4 ms·

Plenty of shows from the 1970s still hold up today: MASH, Hogan's Heroes, Columbo, The Incredible Hulk, Battlestar Galactica, Sesame Street, Monty Python's Flyi

Plenty of shows from the 1970s still hold up today: MASH, Hogan's Heroes, Columbo, The Incredible Hulk, Battlestar Galactica, Sesame Street, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Roots, etc. It was a great decade for TV, especially if you consider shows like All In The Family (which doesn't really hold up anymore, but is basically Married With Children for the 70s), Good Times, Mork and Mindy, etc.

jhbadger 9y ago
Although MASH kind of shows the problem from the modern perspective of 1970s TV. At its best, it focused on the grimly humorous aspects of war and surgery (as a modern take on the subject would), but at least half the episodes were just sitcom material. Plus there weren't really story arcs, but they may have been impractical because on broadcast TV where box sets of previous seasons and streaming wasn't available, it would have been hard for someone who didn't watch every episode to follow.
- ghaff 9y ago
  Well, for that matter, VCRs weren't available. Also syndication was an important revenue stream. As a result, outside of miniseries "events," you mostly couldn't do shows that wouldn't work if someone weren't in front of their TV at a particular time slot every week. (There were somewhat exceptions like Dallas but they were rare.)
wiredfool 9y ago
Monty Python is inconsistent. (Even then, it was low budget time constrained stuff) Some of it still stands up, some of it is pretty offensive racial stereotype humor. I'll hold up the Argument Clinic as part of the good, and just point to the blackface in the Australian Philosophers and songs like `Don't Ever be Rude to an Arab` and `I like Chinese` for the bits that won't make it now.
joezydeco 9y ago
"All In The Family (which doesn't really hold up anymore, but is basically Married With Children for the 70s)" No. Absolutely not. All In the Family tackled subjects and current events that no other sitcom in that era dared to do. The Wikipedia summary is pretty good here: "The show broke ground in its depiction of issues previously considered unsuitable for a U.S. network television comedy, such as racism, infidelity, homosexuality, women's liberation, rape, religion, miscarriages, abortion, breast cancer, the Vietnam War, menopause, and impotence." Married with Children was lowball humor for laughs and simulated controversy. There is absolutely no comparison.
criddell 9y ago
I still think about The Six Million Dollar Man. For the past decade I've been working out how a new season could be written for that show (and the book, Cyborg) and I think there's a ton of potential there. The story arc about a destroyed man, the struggle to rebuild and recover, and the protagonist's dealing with being a literal tool of the military. First though, the surgery budget would need to be increased. These days, a six million dollar man is a person that's had a kidney transplant.
- WorldMaker 9y ago
  There was a Bionic Woman reboot in the oughts that failed to do justice to the concept, so it will probably be another decade before we see it tried again.
  - criddell 9y ago
    I've been watching for news and there have been a bunch of projects started but none have gone the distance. Mark Wahlberg is supposed to play Steve Austin, but the project has been delayed a bunch of times (it was supposed to come out this year and has been pushed into next year). Before that, there was going to be a comedy version (like the Starsky and Hutch reboot a few years ago). I'm so glad that never made it.

jhbadger 9y ago

Although MASH kind of shows the problem from the modern perspective of 1970s TV. At its best, it focused on the grimly humorous aspects of war and surgery (as a modern take on the subject would), but at least half the episodes were just sitcom material. Plus there weren't really story arcs, but they may have been impractical because on broadcast TV where box sets of previous seasons and streaming wasn't available, it would have been hard for someone who didn't watch every episode to follow.

ghaff 9y ago
Well, for that matter, VCRs weren't available. Also syndication was an important revenue stream. As a result, outside of miniseries "events," you mostly couldn't do shows that wouldn't work if someone weren't in front of their TV at a particular time slot every week. (There were somewhat exceptions like Dallas but they were rare.)

wiredfool 9y ago

Monty Python is inconsistent. (Even then, it was low budget time constrained stuff) Some of it still stands up, some of it is pretty offensive racial stereotype humor. I'll hold up the Argument Clinic as part of the good, and just point to the blackface in the Australian Philosophers and songs like `Don't Ever be Rude to an Arab` and `I like Chinese` for the bits that won't make it now.

joezydeco 9y ago

"All In The Family (which doesn't really hold up anymore, but is basically Married With Children for the 70s)" No. Absolutely not. All In the Family tackled subjects and current events that no other sitcom in that era dared to do. The Wikipedia summary is pretty good here: "The show broke ground in its depiction of issues previously considered unsuitable for a U.S. network television comedy, such as racism, infidelity, homosexuality, women's liberation, rape, religion, miscarriages, abortion, breast cancer, the Vietnam War, menopause, and impotence." Married with Children was lowball humor for laughs and simulated controversy. There is absolutely no comparison.

criddell 9y ago

I still think about The Six Million Dollar Man. For the past decade I've been working out how a new season could be written for that show (and the book, Cyborg) and I think there's a ton of potential there. The story arc about a destroyed man, the struggle to rebuild and recover, and the protagonist's dealing with being a literal tool of the military. First though, the surgery budget would need to be increased. These days, a six million dollar man is a person that's had a kidney transplant.

WorldMaker 9y ago
There was a Bionic Woman reboot in the oughts that failed to do justice to the concept, so it will probably be another decade before we see it tried again.
- criddell 9y ago
  I've been watching for news and there have been a bunch of projects started but none have gone the distance. Mark Wahlberg is supposed to play Steve Austin, but the project has been delayed a bunch of times (it was supposed to come out this year and has been pushed into next year). Before that, there was going to be a comedy version (like the Starsky and Hutch reboot a few years ago). I'm so glad that never made it.