TV: Old Favourites
 

The shows you watched when you were a kid; the ones you were addicted to in your teens; the early hearthrobs; the ones that changed how you think, or moulded your world; the shows you watched with family and the ones you saw alone, on a little black and white portable. Let's have your old favourites here!

Clips if you can find them, descriptions if you can't.

Most of the ones I'll be posting will be stuff I watched with my family. We were big tv watchers - we'd run around getting ready to settle for our favourite shows - and all be in place on the sofas ready when the theme music played. Bit like the start of the Simpsons:p

First up: Butterflies, a romantic comedy of sorts, by Carla Lane. The central character, played by Wendy Craig, was a housewife and mother, with a dull life, an unemotional husband and two grownup sons - trying to find some spark of excitement and danger, which comes in the form of a sort of, not quite, but nearly affair with the dashing and much more exciting than her husband, loveish interest. It's the late 70s - early 80s and the world is changing. She is an appalling housewife - can't cook to save her or anybody else's life but she tries. She is completely stifled by her respectable, lower-middle class life - it's bitter sweet.


I always loved the opening credits.













The almost affair

Was talking with a friend about this generally the other day. For several decades now women have been told "you can do anything you want to do!" and I think this directly translated into NOT teaching them basic life skills. Cooking and cleaning have been seen as menial jobs in the employment sense, rather than something everyone should be able to do regardless of education or career. And then most of these women ended up running a home after all, whether working or not, and were (are) completely unprepared for the task. My maternal line hasn't known shit about cooking in three generations. Word is my great-grandmother was awesome at it, but she didn't teach my grandmother, because my grandmother was smart and was going to college, for goodness' sake! I've had a late but intensive education on the subject, and you'd better believe both my son and daughter will not leave this house without understanding the principals of cooking.

Ha! Yes. There's a lot of truth to that I think.

I was pretty lucky in a lot of ways. Aside from a couple of years when martin was little, and then again when I was little, mum always worked - part time jobs initially, then she went into nursing when I was about 5 years old. She was an excellent cook though and so was Dad. Both me and my brother were taught to cook from a very young age. Much of it I then forgot ;p and retaught myself as an adult. Martin still is a superb cook. He does most of his family's cooking - though Jen's no slouch either.

I never quite learned a lot of the basics of house keeping. The whole dust allergy thing and sensitivity to various detergents got in the way somewhat. Have had to learn on the hoof as a grown upand will never be a natural housekeeper.

But both my brother and I were expected to contribute to keeping the house tidy and shipshape and Dad, bless him, when he wasn't creating the mess did his best to show willing on washing up and stuff. Mum was the main housekeeper, but there was never a sense that it was 'her' job alone. And when she was nursing Dad stepped in as main carer and cook for weeks at a time.

When I think of how many of my friends at the time were growing up in homes where men and boys were not expected to do housework or cooking, and where that stuff was automatically assumed to be the job of mum and the girls, we were really lucky. Martin grew up capable and competent in ways many of his friends just weren't. And I grew up without feeling like I should automatically be a man's housekeeper.

Right, the equality urge was there, but it went backwards: smart/educated women were to be seen as men, in that they shouldn't have to learn "feminine" household tasks. But really, the takeaway of the equality movement should have been that everyone does these tasks.

*nods*

I think as well though, there was a change in working patterns and convenience foods. Used to be that one parent working full time was enough for a household - maybe with the other parent working part time as well. But since the 80s more households have had both parents working full time, and since the 90s more of them working two jobs or double shifts just to make ends meet. With the move to more and more reliance on convenience foods and less and less time to actually do the basics of housekeeping and cooking those skills get dropped off along the way. So, it wasn't just the move for equality meaning that girls were no longer being taught to cook - parents with less and less time and less and less reason to cook in the first place.

One the greatest children's programmes ever made - Rentaghost! ran from 1976 to 1984. My Bro and I used to watch this together.

From Wiki:


The very first episode - like most comedy pilots it has its shaky moments - they found their feet very quickly though:




I think pretty much every kid watched this show. What was brilliant about it, and about quite a lot of kids' tv shows from that time, was that they didn't patronise their viewers. And they didn't try to forcefeed you with moral messages. They just tried to capture your imagination and make you laugh. Watching it now it has quite a grownup air about it for a kids' show. It's not that different in tone to many of the adult sitcoms of the day. Just with a much higher degree of whimsy and silliness :P

Also notable and pretty standard for many kids' shows at the time - not much in the way of children in it.

Cultural note: half day closing. Most shops used to close for half a day during the week as well as Sundays.

Since I'm on a roll...

Are you being served?

A sitcom set in a department store. Full of larger than life characters. The opening theme was great:



Classic sitcom. very much the flavour of '70s Brit tv. This was family viewing of the best kind - lots of silly stuff for the kids and rampant double entendres for the grown ups! many of which revolved around Mrs Slocombe's pet cat:


A collection of Mrs Slocombe's Pussy moments



And I'm guessing you've probably had your fill of Mrs Slocombe's pussy by now :P

IThe show launched the year I was born and ran until I was 12. I remember watching it when I was little. The pussy jokes went over my head but I remember Mum and Dad laughing fit to burst. The later series (and movie) I began to get the joke :P

I loved Mrs. Slocum and her pussy!

Really. Public television (PBS) has shown AYBS? over here off and on for a number of years.

You Can't Do That on Television - kids' sketch comedy show out of Canada, with a revolving cast of kids, plus one man and woman who played all the adult roles on the show.

Everyone likes to mention the fact that Alanis Morissette was on the show, but the truth is she was only in maybe eight episodes out of 144. I watched the ever-loving bejeezus out of this show, and only barely remembered a couple of her scenes.

That looks brilliant! I can see why you lapped it up. Gotta love the kids' shows from that era. Looking at the wiki page for it, there are elements that remind me a little of Tizwas, (particularly the gunge) mashed with Why Don't You? (mainly kids presenting) which were staples here in the late 70s/early 80s.Though WDY? had more of an educational goal. Tiswas was just pure anarchy.

Not a kids show but class all the same

PBS played lots of good BBC shows back in the day. Love both of those shows, Dana. And Fawlty Towers, Benny Hill, Monty PAythin, .. I'm forgetting one or two....

I watched a lot of PBS. Never once donated to them and their fucking telethons though.

Did any of you watch Art Linkletter?

Yup! Art Linkletter is also in my all-time favorite comedy movie, "Champaign For Ceaser". :-)

Great show, loved it. :thumb: