I am sure you saw your share of horrors, but consider this: I have seen not just every episode of Gilligan's Island, but also every episode of Wings, because there was just nothing else on in the afternoon.
I'm willing to bet at least some of the following were also available:
Brady Bunch, F*Troop, Three's Company, I Love Lucy, My Three Sons, The Odd Couple, I Dream Of Jeannie, Alice, One Day At A Time, Good Times, The Jeffersons, Bewitched, Laverne & Shirley, Mork & Mindy and/or Happy Days.
I've been doing a podcast on Boomer TV/the Andy Griffith Show, for about five years now and I've learned that every gen Xer and Millennial just has a block of "tv old" in their brain somewhere from this experience.
Then we don't compute that all these shows ran about 20 years apart/
This is a good example, when you were a kid, you didn't compute that Happy Days was from the 70s pretending to be the 50s, even though you were probably watching "That 70s Show" do the same thing.
Andy Griffith was canonically set in the 60s but everyone pretended it was the great depression.
Idk why or even what channel but when I was a kid I would watch Lassie, Andy Griffith, Leave It to Beaver, Gilligan’s Island and I loved them all. I’m 38 y/o. Early teens I really enjoyed twilight zone. Brady bunch always sucked to me and the pow bang 💥 Batman show was awesome. Happy Days was ok
1: This is a really stupid show, but I'll watch because it's the only thing on;
2: I can't believe I watched show about a Nazi POW camp. I'll never watch again.
3: OMG, Col. Klink & Sgt. Schultz were played by Jewish refugees. Living well = best revenge.
As kids, we couldn't watch anything with a laugh track when my dad was around without getting a lecture. He REALY didn't like M.A.S.H., and Hogan's Heroes was absolutely verboten.
My girlfriend got hooked on Madame Secretary and dragged me down that rabbit hole too. The 1st time we watched it she mentioned that the actor who played Tea Leoni's husband had been "on some show." I was all, yeah, he looks familiar. I think we were into the 3rd episode when I blurted out "Wings!"
I was just scrolling through what teens did a decade after I stopped being one when I saw you'd watched 'Wings'... only I thought it was the British TV drama about pilots in WW1 and got really nostalgic (and then confused by the comments)
True, that was one of those shows that had serious issues but lots of comic relief. I also remember watching MASH and KRLT and TAXI and of course All in The Family
I always get a bit eye rolly when someone from Gen X complains that Gen Z or Alpha doesn’t get some cultural reference from the 80’s. We got boomer references because we were watching Bugs Bunny in WW II recruiting cartoons as kids
We had cable in the early 80s, but it only gave us 10 channels, and 4 of them were two pairs of NBC and ABC.
Remember being sick? Around 7am there were Little Rascals reruns, then 9-12 were the game shows. Then your only choices were 50s/60s reruns in the afternoon, or soap operas...
I’ve seen things you people couldn’t imagine…Test patterns gleaming in the darkness at the end of the broadcast day…Joan Rivers in a flame war with Mr. T…all these memories preserved on YouTube, but it’s not the same.
You poor pampered 90s teens! Imagine a world where a day home sick from school was a day-long roulette of The Price Is Right, General Hospital and The Courtship of Eddie’s Father.
Comments
Brady Bunch, F*Troop, Three's Company, I Love Lucy, My Three Sons, The Odd Couple, I Dream Of Jeannie, Alice, One Day At A Time, Good Times, The Jeffersons, Bewitched, Laverne & Shirley, Mork & Mindy and/or Happy Days.
Then we don't compute that all these shows ran about 20 years apart/
Andy Griffith was canonically set in the 60s but everyone pretended it was the great depression.
I couldn't stand Brady Bunch or Happy Days.
I Love Lucy was weirdly absent. Obviously it was long past its run, but for a classic you'd think it would've been shown more.
1: This is a really stupid show, but I'll watch because it's the only thing on;
2: I can't believe I watched show about a Nazi POW camp. I'll never watch again.
3: OMG, Col. Klink & Sgt. Schultz were played by Jewish refugees. Living well = best revenge.
I later learned about Leon Askin (Austrian Jewish refugee - 1940).
Tony shalhoub will always be Antonio Scarpacci to me. 😆
"Sid's new hair is in the mail, hallelujah!"
I mentioned it every once in a while to my wife who made fun of me for it.
Even family guy did a bit where no one remembered it.
I don't think I have ever seen a full epsiode.
Still, I wonder if it's as dark as I remember...
The best.
I mostly skipped Wings and opted for a lot of The Weather Channel and Discovery back then.
Remember being sick? Around 7am there were Little Rascals reruns, then 9-12 were the game shows. Then your only choices were 50s/60s reruns in the afternoon, or soap operas...