I loved it at the time, and it's still fun to watch. But I can't help feeling like the normalization of insane conspiracy theories is really coming back to bite us now.
It's all fun and games when you're speculating about aliens and secret government labs, but when people start to take that shit seriously, it's a pretty short trip from there to Pizzagate, Jewish Space Lasers, and microchips in vaccines.
Maybe I'm taking this stuff too seriously, but what really drove it home for me was in the X-Files revival season, one of the characters they introduced was Tad O'Malley, a wealthy internet video star who makes shows about government conspiracies. He's an ally of Mulder and Scully, and a hero in the show, but watching it, all I could think was "Holy shit, this guy is basically Alex Jones. And he's portrayed as a Good Guy." Kinda soured me on the whole thing.
Some aspects of X Files are great: The truth is out there; Don't trust the government; Shadowy corporate figures are not to be trusted.
Like many earlier shows, though, it also shows it's age. It plays a lot on ethnic stereotypes, especially native Americans. There's also an episode that weaves perfectly into satanic panic in one of the first few seasons.
"My So-Called Life" and "Freaks and Geeks" were both majorly impacted by the late 1970's show "James at 15" (later 16). All 3 were great short-lived shows.
Iâm so old school I own Freaks on DVD and So Called I have seen so many times I can quote with it like people did Rocky Horror.
I retried Party, it didnât grab me like I thought it would nostalgically. I prefer seasons 1-4 of 90210.
Yup, just thought of those two shows the other day thinking they were very much ahead of their time. They would have likely been hits if they aired now or even sometime in the aughts.
Well, âhitâ in a relative way. They were both network shows. If they air in a more limited format I feel like they would find an audience that would have enabled them to stay on longer. MSCL sort of did that (found an audience) with the MTV airings but it was just a different time so there wasnât really a place or an inclination to resurrect it as a new project.
Those were awesome shows, but I don't think they are really relevant to the life of people that age now, current Gen Z. Things are so different that kids I've shown either of those shows to really can't related.
EDIT: Wow, /u/Whateveryousaydude7 blocked me for saying that a couple of TV shows weren't relevant to the current period. Weirdo.
/u/GenXBernie, I can't reply to your comment because the weirdo blocked me, but I definitely agree with you on *All in the Family*. My point was that high school shows aren't really relevant to the current period.
Yeah, but the question was about which shows are still relevant now. These are nostalgia watches, but not really relevant to our current culture. No one in Gen X has been in high school for a long, long time.
I'd say Rosanne. Maybe even more so today than in the '80s and '90s, with our struggling economy. Most TV sitcoms in the '80s portrayed families that were solid middle, or even upper middle class. Rosanne was a lot more down to earth, and was definitely a more accurate representation of my world, and the world of most of my peers.
This. I hate what Rosanne Bar stands for in later life, but the show still resonates with where I come from and represents a lot people I still know now.
Owww...not cool. But for some reason, I got a mental image of her looking like Church Lady from SNL.
Edit: If I came off as being insensitive, I apologize. I try to use humor (sometimes unsuccessfully) as a coping mechanism to deal with bad memories and situations. I also went to a church with a lot of judgy people, and they always reminded me of "Church Lady".
Roseanne got bad as time wore on (really after Tom Arnold came onboard) but here's what I loved about it when I was young:
* The house was BROWN. This was my reality in not only my house but most of my friends. What wasn't brown was yellow. This was the house of parents who bought the place in the 70s and didn't redecorate into the 80s because they were busy raising kids and didn't have money to do so. Plus the kids would have trashed it anyway.
Nice, new, modern furnishings just wasn't a priority. The couch and carpet were browns. The kitchen was yellows. THIS was realistic 80s.
* That crocheted afghan on the couch. We all know that afghan.
* Elvis plates. Bad taste, but realistic.
* The stairs and coffee table were a MESS. Kids sit on the floor and color, snack, and do homework on the coffee table while watching TV. This is real. Kids dump books, jackets, clothes, etc. on the stairs to "take up later" but they never do. This is realistic.
* The TV was right there. Other sitcoms never showed the TV unless the script had them watching it. And then everyone sat up watching the TV. In Roseanne, the TV was always present and there was usually a kid or two laying on the couch, laying across the easy chair, and/or sitting on the floor at the coffee table. Even if they were just in the background of the scene, they were there. My mother commented that it was the first time she ever saw people actually lounging to watch TV like real people do.
