Did Networks alienate the male audience like Disney is accused of doing? Reality TV killed it for me. My wife watched them. I went back to video games and sports.
I didn't notice it until after Disney bought ABC, but by the end of the '90s, male characters in sitcoms were only there to be the butt of the joke in a lot of shows.
I've never watched a reality TV show and I'm a woman. That is not why I stopped why tv, there are series too, they are just bad. The last show I watched on the big 4 was the Goldbergs.
Air Wolf and A-Team was the shit back in the day. Had everything a growing child needed; guns, cool guys being cool, women and of course super helicopters.
Does anyone remember when Street Hawk, Manimal and Automan literally had the exact same episode with all the same actors and story? I video taped them at the time and was flabbergasted that these shows had the gall to use exactly the same story for all three series at the same time 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I was 26 in 1984. I eagerly awaited such well executed shows asNewhart, Cheers, Magnum, Cagney and Lacey, Moonlighting, Simon & Simon, V and Mike Hammer... and even enjoyed lighter fare like Riptide or Hardcastle and McCormick. For one thing, there was much less cookie cutter mentality. I watched a few shows the other night and noticed that so many actors were the same height, weight, possessed similar facial characteristics and even had the same amount of stubble on their cheeks -- I blame that last on Miami Vice. And the characters were all as one note as the actors. You could never confuse Magnum, Rick, TC, or Higgins ... but I swear you could swap dialogue for most current characters and never notice.
The change started back in the 80's when the ratings agency managed to get people to agree to letting them set up video cameras in their living rooms to watch them as they watched tv (weird I know but it actually happened). They saw that people weren't necessarily "watching" the tv but listening to it as they read the newspaper or did household chores like folding laundry or playing with their kids. Not everyone but enough that networks felt justified in cutting back on the visual element of shows and created what are essentially radio dramas with people chosen for how they'll look in the publicity stills rather than their acting ability talking to each other around a table.
Oh, if only they had done radio dramas! The Gunsmoke show with William Conrad, Parley Baer, Howard McNear and Georgia Ellis was far more effective than almost anything today. Being radio, they had to work to make the characters very distinctive ... and the dialogue had to tell the story. Bad radio shows had narrarators, good ones had dialogue.
@@silverjohn6037 But if we're not spending time looking at the actors, why would the stills be so important? If Ron Perlman has the most engaging voice (not really true, but for argument's sake), cast Ron Perlman, not Wilmer Valderrama (not to rag on him TOO much, but casting him on NCIS was off-key at best).
I never watched most network TV years ago, but I could tell that a lot of its programming at least wouldn't rub me the wrong way socially & politically. Although the technology has changed during the past 20-plus years, it's really the politics that, in effect, have turned everything into today's version of the city of San Francisco.
To answer your question, "Was 1984 TV better than 2023 TV?" The answer is YES!!! I was born in 1974. Many of the stories had a message but the goal was never to "put a chick in it and make her Gay." But in 2023 there are some good movies and shows that are being squeezed out a good show. There seems to be a culture war taken place.
Umm, Cagney and Lacey would beg to differ with you on the "gay chicks" thing. Hell, we used to jokingly call the show "Fagney and Lezzie", the show never actually openly admitted they were dyking out for each other but we all knew.
Culture war was fought and lost in the 80-90s. The emboldened winner just got bat-shit crazy since then, masks off, that kind of stuff. It seems, it was never a good idea to give any rights to gays after all, lol.
I was 9 years old in 1984 and wasn’t allowed to watch TV during a school night but come Friday and Saturday, I would watch almost without stopping. I miss those days.
I was 8 years old in '84. I remember my parents watched TV each night, and we would watch whatever they were watching. I was limited from playing Atari only at certain times, but thankfully not from watching TV. I remember a lot of the shows mentioned. It's not surprising these shows do well on reruns. I agree with Paul: Knight Rider is not Sopranos-level drama. Perhaps these shows were more comfort food than fine dining, but that's perfectly OK: people like comfort food and it has its place. Looking back, I do feel like many of the more popular sitcoms were more consistent in the past. You could count on them being funny every episode.
You are my age. Remember going to school and BSing with your buddies about what you saw last night? Typically, we’d talk about Knight Rider or the A-Team or both. I miss that…
I was 6 / 7 years old and playing with my voltron lion set at christmas that year but anyway in the early / mid 80s tv shows on average was better then outside price is right and game shows is about par .
"Was 1984 TV better than 2023 TV?" Obviously. But then again, life in 1984 was better than life in 2023. By "1984" I mean : the Ronald Reagan era. Not the Orwellian society where we are heading! 😬
When everybody only watches youtube or streaming that says it all.The golden age of tv was from 1977 to 1991.Airwolf, Dukes of hazzard,TJ hooker,A team etc it was great today its all crap but then everything was better 30 years ago.
My wife had never seen Miami Vice before, so we started watching it in Tubi. She was blown away at how good it is, even if some of it seems a bit dated.
Knight Rider is a beautiful example of how networks got it right in the 80s and just being lost in wilderness in '20s. Every reboot of the show, ventured further and further away from what made the original great. Case in point the last reboot of KR. Where it became more Transformers than anything else. They course corrected in the last season, realizing it was more about good character driven stories, but by then audiences had walked away. And making KITT a Ford Mustang and all the Ford vehicle tie ins was kinda on the nose and really obvious. KITT is Pontiac Trans Am, and should always be so.
I watched Knight Rider a few years ago, and I was surprised how good it was. I was expecting it to be unwatchable, but it was surprisingly well written. Or maybe my expectations have been distorted by 2023 “writing”
I am old enough to have watch Knight Rider when it came out and still love it but you know I have a soft spot for the reboot / continuation it got cancelled just when I think it might of been finding its feet. It wasn't helped by the radical tone change mid way and I wont talk about the K.A.R.R. arc if you don't. when it was fun it was fun but when it was bad it was very bad. Would I like to see them take another pass at it yeah but only after a rigorous screen process involving anyone who want to write or produce the show must first binge watch the original then write a 10000 word essay explaining what made it great then they need to write a full breakdown of their plans for the show. Then people who loved the show would go through them an select a team
"Knight Rider" was inspired by a joke NBC's Brandon Tartikoff made. He envisioned a show where the car would do most of the talking, and the good-looking hero had only a handful of lines.
I was an 11 year old nerd in '84. Back then PBS was fantastic. They ran great British shows and documentaries. And the UHF channels ran cool old movies and shows. Pretty great!
my local PBS would take Dr. Who stories normally broken into parts and stitch them together into a 90ish minute sci-fi drama. It was like watching a movie a week, great stuff! Dr. Who was often preceded by Monty Python, Benny Hill, and Dave Allen At Large. It was a magical time.
@@inkermoyYES! My local PBS station would broadcast the 25 minute episodes Monday thru Friday in the afternoon but Saturday Nights we had the 90 minute Who. Great times.
The biggest difference was that content in the 1980's was more diverse in that it served a wider audience of all ages. Studios today focus on too narrow of an audience to cater to the advertisers that will pay the most money.
Even though I vaguely remember it (especially the Zombie episode) when it originally aired ( I was only five at the time), in the late 70s CBS began airing it after the late nite News on Friday nights and I became hooked. There was something special about staying up that late, turning all the lights off, and watching Kolchak when I was 10 years old.
I am hearing this roll call of 1984 TV shows and I am amazed. We were spoiled. We had no idea how good we had it. I basically stopped watching TV in the 1990s with few exceptions.
This 11 year old going into 12 in 1984 didn’t know how good we had it with TV. I watch reality TV with my Wife like the Bachelor,Love After Lock Up. Thank God there is Pluto Tv on my phone so I can watch great shows from 1984.
To answer simply. Yes. There were actual stories and characters we cared about. What happened to the series where every show was a one off story ? Every show whether 30 min or hour had a beginning, middle and end. With the occasional 2 parter and if something from the past came uo in a new episode it was COOL and unexpected. Today they take a 30 min show and drag it out for 8 1 hr episodes. It could be the landscape now that allows for way more garbage than was sustainable by the past and its programming structure.
Even with the threat of nuclear war throughout the 80s it was still far better than nowadays. The only improvement since has been technology but that's coming back to haunt us.
In a word, yes! I was 9 years old in 1984 and there were so many good shows on TV. Honestly, I've given up on TV pretty much since around 2010. These days, I only use my TV for watching my DVDs and Blu-rays. Occasionally I'll watch an old show (like classic Star Trek or the 80s-90s spin offs TNG, DS9 or Voyager) or reruns of classic comedies, but overall I can live without regular TV. Part of it is there just aren't any shows I like anymore or feel I can relate to. The bigger part is, I'm getting older (48 now), and there are just other more constructive things I'd rather do with my time than watch TV or movies. Life is too short, and I'd rather spend the time appreciating nature outdoors, walking my dog, reading uplifting books - things like that. I feel like watching TV and movies just serves as one big distraction from the more important things in life. Just my personal opinion.
I feel you. Fully agree. Life is short and is better spent doing other things given what is on, so-called, TV now. And as a life long fan of Star Trek, it pretty much ended after Enterprise for me. Though, I heard the 3rd season of Picard wasn't bad. Just haven't had the time and desire to try and check it out.
