Great old tv

[Rob S.]

A station ran the old Dean Martin roasts all day. From Joe Namath to Lucille Ball and all the old standards (Benny, Burns, Stewart, Hope, etc,), I taped them all. Before each one a message was shown stating that these shows were from the 1970's, when cultural standards were different. Once, when Rickles was using his 'black' voice, Ali asked him, "Why are you talking like that?"

Now PBS is showing "The Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra Family Christmas Show" from 1967. Sammy Davis just made a cameo, but it's mostly the two stars and their children. I guess you have to be of a certain age to appreciate it.

[rphillips]

Times have changed....Haven't they? & personally I can't say for the better.

[Baatfam]

Times have changed....Haven't they? & personally I can't say for the better.

You sound like my grandfather, and his father before him. LOL....
Thank goodness times have changed...
Still too slow, but I wouldn't go back to the 1950s if you paid me.

One thing I always told my kids, "The good old days, really weren't that good."
Also, if it was the 1950s, I'd be dead. The first aortic heart valve replacement didn't happen until 1962.

[argonsagas]

A station ran the old Dean Martin roasts all day. From Joe Namath to Lucille Ball and all the old standards (Benny, Burns, Stewart, Hope, etc,), I taped them all. Before each one a message was shown stating that these shows were from the 1970's, when cultural standards were different. Once, when Rickles was using his 'black' voice, Ali asked him, "Why are you talking like that?"

Now PBS is showing "The Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra Family Christmas Show" from 1967. Sammy Davis just made a cameo, but it's mostly the two stars and their children. I guess you have to be of a certain age to appreciate it.

Many, many, things have changed since those times.

Some are for the better, others for the worse.

Culturally, some of what we see today is not only different, but borders on stupid, such as the currently popular North American celebration of gross obesity.

For example, this popular song from the 1940s would not be tolerated, probably would not even be given air time, today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cn-iPEEzfA

[RustyTank]

You sound like my grandfather, and his father before him. LOL....
Thank goodness times have changed...
Still too slow, but I wouldn't go back to the 1950s if you paid me.

One thing I always told my kids, "The good old days, really weren't that good."

Here here.

A station ran the old Dean Martin roasts all day. From Joe Namath to Lucille Ball and all the old standards (Benny, Burns, Stewart, Hope, etc,), I taped them all. Before each one a message was shown stating that these shows were from the 1970's, when cultural standards were different. Once, when Rickles was using his 'black' voice, Ali asked him, "Why are you talking like that?"

Now PBS is showing "The Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra Family Christmas Show" from 1967. Sammy Davis just made a cameo, but it's mostly the two stars and their children. I guess you have to be of a certain age to appreciate it.

As a kid I watched a lot of the old Dean Martin roasts while they were being rerun on whatever cable channel owned the rights at the time. I loved watching them so much. In the late 80's a company was selling them on the teli, infomercial type of thing, and I went ahead and spent my allowance on it. What I got in the mail were VHS tapes that didn't work. I was so bummed.

As cringe worthy as they can be, I have a soft spot in my heart for those old roasts though. Real time capsules those things.

[bwringer]

One of the biggest differences I see in old TV shows is smoking.

It's hard to overstate how much and how often people in the US used to smoke in the 70s, 80s, and well into the '90s.

It used to be perfectly acceptable and expected to smoke absolutely everywhere and all times. Restaurants, airplanes, offices, homes, vehicles, in bed, while working, while exercising, while cooking, while changing a diaper, etc. If you didn't smoke as much as you could as often as you could, you were either a small child or something was not quite right with you.

I remember one of my aunts giving my infant cousin his asthma medication while she was smoking. I remember my Dad working on his car's carburetor while smoking. I remember being sent to the store on my little bicycle to buy Mom and Dad's smokes.

I remember opening my first bank account when I was five or six. There was an ashtray on the desk in the bank, and my parents and the teller were using it. Some restaurants had smoking sections, but it obviously made no difference in air quality in the non-smoking section.

Every carpet, chair, table, and couch had cigarette burns in it, and most clothing. My hair and face got accidentally burned by cigarettes several times when I was a kid. My Dad started a fire that wiped out the second floor and nearly burnt down Grandma and Grandpa's house smoking in bed.

On every road trip with my parents or grandparents, the windows were absolutely NOT allowed to be rolled down or even cracked lest some portion of the delightful nicotine escape, and the adults chain-smoked relentlessly for the entire trip.

When my Mom and Dad had surgeries, the first thing they did when they woke up was to light up in their hospital rooms. This was perfectly normal in the '70s and well into the '80s.

