Do you have a favorite television show? That can include the news, sports, anything.I'm interested in hearing what you recommend, something that makes you laugh or informs you.......something you really like to watch.
Be honest......I'd even admit I'd be watching LEAVE IT TO BEAVER if they still showed it! Come on, give!!
Here's another question: I just got finished reading Carol Burnett's adorable book I highly recommend; THIS TIME TOGETHER. Would you watch a good ol' Variety Show like hers if they put another one on the air? Where'd they GO? Have we become that jaded?
z
41 comments:
For years upon years, I watched reruns of I Love Lucy. I rarely watch that show now although it is still available on cable and satellite TV.
A lot of the television I watch now consists of reruns -- mostly cop shows such as Law and Order: SVU, Criminal Minds, and the like.
And I watch the news, too, of course: FNC and NBC.
I make a point of watching my local morning and evening news on either my NBC or CBS local affiliates.
I also watch new episodes of Criminal Minds and House. I do have an interest in abnormal psychology and rare medical conditions and ailments.
I rarely watch sports anymore. When I did watch sports, it was done with my father, a sandlot baseball player in his youth and a diehard baseball fan. Dad was offered a job as closing pitcher for the NY Yankees but turned down the offer.
I do miss the old variety shows: Carol Burnett, Hollywood Palace, Dean Martin.
I can't stand American Idol or reality television.
Growing up we had no cable, and older people find it odd that most of the shows they grew up on, I did as well.
My favorite shows when I was a kid were "I love Lucy", "Andy Griffith", "Beverly Hillbillies", "I dream of Genie", "BeWitched", "Love Boat", "Gilligans Island", "Threes Company".. etc. was also big on some prime time shows like the A-Team.
These days, not a lot I love.. but a few shows do stand out above the crap.
Still watch reruns of Seinfeld and King Of Queens. Supernatural, South Park, Justified, Burn Notice, Walking Dead..
those are a few I keep up with.
My TV watching is constrained by others. I almost never control that machine, and have to express my favorite shows as those chosen by others.
Wife's Favorites:
"Bones" - Her absolute favorite, especially the FBI agent, Booth (David Boreanatz). I really like Emily Deschanel. The other women on the series are beautiful, too.
NCIS, Criminal Minds, CSI Las Vegas - These are all standby shows, and are generally good viewing.
Grandson's Favorites:
Thomas The Train - I am getting sick of little Thomas. My two year old grandson loves these view on demand adventures.
Wonder Pets - One of the grandson's favorite on Nickelodean. Really great creativity, but not my style.
Bob's Favorites:
I don't get control unless it is really late at night.
Leno - The best of the night shows.
Craig Ferguson - Fun, humorous show. Done well with only one person for an hour's watching.
Reruns - I will really stay up late for a rerun of The Blues Brothers, Animal House, Smokey And The Bandit, or pretty much anything that does not smack of reality.
Star Trek, of course.
Dr. Who. The new season is scheduled out in April and I can't wait.
Torchwood reruns are good.
Sherlock; new season in production.
I guess I mostly watch the BBC. Heh.
Other than that, I don't really watch much TV.
My younger son is working on 'Cape', Probably will return to 'Burn Notice', did several years of 'Baywatch' among others as a film editor, but I confess to not watching any of them. I did watch the very first 2 hour 'Burn Notice', though, as there were no commercials. It does have a good twist. I'm a documentary fan: the History Channel, Discovery, Nat'l. Geo., some BBC (but they've messed it up royally), some Biography, cooking shows, etc., etc. I love the great old movie classics on TCM, never thought I'd thank Ted Turner for anything.
For sports I like college football, the PBR, some Olympic events (mainly the equestrian ones), & thoroughbred racing.
Always have Fox news for my news channel.
Silvrlady
There is not much television that interests me; I would rather watch NetFlix movies. When I do watch TV, it is usually the news and weather, some C-Span, Discovery, Science, and History channels.
I do enjoy watching some of the skits from the Carol Burnette Show, but I don't know if I could any longer sit through her program; its a matter of "been there, done that."