@@DocMicrowave I've read of people who have. There's one very big thing that won't make sense without seeing season 1 (I don't know if you want spoilers) but I didn't watch season 2 and don't feel I really missed anything - if there were any references in season 3, they must have been subtle.
As someone who was born in 73, I’d say yes, shows had messages, wasn’t overly political and executives didn’t put a chic in it and make’er ghey and if they did it wasn’t in your face. Alot of the shows had real cheesy dialogue but it was entertainment, most of the young kids tuned in to see the car, van or bad guys get beat by the A Team. I pity da fools
I was 33 in 1984, not even middle age, yet. Owned a home, still had the possibility of children, loved my husband passionately, teaching myself to cook, sew, etc etc. My aging parents were a responsibility. An intriguing video, Mr Chato. I wasn't watching TV a great deal, even then. I remember longing for some real entertainment, but it wasn't TV, most of the time. Movies in the theater were still entertaining and we had enough disposable income to enjoy them. I always hated commercials, I think that is one reason I rarely watched TV. My husband watched more TV than I ever did. Mainly reruns but even he wasn't that much of a TV watcher and he was teaching himself computer programming, in his spare time. More than likely his Apple 2. VHS was available (checked, it came out in 1977) I bought Star Wars on VHS, Star Trek movies, for an example, as soon as available. I would, I remember go to the mall and buy a tape now and then. There was an increasing variety of mediums and the only limitations were if the shows and movies were available and money. Buying the new device to play the various mediums was always an issue. Slowly, we stopped going to see movies in theaters and started to buy the Tapes (and when DVDS became available..) I think the networks were slowly being out bid for our entertainment dollars all through the 1980s-2000s ... but it was a very slow process and I finally stopped going to theaters in 2006. The golden time for TV for me was either in the 1960s when I was a teenager or the late 1980s and 1990s. We always benefited from our local library... books, tapes, books on Tape, books, CDs by 1982-84. I loved books on CDS and would listen as I did my needlework and housework. It was a time of transition, as you said... and, we had to carefully watch where we spent our few entertainment dollars ( remember the high mortgage rates?)
I was born 1989 so I'm 34 now, close to what you were then. After hitting roughly 28 or so (I think because it was a full decade after hitting adulthood) I've thought more and more about past generations experiences with culture/media, relative to my own experience. So I really appreciate hearing perspectives of those roughly my age in previous decades like this!
For me those old shows are a return to a happier less woke time and that is why they still do so well. A lesson for todays content creators could learn a valuable lesson from these timeless classics.
My kids are in their 20s, but a couple of years ago when they were all in their late teens, I got them to sit down and watch Casablanca. They absolutely loved that movie (as I do). They also loved Duck Soup, and recently watched Rear Window. They also love movies from the 80s and 90s. Even now, me and my daughter are watching Twin Peaks, and she absolutely loves that show. I think people tend to forget that youngsters aren't going to enjoy anything more than what's put in front of them. From an early age, my kids mostly watched stuff that I watched when I was kid. They can't stand this new garbage that's out.
@@agentooe33AD There are young people out there discovering shows and movies from the 80s and loving them. Don't know what the numbers are, but I hope they are increasing. As in your case, I think it is helpful to have had parents how introduced them to these old shows and movies early on, so that they develop a discerning mind when presented with the junk out today. Codos to you. You did them a service.
Man, I miss quality television with long-lasting shows and really lengthy seasons of 26, 24, 22 episodes. They always told us shorter seasons equals higher quality. I think we can all see with today's current line up of shows that was a competely false argument. Another great video, Paul!
I had done research a few years ago and had found that in the '80s we had to sit through maybe 11-12 minutes of ads per hour of TV. (It was about 8 minutes/hour in the '60s) but nowadays, up 'til abot 2019 anyway, commercials chew up _twenty_ minutes of view time every hour. Back then it was tolerable because TV was overall good. Not any more. Far more advertising and far less effort put into programs. Out of curiosity, I should probably time the PlutoTV ad breaks for an hour. They don't seem nearly as frequent... or maybe because watching higher quality programming blunts the edge a bit, I don't know.
I remember when Adult Swim started cutting or speeding up ending or opening songs and cutting previews from the anime they played just to shove in more commercials... I wasn't too happy about it.
@@lainiwakura1776 How about networks speeding up their broadcasts (especially late-night) just enough where we don't notice it but it nets them another 30-45 seconds per hour for more ads? Yeah, they been doing that for over 20 years now.
Ironically we stream a lot of the older shows in our household in our viewing line up right now. Stuff like Murder She Wrote, Knight Rider, and Magnum. Thanks for what you do Chato!
The last network show that I watched consistently was Frasier. I haven't seen anything since then that really appealed to me. Perhaps a few episodes of Big Bang Theory but I haven't gone out of the way to follow it. It's sad to say but I watch more Japanese anime and Korean dramas than North American shows these days.
Another changing factor is the serialization of television shows. Use to be tv shows were episodic. You could miss a few episodes and not feel lost when you returned. Only soaps like Dallas, Dynasty, Knots Landing were serialized. Action and comedy shows usually weren't. Probably because it's a format that didn't lend well to syndication where a lot of times episodes would be played out of order.
As a kid growing up in the 80's, Airwolf, A-Team, Duke's of Hazzard, Magnum P. I., Knight Rider was peak television and will never be surpassed. Then came Baywatch. Oh we all loved Baywatch.
Street Hawk, The Highwayman……. So many good shows! Even if they didn’t last long, I still remember them! Couldn’t even tell you what’s on TV nowadays. Last time I payed any attention, I was terribly under impressed and haven’t bothered since.
haven't seen the others but I LOVE magnum p.i. ! I haven't watched Baywatch, I heard it features lots of hot women bodies and nudity but I think I'm too kinky for that, women's bodies are a little passe to me, unless there's lots of foot shots... if that's the case, I will watch it immediately after someone confirms this.
It’s almost impossible to communicate to people today what a total and complete cultural juggernaut The Cosby Show was in those days (I know, I know, but we had no idea back then). Truly. EVERYBODY watched that show and you could make a show a hit just by floating it in TCS’s time slot fumes. And not just for a season - for _years_ . The only thing that rivaled it in cultural significance was perhaps the MASH finale. Seinfeld and Friends were similar later on, but they were imitators when it came to the grip TCS had on people’s Thursday nights. It crossed *all* demographics . I can’t think of anything that approaches that now. Game of Thrones came close, I suppose. For awhile. Until….the dark times. Until the eighth season. It’s strange to think about now. But I don’t know that anything will be that huge again. Why? There’s something about people having to all tune in at a certain time on a certain day that just feels better. Communal. Now, we’re all just sort floating in space.
I agree with you on partnering with Netflix, it was much better when studios licensed their libraries to it, instead of hoarfing them for their own streaming offers
man i have bitched for YEARS now to people about how all the shows i used to love had like 24 episode seasons, and now these cable shows have like 8 episodes and then HUGE long waits until the next season.
I was born in 77 but i remember the 10 oclock action line up on fridays. Simon and Simon, Riptide Hunter ect...Also i remember having to stay up past midnight to watch shows like Tales From the Darkside and Monsters. Those were the best.
A good number of those 1984 shows made it across to the UK and were massive hits. I was 14 then, and loved The Dukes of Hazzard, Magnum PI, Kenneth Johnson's "V", and my mother adored Cagney and Lacey (as did I). Airwolf was popular with my younger brothers and we were all addicted to Knight Rider. I don't think we're addicted to anything now. I'm a lifelong fan of the BBC's Doctor Who (mainly of the classic series), and even that has been flagging of late. If the soft reboot doesn't save it in the coming months, there will be nothing for me.
I think I saw most of the shows mentioned here. And I live in Sweden, at that time we had two channels (state run) and no cable… everyone watched “V”, Knight rider, Magnum, Miami Vice, Cosby and so on. I probably learned to speak english 80% in front of the screen, and 20% school.
What I absolutely hate about modern TV shows is that they stretch out one storyline throughout a whole series. I really like to old style TV shows where there is one story per episode. A week later when the next episode airs, it a brand new story. I don't mind the odd cliffhanger that continues a week later. Stretching a story more than 2 episodes is too much.
Like in Stephen King's Gunslinger series - the world has moved on. Centralized entertainment is over. Now those of us who always felt left out can find our entertainment wherever it is.
"From department store to dollar store." That's basically it, isn't it? I almost teared up remembering the 1984 stuff, which I watched a lot of, even as a kid. Compared to all the reality schlock and cookie cutter crime things they spew out now that was a golden era.
Hi Chato. It was a whole unique experience. Most were good, and the Meh were decent compared to today's standards. Getting a Tv Guide was a big deal. It was aimed at entertaining because that was the business as the alternative and albeit competitor to the Big Screen. The actors were not run of the mill. 2001 circa was a Rubuicon moment, downhill thereafter. New media into play. Entertainment is it's purpose but not WHY they are doing it. Get what I am saying Chato? Sounds confusing I know. 1984 - Hey! Make Entertainment, and give them something to like. It has to be good to keep an audience. 2023 - Hey! Make Entertainment but use it for social engineering purposes who cares if it is bad.
I work for a syndicated talk show and we recently got completely pumped over a .52 overnight rating. Years ago, I worked for a show that got canceled because it only got a 5.2.
MEMORABLE That's what TV was back then. Proof, we are still singing the theme songs, remixing them, and longing for those days to return. No one will have any interest in remembering todays AI generated CGI filtered sanitized crap.
