Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Binge-watching '70s shows. There were a lot of good ones!
Mary Tyler Moore
All In the Family
M.A.S.H.
Taxi
Carol Burnett (but I could never stand Tim Conway....)
Bob Newhart
Barney Miller
Laverne and Shirley (loved Lenny and Squiggy)
Happy Days (until Fonzie took over the show -- yuck)
Rockford Files
Soap
Flip Wilson (and who didn't love Geraldine?)
... and a few others I don't remember offhand.
The days of real people writing real scripts about real stuff.
Actors with real bodies and real teeth.
That's one thing that struck me --- the teeth. These days, everyone on TV, even on the
"reality" shows, has perfectly even, perfectly straight, perfectly white teeth. It's like a law. You can't be seen on TV unless your teeth are blindingly white.
Forty years ago, teeth were more natural.
It must have changed somewhere about the late '90s, because I remember an episode of Friends where Ross got his teeth whitened, and everyone made fun of him. Now everyone on TV has those ridiculous teeth.
.
4 comments:
I am with you on all but Barney Miller, Taxi, and Soap nonr of which did I watch. I really only watched Laverne and Shirley, Happy Days, Bob Newhart and Rockford Files sporadically. I loved Carol Burnett but agree with you on Tim Conway. (That Dorf crap he did was among the unwatchable things.)MTM and MASH are top of the list all time favs.
RE" Flip Wilson, he was hilarious. I worked with a big black woman who was the complete embodiment of Geraldine. I never mentioned it to her but it was uncanny....The only thing missing is her husband wasn't named "Killer".
Earlier on I loved Cannon, Barnaby Jones, Mannix, Iron Sides and the original Hawaii 50.
Bottom of the barrel entertainment wise I suppose, but I have been a mostly regular watcher of it anyway, in spite of the general low-brow nature, I agree it is total crap, America's funniest Videos. Watching people fall down just never gets old for me I guess.
Oh and if imperfection is your cuppa, I watch Criminal Minds strictly because of Thomas Gibson who does not whiten his teeth, even has some notable gaps in them, nor does he fix other things like his eyes which are a bit baggy. Imperfect perfection.
I liked Thomas Gibson on Dharma and Greg, another of my favorites from the '90s. I wanted to be Dharma's mother.
I watch NCIS (the original) because Mark Harmon is another one of those who has more or less allowed himself to age gracefully. I don't know what it is about men and cosmetic surgery, but there are so many out there who have had "work" done and look awful--Kenny Rogers, Barry Manilow (whom I love), Michael Douglas...they all end up bearing a spooky resemblance to Michael Jackson.
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