Old School Damn Good TV

[ramairthree]

Our countries biggest financial obsession seems to be entertainment.
Hundreds of channels, streaming, Internet, sports, video games, etc.
There is some amazing high quality TV going on now.
Huge budgets, high production values, talent, former movies stars doing TV shows, top shelf novels Bing adapted, etc.

Quite different than it used to be.
Once there were a small number of networks.
With tightly controlled and allowed plots, etc.

On occasion, there was some top notch episodes.

With all the politics to discuss, and shopping lots of shopping to do before a looming Second Amendment-ageddon,
What stands out for you?

We are talking maybe late 60s to mid 90s era,
Anything earlier was likely to have been too whitewashed to have serious teeth in the bite,
And later we started having a whole lot of other stuff thrown in the mix.

So,
Back when you could count your channels on one hand, turned a knob to get to them, and had to adjust your rabbit ears, what really stood out.

The first I remember is Magnum PI and Did You See The Sunrise.
I was watching it on a 13 inch black and white TV, was about 14 years old,
And was like,
holy shit, he really killed the bad guy just like he deserved. Solid.
Always. Always before this it never seemed to go down like that.
Such a well known TV moment I won't go further into it.

A year or two later Where the Busses Don't Run And Bushido on Miami Vice really stood out.
The tragedy of the one and the awe/surprise of the other were some serious writing and acting.
Again, so we'll know won't go into it.

A few years later I had graduated high school, finished an enlistment in Ranger Bn, was newly married, had gone into the national guard, and had just started college. A show was coming on. I am not sure if I had seen an episode before. My wife said it had a scientist that traveled back in time and a ghost that would show up and give him information.

This is not near the TV icon Miami Vice and Magnum PI was. You may never have heard it it.
Go watch the first two episodes of season 3 of a show called Quantum Leap.
I will spoil it below. If you are not familiar with it just watch it.









I started watching it. After watching the scientist travel into his teenage self, try to talk his brother into going AWOL to get out of Vietnam, singing his little sister Imagine, etc. I was like screw this typical Hollywood, Boomer, Liberal crap. Then he flashed into a SEAL platoon in Vietnam having a mad minute and getting their violence of action on. The clothing, armaments, kit, etc. we're so more accurate than the typical TV crap of the time. I was like damn. I will have to see the next part next week.

Next week comes. The helicopter pilot's of-107s, the cleaning brushes, the kit, so much effort to be accurate. It may seem inconceivable to you younger vets, but 80s to 90s Ranger/SF/etc kit had not really changed since VN. He was even wearing our PT issue UDT shorts and some chucks. Lennon lover Imagine boy gets his M60 on like a champ tearing up some VC to save his brother. After looking pasty watching them slit the throats of some dude, an old man, and a chick in a sampan that were sappers. He got his combat on quick. Then he lights up a young chick he knew with zero hesitation to save his brother. Then has a female war correspondent die in his arms. And then finds out he did in fact save his brother,
And then finds out the cost was his friend from the future knowingly helped him do it, despite it meant he would spend five years as a POW instead of being rescued. And at the last second his brother lets on he knows it is really him. Holy ****. Movies have had 100 million dollar budgets with worse acting, writing, accuracy, and punch you in the gut drama character development than that. And these were fresh characters to me, not a show I had been watching. If you had a season or two of interest and attachment invested how much better would it have been when it aired?

[Doc Safari]

I loved the original Star Trek. The Next Generation was too politically correct. Capt. Picard would talk to the enemy aliens and then fix some Earl Grey tea. Capt. Kirk would get in a fight and then romance some alien chick. I also preferred the old phaser sound effect. It had a frightening high-pitched whoosh when someone was disintegrated. The stories were more real too, i.e., not just another subspace anomaly or bad guy spaceships to blast away at. I hate to say it but I think Star Wars killed science fiction, Star Trek included.

I love the old westerns like High Chaparral. Chaparral is more real to me because it's set on a ranch in the desert, just like my life. I don't have to worry about Apache raids, though.

I like the old M*A*S*H episodes. Even though it was an extremely liberal show, it came along when everyone was sick of Vietnam and so it resonated.

I don't think I've gotten hooked on a fictional, episodic TV show since "Jericho" was canceled. That show was the ultimate adventure show to me.

I can sometimes watch an old episode of Dukes of Hazzard, or Magnum P.I., or Columbo, or Rockford Files or something, but it just makes me sad because I know it's been over for a long time and we will never get that kind of TV back.

As an aside, I recently saw an episode of Mannix. Some guy had been shot in the abdomen and they put him on a bed at someone's house. No blood, no groaning in pain. You'd think the guy had gotten indigestion or something. I know TV standards often didn't allow for realistic wounds, but that was surreal!

[Firefly]

Actually the Quantum Leap guy didn't use an M-60. They tracked down a working Stoner 63. They even had the hologram dude show him how to strip it


For me, I loved A-Team, AirWolf, Equalizer, and as I got older 90210 and Saved by the Bell. 90210 was the best show ever until Tori Spelling ruined it.