I'm 41 years old, grew up on network and some cable TV! The TV sucks now days, so I stick to my classics! Dukes of hazzard, kojack, CHiPs, wonder years ect... bring back good television with a good storyline to tell, entertain us without trying to charge a fortune for it!
I was a teenager in 1984, and I remember almost all those shows that you listed. People say now that there was so little on "back in the day" because there were only 3 networks, but there was a lot to watch. And the networks competed for our attention. The sorting out of what my family and I watched was sometimes a serious matter indeed. I miss the shared cultural experience that network television fostered. I really like hearing what you have to say from a former TV executive, Chato.
I was thinking the other day that I don't know any network shows from about the last 14 years. The last TV show I remember consistently watching was "The Closer".
Being a child of the 1980's, I would say yes. I will say, if I go back before 1970's, the quality go downs again. But, 1980-2000, was pretty good. It started to go down (in my opinion) when MTV no longer was about music. And it really went bad, somewhere around 2012.
"In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem; if no-one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire... The A-Team." Yep. From memory. Was the intro on my micro-cassette-based telephone answering machine for years. EDIT: Also, F*ck yeah, reruns of Kolchak.
Chato, THANK YOU, for the walk down memory lane in regards to these shows. I watched a lot of the shows you listed and still watch them today on DVD or whenever I can find them streaming. Personally, I think the days of quality TV Programming/Writing are dead and gone. Replaced by fan fiction writers with no lived experience, or reality TV garbage that just encourages bad behavior to drum up viewership. Which in turn has helped in the decline of civilized society. And I hate it when they try to revive the glory days with an updated version of a beloved series or movie, modernized for today's world and political agenda. I have said since day one when streaming was getting started. Someone out there needs to do a retro streaming service that only shows TV Series' and Movies from say 1920 up to 1999, and nothing newer, and had literally everything from that year range. I would be willing to pay up to $100 a month for a service like that. And cancel my subscription to everything else.
The 1980s weren't quite the moral wonderland some people remember through rose-tinted glasses - in fact, calling it moral is about as accurate as calling Gordon Gekko a humanitarian. While the government turned a blind eye to the AIDS crisis, they were busy selling weapons to terrorists and lying about it. Wall Street was swimming in insider trading scandals, corporate raiders were destroying communities for yacht money. The crack epidemic ravaged cities with wildly unfair racial sentencing, while nothing quite said "family values" like watching the homeless population explode. The Savings & Loan collapse wiped out elderly people's life savings, and the Pentagon somehow justified paying $640 for toilet seats. Unions were crushed while the EPA was gutted faster than a corporate pension fund. You could see the moral bankruptcy reflected perfectly in pop culture, where "Dynasty" taught us Christian values about backstabbing your way to success. "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" had Americans drooling over champagne wishes and caviar dreams, while even kids' cartoons became half-hour commercials. The whole era was one long celebration of excess, wrapped in neon and hairspray, where "greed is good" wasn't just a movie quote - it was practically a national motto. But please, tell me more about how today's generation lacks the sterling moral fiber of the 1980s - I'll just be over here watching the "Material Girl" video while I raid some pension funds and admire my solid gold bathroom fixtures.
I gave up on network TV 10 years ago and now watch only TH-cam, Netflix and occasionally Tubi. Fond memories of 1970's1980's TV, but like the steam locomotive, Network TV is never coming back. RIP.
Enjoyed the video. 1984 was one year before I was born but later when i started watching TV I basically grew up on old shows: Wonderful world of Disney, original Adams Family, Green Acres, (mostly my grandparents era) etc. I then transitioned into more updated shows; tons of cartoons in the 90s, a lot of PBS (reading rainbow got me hardcore into reading). Its been many years since I owned a TV but I do find myself lately reminiscing how much I enjoyed the old stuff compared to nowadays. Also, kinda related/unrelated, your way of speaking vividly reminds me so much of Andy Rooney during the end of 60 minutes giving me a strong hit of nostalgia when I used to watch it at my grandparents house.
It's amazing how many shows there were, and with that number, you couldn't go wrong, there was a show for you in there somewhere. Night Court was one for me, and still is a favorite of mine decades later. That's not likely to happen to a lot of current programming.
YES 1984 TV still had talented people who could write an original compelling story with believable characters, today IMO today it all feels like badly written fan fiction and everything is a reboot, and when the original versions are so much better than the watered down garbage they want to shovel down our throats, why should we waste our time watching it
I rolled my eyes when Magnum P.I. didn't even have a mustach and Higgins was a woman. I raised an eyebrow when McGuyver was mostly a computer hacker. Did the writers of these reboots even watch the shows they were redoing?
Writers should not get hired until they are in their 30's and have had some serious life experiences. No more adult babies with a naive view of the world writing shows and movies anymore.
It definitely was more interesting then. Today ,the channels are choking with reality shows and "celebrity " gameshows . Most stuff today ,I simply don't bother with. Just not worth it.
I used to watch them back in 84. I watch no new TV shows now. Haven't for years. Got the entire Married with children series and I'm watching them in order. Those entertain. More wild than 84 stuff. But still their focus was on entertainment.
I know these aren't Chato's highest viewed videos. But these might be my favorite. The differences and similarities between then and now are stark, and his insights from being in the industry are always welcome. The TV Guide videos are great also, especially when viewed in series because you can see the producers and showrunners gaining experience and picking better shows more often over time. Fascinating stuff, to me at least.
Exactly! EVERY network person I knew HATED the switch to "reality shows" because they were utterly unsyndicatable/rerunnable for any real profit. The conversations I had were like those with H addicts--they hated it but they were so cheap and easy they were addicted to them. And as for the ads telling the story? SO True. I know back when I made shows we watched what they put on our show, and when we finally got Coke and the like we knew we were a REAL hit because the mainstream ads had found us and supported us. Now? Oh-Oh-its-Tragic! :)
In 1984, I was 14 and didn't have a television at home but I remember a lot of the shows mentioned as it was common among my friends to watch prime time TV. If I was at their house, I would watch it too. Television was much more of a social experience and far more important to the shared culture back then as there was always a discussion of the previous night's episodes and if you missed it you had to wait for the rerun months later. The ability to binge watch through a streaming service is eroding the cultural cohesion that previously centered around the network schedules. 1984 was a very different time.
"The Night Stalker" is awesome though, mostly due to McGavin's performance as Kolchak but also due to the often goofy monster-of-the-week presentations from the sewer monster pere mal fait to the headless biker to android Mr. Ring. I've got all the dvds!
Great critique Chato. If you were lucky enough to live in Canada, the Antipodes and a few select locations in the 1980's, then you also received the best of British Television in addition to the top shows from the U.S. Market. Shows like, The Professionals, Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Bergerac, Taggart, Minder, Tenko, Rumpole of the Bailey, Brideshead Revisited, Open All Hours, 'Allo 'Allo!, Never the Twain, Attenborough, The Two Ronnies, The Benny Hill Show, Are You Being Served and many many more. Cheers.
1984 in the UK saw the start of the likes of Robin of Sherwood, the Hickson Miss Marple and the Brett Sherlock Holmes. Amazing quality TV. WTF happened?
It is a shame too, Wheel of Time is a fantastic book series. The creators of the show had a complete story of an author, far more talented than they. However, instead of just adapting the book story as is, they had to make it woke and inject their own garbage storylines into it.
NBC Thursday night, they called it "Must See TV". I didn't know Anyone who watched something else. I say that was the pinnacle of viewing, and the slow decline happened when those five shows started to fade away. Thanks Chato!
I stopped watching broadcast TV in 2005. It wasn't interesting anymore in Europe, where I live and the costs weren't justified. Funnily, I started watching Magnum PI for the 1st time just last week - because there is so much "good stuff' out there nowadays. I'm enjoying it.
@@sandman_says_runrunner4701 Nah, it's the original of course. Didn't even know there was a current one. Does it come with overweight, gay chicks, pronouns and an ecofriendly BEV? 🙂
In 1983, I lived in a gulag in Siberia and there was only one closed circuit tv channel that broadcasted reruns of Hogans Heroes for us to watch while we ate our moldy bread and cold gruel. Those were the good old days.
Funny thing, today's TV is pretty much as it was 60 years ago. I recently watched Netflix 'Loki', and I had an intense feeling of deja vu. The same arguments, the same technobabble and the same budget limitations that Star Trek in the 60s had.
Many industries, especially Hollywood are often a decade or generation behind technology. They attempted to combat cable with cheaper 'reality' tv that provided opportunities to the less than reputable in society. Game shows went from day time to prime time, thus killing the potential for more hit shows to take the baton from others that ended, and streaming had the opportunity to boost good successful shows, but Netflix put the breaks on that outcome with their popular binge model formula, which ended up changing the function of pilot season, skipping audience reception during the shows episodic development, and burning tons of cash on shows that were fully produced but ultimately forgotten due to a quick consumption rate. The only thing stopping networks from shifting gears to become competitive again is their own lack of discipline when it comes to developing, testing and broadcasting shows.
