The Golden Age of Television

[LegoGE1947]

Using that definition, today’s “reality” shows would fit that perfectly.
Being more of a reader, I tend to look at how good or bad the writing is. No matter how old a film or TV show is, if it is well-written, it stands the test of time. That’s one of the reasons I migrated to British comedy years ago because they are “writer-driven”, not “one-liner driven” like American comedy has become.
Getting back to the OP, the early days of TV involved writers and producers who had spent years in vaudeville and radio to hone their craft and sharpen thier skills. Lucille Ball spent years as contract player in “B” movies by the time I Love Lucy came along. Red Skelton, Milton Buele, George Burns, Jackie Gleason, had years of experience behind them before TV made them stars.
We will never see their like again.

Of more modern tv comedies, I’d say Home Improvement with Tim Allen would be among the best. And possibly The Cosby Show.

 

[Mary_Gail_36]

I know that the Honeymooners is a great, classic show, an iconic show in most ways, well written and brilliantly acted with memorable characters and yet … I find it hard to get past the grainy black and white film and the overall “theatrical” quality of it, that is, the feeling that I’m watching a theater play performed on a stage with a television camera trained on the action, which is entirely due to the fact that it is from television’s infancy when the medium took its cues from radio drama and the theater.

I think that the Honeymooners was actually a live broadcast. It was broadcast live in NY. The other time zones would get a rebroadcast.

I Love Lucy I think was the first sitcom to be shot and then broadcast. The reason was that Lucy and Desi wanted to stay in California. Broadcasting live from LA would not be feasible for the NY audiences.

I love Lucy is about the same age as the Honeymooners, but the quality of I love Lucy films was much better. Desi wanted to use the best quality possible. He actually was thinking about how the reruns would look.

I’m an I love Lucy nerd.:nerd:

 

[Son_of_Niall]

Strange, all I remember of the movie was that it was two hours (TV time, back when you were only allowed 11 minutes of comercials an hour) of car chases without any character interaction at all.

Oh, well. McCloud was my least favorite of the 70’s dectectives I watched.

THAT was an interesting idea, btw. A series of movies based on a character or characters that shared the same time slot as a bunch of other characters, all to the theme of “mystery”. Columbo, McCloud, and McMillan and Wife, and (I think) Murder She Wrote (which eventually got its own time slot) were the most famous, But I recently saw an episode of Ellery Queen on Youtube, and it had the Sunday Mystery Movie theme in it’s opening. It reminded me how much I loved that show (and it still stands up. The boxed DVD set is available at B&N but for $60, so that’s not happening until I get a job).

On Saturdays was the Delphi Bureau and several other shows that I didn’t watch, and on Wednesdays was Banacek, Cool Million, Madigan (sp?).

Tom A.

I would suggest Amazon for DVDs, You can buy them for a song there.
Columbo is the series that holds up the best among the other “mystery movie” shows of the day. Only the 70s outfits date the show.

 

[Son_of_Niall]

I think that the Honeymooners was actually a live broadcast. It was broadcast live in NY. The other time zones would get a rebroadcast.

I Love Lucy I think was the first sitcom to be shot and then broadcast. The reason was that Lucy and Desi wanted to stay in California. Broadcasting live from LA would not be feasible for the NY audiences.

I love Lucy is about the same age as the Honeymooners, but the quality of I love Lucy films was much better. Desi wanted to use the best quality possible. He actually was thinking about how the reruns would look.

I’m an I love Lucy nerd.:nerd:

Dezi Arnez was the true genuis behind that show.
Lucy’s other shows without Dezi or the ILL writers were poor efforts, right up to the embarrasing Life with Lucy back in the 1980s. She was a great actress, but she needed a guiding force that would display her talent. Without that, she just lapsed into repeating what she did on ILL years before.
As for the Honeymooners, I would recomend the “classic 39” as they are called. A new re-mastered version is coming soon on DVD. These show Gleason at his peak as a performer.

 

[LegoGE1947]

Dezi Arnez was the true genuis behind that show.
Lucy’s other shows without Dezi or the ILL writers were poor efforts, right up to the embarrasing Life with Lucy back in the 1980s. She was a great actress, but she needed a guiding force that would display her talent. Without that, she just lapsed into repeating what she did on ILL years before.
As for the Honeymooners, I would recomend the “classic 39” as they are called. A new re-mastered version is coming soon on DVD. These show Gleason at his peak as a performer.