Big Bang Theory absolutely cracks me up.
We love Bones also.
During the day if it's on, it's FOx News. I'm a news junkie.
Mr. AOW watches certain shows on the Game Show Network.
these are fun to read...thanks!
AOW, I love the old Lucy reruns, too, and try to catch them but rarely do.
i'm a news junkie, too, but am actually getting sick of it by now; just this morning I was channel surfing and everything was SO downer I turned it off...same old junk.
Misfit, the reruns stand up above the new stuff, don't they. I love EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND but I'm new to it (missed them the first times around and they're a good reprieve for me) .Raymond's starting to get hard to take, too, he has such lousy character I'm wondering why Deborah can stand him anymore :-)
bob, that's funny! So, you get little control of the CLICKER, huh?! I watch CHEERS reruns when I'm up late (they're showing the old Shelley Long, Diane, reruns and I don't watch the show when Kirsty Alley's on) but do see Craig Ferguson when I remember to and he IS REALLY FUNNY...very clever guy, you're right.
Brooke...I have never watched one Star Trek episode....just never was drawn to it tho I know so many love it.
I don't see how you ever get a chance to watch TV with all you've got going on!
SilvrLady, I love the old films, too. I watch FOX because it's the only place I can get both sides of every subject; but I do go to CNN when Shep SMith's on; I just can't stomach the guy's ego and personalized 'news' he includes...not for one second.
Sam, but it would be nice if someone new would make those old Variety SHows....or is America so jaded they need the debauched stuff we get now?....do people want to see two great stars singing anymore? Oh, wait...today, that would mean two punky teens with hair in their face or a nearly naked opera star perverting Puccini....I think I just answered my own question, sadly.
Chuck...I've got to try BONES or BIG BANG, don't even know when they're on. thanks
I’ll say that NCIS is my favorite after that? Things like My Classic Car, Two Guys Garage, Pawn Stars and for someone who likes to treasure hunt, American Pickers, Storage Wars and Auction Kings.
I spent most of the past week drooling over the many cars that were sold on the Barrett Jackson car auction on Speed TV.
I’m there for most anything that show cars/boats running on some type of racing fuel. Especially if that fuel is nitro methane!
I'm totally hooked on my DVR, most these shows I'll record them and then watch them at my leisure and fast forward through the commercials. It's great to be able to watch a half hour show in 15 minutes or less, once you speed through the commercials!
The majority of news I get from the internet.
Ah, variety shows, "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour".
Pat Paulson, George Carlin and the Hippy Dippy Weather Man, Share a Little Tea with Goldie,getting censored when Pete Seeger played "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy".
I remember The Naked City and Route 66, very good production values and innovative location shooting. The photography felt a little "French". Good writing, also.
Nothing much that I'd make it a point to watch any longer. PBS does some good programming occasionally. There was "The Wire" on HBO.
AOW, your father almost pitched for the Spankees?
'House': nothing like a great physician with a lousy bedside manner...
My favorite show was Keith Olberman's and I'm really sad now.
JOKE
I love Mad Men even though the last season was blah. Also love Dexter and Breaking Bad.
I love Undercover Boss too, and all the food shows like Diners Drivers and Dives, Iron Chef, Worst Cooks of America, Kitchen Nightmares. Anything food related I love :)
But less and less can I stand the commercial overload. So I watch a lot of on demand so I can skip since I got rid of Tivo b/c of the monthly membership.
Star Trek - The Next Generation and Burn Notice.
Since they stopped broadcasting test patterns, I have not heard of anything worth watching.
Ducky, DOWNTON ABBEY on PBS is very good....MASTERPIECE. I always loved what they used to call MASTERPIECE THEATER..that music came on, Alistair Cooke came on, and I was one HAPPY GIRL.
They did a great show on BBC called DANGER UXB and then the CHOPIN one with Rosemary Harris. Both showed 3 times a week..Sunday night, Thursday night and then Sunday morning....and a new episode would appear SUnday night...I watched every one of them...even left a party once early so I could see a Chopin installment again....a little obsessive, but true. I LOVE British dramas.