Stained fingers and teeth were the standard for any adult.

Olympic athletes would cross the finish line, then light up. Quarterbacks would relax with a smoke while planning the next offensive drive.

Airplanes had smoking and non-smoking sections, which obviously made no difference in air quality in the non-smoking section. Airport terminals were a dim haze of nervous flyers cramming every scrap of nicotine into their systems so they had chance of (most airports didn't even separate smoking into separate rooms until I think sometime in the '90s). The second the "no smoking" light went off after takeoff, the cloud went up.

When I worked at a mental hospital in the early '90s, about half the damn job was managing the intricate set of smoking rules and access to cigarettes, lighters, etc. Patients could smoke for ten minutes of every half hour in a special room containing a noisy machine that did absolutely nothing to manage the fog. Smoking was the source of most of the confusion, anger, and behavioral issues we had to manage. When I got home from work, my first act was to strip and shower, and isolate my work clothes until I could wash them.

I was in a pretty busy classic rock bar band for a long time as well; same thing. Bars were 100% all smoking, all the time, and if there was a decent crowd you literally could not see across a relatively small room. My clothes were even worse, so I stripped in the entryway and showered immediately.


Can you tell I've always, as long as I could remember, really, REALLY hated smoking? For a long time, this was considered kinda weird.


So anyway: smoking is a bit of a tangent, but culturally this has been one of the better and more profound changes I've seen, and you do see this partially reflected in old TV shows.

Old TV shows actually really understated how incredibly pervasive smoking was because it was another prop to manage (and of course, it's very tough to manage the length of a real cigarette in multiple takes), plus the smoke could get in the way of the shot. They often made the actors wait until break to get their next fix, unless it was part of the shot. Sometimes they used prop cigarettes that used powder to puff out "smoke", or a little hidden battery and flashlight bulb if the glowing tip was important.

[trevor]

I watch Leave it to Beaver and Andy Griffith all the time....just to get a reaction out my wife from the way women are treated in the shows....lol

[Rob S.]

A pack of Camels is practically glued to Pacino's hand in The Godfather.

[dpep]

Some restaurants had smoking sections, but it obviously made no difference in air quality in the non-smoking section.

The equivalent of peeing and non-peeing sections in a swimming pool.
...

[bwringer]

I watch Leave it to Beaver and Andy Griffith all the time....just to get a reaction out my wife from the way women are treated in the shows....lol

Yeah, some pretty retro stuff in those...

The Flintstones and I Love Lucy could be pretty damn progressive sometimes, although the former (and many, many sitcoms to follow) was mostly a rehash of The Honeymooners.

I don't think humans will ever manage to surpass the Carol Burnett show. Like every variety show, not every character, sketch, or joke was a winner, but the ones that did work are timeless and ageless.

[Rob S.]

The equivalent of peeing and non-peeing sections in a swimming pool.
...

If it's a chilly morning, I'll start in the pee section just to get acclimated to the cold before moving into the deep water, where peeing is frowned upon, but smoking isn't.

[Grimly]

Yeah, some pretty retro stuff in those...

The Flintstones and I Love Lucy could be pretty damn progressive sometimes, although the former (and many, many sitcoms to follow) was mostly a rehash of The Honeymooners.

I don't think humans will ever manage to surpass the Carol Burnett show. Like every variety show, not every character, sketch, or joke was a winner, but the ones that did work are timeless and ageless.

Was that Dick van Dyke on the other end of the couch?
We never really saw much of his domestic output over here.

[Grimly]

If it's a chilly morning, I'll start in the pee section just to get acclimated to the cold before moving into the deep water, where peeing is frowned upon, but smoking isn't.

It's more of a challenge to pee in the restaurant peeing section then smoke and pee as you move into the non-peeing, non-smoking, no farting area.

[rphillips]

I've got Carol recording right now, do it every night. Just hoping Tim Conway will be on there tonight, It's just not as good if he ain't there. Kind'f like Andy Griffith without Barney. I've always wondered if Andy Griffith actually smoked, I think there were only 4 & possibly 3 episodes where Andy smoked & in those he never took more than 2 puffs before snuffing it out or thumping it out in the yard.

[Rob S.]

I've recently gotten access to Get Smart, Hawaii Five-0, Mission Impossible, both of Newhart's sitcoms (I only watch the old one), That Girl, Adam 12 and many others. Right now I'm watching Johnny Carson from Nov. '77.

In the '60's & '70's the Tonight Show was the soundtrack for many milestones in my life. I enjoy remembering, 'this was the week I first tripped, or got laid, or the night Andrea died.'