman and Branded)? The Six Million Dollar Man (in 1970s dollars, of course)? The Bionic Spin-Off...I mean, Woman? The Deputy (starring Henry Fonda)? Kolchak: The Night Stalker (the REAL one with Darren McGavin)? Monkees and the Dynamic Duo of Kelly and Scotty! Nice! Looks like someone remembers the old Nick At Nite line-up. :) Why no Mission Impossible (which kind of gets stale after Season 5, but you will get to see a young Sam Elliott as a recurring cast member)? No Munsters? No Addams Family? No Andy Griffith Show?
Question: Do animated series/cartoons and anthology dramas (Playhouse 90, The U.S. Steel Hour) count? Saturday Morning Live-Action (i.e. the Filmation stuff like Ark II, Jason Of Star Command, and Space Academy)?
Could never watch Keeping Up Appearances, though. Hyacinth was the older British TV version of my mom, and it all hit WAY too close to home. Would-be aristocratic airs, henpecked husband, weird-ass relatives, the whole nine.
I may have mentioned this on another thread a while back, but back when I worked for the newspaper, every Sunday night at 6:00 p.m. PBS would show a random episode of The Lawrence Welk Show. They would always show an opening number before displaying the original air date, so everyone would make their guess based on the opening number. The trick to winning was to remember that the fashions on the show were about five years (or more) out of date and to always add five years to your guess before answering.
On a whim I bought myself a box set of Checkmate (Anthony George, Doug McClure, Sebastian Cabot). Fun show. I especially like the mix of young and old Hollywood that co-stars. One episode features a very young Elisabeth Montgomery.
HA CHA CHA!