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Post by kds on Mar 25, 2021 13:21:09 GMT
Superstore was a show that I planned to watch regularly. I saw the first episode and it reminded me of The Office (that was probably the point). I never ended up watching it aside from a few episodes here and there. Ironically, I really enjoyed each episode I saw. I guess it kind of shows how little I pay attention to new shows that aren't on Netflix. I also planned to watch Mr. Mayor, but I haven't seen a single episode so far. Mad Men was probably the last show I made sure I sat down to watch every week. Superstore definitely followed some of the formula from The Office, especially with the four main characters and some of the storylines. Not as rewatchable, but definitely one of the better sitcoms to come out of the 2010s.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 25, 2021 13:32:54 GMT
Mad Men was probably the last show I made sure I sat down to watch every week. Oh man, appointment viewing? It's funny how what used to be the way we watched TV up until quite recently has become a memory... I'm trying to remember the last show I would watch in real time on a weekly basis. I was kind of a semi-appointment watcher of the earliest seasons of This Is Us, or of Harlots. But in both cases, I'd usually end up watching every other or every three weeks.
It's all so different from the 80s and early 90s when I was a kid, and (unless you set your VCR) you watched shows when they were on. Want to watch The Cosby Show, Family Ties, and Cheers? Better be home on a Thursday night.
(Thursdays were always the best, by the way. The above shows, Seinfeld, Friends. NBC in particular always had a loaded Thursday.)
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Post by kds on Mar 25, 2021 13:41:03 GMT
Ah, good old Must See TV on Thursdays. I remember for a brief period, FOX also aired The Simpsons on Thursday nights, so I always had to set a timer because that was the night my Boy Scout Troop met. And wouldn't you know it, when my Troop folded, FOX moved the show back to Sundays (they were probably getting clobbered by NBC).
The last show I made a point to watch in real time was The Walking Dead. In it's first few seasons, you had to watch for risk of spoilers. But, as the years went by and the popularity waned, that wasn't really the case.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 25, 2021 13:58:32 GMT
Speaking of must-see TV, did you guys ever have shows you really liked that weren't hits or particularly acclaimed? Shows maybe even your friends weren't into? I won't say guilty pleasures, but maybe just oddballs, likely shows that didn't last more than a few seasons?
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Post by The Cincinnati Kid on Mar 25, 2021 13:59:42 GMT
I suppose I would watch the Young & the Restless almost daily with my parents while I was in college and briefly unemployed last year. In my defense, it was during lunch and I was also on my laptop...
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Post by The Cincinnati Kid on Mar 25, 2021 14:05:51 GMT
Speaking of must-see TV, did you guys ever have shows you really liked that weren't hits or particularly acclaimed? Shows maybe even your friends weren't into? I won't say guilty pleasures, but maybe just oddballs, likely shows that didn't last more than a few seasons? I was a big fan of the reboot of Dallas. It was always action packed and Larry Hagman was great in his role as JR. Once he died, the writing was on the wall that it would be canceled despite many of the original actors still on the show. I remember there being a last ditch effort with the season finale to save the series, but I guess it didn't get enough attention. There were many petitions and it looked like there might actually be some hope for it to be revived. It never came to fruition. I think one of the original bad guys has also since died, so I imagine it's going to be left to the dustbin of history.
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Post by kds on Mar 25, 2021 14:44:48 GMT
Speaking of must-see TV, did you guys ever have shows you really liked that weren't hits or particularly acclaimed? Shows maybe even your friends weren't into? I won't say guilty pleasures, but maybe just oddballs, likely shows that didn't last more than a few seasons? One for me was The Critic, and animated show that ran for two seasons on ABC, then FOX in the mid 90s. FOX even attempted a Simpsons crossover, but it didn't catch on. More recently, there was a dramedy called Backstrom, starring Rainn Wilson from The Office, that my wife and I liked, but it only lasted a season. The TV version of Lethal Weapon was also far better than I'd have ever imagined. Although, it did drop off in Season 3 when they replaced Clayne Crawford (Martin Riggs) with Sean William Scott. I don't think it really lit up the ratings, but CBS had a sitcom called Superior Donuts a few years ago. It was funny, and actually tackled some hot button political and racial issues without being overly preachy, while still keeping the tone light.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 25, 2021 15:00:42 GMT
Speaking of Simpsons crossovers, I remember being an avid watcher of "Herman's Head" in the early 90s. It lasted a few seasons, and included Hank Azaria and Yeardley Smith, both also of "The Simpsons." I recall each show had several references to the other.
