What are you watching right now?

[Cavaliere (moderator emeritus)]

Criminal Minds: "Amplification"

[Jeff of Earth-J]

"Offensively mediocre TV" is a phrase I'm going to have to remember. It is a phrase I could well apply to those superhero shows. I was actually relieved to be relieved of the time-suck that is Batwoman when it was cancelled. We're still watching two, and Tracy says she is still enjoying The Flash. 

My reason for wanting you to watch TWD shows, Cap, was personal and selfish: I liked reading your posts skewering them the next day. But you gotta do what you gotta do, so if you're not enjoying them anymore you gotta stop watching them. I hadn't heard that Melisa McBride had bowed out of the Daryl/Carol spin-off, but Tracy filled me in. Apparently the show was to have been filmed overseas which she cannot do at this time because of personal reasons. (Why not? I don't know... that's what "personal" means: none of our goddam business.) The "fan community" rose against her and Jeffrey Dean Morgan sprung to her defense. Good for him!

One day we will move on to MTM season two, and likely beyond. Another show I have a season one DVD of is Happy Days. Likewise, I will one day move on to season two (although Tracy doesn't like it), but not beyond. (I don't know if season three is when the actual "shark jumping" occurred, but that is when the show switched from filming on a closed set to taping in front of a studio audience.)

[The Baron]

I looked it up, and the "shark-jumping" episode was Season Five, apparently. Whether that's when the show itself "jumped the shark" is another matter. Happy Days is one of those shows that I haven't watched since it was broadcast, and I don't know how well it would hold up for me now.

Fonzie is one of those characters that , as Barnabas Collins did with Dark Shadows, became far more the focus of the program than  the producers had in itially intended.

As an aside, Stephen King once pointed out that Fonzie was a watered-down, "safe" version of the "juvenile delinquent" character that terrified parents in the actual 1950's.

Aside number two:  My Dad always said that Happy Days was nothing like the actual 1950's, and that it contained elements from the 1940's to the 1960's.

Jeff of Earth-J said:

(I don't know if season three is when the actual "shark jumping" occurred, but that is when the show switched from filming on a closed set to taping in front of a studio audience.)

[Jeff of Earth-J]

"I don't know how well it would hold up for me now."

Speaking for myself, I have watched the first season on DVD twice (once several years ago with Tracy when we first bought it, then again more recently by myself) and it holds up for me. I can't say about the second season (which I haven't seen since it originally aired), but I know the production values were similar to those of the first. I realize Happy days is not an accurate  depiction of American life, but can't that be said about every sit-com? 

[ClarkKent_DC]

Back when Happy Days was live, I watched the first season or three, and my interest petered out after that. It was a better and more interesting show in those early seasons.

I only saw the "shark-jumping" episodes (it happened in the middle of a three-part story) in the past couple of years, and the silliness is painful to watch. Not just Fonzie water-skiiing over a shark ... but that he's in California, on the beach, in swim trunks, and he's still wearing the leather jacket!

[JD DeLuzio]

I watched Happy Days as a kid, stopped around the time the literal shark-jump occurred.

Then, in 87? 88? the local station was rerunning it every day around the time I had dinner. I more-or-less lived alone that summer, so I rewatched a good deal of the same seasons. The first two, which take place in the alternate reality that's sort of the 50s and (with a couple of exceptions) eschew the studio audience, held up pretty well, as far as sitcoms go. Pretty much everything starting with season three did not. Season Three changes the series into a wisecrack-a-minute sitcom with a studio audience, Chuck disappears, and Fonzie moves front and centre. So I would argue the show jumped the shark a long time before it jumped the shark, although I certainly recall enjoyed seasons 3-4 the first time around.

[Captain Comics]

I stopped watching Happy Days long before the shark. My three siblings and I were all born in the '50s, and I was the youngest. So I don't remember much about the '50s proper, but enough of what that era was -- the buzzcuts and so forth lasted in my family until 1966 or so -- that I found Happy Days preposterous, but sappy enough to enjoy for ... about one or two seasons.

PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod said:

My wife and I have been rewatching The Mary Tyler Moore Show, We're 8 episodes into the 5th season, and, boy, are we missing Rhoda.

Thursday nights were big to me (and me alone, in my family) because of Mary Tyler Moore/Bob Newhart/Carol Burnett. I really wanted to watch those shows, and when I was able to find a TV without siblings, I did. They represented a funny, charming world I really wanted to live in.

I have never considered re-watching them, but now that you're doing so, and haven't expressed disappointment, I'm reconsidering that position. But what about this: Watching MTM and Newhart back to back, for the run of their various seasons? I might get nostalgia overload doing that, but it might be worth it.

[PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod]

Well, we just finished The Bob Newhart Show a couple of weeks ago. We started it a couple of weeks before we started Mary, and we alternated for a while. I wish I could find Newhart streaming or George & Leo. Rhoda and Phyllis episodes are apparently on YouTube, but we haven't tried watching them yet. I'd also like to find The Bob Newhart Show 19th Anniversary Special.