But I think the show that really built some bridges was Tour of Duty. At least the first season. "Hey I remember that song" or "They need to listen to that PSG".

But China Beach, I was quickly told, was a slap in the face and an insult. Which was unfortunate as I had a crush on the doctor lady with the bobcut who wore the fatigues

ETA and Dukes of Hazzard. I even had the matchbox car. Rebel flags were everywhere and no formications given. Even knew and older black guy the next town over who had a Rebel flag painted on his shed that his son did for him. People weren't so tight ass back then.

[ColtSeavers]

A Team
Fall Guy
Greatest American Hero
The Incredible Hulk
Dukes of Hazard
Hologram Man
Airwolf
Knight Rider
Night Court



Damn, so many shows, I'm sure I'm forgetting tons

[Firefly]

FALL GUY!

That show inspired me to sprain an ankle jumping off the roof.

Good times

[nova3930]

I've caught myself watching Gunsmoke from time to time.

[joe138]

For me: Magnum PI and Hill Street Blues. Hill Street Blues set a new standard for cop shows. It had the street cops and the politician cops. It showed cops with personal problems, it was very much like I have seen in my career.

[ramairthree]

I was not talking about stuff you enjoyed or used to like.
I was trying to get examples of episodes that were truly stunning and well done.

Sure, the episode where Kirk has to let the woman die in the past,
Or finding out a guy was a key figure multiple times in history due to being immortal were interesting on Star Trek,
But we also had to put up with Indian Kirok and the most boring episode ever of mirror image guys painted black and white.
I think the next generation episodes that stand out are where they find out a guy is really a super being that eradicated an entire species from the universes, or where Picard lived a whole lifetime in his head on another world.


I may have enjoyed the A Team,
But don't recall an episode of serious drama, story telling, etc. that really gripped me.

I am talking about episodes of shows that were top notch and the opposite of the typical mag after mag of mini 14 shot at bad guys that walk away from a roll over crash from the Grenade thrown at their car, etc.
I like Dukes of Hazzard also, but ditto.

I though his brother had a Stoner and he was cleaning it in one scene, and he had a 60.
I just pulled it up, and pause a scene.
Holy crap, I was wrong.
The old memories on a 19 inch TV failed me.
He had a stoner too.

http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu220/ramairfour/image_zpstq3i6h6h.jpeg (http://s649.photobucket.com/user/ramairfour/media/image_zpstq3i6h6h.jpeg.html)

Those specific examples and episodes were not very common back then. I would like to know more of them.
Recent examples are a lot more common,
A recent example would be,
Say on game of thrones where the giant guy gets ripped apart by zombies,
And the young guy experiences it,
And you realize he has spent his entire life having the memory of being ripped to death by zombies and knowing it is coming and still taking care of the stark kid.

Or when the evil queen's brother goes to rescue his daughter, and finds out they can have an arranged marriage to a prince, and that she loves the prince, and is going to be happy, and she reveals she knows he is her Dad, and that she loves him, and them she gruesomely dies in his arms.

[ColtSeavers]

Ah, my apologies, I didn't realize you were looking for specific episodes or mini story-arcs.

[RazorBurn]

A Team
Fall Guy
Greatest American Hero
The Incredible Hulk
Dukes of Hazard
Hologram Man
Airwolf
Knight Rider
Night Court



Damn, so many shows, I'm sure I'm forgetting tons

A bunch of mine are in that list.

Three's Company
M.A.S.H.
Six Million Dollar Man
Mork & Mindy
Hardcastle & McCormick
Miami Vice
BJ & the Bear
Moonlighting
Gunsmoke
The Lone Ranger
Bonanza
Barney Miller
Happy Days

How in the hell hasn't Cheers been listed yet either?! Night Court, Cheers and Miami Vice were my favorite teenage years shows.

[Firefly]

Oh you wanted exact episodes?

My top ones

Miami Vice- The one with the quick draw hitman. He kills off Crockett's original LT and is hunting him down. Dude had a whiteboy fro and Ambermatics ('memba them?) and was wasting everyone with SPAS-12s, 1911s, a scoped rifle, a silenced Beretta, and bust into Crockett's house with IIRC an AR-180. It was badass because he was this innocuous looking guy who never talked.

A-Team- The one where this guy has a cult like Jim Jones and the A-Team beat his ass.

AirWolf- That one where he kills off some Loaches dressed up like Russian helicopters. Didn't care about the plot.

Equalizer- The Equalizer gets caught as a hostage at some dinner party and starts killing them off one by one like Die Hard but more grim.

Knight Rider-Where KITT fights KARR.

Tour of Duty- They find this baby san at this ville they wasted and try to take him home with them until NVA regulars catch up with them. The platoon Sgt. realizes a grenade killed the baby and this NVA gets the drop on him with an AK and sees the Platoon Sgt heaving and weeping over what is left of the baby as he calls the NVA a murdering bastard. Overwhelmed at the sight, the NVA just lowers his gun and walks away in shame. The squad just rides home after putting the baby in a little bag. All from a nigh 30 year old memory. Really couldn't watch it but once. Until that I thought it was like GI Joe. No.