It's do what works in the moment. The entertainment business is actually Fairly simple in practice. Make shows until you make show people wanna watch. Netflix Paramount Amazon Peacock just need to stay alive to make shows until they make one people want to watch. Now though they've stopped the Narrative content so they can't keep making shows a lot of the current narrative shows on those cable platforms are like 30-40 years old. Netflix comes out with one every few weeks. They will always have a better chance at gold. Except for one problem besides quality control Netflix is actually very homogeneous. They don't make alot of bright happy comedies and fun shows like Psych and Monk from back in the days. It's all dark and moody
I watch exactly one show that's broadcast across cable TV. The Curse of Oak Island. However... I still watch that on the History Channel website, and recently they dropped the need to have a cable subscription to watch much of their content. I can watch the newest episode just a day after it's aired.
I think the biggest difference is three-fold. First is that mentioned Balkanization of programming due to every company wanting to have their own app making it more difficult to try new shows. Under the Netflix model it was much easier to get your show in front of eyeballs. (Edit: I see you mentioned this while I was typing the other points) Second there was just more to choose from as far as genres were concerned. Today all we really have are procedurals or reality programming. The other major difference as I see it is due to these advances in technology de-emphasizing the "family viewing" trend. When we were all watching universal shows like TV Bloopers or Believe it or Not we were together as a family unit. Kids are so overscheduled these days that the "must see" programming just isn't viable any more. Now if you will excuse me I am going to re-watch Babylon 5 again on Tubi...
The 60s through the 80s was the golden age of TV. I have a huge DVD library and all the TV shows I have are from this time. TV has gone downhill thanks to all these garbage reality shows. You can thank greed for that.
I was born in 1978, si I remember MacGuyver, The Equalizer, Murder She Wrote, Hotel and 1990s TV movies more. That said, I'll take 1980s and 1990s film and television over most of today's shows. I only watch Reacher, Poker Face and The Gilded Age at present, as well as British crime shows and good audio dramas.
I spent my preteen and teen years during the 80s and...MAN, did we kids have it good for quality and selection!👍🏼 The problem I think, is today's Gen Z writers are void of imagination and original concepts. This might be due to being exposed to endless low grade entertainment shows of the 2000s, and spending less time exploring outside and imagining as kids.
In my opinion, the tipping point came when sitcom actors from shows like Seinfeld were suddenly demanding $1 million per episode per cast member. For a show like Friends, that meant the weekly budget for an episode was $6 million even before anyone else got paid. I think, in an attempt to offset the cost, reality shows became the bread and butter of the networks. No huge overhead, no massive pay checks, just easy, cheap content. And when those reality shows suddenly started doing really well, and the networks realized that they had struck gold, they began to inundate us with more and more brainless reality television. I really think this was when the decline of scripted television became irreversible.
I disagree. Pay for actors in shows like Seinfeld and Friends only escalated after they proved to be big hits. The networks didn't lose money on these shows. If I was a network honcho and knew that by spending $6M for onscreen talent I could have a hit like S or F, I'd be doing that all day long, be happy doing it and lauded as the most successful and profitable exec in entertainment.
You're wrong, the writers' strike in the 2000s happened and that's why there's a bunch of reality shows when producers realized how cheap nobodies are if it means they can get their 15 minutes.
The outrageous pay for the casts of undeniable hit shows came because the entire production was tired, bereft of ideas and nobody wanted to do the show anymore. NBC paid The Six to stick around while an exasperated writers room threw spaghetti at the wall for three years.
@@stanwbaker But they got ratings and that's what counts. Poor overpaid writers. Maybe they should do some real work for a few years so they know what a privileged class they are.
Cover Up, Knight Rider, Dukes of Hazard, Airwolf, V, Magnum P.I. Greatest American Hero, Voyagers, A-Team, Spencer for Hire, Hawk, The Fall Guy, absolute pure favorites were the S.M.D.M. the Bionic Woman, the Incredible Hulk, the short lived live action Spiderman show, original Star Trek, B.J.& the 🐻 Bear, just because was a little kid in late seventies & those & some others bring back a lot of good memories. 😊.
A pro lem with streaming is the homogenized tone. Its all dark greys and thriller eaque dramas. Back then there was mpre of a wide range of tonal differences and genres . From dark dramas to soap operas to comedies. You could even say this about the movie indistry
"Was 1984 TV better than 2023 TV?" I am going with a hard yes! Most of the 80s (and I dare say 70s) had better TV than now. Far more engaging and entertaining. Offering a great sense of escapism.
Probably the issue is that the networks don't try to take risks anymore. Most series are old shows that are profitable (Big brother, amazing race, Grey's anatomies) or sports. Back then was a mix of copying what seemed to success and new ideas. Its a shame we have a whole decade were teh networks decided to not try anything new, maybe in the future. And sorry, you are more amusing that network television 😃 So excuse us if we keep watching your videos.
Don't knock "Pluto"! Do you know how hard it is to watch "Doctor Who" in the U.S.A.? Pluto provides one of two ways I've been able to experience a beloved show of mine!
100% on Wheel of Time. It looks terrible - all it did was make me re-read the books. (At least the first 6 - which are head-and-shoulders better than the rest).
@@dbsommers1 They're okay. His schtick of bending hard magic systems doesn't work in WoT though. WoT's magic system (written by Jordan) is actually very soft, it's just has magical technobabble. Like Star Trek is for sci-fi. Sanderson did his hard magic bending on it, and it just didn't work IMO. (He also can't write Mat for sh**.)
The only commercial tv we watch is MEtv and some western channel my husband found. We don't have cable, no paid streaming services. Most of what we watch is the stuff we grew up watching. Personally, most of what I watch is from uploads on utube. There are loads of wonderful old movies that i watched as a child, along with the dramas and sitcoms my family, friends and I enjoyed. What's offered on commercial tv now is much like what is left in the garden at the end of the season: it's only fit to be plowed under in the hope it will be fertilizer, and maybe produce something better in the spring.
Did Networks alienate the male audience like Disney is accused of doing? Reality TV killed it for me. My wife watched them. I went back to video games and sports.
I never thought about it before but I've never met a man talk about being a fan of reality tv before🤔
It's just video games and youtube for me
I didn't notice it until after Disney bought ABC, but by the end of the '90s, male characters in sitcoms were only there to be the butt of the joke in a lot of shows.
Why do they like that stuff?
Makes me think their idiots
@@Pariahwulfen Friends was the example to put the guys as the unintelligent beings as part of the propaganda
I've never watched a reality TV show and I'm a woman. That is not why I stopped why tv, there are series too, they are just bad. The last show I watched on the big 4 was the Goldbergs.
I grew up with Airwolf, Knight Rider and the A-Team. I pretty much was nurtured by those shows.
Air Wolf and A-Team was the shit back in the day. Had everything a growing child needed; guns, cool guys being cool, women and of course super helicopters.
@@AngelsLance Yeah, pretty much :D
You too? 😎
I still remember word for word the voiceover intro for Airwolf. “This briefing is from file A56-7W. Classified: Top Secret. Subject is: Airwolf…”
Does anyone remember when Street Hawk, Manimal and Automan literally had the exact same episode with all the same actors and story?
I video taped them at the time and was flabbergasted that these shows had the gall to use exactly the same story for all three series at the same time 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Well, in the 80'a I actually watched TV, now, rarely if ever
I was 26 in 1984. I eagerly awaited such well executed shows asNewhart, Cheers, Magnum, Cagney and Lacey, Moonlighting, Simon & Simon, V and Mike Hammer... and even enjoyed lighter fare like Riptide or Hardcastle and McCormick. For one thing, there was much less cookie cutter mentality. I watched a few shows the other night and noticed that so many actors were the same height, weight, possessed similar facial characteristics and even had the same amount of stubble on their cheeks -- I blame that last on Miami Vice. And the characters were all as one note as the actors. You could never confuse Magnum, Rick, TC, or Higgins ... but I swear you could swap dialogue for most current characters and never notice.
The change started back in the 80's when the ratings agency managed to get people to agree to letting them set up video cameras in their living rooms to watch them as they watched tv (weird I know but it actually happened). They saw that people weren't necessarily "watching" the tv but listening to it as they read the newspaper or did household chores like folding laundry or playing with their kids. Not everyone but enough that networks felt justified in cutting back on the visual element of shows and created what are essentially radio dramas with people chosen for how they'll look in the publicity stills rather than their acting ability talking to each other around a table.
Enough with the stubble!
Oh, if only they had done radio dramas! The Gunsmoke show with William Conrad, Parley Baer, Howard McNear and Georgia Ellis was far more effective than almost anything today. Being radio, they had to work to make the characters very distinctive ... and the dialogue had to tell the story. Bad radio shows had narrarators, good ones had dialogue.
@@silverjohn6037 But if we're not spending time looking at the actors, why would the stills be so important? If Ron Perlman has the most engaging voice (not really true, but for argument's sake), cast Ron Perlman, not Wilmer Valderrama (not to rag on him TOO much, but casting him on NCIS was off-key at best).
I never watched most network TV years ago, but I could tell that a lot of its programming at least wouldn't rub me the wrong way socially & politically. Although the technology has changed during the past 20-plus years, it's really the politics that, in effect, have turned everything into today's version of the city of San Francisco.
To answer your question, "Was 1984 TV better than 2023 TV?" The answer is YES!!! I was born in 1974. Many of the stories had a message but the goal was never to "put a chick in it and make her Gay." But in 2023 there are some good movies and shows that are being squeezed out a good show. There seems to be a culture war taken place.
