Who loves ya, baby?
Posted on 04/24/2007 10:13:36 AM PDT by lowbridge
Cable network, TV LAND, has committed to hosting a movie night. After 11 years on the air the inclusion of movies is an attempt to save the channel from failure.
On April 29th 1996 a new cable channel aired named TV LAND. TV Land, owned by MTV Networks, is programmed with re-run shows mainly from the 50's, 60's, 70's and a few from the 80's. Such shows consist of classics like: I Love Lucy, Gunsmoke, The Andy Griffith Show, Green Acres, The Aadams Family, Knight Rider, and many more. However what was once an interesting concept quickly became a consistent low score in the ratings.
"Friday Night Movies" is the title for this movie night event and will kick of this month. The first batch of movies will be shown in succession and consist of films such as: White Men Can't Jump, Weekend at Bernies, and Basic Instinct. Such titles may seem odd to fans of the network who tune in for their classic re-runs only to find Sharon Stone killing people with an ice pick. However, this same group of people apparently isn't large enough or dedicated enough to help the dropping percentages that the Nielsens rating system tracks. Future movies to be aired will be: Pleasantville, Caddyshack, National Lampoons Vacation, The Blues Brothers, and Beetlejuice.
(Excerpt) Read more at associatedcontent.com ...
I.E. UFO, Space 1999, etc.
Also, the anthology series "One Step Beyond" is now in the public domain. (Worldvision neglected to renew the copyright in the 80s.)
Happy Days - The Complete First Season (1974) Price at Amazon: $31.49 (Can get it even cheaper at eBay)
Happy Days - The Complete Second Season (1974) Amazon Price: $29.49
WKRP in Cincinnati: The Complete First Season (3 Discs), Amazon : 25.99
Barney Miller - The First Season, Amazon: 21.99
The Odd Couple - The First Season, Amazon 27.99
Maude - The Complete First Season DVD ~ Beatrice Arthur $22.49
McHale's Navy - Season One DVD ~ Ernest Borgnine $34.99
The Addams Family - Volume 2 DVD ~ Sidney Salkow $19.99
The Untouchables - Season One, Vol. 1: $32.99
Alfred Hitchcock Presents - Season One ~ $31.99
Alfred Hitchcock Presents - Season Two ~ $29.49
And many others.
My gosh, no wonder nobody's watching. They never get any different shows, and there must be plenty of old TV shows aired over the past 30 years.
In Chicago, we’re lucky to have two local channels that provide a lot of classic TV programming. One tends toward more recent shows but also includes The Three Stooges and the legendary Svengooli horror movie show. The other station shows older programs running the gamut from Batman and Bewitched to I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners, and even Jack Benny and Burns and Allen. They blow away anything on cable.
I may have to look into buying that - I loved that show.
Thanks for the info.
I love One Step Beyond. But I’m getting tired of all those fly by night DVD companies putting out the same old episodes again and again.
Viacom owns syndication of most of those old tv shows. They also own MTV/TVLand/Nick/CBS/COMEDYCENTRAL/et al.
Yeah. Get Smart, F-Troop, Time Tunnel, Space 1999, Batman, Hogan’s Heroes, Red Skelton... I could go on and on about shows they could but don’t show. I try in vain to find something at 10:00pm Central, but can’t find anything good. What’s TV Land running? Three’s Company - FOR SEVERAL YEARS NOW. Gimme a little variety, will you?
EXACTLY - See my post 28.
TVLand got screwed by the Sopranos effect. Sopranos proved there was a market for selling TV shows (some of which had been around all ready but it boomed after Sopranos hit the stores). There’s simply no reason to watch these shows on a cable network, edited to fit the increased number of commercials they have now and with commercial breaks when you can buy most of their shows on DVD and see the whole episode straight through. Times change, networks need to adapt.
Netflix it, $20 a month and you can load your queue with all these old shows, get the unedited shows with no commercials and whatever DVD extras they put in. The TVShow on DVD thing is rewriting the whole concept of reruns.
I think that there are at least 2 different companies that have released full sets of One Step Beyond. I think I paid around $10 for 2 dvds (3 sides) of 24 episodes.
I agree. I never see anything other than Andy Griffith. I would love it if they repeated The Big Valley; Nick, Heath, Jarod — the barn is on fire!!!
Two years ago, March 2005, they released the first season of Kojak. Unfortunately, they have as of yet to release any other seasons.
I’m already subscribed to Netflix (and Blockbuster) :-)
I’m glad you posted this, I was going to post a thread on this a few weeks ago. I sent them an email instead asking why “TV Land” is playing Basic Instinct, White Men Can’t Jump, and Roots. “TV Land”, you know, I love lucy, Andy Griffith, My three sons, brady bunch.
I hear porn sells well, how about some porn!
Yes, it’s a disaster. Maybe we need a new channel with the classic TV that TVLand is abandoning (at least one night a week) and the arts programming that Bravo and A&E seem to be abandoning.
You need to watch TMC for the old movies now.
Yep...that’s where I go.
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