Would that include her movie Yours, Mine and Ours, costarring Henry Fonda?

 

[Mary_Gail_36]

Dezi Arnez was the true genuis behind that show.
Lucy’s other shows without Dezi or the ILL writers were poor efforts, right up to the embarrasing Life with Lucy back in the 1980s. She was a great actress, but she needed a guiding force that would display her talent. Without that, she just lapsed into repeating what she did on ILL years before.
As for the Honeymooners, I would recomend the “classic 39” as they are called. A new re-mastered version is coming soon on DVD. These show Gleason at his peak as a performer.

I agree about Desi. Sadly I think he is the only main cast member to not win an Emmy.

I think missing from her other shows is that chemistry she had with Desi.

The scene at the night club when she is finally able to let Ricky now she’s preg…(ahem) expecting is still sweet and the tears of joy were so real and tender.

 

[Mary_Gail_36]

Would that include her movie Yours, Mine and Ours, costarring Henry Fonda?

The film was good. The acting was good, but I think perhaps Lucille Ball might not have been the best choice for the part.

The film was made in 1968…Lucille Ball was born in 1911…making her 57. And pregnant.

 

[CyrilSebastian]

Grandmother Mary and Grand-mere Madeleine like The Patty Duke Show.
:yup::clapping::yup:

 

[LegoGE1947]

The film was good. The acting was good, but I think perhaps Lucille Ball might not have been the best choice for the part.

The film was made in 1968…Lucille Ball was born in 1911…making her 57. And pregnant.

Wasn’t there a remake of Yours, Mine and Ours a few years back with different starring actors?

 

[cheezey]

Wasn’t there a remake of Yours, Mine and Ours a few years back with different starring actors?

yup

Dennis Quaid and Renee Russo

 

[LegoGE1947]

yup

Dennis Quaid and Renee Russo

Thanks. I thought someone had remade the film but couldn’t place who the stars were. Another good movie was The Out Of Towners with Sandy Dennis and Jack Lemmon from about the same era (late 60s )

 

[CyrilSebastian]

Cousin Laurence likes Marlo Thomas starring in That Girl.

Cousin Laurence likes Ozzie and Harriet.
:thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[CyrilSebastian]

Mrs. Barnes likes Hazel. Shirley Booth played the maid, Hazel Burke.

 

[LegoGE1947]

Mrs. Barnes likes Hazel. Shirley Booth played the maid, Hazel Burke.

And everyone’s favorite… Don DeFore

 

[CyrilSebastian]

Cousin Laurence likes Walter Brennan and Richard Crenna starring in The Real McCoys.

:tiphat::tiphat:

 

[M-Dent]

There were certainly some great shows in the 70s, I was a teen myself back then. But looking back, I can see it was the beginning of the end.
Looking back now, some shows age better than others. The Norman Lear comedies come off as loud and preachy. The MTM comedies haven’t aged well either, they come off today as rather boring, only WKRP and Newhart managed to escape that. The Garry Marshall shows aged the worst, only The Odd Couple still looks fresh today. MASH was brilliant in it’s early days, but as the show aged it grew preachy and tiresome. Barney Miller passed the test of time, probably being one of the best comedies from that decade.

Some shows age better than others. Our memories of them are usually colored by our own age at the time, and what “everyone” was saying was “great”.

Ah, yes Barney Miller! Love it. One of my other favorites was Taxi (I watch episodes online from time to time)

 

[Pax2u]

Cousin Laurence likes Walter Brennan and Richard Crenna starring in The Real McCoys.

:tiphat::tiphat:

I liked Pepito, the hired hand. I think I can still sing that theme song. Scary, I know.

 

[andrewstx]

And I thought I was old! My earliest TV memories are Captain Kangaroo and Romper Room.

I never saw the Real Macoys. even in syndication.

 

[gam197]

I was given a DVD set of an old show called Mr. Peepers. I watched the first episode and it was about Mr. Peepers getting a job at a school. Each time he would try to announce to someone his background, some kind of noise (school bell) or something would interrupt him.

I recently saw a video on youtube, the skit was a Saturday Night Live skit and it about people riding in a car and each time this one certain person tried to get her turn to sing a verse, some noise would interrupt and she would not get a turn.

I wondered if many of the “new” skits we see today are actually based on older material.

That is fine with me and wish they would do more of it because it is funny .

 

[Pax2u]

I think Mr. Peepers was even before my time lol!! But I remember my mom talking about it. I think Wally Cox played Mr. Peepers.