Umm, Cagney and Lacey would beg to differ with you on the "gay chicks" thing. Hell, we used to jokingly call the show "Fagney and Lezzie", the show never actually openly admitted they were dyking out for each other but we all knew.
Culture war was fought and lost in the 80-90s. The emboldened winner just got bat-shit crazy since then, masks off, that kind of stuff. It seems, it was never a good idea to give any rights to gays after all, lol.
@@darthmeow1370never watched it, too busy watching magnum, hard castle, etc.
"put a chick in it and make her Gay." and "Lame" XD.
I was 9 years old in 1984 and wasn’t allowed to watch TV during a school night but come Friday and Saturday, I would watch almost without stopping. I miss those days.
I was 8 years old in '84. I remember my parents watched TV each night, and we would watch whatever they were watching. I was limited from playing Atari only at certain times, but thankfully not from watching TV. I remember a lot of the shows mentioned.
It's not surprising these shows do well on reruns. I agree with Paul: Knight Rider is not Sopranos-level drama. Perhaps these shows were more comfort food than fine dining, but that's perfectly OK: people like comfort food and it has its place.
Looking back, I do feel like many of the more popular sitcoms were more consistent in the past. You could count on them being funny every episode.
You are my age. Remember going to school and BSing with your buddies about what you saw last night? Typically, we’d talk about Knight Rider or the A-Team or both. I miss that…
@@shadowchaser3836 Yes! Sometimes we'd pretend we were the A- Team or similar during recess. :)
Weird-
I was 6 / 7 years old and playing with my voltron lion set at christmas that year but anyway in the early / mid 80s tv shows on average was better then outside price is right and game shows is about par .
"Was 1984 TV better than 2023 TV?" Obviously. But then again, life in 1984 was better than life in 2023. By "1984" I mean : the Ronald Reagan era. Not the Orwellian society where we are heading! 😬
It's definitely shaping up that general opinion is that the 80s was the best decade.
And people didn't harp on endlessly about not being represented.
When everybody only watches youtube or streaming that says it all.The golden age of tv was from 1977 to 1991.Airwolf, Dukes of hazzard,TJ hooker,A team etc it was great today its all crap but then everything was better 30 years ago.
@@user-buck-b7j bravestar, the smutfs, the snorkels, tmnt, the magic is gone.
If Trump comes back it will be the reagean era all over again Trump 2024
My wife had never seen Miami Vice before, so we started watching it in Tubi.
She was blown away at how good it is, even if some of it seems a bit dated.
Good until the last season or so when they hired a new Music Producer...
Knight Rider is a beautiful example of how networks got it right in the 80s and just being lost in wilderness in '20s. Every reboot of the show, ventured further and further away from what made the original great. Case in point the last reboot of KR. Where it became more Transformers than anything else. They course corrected in the last season, realizing it was more about good character driven stories, but by then audiences had walked away. And making KITT a Ford Mustang and all the Ford vehicle tie ins was kinda on the nose and really obvious. KITT is Pontiac Trans Am, and should always be so.
Knight Rider was awesome. I had the KITT big wheel when I was little.
I watched Knight Rider a few years ago, and I was surprised how good it was. I was expecting it to be unwatchable, but it was surprisingly well written. Or maybe my expectations have been distorted by 2023 “writing”
I am old enough to have watch Knight Rider when it came out and still love it but you know I have a soft spot for the reboot / continuation it got cancelled just when I think it might of been finding its feet. It wasn't helped by the radical tone change mid way and I wont talk about the K.A.R.R. arc if you don't. when it was fun it was fun but when it was bad it was very bad.
Would I like to see them take another pass at it yeah but only after a rigorous screen process involving anyone who want to write or produce the show must first binge watch the original then write a 10000 word essay explaining what made it great then they need to write a full breakdown of their plans for the show. Then people who loved the show would go through them an select a team
"Knight Rider" was inspired by a joke NBC's Brandon Tartikoff made. He envisioned a show where the car would do most of the talking, and the good-looking hero had only a handful of lines.
@@xanderstephens8479the earlier episodes were good... it eventually wasn’t so good
I was an 11 year old nerd in '84. Back then PBS was fantastic. They ran great British shows and documentaries. And the UHF channels ran cool old movies and shows. Pretty great!
i was 12 and yes PBS was under appreciated. as were the UHF channels.
my local PBS would take Dr. Who stories normally broken into parts and stitch them together into a 90ish minute sci-fi drama. It was like watching a movie a week, great stuff!
Dr. Who was often preceded by Monty Python, Benny Hill, and Dave Allen At Large. It was a magical time.
KTEH in San Jose, CA used to air anime: Star Blazers, Robotech, Urusei Yatsura..., it was a great time to be alive.
@@OldMan_PJ Wow! Cool scheduling on KTEH. Currently, most PBS stations just air lame BBC series.😑
@@inkermoyYES! My local PBS station would broadcast the 25 minute episodes Monday thru Friday in the afternoon but Saturday Nights we had the 90 minute Who. Great times.
The biggest difference was that content in the 1980's was more diverse in that it served a wider audience of all ages. Studios today focus on too narrow of an audience to cater to the advertisers that will pay the most money.
“Kolchak: the night stalker” was one of my favorite shows as a kid. It probably wouldn’t hold up now, but back then, I loved it!
One of my favourites too probably the precursor to the X Files.
Darren McGavin carries it. It's still very watchable.
Chris Carter cited Kolchak as an inspiration for the X Files and included Darren McGavin as an old FBI agent. @@rustythecrown9317
Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future
Even though I vaguely remember it (especially the Zombie episode) when it originally aired ( I was only five at the time), in the late 70s CBS began airing it after the late nite News on Friday nights and I became hooked. There was something special about staying up that late, turning all the lights off, and watching Kolchak when I was 10 years old.
It's no longer about creating a quality product, it's about advocating for woke ideology.
I am hearing this roll call of 1984 TV shows and I am amazed. We were spoiled. We had no idea how good we had it. I basically stopped watching TV in the 1990s with few exceptions.
Tool Time and Burn Notice were two good shows of the 90s.
Burn notice was in the 2000's and there wasn't a show called tool time in the 90's.
@@harrylongabaugh7402 You are correct sir, the show was called Home Improvement.
This 11 year old going into 12 in 1984 didn’t know how good we had it with TV.
I watch reality TV with my Wife like the Bachelor,Love After Lock Up.
Thank God there is Pluto Tv on my phone so I can watch great shows from 1984.
All that awesome content on 3 channels. No one needed cable back then unless they had technical problems with over the air signals.
To answer simply. Yes. There were actual stories and characters we cared about.
What happened to the series where every show was a one off story ? Every show whether 30 min or hour had a beginning, middle and end. With the occasional 2 parter and if something from the past came uo in a new episode it was COOL and unexpected.
Today they take a 30 min show and drag it out for 8 1 hr episodes.
It could be the landscape now that allows for way more garbage than was sustainable by the past and its programming structure.
When you mentioned Kolchak the Nightstalker, I knew that I had to subscribe to your channel.
Thank you
1984, alone, was better than the entire 1st quarter of the 21st century.
Agreed!!!! And Miami Vice premiered in '84, so I remember that year fondly as a TV addicted kid, lol.
Music, TV, Movies. All of it.
You ain't never lied!
Even with the threat of nuclear war throughout the 80s it was still far better than nowadays. The only improvement since has been technology but that's coming back to haunt us.
Amen, brother!
In a word, yes! I was 9 years old in 1984 and there were so many good shows on TV. Honestly, I've given up on TV pretty much since around 2010. These days, I only use my TV for watching my DVDs and Blu-rays. Occasionally I'll watch an old show (like classic Star Trek or the 80s-90s spin offs TNG, DS9 or Voyager) or reruns of classic comedies, but overall I can live without regular TV. Part of it is there just aren't any shows I like anymore or feel I can relate to. The bigger part is, I'm getting older (48 now), and there are just other more constructive things I'd rather do with my time than watch TV or movies. Life is too short, and I'd rather spend the time appreciating nature outdoors, walking my dog, reading uplifting books - things like that. I feel like watching TV and movies just serves as one big distraction from the more important things in life. Just my personal opinion.
I feel you. Fully agree. Life is short and is better spent doing other things given what is on, so-called, TV now.
And as a life long fan of Star Trek, it pretty much ended after Enterprise for me.
Though, I heard the 3rd season of Picard wasn't bad. Just haven't had the time and desire to try and check it out.
@@DocMicrowave Season 3 of Picard was actually good! I enjoyed it. And I didn't think much of season 1 and completely skipped season 2.
@@mysticwolf75 I may make an effort to see it at some point. Can that be done without needing to see S1 & S2 for setup?
@@DocMicrowave I've read of people who have. There's one very big thing that won't make sense without seeing season 1 (I don't know if you want spoilers) but I didn't watch season 2 and don't feel I really missed anything - if there were any references in season 3, they must have been subtle.
@@mysticwolf75 Thanks for the tip! I'll consider checking it out.
knight rider and airwolf had the 2 best themesongs for a show ive ever heard, still get me going after so many years
I have Xfinity Cable with HBO Max, Paramount+ with Showtime, Netflix, and Amazon Prime and I’m like, “I hope there’s a re-run of Columbo on.”