DOWNTON Abbey's already in its third episode Sunday night so it's probably not worth starting now, but it's good; GREAT acting.
BB... HOUSE is good, isn't it... I love Hugh L....he was in the old Brit comedy JEEVES AND WOOSTER, the complete DVD series was lent to me at my sickest and it really was fun to watch. I highly recommend it. Talk about great comedy.
Scotty...not a car buff but I am glad there are so many shows for you to watch with your fave things!
FB...I watch THE FOOD CHANNEL a lot. What I want to know is how anybody can make ONE THOUSAND cupcakes in 2 hours; they do it, but I think it's somewhat rigged!
I used to adore David Rosengarten's food shows but he doesn't do them anymore...he has a sense for food which is remarkable and I got to meet him and tell him so! I like The Barefoot Contessa (tho I admit jealousy at her home and the apt in Paris very near Les Deux Maggots...which is NOT MAGGOTS for you who wonder !!:-)
Larry! I get it...you don't like TV :-) No news, either?
Monk is over, so now, my favorite TV show has to be "The First 48".
I have a crush on Craig Ferguson.
I watch House when I can catch it.
There's a show on Discovery Channel called Cash Cab. It's silly, but I love watching it b/c it shows the streets of NYC and I feel like I'm there.
There's a travel series on PBS with Steve ??? and that guy goes EVERYWHERE. I love that one.
And there's another series on the Travel Channel with some girl who goes amazing places and eats amazing food and I want her life sometimes.
(I guess I'm not big on names, huh?) ;-)
Other than that...Netflix movies.
I watched Great Expectations this week and it was WEIRD!!
Jen, I know that STEVE travel show...he's not bad. Did you see him in Iran fawning over Islam, tho? That kind of turned me off, sadly.
Mr Z used to watch a lot of travel shows, tho I think he's been nearly everywhere!...there was/is? a girl who he liked to watch...a travel show which wasn't bad.
Is there a TV show called GREAT EXPECTATIONS now ? or do you mean the John Mills/Jean SImmons old one, which I find HIGHLY depressing.
Cash Cab is a guilty pleasure.
Not as much fun as making book on how many marriages are destroyed by "Million Dollar Money Drop".
Which actor dies first in The Godfather -- Marlon Brando, Al Pacino,
James Cahn, Robert Duvall
He: Marlon Brando, put it all on Brando.
She: Are you sure honey?
He: Absolutely.
Ducky: Oh-oh
Te woman who demanded they put it all on Jefferson as the president on the dime was good too. I expect to see them on Divorce Court.
The 1946 Great Expectations, Z.
It was NOTHING like I ....expected.
:P
A Tale of Two Cities is one of my favorite books, so this was such a surprise to me.
Yes....very depressing, but just so so weird. Ms. Havisham??? ewwww.
TV: I'm also ashamed to admit that I can tell you the difference between NeNe and Candie on the Insane Housewierdos of Atalanta. (I have insomnia.....)
I never miss a Dodger game. I watch First 48, and occasionally, Intervention.
Last year I watched The Tudors, on Showtime, never missed an episode. This year it'll be The Borgias.
We could use more good dramas, and fewer reality shows, PLEASE!!
I watched CSI, but I miss William Petersen who left the show.
I'd love a variety show or two. I watched The Carol Burnett show and loved Tim Conway and Harvey Korman teaming up. So funny!
Also The Dean Martin show, which proved Dean Martin was a funnier man than Jerry Lewis could hope to be.
The Bill Cosby Show was great. Too bad the kids grew up so fast. Ha,Ha.
We used to watch Laugh-In every week. Just good fun!
And then there was the original SNL. Today's is a mere shadow of it's former self.
I watched Johnny Carson almost every night. He was the best, and had class. Today, Jay Leno comes the closest, but not close enough to get me hooked every night.
Before Johnny, there was Steve Allen who was hilarious.
The Smothers Brothers were good until they became too political to call it enetertainment. If I want to follow politics I'll watch Fox.
Yes I Love Lucy was incomparable. So funny!