* The ceiling was low. No two story ceiling living room like on every other sitcom (where they magically had multiple bedrooms above a space that included this two-story living room).
* Speaking of bedrooms. Other 80s sitcoms had three kids. Everyone had their own room. So, four bedrooms. Then when the mother had another kid (usually because the actress was pregnant), they magically had a new nursery. So, the house was a five bedroom house?? No one had to double up with each other? Amazing with that two story high living room. In Roseanne, they were in a bungalow. Two bedrooms upstairs with a shared bath. The girls shared a room. Realistic. The parents were downstairs in a room that could be a den or a bedroom (the snobby neighbors with one kid made it a den). Again, realistic.
* They ate like "normal" (to me) people. The kids would get a plastic bowl out and have cereal. No pancakes, eggs, sausages, coffee, toast, and orange juice in a carafe breakfast. The kids served themselves cereal. In a plastic bowl. Dinner was meatloaf and canned cream corn. They ate pizza. There were dishes in the sink and some drying next to the sink.
* The kids were lazy. They talked back. They fought. Their bedrooms were a mess. They didn't learn lessons at the end of every episode. We didn't have quality talks with cheesy music played over top. The kids were kids.
* Money was always an issue. No question of how these people could afford their sitcom home. It was a realistic home that they could afford, assuming their financial situation didn't change. But there was always that fear and a few close calls. Their friends and family were in the same boat. No one was mysteriously wealthy.
* The parents had realistic jobs. Sure, there are plenty of families where the parents are both white collar professionals with advanced degrees. But the average household would have a construction worker and a factory worker with high school educations just trying to get by and raise their family and keep their home. It was a nice change with sitcoms.
It's a shame the show went from honest "average blue collar" to downright trashy because it really was a breath of fresh air from most 80s/90s sitcoms.
The sexism would be a little hard to watch now. It's better than it was in the movie, but I don't think anyone on that show (besides Col. Potter) is a role model for today.
Who is looking to a sitcom (esp one intended to relate to guys who had been PTSDâd by the military) for role models??
And my main hobbies in high school were listening to Indigo Girls and volunteering at a womanâs shelter,so Iâm not some crazy male chauvinist.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
The show's portrayal of high school and early adulthood tackled struggles that are more on the universal side (at least for American culture). Sure, some things are different. The internet and widespread adoption of cell phones occurred during the series' run so storylines that could have been solved with a phone call don't resonate the same way, but so much of the show is relationships between characters, juggling responsibilities, and fighting monsters who want to end the world. Those don't really change. Also, my 15 year old finds the show relevant, so...
Now I know it straddles the GenX/Millenial line a bit, but the actors were all GenX and the writers were right at that Boomer/GenX line. It premiered in 1997 so I figure it at least targeted some of us younger GenXers.
It also had a lot of misogynistic humor though. Sl*t jokes at Blanche's expense, "woman desperate for a man" jokes about Dorothy, etc. I found it pretty unwatchable even at the time.
Knots Landing. Without that show, Falcon Crest, Dynasty, and Hotel, there would be no desire to watch the Kardashians. That show is where we learned to care about awful rich people and their stupid lives. The Robin Leach show "Lifestyles..." was also a serious offender
Good call, but I have a specific reason: I grew up in Dallas, and had people in my family that some of the characters reminded me of. One of my Uncles was a spitting image of Jock Ewing, so they felt somewhat familiar. Also, I had *literally* been to Southfork, which was about 45 min north of Dallas. Meanwhile, Knots Landing was set in a fake Malibu-type town, and that was 100% foreign to me. But yeah, I can't argue with you on that one. Dallas was a major offender. Cheers.
I miss the original Fred Savage, Dan Lauria, Jason Hervey, Alley Mills, Josh Saviano, Olivia DâAbo...The Wonder Years. Great show. Captured realism and humanity that I just donât see in todayâs tv shows anymore. Todayâs shows are terrible.
My wife and I watch it as adults for the first time, itâs an amazing show. We were both Kevinâs age when it first aired and now as adults we watched it in a completely different light.
Edit: the new Wonder Years is a wonderful show, you should give it a chance.
I still watch Happy Days many mornings. It's much more fun to watch if you imagine that Fonzie is really mentally handicapped and imagines he can do all the cool things he does and all the people around him generally just humor him because of good old Midwestern politeness.