As someone who was born in 73, I’d say yes, shows had messages, wasn’t overly political and executives didn’t put a chic in it and make’er ghey and if they did it wasn’t in your face. Alot of the shows had real cheesy dialogue but it was entertainment, most of the young kids tuned in to see the car, van or bad guys get beat by the A Team. I pity da fools
I was 33 in 1984, not even middle age, yet. Owned a home, still had the possibility of children, loved my husband passionately, teaching myself to cook, sew, etc etc. My aging parents were a responsibility.
An intriguing video, Mr Chato. I wasn't watching TV a great deal, even then. I remember longing for some real entertainment, but it wasn't TV, most of the time. Movies in the theater were still entertaining and we had enough disposable income to enjoy them. I always hated commercials, I think that is one reason I rarely watched TV. My husband watched more TV than I ever did. Mainly reruns but even he wasn't that much of a TV watcher and he was teaching himself computer programming, in his spare time. More than likely his Apple 2. VHS was available (checked, it came out in 1977) I bought Star Wars on VHS, Star Trek movies, for an example, as soon as available. I would, I remember go to the mall and buy a tape now and then. There was an increasing variety of mediums and the only limitations were if the shows and movies were available and money. Buying the new device to play the various mediums was always an issue. Slowly, we stopped going to see movies in theaters and started to buy the Tapes (and when DVDS became available..) I think the networks were slowly being out bid for our entertainment dollars all through the 1980s-2000s
... but it was a very slow process and I finally stopped going to theaters in 2006. The golden time for TV for me was either in the 1960s when I was a teenager or the late 1980s and 1990s.
We always benefited from our local library... books, tapes, books on Tape, books, CDs by 1982-84. I loved books on CDS and would listen as I did my needlework and housework.
It was a time of transition, as you said... and, we had to carefully watch where we spent our few entertainment dollars ( remember the high mortgage rates?)
I wish I could give more than one upvote.
I was born 1989 so I'm 34 now, close to what you were then. After hitting roughly 28 or so (I think because it was a full decade after hitting adulthood) I've thought more and more about past generations experiences with culture/media, relative to my own experience.
So I really appreciate hearing perspectives of those roughly my age in previous decades like this!
I see orangecat, I was 7 in 1984
The theme songs alone of virtually any of those 80s shows beats nearly the entire artistic output of 2023.
For me those old shows are a return to a happier less woke time and that is why they still do so well. A lesson for todays content creators could learn a valuable lesson from these timeless classics.
+ @richardmeredith6534 Sure was.
My kids are in their 20s, but a couple of years ago when they were all in their late teens, I got them to sit down and watch Casablanca. They absolutely loved that movie (as I do). They also loved Duck Soup, and recently watched Rear Window. They also love movies from the 80s and 90s. Even now, me and my daughter are watching Twin Peaks, and she absolutely loves that show. I think people tend to forget that youngsters aren't going to enjoy anything more than what's put in front of them. From an early age, my kids mostly watched stuff that I watched when I was kid. They can't stand this new garbage that's out.
@@agentooe33AD There are young people out there discovering shows and movies from the 80s and loving them. Don't know what the numbers are, but I hope they are increasing.
As in your case, I think it is helpful to have had parents how introduced them to these old shows and movies early on, so that they develop a discerning mind when presented with the junk out today. Codos to you. You did them a service.
Man, I miss quality television with long-lasting shows and really lengthy seasons of 26, 24, 22 episodes. They always told us shorter seasons equals higher quality. I think we can all see with today's current line up of shows that was a competely false argument. Another great video, Paul!
I had done research a few years ago and had found that in the '80s we had to sit through maybe 11-12 minutes of ads per hour of TV. (It was about 8 minutes/hour in the '60s) but nowadays, up 'til abot 2019 anyway, commercials chew up _twenty_ minutes of view time every hour. Back then it was tolerable because TV was overall good. Not any more. Far more advertising and far less effort put into programs.
Out of curiosity, I should probably time the PlutoTV ad breaks for an hour. They don't seem nearly as frequent... or maybe because watching higher quality programming blunts the edge a bit, I don't know.
I remember when Adult Swim started cutting or speeding up ending or opening songs and cutting previews from the anime they played just to shove in more commercials... I wasn't too happy about it.
@@lainiwakura1776 How about networks speeding up their broadcasts (especially late-night) just enough where we don't notice it but it nets them another 30-45 seconds per hour for more ads? Yeah, they been doing that for over 20 years now.
@moonsofmadness8850 it's the time version of blipverts, minus the 1% chance of your head exploding 😅
Ironically we stream a lot of the older shows in our household in our viewing line up right now. Stuff like Murder She Wrote, Knight Rider, and Magnum. Thanks for what you do Chato!
th-cam.com/video/1YzbPnFyZCQ/w-d-xo.htmlsi=xwbbuhDGTJsWQank
I havent watched commercial TV for 15 years. I dont miss it one bit. I dont listen to commercial radio either. My life is blessed.
The last network show that I watched consistently was Frasier. I haven't seen anything since then that really appealed to me. Perhaps a few episodes of Big Bang Theory but I haven't gone out of the way to follow it. It's sad to say but I watch more Japanese anime and Korean dramas than North American shows these days.
Another changing factor is the serialization of television shows. Use to be tv shows were episodic. You could miss a few episodes and not feel lost when you returned. Only soaps like Dallas, Dynasty, Knots Landing were serialized. Action and comedy shows usually weren't. Probably because it's a format that didn't lend well to syndication where a lot of times episodes would be played out of order.
Always good to hear your views, having an opinion without condemning someone's anything is refreshing.
He worked professionally for a majority of his life in the field, so he'd have the temperament most kids would not have on TH-cam
Unrelated but I love finding another fellow Asterix fan ❤
As a kid growing up in the 80's, Airwolf, A-Team, Duke's of Hazzard, Magnum P. I., Knight Rider was peak television and will never be surpassed. Then came Baywatch. Oh we all loved Baywatch.
Street Hawk, The Highwayman…….
So many good shows! Even if they didn’t last long, I still remember them!
Couldn’t even tell you what’s on TV nowadays. Last time I payed any attention, I was terribly under impressed and haven’t bothered since.
Don't forget Little House on the Prarie a few years prior and Diff'rent Strokes.
"Sandbox of the gods", as it was once termed by _The New Yorker_ magazine. 🤭 🙄
Never got into Baywatch. But all the other shows you mentioned, Oh Yeah!
I'll throw on the pile another favorite of mine, The Greatest American Hero,
haven't seen the others but I LOVE magnum p.i. ! I haven't watched Baywatch, I heard it features lots of hot women bodies and nudity but I think I'm too kinky for that, women's bodies are a little passe to me, unless there's lots of foot shots... if that's the case, I will watch it immediately after someone confirms this.
Got rid of my cable back in 2009. Never looked back. Been using social media for news and entertainment ever since.
It’s almost impossible to communicate to people today what a total and complete cultural juggernaut The Cosby Show was in those days (I know, I know, but we had no idea back then). Truly. EVERYBODY watched that show and you could make a show a hit just by floating it in TCS’s time slot fumes. And not just for a season - for _years_ . The only thing that rivaled it in cultural significance was perhaps the MASH finale. Seinfeld and Friends were similar later on, but they were imitators when it came to the grip TCS had on people’s Thursday nights. It crossed *all* demographics . I can’t think of anything that approaches that now. Game of Thrones came close, I suppose. For awhile. Until….the dark times. Until the eighth season.
It’s strange to think about now. But I don’t know that anything will be that huge again. Why? There’s something about people having to all tune in at a certain time on a certain day that just feels better. Communal. Now, we’re all just sort floating in space.
When Cosby was sharing qualudes with his nightly partners, EVERYONE was using them socially. It didn't become a date R drug until a decade later.
Of course! A-Team, Fall Guy, Knight Rider, Airwolf they are even today still aired and have massive followings.
I agree with you on partnering with Netflix, it was much better when studios licensed their libraries to it, instead of hoarfing them for their own streaming offers
man i have bitched for YEARS now to people about how all the shows i used to love had like 24 episode seasons, and now these cable shows have like 8 episodes and then HUGE long waits until the next season.
Me and my younger brother watched alot of Kolchak reruns when we were kids 😂 got a laugh out of me when you ended with that
I was born in 77 but i remember the 10 oclock action line up on fridays. Simon and Simon, Riptide Hunter ect...Also i remember having to stay up past midnight to watch shows like Tales From the Darkside and Monsters. Those were the best.
A good number of those 1984 shows made it across to the UK and were massive hits. I was 14 then, and loved The Dukes of Hazzard, Magnum PI, Kenneth Johnson's "V", and my mother adored Cagney and Lacey (as did I). Airwolf was popular with my younger brothers and we were all addicted to Knight Rider. I don't think we're addicted to anything now. I'm a lifelong fan of the BBC's Doctor Who (mainly of the classic series), and even that has been flagging of late. If the soft reboot doesn't save it in the coming months, there will be nothing for me.
I think I saw most of the shows mentioned here. And I live in Sweden, at that time we had two channels (state run) and no cable… everyone watched “V”, Knight rider, Magnum, Miami Vice, Cosby and so on.
I probably learned to speak english 80% in front of the screen, and 20% school.
What I absolutely hate about modern TV shows is that they stretch out one storyline throughout a whole series. I really like to old style TV shows where there is one story per episode. A week later when the next episode airs, it a brand new story. I don't mind the odd cliffhanger that continues a week later. Stretching a story more than 2 episodes is too much.
