With the huge wave of shows available on streaming platforms, do you believe that tv shows lose their eminence? Do you believe that the youngest generation has a harder time even finding out about 80s and 70s tv shows?
shareI believe current shows are losing their eminence. As seasons become progressively shorter and the gap between seasons longer it becomes in creasingly difficult to invest in a particular series. Even the best of them gets lost for anything but so-called miniseries.
The most hope for most series old or new is to be finished and bingeable and on a platform for discovery.
"As seasons become progressively shorter and the gap between seasons longer it becomes in creasingly difficult to invest in a particular series."
This is so true. I've given up on a few series simply because the gap was so long that I forgot critical plot points from previous seasons. Or I lost interest. Tin Star on Prime is one example. Almost two years between S2 and S3. (Over in the UK the gap was only a year.)
I'm still hanging in there with Stranger Things, but I think I'm gonna drop The Boys (two years between S2 and S3).
Agree. Plus there's so much content that show themes, actors, even styles, are inevitably overlapping. All shows seem kinda the same now.
shareI find most fondly remembered shows are virtually unwatchable now. I can think of exceptions but generally I'll stumble on and start one of these old programs but give up after watching one to two episodes - sometimes I don't make it all the way through the first episode.
I agree. Even shows that aren't all that old like Buffy are starting to show their age now, they are still good but I do wonder how long it will be before they too become unwatchable.
What I notice with older TV shows, especially sitcoms is that nothing really happens in them and the acting is awful. Just at the time there weren't the entertainment options that were available now so people watched what was on offer.
True. I used to like random tv shows like Renegade, Dark Justice, The Highlander, Gilmore Girls, Dawson's Creek, Babylon 5, Millenium, Walker Texas Ranger, Kung Fu the Legend Continues, but they all now basically unwatchable if not just for the nostalgia value.
Even the so-called the best tv show of all time, The Simpsons, when I rewatched it a few years ago, I was not amused. I used to be laughing non-stop when I was younger, but it barely made me slightly smile now. I turned it off after a few "boring" episodes.
I used to love The Jetsons too. But after my little unsatisfying stint with The Simpsons, I've lost my apetite to even think of rewatching The Jetsons.
I tried watching the Simpsons for the first time in ages a few years back. I couldn't get into it and they were the older better eps. I couldn't see myself "binge watching" them and I think is another factor at play. Now a TV show has to be compelling enough to have the option of watching the entire season in one or two sittings. A lot of the older shows were made to be watched once a week.
shareWhat Simpson episodes were not good?? I think you are confused they must have been bad era Simpson. Classic era will always be this great funny show, always because it is too well written
shareI never said it's not good. I even used quotes for the "boring." It's just that I was not amused like I used to when I was younger laughing and giggling constantly while watching The Simpsons on TV.
Perhaps it's a combination of old man jadedness and rose-tinted expectations.
I understand now yes i know what you mean, you can see they are good, but yes, as you get older maybe life make you laugh less easy, being young and free and no worries it is a lot easier.
But you can be in different moods, so do not underestinate the simpsons, one day you may see an episode and be able to appreciate it like when you were young again
Hopefully we all can
I think all shows will eventually show their age. Each show has its own style and atmosphere, but I think you can see how the styles are tied to the time when the show was made. After a few years, everything starts to look really dated. I think too that high definition tv has really made older shows sound as if they are being played under a pool of water and look as if they were filmed through a cloudy camera lens.
Also, I think stories move much faster now.
I tried watching The Highlander recently and although it was a really fun show in its time, I just couldn't keep my mind on it. In a sense, I wonder whether this means it's time to start rebooting things with new casts, but I find the new crop of actors (male and female) to be really unappealing and they don't hold my interest. I'm not sure if it's that people with little talent are being chosen, or is it that the writing is too focused on being bingeable and not enough on the relationships. I can't quite work it out.
the writing is too focused on being bingeable
Exactly. There are some shows I have binged. My husband and I binge-watched The Expanse for the first few seasons. (I think that's a show that works a lot better when binged. If you watch it week-by-week, it goes too slowly.) But after a year or two of bingeing happily (especially during the pandemic) we find that we actually prefer to watch most things an episode a week. We quite like being able to say, "Hey, it's Tuesday, that means a new episode of Only Murders in the Building!" It makes Tuesday better! It's nice to have a regular schedule of "I watch show A on Mondays, I watch show B on Wednesdays, and I watch something with the kids on Fridays and Saturdays." Also (and I know a lot of people feel differently about this) I don't mind ads as long as there aren't too many of them. And it makes me think back to why I got so fed up with broadcast tv, it was really because the ad breaks became so long and overbearing that by the time the show came back on I had lost interest in it! I think the constant lengthening of ad breaks created an impossible situation for tv stories, how could they be so gripping that the viewer wouldn't just walk away out of being fed up with watching 5 minutes of ad breaks for every 8 minutes of show.