Honorable mention was an episode of Trapper John MD where this guy is like 30 but has to see a pediatrician because his body is 12. It just creeped me out because he said something like "I'm a grown man, goddammit! I'm a grown man!"

Or that one episode of Different Strokes with the pedo.

[Doc Safari]

One that pops to mind:

"A Stitch in Time" from the 1990's reboot of "The Outer Limits". Possibly the best time travel episode of any series, with the possible exception of "City on the Edge of Forever" from the original Star Trek.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0667856/



City on the Edge of Forever:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708455/

A standout episode from M*A*S*H was "April Fools":

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0638248/

I don't want to spoil it. Just watch it.

[SteyrAUG]

For me nothing comes close to the writing for the original Twilight Zone. Even though I caught it as reruns about 20 years after it was written, it regularly blew my mind. "To Serve Man" sent a chill down my spine that I can still vividly remember.

There have been some amazing shows, the very second episode of "Magnum PI" (China Doll) ended with a gunshot and a blank screen implying he shot the guy who "blinks before he strikes." This was actually the first episode I saw as I missed the two part pilot. And it was as powerful as "Ivan, did you see the sunrise this morning?"

I also remember many iconic moments of Miami Vice, having grown up in South Florida during the cocaine wars this was more than just a cop show to me. I remember watching many of the plot lines in real life on the evening news during 1980-82. Scarface wasn't as exaggerated as many people assume. And given that Miami Vice was frequently shot in Ft. Lauderdale I recognized many landmarks and they regularly used Joe Hess (a local Goju Ryu instructor that I knew) as a henchman to various drug dealers made the show very familiar to me.

[Firefly]

Another one: Who remembers Monsters?

It came on at bizarre hours after midnight. There was this one episode about zombies in the Vietnam War. There was this black jive talking tunnel rat with a Colt Python and he is about to escape the VC zombies. He nearly gets bit but blows his head off and says "Not today, baby". And at the end he's just about to get to the surface and a wall of zombies just eat him alive.


Then there was an 80s Twilight Zone episode about this woman who can stop time and WWIII happens and she stops time just before a nuke hits.

ETA And Tales from the Crypt where this General in WWI has a Lieutenant son and everybody knows he's yellow. So he tells him that he will arrange for the guns to be filled with blanks at his firing squad so he forgoes blindfolds and a last meal and is all strack as he stands in front of the guns and well....

[Doc Safari]

Another one popped to mind.

The episode "Mummy Daddy" from Amazing Stories. Hilarious.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0511109/

[Inkslinger]

I always loved Miami Vice. I caught a rerun a while back, and saw this guy playing a hit man draw and dispatch another guy lighting fast. I was like "whoa" that guy is no actor. I'm sure some here have heard of him, Jim Zubiena.

https://youtu.be/fK0yLjVk0eM

[Straight Shooter]

I always loved Miami Vice. I caught a rerun a while back, and saw this guy playing a hit man draw and dispatch another guy lighting fast. I was like "whoa" that guy is no actor. I'm sure some here have heard of him, Jim Zubiena.

https://youtu.be/fK0yLjVk0eM

THAT episode right there fired me up so bad...it literally started my quest/love/FEVER for speed & combat type shooting, which at the time Col. Cooper had already ignited. But, seeing it for the first time live, in action on T.V. really added to the fire. Ive watched this many times over the years, its still awesome.

[The_War_Wagon]

Kojak
Columbo
Stingray
The Equalizer
Spencer: For Hire
Tour of Duty

Thanks to Retro TV and other such local networks, I get to watch 'em all again!

[brushy bill]

I see I was a fan of some of the same programs as Steyr and Firefly:
Magnum PI
Twilight Zone (huge fav--recently re-watched four of the five seasons I grew up watching with my eldest daughter...one season is only on Amazon with the one hour blocks and I will likely eventually buy that once I can watch with my daughter...others 4 seasons were free on Netflix)

In addition to above I really liked:
Georgia Championship Wrestling and numerous other wrestling programs (Rick Flair, Macho Man Savage, Junkyard Dog, et al...we used to try to reenact their moves as kids and are lucky we didn't seriously hurt or kill each other with pile driver, etc.)
All in the Family
The Jeffersons
BJ McKay
Sheriff Lobo
Night Court
Cheers
The Rockford Files
Adam-12
Favorite of all would be Twilight Zone though

Here's a program I bet most of you won't remember...ran for one season (1982 ...there was an earlier series same title) and at least in my memory was better than most TV today. Was called "The Quest." I was really digging it, but it went away pretty quickly.

[MBtech]

Fall Guy... Still want the truck!

A-Team...One that sticks out I remember is Merdock going on a tangent in the nut house yelling "trash bags" I want some trash bags, to use them for a lawn chair hot air balloon for his escape lol.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8th2J3c88mU
40925

MacGyver... I know looking back how cheesy it was to some but the problem solving skills and to think outside of the box sure beats what kids are watching nowadays. Here's a brief rundown

https://www.mindmeister.com/474116172/problems-solved-by-macgyver-episodes-1-10