AOW, my Dad played sandlot baseball too, in NY, and knew Leo Durocher. Ummm Dad didn't have the talent your Dad had for sure, Wow!
Needless to say he was a Brooklyn Dodger fan at the time, and after we came to California, the Dodgers came out here. So you see, I was born a Dodger fan. It's in my DNA!
Finally, I enjoy movies, good movies. Alas, we could use more good ones. Love the old ones and the stars in those days. Each one with his/her own niche, and chemistry.
Pris
Jen, I have insomnia too...(thank God for AMBIEN, what I call "a good night's sleep in a bottle" , which I do have to resort to from time to time)....I can find reruns of CHEERS and THE NANNY and other mindless stuff and that makes me smile, at least :-)
I laughed when I read what you said about the Housewives thing.....I'm ashamed to tell you I even started watching THE NANNY! :-)
GREAT EXPECTATIONS is SO dark and SO negative and shows such a horrid underbelly of life, doesn't it? With nothing redeeming, if I remember correctly?
Oh, and Jen? I LOVE CRAIG FERGUSON..don't watch him often (frankly, I forget), but when I do channel surf and remember he's on, he's fabulous (and pretty darned cute, too)...Who I cannot watch is CONAN OBRIEN....HE is a BIG 'eeewwww' to me.
Pris, you back on line? Hurrah!
I liked watching The Unit, but they stopped it after a while. Monk was pretty good too.
Of the current crop that's showing, Burn Notice, Big Bang Theory, Two and a half men though it is a bit over the top sometimes. Supernatural, according to Jim, the Simpsons.
Unfortunately out here they seldom show a series from beginning to end, so we have to rent or something.
Color Splash, Divine Design, Renovation Realities, Holmes on Homes, Sarah(she's hot but got a twinkie for a hubby) and a few of the other good decorating/how too shows.
A bit of History Channel, college football and basketball(when I can watch Duke play). Other than , I read.
In the old days it was Westinghouse Theater, Alfred Hitchcock, Ed Sullivan on Sunday night was a must, Gunsmoke, Got a Gun wanting to go some where, aka Palidian. Sky King on Saturday mornings. I Love Lucy. The Nelsons.(David and Ricky)
No such thing as cable growing up. You watched what you could on three channels that you could bring in with Rabbit Ears. No remotes either, want to change the station, get off your butt and do it. TV went off at 11 most nights but stayed on until 12 on Friday and Saturday. Always signed off with the National Anthem, my favorite part.
Always signed off with the National Anthem, my favorite part.
I had forgotten all about that!! Thanks for jarring my memory cells.
I grew up in upstate New York, Dad had the highest antenna in the town, with a rotor!! We picked up everything from Buffalo, Rochester, to the best of the Canadian shows. Very important during the hockey season!!
I really like the Office. The characters have a good combination of comical behavior and believability.
I'm in a similar boat as you re Raymond. I think that show's very well done.
For British sit-coms, do yourself a favor and watch John Cleese in Fawlty Towers. The one when he embarasses himself in front of the Germans is the best.
It's interesting to see which shows still seem good to me 20 years after first seeing them. I got videos from the library of Newhart, the one where he is an inn keeper in New England. I had a hard time not watching the whole first season all at once.
The Simpsons was fantastic, once upon a time. It's been about 10 to 12 years since that show was good.
And I find Greg Gutfeld and RedEye amusing.
tio
Thanks, I LOVE hearing what you all watch...it's fun to read.
Scotty, you Troy, NY? I always think UPSTATE means that but somebody corrected me that Troy is waaay upstate. Dad went to RPI...he was from there, too.
tio...Fawlty Towers is fabulous, I wish they'd start showing it again. Really good stuff. Did you know he was married to the blonde maid Polly at the time?
I love the little Spanish guy.."que?" can't remember his name but I'd get it if I had time to concentrate!! ??
I have a pretty high tolerance for insipidness but TV these days is nearly unwatchable for me. Meh!
