I was at a family cookout last night and I got a chance to catch some of the TV shows my younger cousins watched. I don't want to be "that guy" but even my generation's family shows were vastly different from what they have today.

In the 90's most of the shows had realistic premises: kids telling scary stories by a campfire(Are You Afraid of the Dark), the lives of friends from elementary school through college (Boy Meets World), a teacher in Oakland (Hangin' with Mr. Cooper), etc.

They also had pretty emotional/moral-based episodes concerning relationships, sex, drugs, death, etc. I don't know how revolutionary it was but they were certainly more prevalent than any other time that I know of.

I wonder what that says about those times.

I miss non-reality shows. I grew up watching Star Trek (tng), PBS documentaries, and Saturday morning cartoons.


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(06-09-2014 12:16 AM)dmacfour Wrote:  I miss non-reality shows. I grew up watching Star Trek (tng), PBS documentaries, and Saturday morning cartoons.


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Didn't really enjoy tng until recently. I really enjoyed the new BSG

(06-09-2014 12:06 AM)nomad2u2001 Wrote:  I was at a family cookout last night and I got a chance to catch some of the TV shows my younger cousins watched. I don't want to be "that guy" but even my generation's family shows were vastly different from what they have today.

In the 90's most of the shows had realistic premises: kids telling scary stories by a campfire(Are You Afraid of the Dark), the lives of friends from elementary school through college (Boy Meets World), a teacher in Oakland (Hangin' with Mr. Cooper), etc.

They also had pretty emotional/moral-based episodes concerning relationships, sex, drugs, death, etc. I don't know how revolutionary it was but they were certainly more prevalent than any other time that I know of.

I wonder what that says about those times.

In the 70s's it was even more prevalent and hard-hitting IMO. Shows like All in the Family, Different Strokes, the Jeffersons, Maude, Welcome Back Kotter, Good Times, Soap, Chico and the Man, et al. touched on issues such as death, race relations, immigration, sex, drugs, alcoholism, abortion, gender inequality, economic inequality, etc.

In the 80s shows became much more family-oriented: The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Growing Pains, The Hogan Family, Who's the Boss?. There were a few ground breaking shows like Murphy Brown and Designing Women, but it was never to the level that TV reached in the 70s.

Married with Children was a classic and seemed to change the game for TV.

The other day I was watching an episode of Leave It to Beaver
when Ward makes a reference to Diogenes.

No way that type of dialogue gets used on modern sitcoms.

(06-09-2014 06:38 AM)Jugnaut Wrote:  Married with Children was a classic and seemed to change the game for TV.

Shows like Soap and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman pushed the envelope.

Compare Saved by the Bell with Awkward or Secret Life of the American Teenager and you have the difference between my generation and the current generation of teens.

(06-09-2014 06:45 AM)AngryAphid Wrote:  The other day I was watching an episode of Leave It to Beaver
when Ward makes a reference to Diogenes.

No way that type of dialogue gets used on modern sitcoms.

yep...

WKRP in Cincinnati, Sanford and Son, All in the Family, and The Jeffersons were iconic

Dem others went after Happy Days and Little House on the Prairie

Carrol O' Conner's two major plays on TV ended up being contradictory in persona....

Go into the wayback machine and watch the first season of Twilight Zone.....might surprise a few

....was the time o' day.....just like the tobacco industry kicking off the crux of what we now call entertainment....

I'm still don't know what Ozzie Nelson did for a living.

Dukes of Hazzard, Cosby Show, A Team (they shot a lot but never hit anything) and Saturday morning cartoons. At least I got my kids to like Tom and Jerry.

(06-09-2014 07:38 AM)QuestionSocratic Wrote:  I'm still don't know what Ozzie Nelson did for a living.

Unlike Jack Tripper... who had been a boxer in the Navy.

(06-09-2014 07:38 AM)QuestionSocratic Wrote:  I'm still don't know what Ozzie Nelson did for a living.

IIRC he was an ad executive, but you are right that it appeared he never worked outside the home.

There's absolutely nothing on TV that I find watchable--except sports.

(06-09-2014 09:19 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  There's absolutely nothing on TV that I find watchable--except sports.

The only current TV show I regularly watch is Elementary,
and I watch that via the CBS iPad app.

(06-09-2014 06:45 AM)AngryAphid Wrote:  The other day I was watching an episode of Leave It to Beaver
when Ward makes a reference to Diogenes.

No way that type of dialogue gets used on modern sitcoms.

Ward's wife also made the dirtiest comment on TV at the time. "Ward, weren't you a little hard on the Beaver last night"?

(06-09-2014 09:19 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  There's absolutely nothing on TV that I find watchable--except sports.

I'm not going to lie, sometimes I can't even watch sports anymore. The four letter network has all but killed it for me.

I watch my alma mater play and that is about it.

TV has certainly become "the great american wasteland" as promised. TV may be doing as much as anything else to kill our culture.

I grew up watching Full House, Family Matters, Step by Step, Boy Meets World, the Fresh Prince, and a handful of other shows. The contrast between now and then is amazing.

I'm interested to see what they do with Girl Meets World. I wonder if they'll keep it similar to Boy Meets World with some meaningful lessons for young people, or if it will be more like television shows of today.