Some shows from the 1970s

UFO, The Champions, Avengers, Star Trek original series and The Sweeney.

Edited by noni - August 18 2018 at 13:36

All in the Family
Hawaii Five-0 (Original)
Ironside
Kung Fu
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman
MASH
Richard Pryor Show
Taxi
WKRP in Cincinnati

Edited by dwill123 - August 18 2018 at 14:21

Another great nostalgic selection. Multiple votes again - although many more could have got chosen too. Fawlty Towers definitely tops for me. I could practically recite all 12 episodes - not surprising, as I must have seen them around a hundred times over the last four decades and still laugh out loud. Great drama with I Claudius (or I Clav Divs as I like to call it!), Colditz, Tinker...., etc which I've watched repeatedly. However, it was a great time for classic UK Sci-Fi (shaky props and all) and Blakes 7, UFO, Space 1999, The Tomorrow People and Dr Who most notable.

However. I have a lot of time for a children's Sci-Fi/Fantasy series called Children of the Stones - which had real atmosphere and mirrored my interest in stone circles etc at the time. Saw it again a year or two ago and it has aged really well and shows a maturity for a children's series that doesn't seem to exist these days, sadly.

Never really watched A Family at War (my parents did though), but Vaughan Williams's theme remains a very powerful memory.

No Oneden Line or Poldark, though. Sunday night highlights before school in the morning (wistful 'Alan Partridge--style' sigh follows!)

[QUOTE=Squonk19] it was a great time for classic UK Sci-Fi (shaky props and all) and Blakes 7, UFO, Space 1999, The Tomorrow People and Dr Who most notable.

What, nobody watched Battlestar Galactica?

BSG's some fine TV space opera. Yes, it took some cues from Star Wars (because that's how trends work), but it was originally conceptualized ten years earlier and owed much more to ancient astronaut theories and In Search Of... than hooded hermits with laser swords.

Blake's 7

How did I miss Land of the Lost in this list? Not only did I love that as a kid, but I've rewatched all of them as an adult.

Next time I do such a poll, if I ever do (it's time consuming), I will prepare a master list in, say Notepad, and add to it over a few days before posting so that I remember more and am not so neglectful.

Loved Soap. That's one I neglected. I'm not saying that those aren't great, just that I wouldn't make claims of greatest since for me that would require knowing and having the ability to fully appreciate everything, and even then my biases would come through. But you're just talking taste (subjectivity), not making objective truth claims and I was approaching it from a different perspective. So that's fine, but I was using your post as a springboard for a side-discussion from a different angle.

It's kind of apples and oranges to say that it is greater than, say, I, Claudius. Greater in what way? More artistic, more eloquent, better writing, better acting, better direction? I know you to be a rational person, and in your case it just means greatest for you based on what you know, but when some people say such things they honestly seem to believe that it is objectively true and not open for debate, which is very close-minded and tends to show ignorance.

I do believe that it's not all subjective and there ways to evaluate merit within frameworks of analysis and I do think that one compare the merits of shows within certain frameworks, but I personally tend to avoid claims such as greatest (maybe that's because of my particular background of studies). I think there are better and more nuanced ways to approach it.

And I think that disagreements can be good, and I do like to think my mind can be changed when new compelling evidence comes along. A debate on the merits of shows and music, even when it's ultimately subjective, can be fun too.

Perhaps we could have a fun debate on the merits of Dekalog vs. The Rockford Files, but it's chalk and cheese as the two are so very different and so the exercise would I think be pretty pointless.

You haven't done it, but I wish more people who are critical of one's choices would at least try to get familiar with the choices before judging the selection. This has happened to me many times at PA. I would do a poll and state that they are my favourites, and then someone would say "Where the hell is such-and-such"? Sometimes I don't know it, sometimes I don't like it, and usually such people aren't familiar with my choices so how can they judge the merit of their choice over mine? It's a strange sense of entitlement and grievance. It can be rather nice that people have different tastes, and I wish more people were open to expanding their tastes and trying different things, and were more adventurous and open-minded and open-eared and open-eyed. That's the liberal mind-set that I believe in. One should be open to new evidence and ideas, be willing to discuss such things, and changeable in opinion, and avoid being didactic (nuance is too often lacking in posts and thought, methinks).

That said, I want to make it clear that I do want to hear about other options and I hope to discover and re-discover TV shows thanks to these polls, and I hope that others who are posting here also are entering here looking to discover and re-discover new to them things, and show open-minds and a spirit of inquiry in discussion. It is very gratifying when someone says that they discovered something thanks to a poll or post and I am glad to see friendly, vibrant discussion about options not on my list as well as about those that are on it.

Edited by Logan - September 11 2018 at 14:18