[Richard Willis]

Captain Comics said:

Thursday nights were big to me (and me alone, in my family) because of Mary Tyler Moore/Bob Newhart/Carol Burnett. I really wanted to watch those shows, and when I was able to find a TV without siblings, I did. They represented a funny, charming world I really wanted to live in.

I have never considered re-watching them, but now that you're doing so, and haven't expressed disappointment, I'm reconsidering that position. But what about this: Watching MTM and Newhart back to back, for the run of their various seasons? I might get nostalgia overload doing that, but it might be worth it.

I think the reason these shows still work is that they don’t rely on a lot of cultural references. They are pretty much timeless.

When it was originally on I didn’t watch In Living Color. When I tried to watch it recently, I had to give up. Too much reliance on current celebrity stories and gags that have seen their day.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Speaking of Happy Days, that was my first exposure to the wave of nostalgia that sweeps the country every 20 years or so. One thing I knew for sure (I thought then), was that no one in the '90s would ever be nostalgic for the '70s, but if someone were to make such a show in the '90s I vowed to watch it. Then along came the '90s and along came That '70s Show, and, true to my vow, I did indeed watch it. Now I hear that Netflix is gearing up to air That '90s Show, a direct sequel starring the original cast as the parents of a new generation. No definite release date has been announced yet, but probably September or October of this year. 

[Captain Comics]

I'm old enough to say with some hope of accuracy that every decade gets its second run as nostalgia about 20 years after it occurs. That's what I've seen for the last 40 or 50 years. And I think it's true because, if for no other reason, the people who have been in charge of U.S. movies/TV for the last 40 years or so are generally in their 30s and 40s — and nostalgic for their youth, which they perpetrate on the rest of us. That is to say, in the '70s we got '50s nostalgia (like Happy Days). In the '80s we got '60s nostalgia shows. In the '90s we got '70s nostalgia shows. And so forth.

True or false, that's my thesis. Meanwhile, here's what my wife and I are watching:

STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS: God, I love the original Enterprise. Its stark beauty when static and grace when in motion is a joy to behold. You love Enterprise-D or some other version? I get that, because you're younger than me, and that's the Enterprise you grew up with. But you know what? I take a step back for no man. The original Enterprise is the best, and I will go John L. Sullivan on anyone who says different. That ship is just gorgeous.

Also, the primary-color uniforms. And the tech I know so well. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is the 1960s show that made me love Star Trek, only with 21st century FX. Thumbs up all around.

However, when you get past the hardware ...

I hate everything else. The writing, the acting ... God almighty, it's so touchy-feely I want to puke.

YES, Anson Mount looks and sounds good as Kirk Pike. But what the eff are those words coming out of his mouth? What the heck is going on with that exaggerated quiff? Anson Mount has good hair. Let him have good hair.

YES, I love Rebecca Romijn as Number One. She was awesome in Discovery! So why is she being sidelined for the new (boring) characters?

YES, I love Uhura being introduced early, and as the prodigy she was supposed to be on the original. But why does the actress look nothing like Nichelle Nichols, and why is every scene with her simpering and apologetic? She's effing UHURA, and doesn't need anyone to give her a hand up.

YES, I'm glad they're introducing and developing new characters who will NOT make it to Kirk's Enterprise, for whatever reason. They can be redshirts, or end up in cool places.The sky's the limit! But why are they so blandly brunette/white/lesbian interchangeable? Why do they all look like they belong in a lesbian-bar revue instead of  Starfleet's flagship?

YES, I love the guy playing Spock. And ... wait, that's working. I love the guy playing Spock.

HALO: I did not expect to like this show. And, yes, sometimes it slips into first-person-shooter video game perspective, betraying its roots. But, dang, this is good sci-fi.

MADE FOR LOVE: We watched the first ep of the first season on a lark, and got hooked. Now we're halfway through the second season. This is a lot of fun, and I have no idea where it's going. Sometimes I don't think the writers know where it's going. So I'm enjoying the ride. And, hey, Ray Romano!

[Jeff of Earth-J]

"True or false, that's my thesis."

I agree, 100%.

"God, I love the original Enterprise."

I agree, 100%.

I'm looking forward to watching ST:SNW but i want it to be complete first; none of this waiting a week between episodes for me, I like one episode per night. Whether that means watching it on TV (I don't even know if we have Paramount+ anymore; Tracy adds and drops channels at the drop of a hat)) or waiting for the DVD. Hmm... there's a new season of ST:DIS I should look into, too. that ought to be wrapping soon if it hasn't already. 

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Not "what I am watching right now" but "what I am going to be watching tomorrow and Saturday." HBO is running a two-part documentary on the legendary comedian. I post it in advance as a notice to those who haven't heard and a reminder to those who have. Off all the celebrities who have died in the past 15 years, his death is most keenly felt by me. There's never been a time America didn't need George Carlin, but we need him now more than ever, We are poorer for his loss.