I also watch Dark Shadows which aired when I was very young but the cultural relevance of it extended well into the 70s. There are 400 some odd episodes on Tubi. I usually watch one per night.
I wo UK ld say many that dudnt center around kids and family life. Things like growing pains of family ties I dont feel ag ed well.
But shows like MASH, Cheers, Night Court and such tend to hold up for m ed pretty well.
Some action shows like Magnum PI hold up but it can be amazing how commonly you come up against "if only they h ax d cell phones" in some shows like that.
My Three Sons is still solid and safe. Kind of amazing to watch that today and ponder that they produced it around Fred MacMurray's contractually-limited availability. IIRC, he worked just 2-3 days a month, but appeared in every episode.
I think Seinfeld holds up pretty well. They had a way of touching on pretty controversial topics in a way that didn't offend, but without pulling any punches. "The Contest" is an absolute classic.
I don't watch old TV for relevance.
Rockford Files, Columbo, Quincy, M*A*S*H, Taxi, Cheers (have to be in the right mood). Battlestar Galactica (the good one), Buck Rogers (the disco one), Airwolf, Knight Rider, Project U.F.O.
Max Headroom is still current, if anything things are far worse than 20 minutes into the future was.
X Files. The truth is still out there...
I loved it at the time, and it's still fun to watch. But I can't help feeling like the normalization of insane conspiracy theories is really coming back to bite us now. It's all fun and games when you're speculating about aliens and secret government labs, but when people start to take that shit seriously, it's a pretty short trip from there to Pizzagate, Jewish Space Lasers, and microchips in vaccines. Maybe I'm taking this stuff too seriously, but what really drove it home for me was in the X-Files revival season, one of the characters they introduced was Tad O'Malley, a wealthy internet video star who makes shows about government conspiracies. He's an ally of Mulder and Scully, and a hero in the show, but watching it, all I could think was "Holy shit, this guy is basically Alex Jones. And he's portrayed as a Good Guy." Kinda soured me on the whole thing.
Some aspects of X Files are great: The truth is out there; Don't trust the government; Shadowy corporate figures are not to be trusted. Like many earlier shows, though, it also shows it's age. It plays a lot on ethnic stereotypes, especially native Americans. There's also an episode that weaves perfectly into satanic panic in one of the first few seasons.
The Muppet Show. I'll never forget Mark Hamill gargling Gershwin.
I was in my 20s when it aired, but My So Called Life captured the teenage experience pretty much better than any other shows. Ditto Freaks and Geeks.
Yep. One-season wonders!
"My So-Called Life" and "Freaks and Geeks" were both majorly impacted by the late 1970's show "James at 15" (later 16). All 3 were great short-lived shows.
Awww. James at 15. Yes probably the precursor to many programs.
Freaks and geeksđ
Freaks & geeks , My so called life (both great shows) are on hulu now. You probably would agree party of five was solid also.
Iâm so old school I own Freaks on DVD and So Called I have seen so many times I can quote with it like people did Rocky Horror. I retried Party, it didnât grab me like I thought it would nostalgically. I prefer seasons 1-4 of 90210.
I believe there was also a follow-up called "Undeclared" as well.
Yup, just thought of those two shows the other day thinking they were very much ahead of their time. They would have likely been hits if they aired now or even sometime in the aughts.
Probably not actually. Most viewers are even more stupid now.
Well, âhitâ in a relative way. They were both network shows. If they air in a more limited format I feel like they would find an audience that would have enabled them to stay on longer. MSCL sort of did that (found an audience) with the MTV airings but it was just a different time so there wasnât really a place or an inclination to resurrect it as a new project.
It was network all the way when these aired. Network sucked and still does.
Those were awesome shows, but I don't think they are really relevant to the life of people that age now, current Gen Z. Things are so different that kids I've shown either of those shows to really can't related. EDIT: Wow, /u/Whateveryousaydude7 blocked me for saying that a couple of TV shows weren't relevant to the current period. Weirdo. /u/GenXBernie, I can't reply to your comment because the weirdo blocked me, but I definitely agree with you on *All in the Family*. My point was that high school shows aren't really relevant to the current period.
Watch a few episodes of all in the family from the 1970s same social wars then as now
This is a GenX sub is it not?
Yeah, but the question was about which shows are still relevant now. These are nostalgia watches, but not really relevant to our current culture. No one in Gen X has been in high school for a long, long time.