One downside of bingeable shows is that you go through them in a few weeks and even if they seem really exciting while you're watching them, they pass out of mind very quickly when you finish them. I can't even remember most of what I watched last year. You don't get attached to the characters in a binged show, the way you do with a show that is on weekly for years at a time. I feel that is related to the fact that the famous people we know in entertainment now are either from shows a long time ago (Jennifer Aniston, Brad Pitt, etc) or they are people who are famous, not for being talented actors, but for being famous (e.g. The Kardashians and internet "Influencers").
We quite like being able to say, "Hey, it's Tuesday, that means a new episode of Only Murders in the Building!" It makes Tuesday better!
Agree with all of that.
shareI feel that way about new shows.
shareIt's like music. I think the market has been thinned out a lot due to the amount of products on offer and the options in which to find and view the products. The only reason I probably ever watched a lot of old tv show re-runs was because there wasn't anything else on or alternative forms of entertainment at the time.
Even when VHS came out I was hardly taping Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie etc so I could watch them later on. I was looking for other things which were often later at night and a more obscure. If I had the option of streaming, internet etc back then I don't think I would have ever watched Free to Air TV just as I don't watch it now - nor do I look up old TV shows to watch via those platforms.
I doubt younglings have a harder time finding 70s and 80s shows. After all, you can get your hands on almost everything nowadays, even if it isn't on streaming platforms.
Just can't imagine -- outside of a handful of enduring classics (and I can't even think what they would be off the top of my head) -- anyone is all that interested.
TV was historically considered to be a fairly disposable medium, wasn't it? It's not like cinema.
I mean, I can imagine someone sitting down in 2022 to watch, say, Robert Altman's M*A*S*H for the first time. Can I imagine many people sitting down in 2022 thinking 'Right, time to tackle eleven seasons of the TV series M*A*S*H!' Not so much. Highly-regarded, hugely popular show at the time. Does anyone care now?
Newton Minnow, FCC Chairman in the 60s: “TV is a vast wasteland.” That statement got huge headlines, and still deserves them. 60s, 70s and 80s broadcast TV (on all THREE stations, then FOX unfortunately came along) were crap, much like AM radio. There were no other choices. Don’t decry the loss of the era. It was an era worth losing.
Please do not reply with memories of sitcoms you cherished. Did it have a laugh track? Then, fuck it. Not cherished.
I feel like TV is more popular than ever since many of those shows end up on streaming services or originate on streaming services. TV is basically streaming now.
share"When every show's super, no one will be"
shareI just binge watch stuff now.
shareThe issue is with younger people who don't like old movies and TV series. There are plenty of good and/or entertaining ones.
I still watch:
Lost in Space
Twilight Zone
Honeymooners
Andy Griffith Show
Flintstones
Dark Shadows
All in the Family
Leave it to Beaver
Brady Bunch
I Love Lucy
Star Trek & Next Generation
Little Rascals
Waltons
Batman
Bewitched
Family Affair
Seinfeld
But, some shows don't age well.
Andy Griffith and The Waltons are still watchable, although I doubt younger folks would watch. But then, my grandchildren love Andy Griffith. The Exploding Goat is their favorite episode. They even performed their own skit at a church event. Blooey! 💥
I used to be curious about what the world was like before I was born so I enjoyed watching old movies/series. I don't get younger people who don't have that curiosity.
I don't remember the Goat episode. I'll have to look out for it. I used to like all the Ernest T and Darling episodes the best.
It's called the Exploding Goat and it's in series 3, episode 18. I too, am disappointed with the lack of curiosity by younger folks. They're missing a lot. I guess too many people are locked into social media?? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
shareYou have a good point about social media. They prefer poorly written superhero shows rather than classic books, series and movies.
share