Lol devolve! Nowadays when I see a policeman I think he looks like a teenager.
Maybe it is the same looking back at the old series. The Rockford Files and Magnum PI were two of my favorites.
The actor had to appeal to me. I did like Bruce Willace in Moonlighting but Jack Lord or Jack Webb weren’t favorites.
BUT, I liked Kojak and Columbo even though they weren’t handsome men.
And Everybody had to like Happy DAys, lol.
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I think Bruce Willis, *James Garner, Jack Lord, Tom Selleck and others were in their late 20s or early 30s or *later when they made their TV shows
Some started out getting early TV exposure on “The Dating Game” - Tom Selleck did I think
Today they take a young (cheap) no-name actor and put them in a no-name ensemble cast
Which after ratings climb - They then demand a million dollars a show each
Early Hollywood “contract players” like Clint Walker (Cheyenne - 1st hour-long TV western) was on 8-9 years - wanted to do feature films too - but Jack Warner would not go for it
Early TV stars got peanuts for pay
James Garner was constantly ripped off by the producers of “The Rockford Files” (great humor in that show) and finally quit just as they changed his car from a Pontiac Firebird to a modified suspension new Chevy El Camino
James Garner himself raced at Le Mans, Monaco, etc and never used a stunt driver
I believe Garner was “discovered” working in a service (gas) station
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Yes - the cops look 12 years old sometimes
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“The Prisoner” was a show people “got into” I think
“This week I’m going to get away!”
Viewers used to look forward to weekly series TV shows more I think
Families would sit together on a weekednd night and watch “Mission Impossible”
The two “IM” movies I have seen are not nearly as good as many of the old “IV” TV episodes
Now that was a great cast -