Like in Stephen King's Gunslinger series - the world has moved on.
Centralized entertainment is over. Now those of us who always felt left out can find our entertainment wherever it is.
"From department store to dollar store." That's basically it, isn't it? I almost teared up remembering the 1984 stuff, which I watched a lot of, even as a kid. Compared to all the reality schlock and cookie cutter crime things they spew out now that was a golden era.
"From department store to dollar store" is an insult to dollar stores! More like thrift store.
Hi Chato. It was a whole unique experience. Most were good, and the Meh were decent compared to today's standards. Getting a Tv Guide was a big deal. It was aimed at entertaining because that was the business as the alternative and albeit competitor to the Big Screen. The actors were not run of the mill. 2001 circa was a Rubuicon moment, downhill thereafter. New media into play. Entertainment is it's purpose but not WHY they are doing it. Get what I am saying Chato? Sounds confusing I know.
1984 - Hey! Make Entertainment, and give them something to like. It has to be good to keep an audience.
2023 - Hey! Make Entertainment but use it for social engineering purposes who cares if it is bad.
I work for a syndicated talk show and we recently got completely pumped over a .52 overnight rating. Years ago, I worked for a show that got canceled because it only got a 5.2.
Can you tell us what show it is?🤔
@@lynntownsend100 The show I'm currently working for is the Karamo Show
MEMORABLE
That's what TV was back then. Proof, we are still singing the theme songs, remixing them, and longing for those days to return.
No one will have any interest in remembering todays AI generated CGI filtered sanitized crap.
I'm 41 years old, grew up on network and some cable TV! The TV sucks now days, so I stick to my classics! Dukes of hazzard, kojack, CHiPs, wonder years ect... bring back good television with a good storyline to tell, entertain us without trying to charge a fortune for it!
I was a teenager in 1984, and I remember almost all those shows that you listed. People say now that there was so little on "back in the day" because there were only 3 networks, but there was a lot to watch. And the networks competed for our attention. The sorting out of what my family and I watched was sometimes a serious matter indeed. I miss the shared cultural experience that network television fostered.
I really like hearing what you have to say from a former TV executive, Chato.
You could spend a day in a record store or video store and still not touch the sides, nowadays it wouldn't be worth your time.
I was thinking the other day that I don't know any network shows from about the last 14 years. The last TV show I remember consistently watching was "The Closer".
Being a child of the 1980's, I would say yes. I will say, if I go back before 1970's, the quality go downs again.
But, 1980-2000, was pretty good.
It started to go down (in my opinion) when MTV no longer was about music.
And it really went bad, somewhere around 2012.
"In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem; if no-one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire... The A-Team."
Yep. From memory. Was the intro on my micro-cassette-based telephone answering machine for years.
EDIT: Also, F*ck yeah, reruns of Kolchak.
Chato, THANK YOU, for the walk down memory lane in regards to these shows. I watched a lot of the shows you listed and still watch them today on DVD or whenever I can find them streaming. Personally, I think the days of quality TV Programming/Writing are dead and gone. Replaced by fan fiction writers with no lived experience, or reality TV garbage that just encourages bad behavior to drum up viewership. Which in turn has helped in the decline of civilized society. And I hate it when they try to revive the glory days with an updated version of a beloved series or movie, modernized for today's world and political agenda. I have said since day one when streaming was getting started. Someone out there needs to do a retro streaming service that only shows TV Series' and Movies from say 1920 up to 1999, and nothing newer, and had literally everything from that year range. I would be willing to pay up to $100 a month for a service like that. And cancel my subscription to everything else.
Pluto I watch Johnny Carson all the time, since we don’t have Late Night shows anymore!!!!
Well duh!! The 80s had morals.
And talent. And real writers.
Non evil morals
The 1980s weren't quite the moral wonderland some people remember through rose-tinted glasses - in fact, calling it moral is about as accurate as calling Gordon Gekko a humanitarian. While the government turned a blind eye to the AIDS crisis, they were busy selling weapons to terrorists and lying about it. Wall Street was swimming in insider trading scandals, corporate raiders were destroying communities for yacht money.
The crack epidemic ravaged cities with wildly unfair racial sentencing, while nothing quite said "family values" like watching the homeless population explode. The Savings & Loan collapse wiped out elderly people's life savings, and the Pentagon somehow justified paying $640 for toilet seats. Unions were crushed while the EPA was gutted faster than a corporate pension fund.
You could see the moral bankruptcy reflected perfectly in pop culture, where "Dynasty" taught us Christian values about backstabbing your way to success. "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" had Americans drooling over champagne wishes and caviar dreams, while even kids' cartoons became half-hour commercials.
The whole era was one long celebration of excess, wrapped in neon and hairspray, where "greed is good" wasn't just a movie quote - it was practically a national motto. But please, tell me more about how today's generation lacks the sterling moral fiber of the 1980s - I'll just be over here watching the "Material Girl" video while I raid some pension funds and admire my solid gold bathroom fixtures.
The slow death of the entertainment industry has been painful - and baffling - to witness.
I gave up on network TV 10 years ago and now watch only TH-cam, Netflix and occasionally Tubi. Fond memories of 1970's1980's TV, but like the steam locomotive, Network TV is never coming back. RIP.
Hollywood has lost it and ain't getting it back.
Enjoyed the video. 1984 was one year before I was born but later when i started watching TV I basically grew up on old shows: Wonderful world of Disney, original Adams Family, Green Acres, (mostly my grandparents era) etc. I then transitioned into more updated shows; tons of cartoons in the 90s, a lot of PBS (reading rainbow got me hardcore into reading). Its been many years since I owned a TV but I do find myself lately reminiscing how much I enjoyed the old stuff compared to nowadays. Also, kinda related/unrelated, your way of speaking vividly reminds me so much of Andy Rooney during the end of 60 minutes giving me a strong hit of nostalgia when I used to watch it at my grandparents house.
It's amazing how many shows there were, and with that number, you couldn't go wrong, there was a show for you in there somewhere. Night Court was one for me, and still is a favorite of mine decades later. That's not likely to happen to a lot of current programming.
YES 1984 TV still had talented people who could write an original compelling story with believable characters, today IMO today it all feels like badly written fan fiction and everything is a reboot, and when the original versions are so much better than the watered down garbage they want to shovel down our throats, why should we waste our time watching it
I rolled my eyes when Magnum P.I. didn't even have a mustach and Higgins was a woman. I raised an eyebrow when McGuyver was mostly a computer hacker. Did the writers of these reboots even watch the shows they were redoing?
Writers should not get hired until they are in their 30's and have had some serious life experiences. No more adult babies with a naive view of the world writing shows and movies anymore.
It definitely was more interesting then. Today ,the channels are choking with reality shows and "celebrity " gameshows . Most stuff today ,I simply don't bother with. Just not worth it.
I used to watch them back in 84. I watch no new TV shows now. Haven't for years. Got the entire Married with children series and I'm watching them in order. Those entertain. More wild than 84 stuff. But still their focus was on entertainment.
The industry should be listening to you for advice
I know these aren't Chato's highest viewed videos. But these might be my favorite. The differences and similarities between then and now are stark, and his insights from being in the industry are always welcome. The TV Guide videos are great also, especially when viewed in series because you can see the producers and showrunners gaining experience and picking better shows more often over time. Fascinating stuff, to me at least.
Exactly! EVERY network person I knew HATED the switch to "reality shows" because they were utterly unsyndicatable/rerunnable for any real profit. The conversations I had were like those with H addicts--they hated it but they were so cheap and easy they were addicted to them. And as for the ads telling the story? SO True. I know back when I made shows we watched what they put on our show, and when we finally got Coke and the like we knew we were a REAL hit because the mainstream ads had found us and supported us. Now? Oh-Oh-its-Tragic! :)
In 1984, I was 14 and didn't have a television at home but I remember a lot of the shows mentioned as it was common among my friends to watch prime time TV. If I was at their house, I would watch it too. Television was much more of a social experience and far more important to the shared culture back then as there was always a discussion of the previous night's episodes and if you missed it you had to wait for the rerun months later. The ability to binge watch through a streaming service is eroding the cultural cohesion that previously centered around the network schedules. 1984 was a very different time.
I watched this video three times. What we've lost in entertainment is mind-blowing. I was a very early cord cutter and now I kinda regret it.
"The Night Stalker" is awesome though, mostly due to McGavin's performance as Kolchak but also due to the often goofy monster-of-the-week presentations from the sewer monster pere mal fait to the headless biker to android Mr. Ring. I've got all the dvds!
Me too don't forget the polit films.
I gave up American TV in 1985, but Seinfeld was worth it to return for that show. I still watch it on a regular basis since it is free online.
Great critique Chato. If you were lucky enough to live in Canada, the Antipodes and a few select locations in the 1980's, then you also received the best of British Television in addition to the top shows from the U.S. Market. Shows like, The Professionals, Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Bergerac, Taggart, Minder, Tenko, Rumpole of the Bailey, Brideshead Revisited, Open All Hours, 'Allo 'Allo!, Never the Twain, Attenborough, The Two Ronnies, The Benny Hill Show, Are You Being Served and many many more. Cheers.
1984 in the UK saw the start of the likes of Robin of Sherwood, the Hickson Miss Marple and the Brett Sherlock Holmes. Amazing quality TV. WTF happened?