Those were most of my less-than-stellar shows I would watch: sitcoms. There used to be so, so many, because they were the bulk of weeknight TV before reality appeared and game shows reappeared. And then you'd get a quarter of them canceled midseason and replaced with yet more sitcoms...
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Post by The Cincinnati Kid on Mar 25, 2021 15:12:10 GMT
It's interesting to think about how shows today would kill for ratings that shows 20-30+ years ago would be canceled for.
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Post by kds on Mar 25, 2021 15:12:35 GMT
I used to watch Herman's Head.
I still enjoy sitcoms, as I tend to go for escapist entertainment. But, you're right there were a ton in the 80s and 90s. I've probably watched quite a few short lived ones that I've long since forgotten. I remember one with Scott Biao that was pretty much a TV version of the Look Who's Talking movies. I think it was called Baby Talk.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 25, 2021 15:16:37 GMT
I remember one with Scott Biao that was pretty much a TV version of the Look Who's Talking movies. I think it was called Baby Talk. Wow, I don't recall that AT ALL.
I do remember Baio from reruns of Happy Days and Joanie Loves Chachi (I'm old, but not quite that old), as well as my era's Charles in Charge, which ran in the latter half of the 80s. Charles in Charge was nice because it had (future Baywatch cast member) Nicole Eggert, and for a tween-to-young-teen boy such as myself, she was a very interesting actress...
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Post by kds on Mar 25, 2021 15:20:16 GMT
I remember one with Scott Biao that was pretty much a TV version of the Look Who's Talking movies. I think it was called Baby Talk. Wow, I don't recall that AT ALL.
I do remember Baio from reruns of Happy Days and Joanie Loves Chachi (I'm old, but not quite that old), as well as my era's Charles in Charge, which ran in the latter half of the 80s. Charles in Charge was nice because it had (future Baywatch cast member) Nicole Eggert, and for a tween-to-young-teen boy such as myself, she was a very interesting actress...
I don't think it lasted very long. I also just remembered a short lived FOX sitcom about baseball. I think it was called Hardball.
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Post by kds on Mar 25, 2021 15:28:49 GMT
I also happened to pick the one HBO series that never really got critical acclaim or any real following - Arli$$. The comedy starred Robert Wuhl as the titular character, a sports agent in charge of his own firm, and featured cameos by tons of current (at the time) and former athletes. Surprisingly, it actually remained on HBO for seven seasons (1996-2002).
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 25, 2021 17:32:16 GMT
Coincidentally, as I was thinking of shows that didn't last that I watched, my local paper had a seemingly out-of-nowhere story praising the mid-90s single-season teen drama My So-Called Life, starring Clare Danes and Jared Leto.
I didn't watch it (much?) live, but I know it ran incessantly on MTV or VH1 or something just a year or two after it was cancelled, and a girlfriend I had at the time--we'd have been in college--loved it. So I did watch it. Can't say I was ever all that fond of it, but I was also a 20-year-old (or so) guy at the time, and I think it was really geared toward teenage and young adult women.
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Post by kds on Mar 25, 2021 18:35:57 GMT
Coincidentally, as I was thinking of shows that didn't last that I watched, my local paper had a seemingly out-of-nowhere story praising the mid-90s single-season teen drama My So-Called Life, starring Clare Danes and Jared Leto.
I didn't watch it (much?) live, but I know it ran incessantly on MTV or VH1 or something just a year or two after it was cancelled, and a girlfriend I had at the time--we'd have been in college--loved it. So I did watch it. Can't say I was ever all that fond of it, but I was also a 20-year-old (or so) guy at the time, and I think it was really geared toward teenage and young adult women.
There are two possible explanations. That critic has never watched any other TV show that ever existed. Or, click bait.
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