True story: From early 2001 through mid 2002, I was a "Nielsen household," where I was paid monthly a small payment to have a monitoring device connected to my television to record the data by which they calculate how many viewers a show has for ratings and setting advertising costs.
They eventually came and uninstalled the monitoring equipment because I was only averaging around 20 minutes of TV viewing a week.
Beamish, do you remember what that paid? Or approximately?
It wasn't much. $6 per television connected to their equipment per month, something like that, paid with a check by mail every other month.
They actually called me a few times while I was a "Nielsen household" to ask why they weren't getting much data from the monitors they installed.
"Most of the time I'm either reading the internet or playing a video game."
They asked if I'd like to get my computer connected to their meters so they could collect ratings data for websites, which would have netted me an extra $20 a month. It was actually kinda creepy given that I nurture a healthy paranoia of all government and commercial data collection mechanisms. I declined, and right after 9/11 I was a lot more paranoid on the internet than I am now, which is still pretty paranoid.
I did leave my TV running but unwatched on a lot of Fox News and science and history shows, so you can blame me for their post-9/11 rise on cable ;)
I have to echo a lot of choices here. These days, I do watch a lot of reruns of CSI (in Las Vegas, accept no substitutes), NCIS, Law and Order, Criminal Minds, Grey's Anatomy, Scrubs, House, and I'll always be a Trekkie.
Never understood the attraction to Seinfeld, Lost, or a bunch of the other "must sees."
In college, my roommates and I used to watch Cops and bet (real money) on whether or not the suspect would run and how many cops it would take to cuff them. Good times.
Anyone else miss The Avengers?
Scotty, you Troy, NY? I always think UPSTATE means that but somebody corrected me that Troy is waaay upstate. Dad went to RPI...he was from there, too.
There are MANY interpretations on what upstate NY is, Z. Some say anything west of NYC ;-).
As they try to distance themselves from the NYC politics!
I grew up about half way between Buffalo and Rochester, NY. In a VERY small town, Kendall.
I left NY for Florida 11 years ago. I couldn't afford to live in NY any longer! Florida really looks out for us disabled vets in many ways and benefits.
Anyone else miss The Avengers?
I don't miss The Avengers but, I certainly miss Mrs Peel!!(Diana Rigg).
Z-I'm a bit of a wikipedia nerd and tend to research that kind of thing, so I did know Connie Booth was married to Cleese and that she is now married to the son of Bert Lahr (cowardly lion).
Close your eyes and picture Basil screaming at his butler, and I think you'll hear: Manuel. MANUEL.
There was an episode of the Simpsons with the line "at 7 episodes, [some made up show] is Britain's most successful and longest running show." An element of truth there? They only made 12 episodes of Fawlty.
"Keeping up Appearances" is my #2 brit-com.
Can you get those shows from your library?
tio
tio..I own all the Keeping Up Appearances episodes...I adore that. absolutely love it.
What really gets me is when PBS begs for money, featuring stars from that show in their funding drive, OR As Time Goes By, which I also like very much, and then they don't show either for months again. Very dishonest.
I have never sent money for that reason.
I believe you when you say only 12 Fawlty Towers but .... it seems impossible to me.......ONLY 12 1/2 hour shows? WHAT?
Love the PVR
Sorry I'm late to the thread.
Must see: NCIS, Castle,Big Bang Theory, Modern Family, Dexter.
When I was younger, Route 66, Remington Steele, Carol Burnett, Wagon Train, Wonderful World of Disney, Dr. Kildare.
Don't care for CSI - got too graphic for my taste.
Tried out the new lawyer show with Kathy Bates - couldn't finish the first episode - gag me! I do not sit in the evening and want to have propoganda forced down my throat instead of entertainment.
As Time Goes By
Masterpiece Classic (Masterpiece Contemporary stinks)
TCM B&W melodramas or mysteries from the '40s.
C-Span Washington Journal
C-Span Book TV (sometimes)
Reruns of I Love Lucy
Candice Olsen's Divine Design on HGTV
Lidia's Italy
Hi, Anonymous, and thanks..
that second list could be mine if you added KEEPING UP APPEARANCES and EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND :-)
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