I was 16 in 1984. It was one of the best years of my life.
Yes old tv was better. If nothing else we got 22 to 24 new episodes each year.
Streaming platforms give us 8 Maybe every 1.5 to 2 years.
I cannot answer that question since I have not watched TV in years. But wait, is that in itself not an answer?
so many awesome shows when you grew up in Germany in the 80ies... ❤
I always love your professional broadcasts, Paul. end. What an insane world.
It is a shame too, Wheel of Time is a fantastic book series. The creators of the show had a complete story of an author, far more talented than they. However, instead of just adapting the book story as is, they had to make it woke and inject their own garbage storylines into it.
NBC Thursday night, they called it "Must See TV". I didn't know Anyone who watched something else. I say that was the pinnacle of viewing, and the slow decline happened when those five shows started to fade away. Thanks Chato!
I stopped watching broadcast TV in 2005. It wasn't interesting anymore in Europe, where I live and the costs weren't justified.
Funnily, I started watching Magnum PI for the 1st time just last week - because there is so much "good stuff' out there nowadays. I'm enjoying it.
Please do not tell me it is the current rehash of Magnum PI. If it is... do yourself a favor and give the original a go; so much better.
@@sandman_says_runrunner4701 Nah, it's the original of course.
Didn't even know there was a current one. Does it come with overweight, gay chicks, pronouns and an ecofriendly BEV? 🙂
In 1983, I lived in a gulag in Siberia and there was only one closed circuit tv channel that broadcasted reruns of Hogans Heroes for us to watch while we ate our moldy bread and cold gruel. Those were the good old days.
Funny thing, today's TV is pretty much as it was 60 years ago. I recently watched Netflix 'Loki', and I had an intense feeling of deja vu. The same arguments, the same technobabble and the same budget limitations that Star Trek in the 60s had.
Loki is Disney.
@KAZVorpal which shows how little I know and care about.
Great video! There were at least three times I wanted to upvote again.
Many industries, especially Hollywood are often a decade or generation behind technology. They attempted to combat cable with cheaper 'reality' tv that provided opportunities to the less than reputable in society. Game shows went from day time to prime time, thus killing the potential for more hit shows to take the baton from others that ended, and streaming had the opportunity to boost good successful shows, but Netflix put the breaks on that outcome with their popular binge model formula, which ended up changing the function of pilot season, skipping audience reception during the shows episodic development, and burning tons of cash on shows that were fully produced but ultimately forgotten due to a quick consumption rate.
The only thing stopping networks from shifting gears to become competitive again is their own lack of discipline when it comes to developing, testing and broadcasting shows.
I agree. I prefer weekly shows to binge watching. The wait is exciting and the anticipation exhilarating.
After you binged, you get bored FAST.
It's do what works in the moment. The entertainment business is actually Fairly simple in practice.
Make shows until you make show people wanna watch. Netflix Paramount Amazon Peacock just need to stay alive to make shows until they make one people want to watch. Now though they've stopped the Narrative content so they can't keep making shows a lot of the current narrative shows on those cable platforms are like 30-40 years old. Netflix comes out with one every few weeks. They will always have a better chance at gold.
Except for one problem besides quality control Netflix is actually very homogeneous. They don't make alot of bright happy comedies and fun shows like Psych and Monk from back in the days. It's all dark and moody
I have been buying all these shows (1984) on dvd, these shows are still worth watching.
That is good, as physical media is the way to go.
I watch exactly one show that's broadcast across cable TV.
The Curse of Oak Island.
However... I still watch that on the History Channel website, and recently they dropped the need to have a cable subscription to watch much of their content. I can watch the newest episode just a day after it's aired.
The Curse of Oak Island. Is it good?
All of my grandma's favorites. ❤
I think the biggest difference is three-fold.
First is that mentioned Balkanization of programming due to every company wanting to have their own app making it more difficult to try new shows. Under the Netflix model it was much easier to get your show in front of eyeballs. (Edit: I see you mentioned this while I was typing the other points)
Second there was just more to choose from as far as genres were concerned. Today all we really have are procedurals or reality programming.
The other major difference as I see it is due to these advances in technology de-emphasizing the "family viewing" trend. When we were all watching universal shows like TV Bloopers or Believe it or Not we were together as a family unit. Kids are so overscheduled these days that the "must see" programming just isn't viable any more.
Now if you will excuse me I am going to re-watch Babylon 5 again on Tubi...
The 60s through the 80s was the golden age of TV. I have a huge DVD library and all the TV shows I have are from this time. TV has gone downhill thanks to all these garbage reality shows. You can thank greed for that.
I was born in 1978, si I remember MacGuyver, The Equalizer, Murder She Wrote, Hotel and 1990s TV movies more.
That said, I'll take 1980s and 1990s film and television over most of today's shows.
I only watch Reacher, Poker Face and The Gilded Age at present, as well as British crime shows and good audio dramas.
_Scarecrow and Mrs. King_ and _Remington Steele_ were successful cases of making James Bond more appealing to a female audience.
I spent my preteen and teen years during the 80s and...MAN, did we kids have it good for quality and selection!👍🏼 The problem I think, is today's Gen Z writers are void of imagination and original concepts. This might be due to being exposed to endless low grade entertainment shows of the 2000s, and spending less time exploring outside and imagining as kids.
Video games and going to the mall will only take you so far. Plus the people with more interesting experiences will generally be excluded these days.
They haven't really lived or read much.
Nothing could be worse than 2023 TV
In my opinion, the tipping point came when sitcom actors from shows like Seinfeld were suddenly demanding $1 million per episode per cast member. For a show like Friends, that meant the weekly budget for an episode was $6 million even before anyone else got paid. I think, in an attempt to offset the cost, reality shows became the bread and butter of the networks. No huge overhead, no massive pay checks, just easy, cheap content. And when those reality shows suddenly started doing really well, and the networks realized that they had struck gold, they began to inundate us with more and more brainless reality television. I really think this was when the decline of scripted television became irreversible.
I disagree. Pay for actors in shows like Seinfeld and Friends only escalated after they proved to be big hits. The networks didn't lose money on these shows. If I was a network honcho and knew that by spending $6M for onscreen talent I could have a hit like S or F, I'd be doing that all day long, be happy doing it and lauded as the most successful and profitable exec in entertainment.
You're wrong, the writers' strike in the 2000s happened and that's why there's a bunch of reality shows when producers realized how cheap nobodies are if it means they can get their 15 minutes.
The outrageous pay for the casts of undeniable hit shows came because the entire production was tired, bereft of ideas and nobody wanted to do the show anymore. NBC paid The Six to stick around while an exasperated writers room threw spaghetti at the wall for three years.
@@stanwbaker But they got ratings and that's what counts. Poor overpaid writers. Maybe they should do some real work for a few years so they know what a privileged class they are.
Cover Up, Knight Rider, Dukes of Hazard, Airwolf, V, Magnum P.I. Greatest American Hero, Voyagers, A-Team, Spencer for Hire, Hawk, The Fall Guy, absolute pure favorites were the S.M.D.M. the Bionic Woman, the Incredible Hulk, the short lived live action Spiderman show, original Star Trek, B.J.& the 🐻 Bear, just because was a little kid in late seventies & those & some others bring back a lot of good memories. 😊.
A pro lem with streaming is the homogenized tone. Its all dark greys and thriller eaque dramas. Back then there was mpre of a wide range of tonal differences and genres . From dark dramas to soap operas to comedies.
You could even say this about the movie indistry
By Cthulhu I had forgotten just how much NBC OWNED Thursday nights. And for how long.
1930s TV was better than today's TV
1910s and 1920s was also better
"Was 1984 TV better than 2023 TV?"
I am going with a hard yes!
Most of the 80s (and I dare say 70s) had better TV than now.
Far more engaging and entertaining. Offering a great sense of escapism.
Probably the issue is that the networks don't try to take risks anymore. Most series are old shows that are profitable (Big brother, amazing race, Grey's anatomies) or sports. Back then was a mix of copying what seemed to success and new ideas. Its a shame we have a whole decade were teh networks decided to not try anything new, maybe in the future. And sorry, you are more amusing that network television 😃 So excuse us if we keep watching your videos.
Don't knock "Pluto"! Do you know how hard it is to watch "Doctor Who" in the U.S.A.? Pluto provides one of two ways I've been able to experience a beloved show of mine!
100% on Wheel of Time. It looks terrible - all it did was make me re-read the books. (At least the first 6 - which are head-and-shoulders better than the rest).
The last 3 books by Sanderson are good since he was wrapping things up.
@@dbsommers1 They're okay. His schtick of bending hard magic systems doesn't work in WoT though. WoT's magic system (written by Jordan) is actually very soft, it's just has magical technobabble. Like Star Trek is for sci-fi. Sanderson did his hard magic bending on it, and it just didn't work IMO. (He also can't write Mat for sh**.)
The only commercial tv we watch is MEtv and some western channel my husband found. We don't have cable, no paid streaming services. Most of what we watch is the stuff we grew up watching.
Personally, most of what I watch is from uploads on utube. There are loads of wonderful old movies that i watched as a child, along with the dramas and sitcoms my family, friends and I enjoyed.
What's offered on commercial tv now is much like what is left in the garden at the end of the season: it's only fit to be plowed under in the hope it will be fertilizer, and maybe produce something better in the spring.