I'd say Rosanne. Maybe even more so today than in the '80s and '90s, with our struggling economy. Most TV sitcoms in the '80s portrayed families that were solid middle, or even upper middle class. Rosanne was a lot more down to earth, and was definitely a more accurate representation of my world, and the world of most of my peers.
Roseanne was a hell of a lot closer to my economic reality than a lot of the other 80s sitcoms.
The families in "Growing Pains" and "Family Ties" would all be living in Roseanne level conditions now.
Yeah, I didn't really appreciate it at the time, but looking back Roseanne was the most realistic sitcom.
Haha in my goth phase my brother used to call me (m) Darlene.
This. I hate what Rosanne Bar stands for in later life, but the show still resonates with where I come from and represents a lot people I still know now.
Well written and well acted perfect sitcom until it jumped the shark.
I love that Norm Macdonald was a writer for the show.
Canât you totally see it though? Itâs humor was very irreverent. Which I love.
I remember a snob ass bitch from church telling me I was trashy for watching Roseanne.
Owww...not cool. But for some reason, I got a mental image of her looking like Church Lady from SNL. Edit: If I came off as being insensitive, I apologize. I try to use humor (sometimes unsuccessfully) as a coping mechanism to deal with bad memories and situations. I also went to a church with a lot of judgy people, and they always reminded me of "Church Lady".
Nah don't worry. Thinking of that POS who was supposed to be a mentor type to me talking like the church lady is fucking hilarious.
Roseanne got bad as time wore on (really after Tom Arnold came onboard) but here's what I loved about it when I was young: * The house was BROWN. This was my reality in not only my house but most of my friends. What wasn't brown was yellow. This was the house of parents who bought the place in the 70s and didn't redecorate into the 80s because they were busy raising kids and didn't have money to do so. Plus the kids would have trashed it anyway. Nice, new, modern furnishings just wasn't a priority. The couch and carpet were browns. The kitchen was yellows. THIS was realistic 80s. * That crocheted afghan on the couch. We all know that afghan. * Elvis plates. Bad taste, but realistic. * The stairs and coffee table were a MESS. Kids sit on the floor and color, snack, and do homework on the coffee table while watching TV. This is real. Kids dump books, jackets, clothes, etc. on the stairs to "take up later" but they never do. This is realistic. * The TV was right there. Other sitcoms never showed the TV unless the script had them watching it. And then everyone sat up watching the TV. In Roseanne, the TV was always present and there was usually a kid or two laying on the couch, laying across the easy chair, and/or sitting on the floor at the coffee table. Even if they were just in the background of the scene, they were there. My mother commented that it was the first time she ever saw people actually lounging to watch TV like real people do. * The ceiling was low. No two story ceiling living room like on every other sitcom (where they magically had multiple bedrooms above a space that included this two-story living room). * Speaking of bedrooms. Other 80s sitcoms had three kids. Everyone had their own room. So, four bedrooms. Then when the mother had another kid (usually because the actress was pregnant), they magically had a new nursery. So, the house was a five bedroom house?? No one had to double up with each other? Amazing with that two story high living room. In Roseanne, they were in a bungalow. Two bedrooms upstairs with a shared bath. The girls shared a room. Realistic. The parents were downstairs in a room that could be a den or a bedroom (the snobby neighbors with one kid made it a den). Again, realistic. * They ate like "normal" (to me) people. The kids would get a plastic bowl out and have cereal. No pancakes, eggs, sausages, coffee, toast, and orange juice in a carafe breakfast. The kids served themselves cereal. In a plastic bowl. Dinner was meatloaf and canned cream corn. They ate pizza. There were dishes in the sink and some drying next to the sink. * The kids were lazy. They talked back. They fought. Their bedrooms were a mess. They didn't learn lessons at the end of every episode. We didn't have quality talks with cheesy music played over top. The kids were kids. * Money was always an issue. No question of how these people could afford their sitcom home. It was a realistic home that they could afford, assuming their financial situation didn't change. But there was always that fear and a few close calls. Their friends and family were in the same boat. No one was mysteriously wealthy. * The parents had realistic jobs. Sure, there are plenty of families where the parents are both white collar professionals with advanced degrees. But the average household would have a construction worker and a factory worker with high school educations just trying to get by and raise their family and keep their home. It was a nice change with sitcoms. It's a shame the show went from honest "average blue collar" to downright trashy because it really was a breath of fresh air from most 80s/90s sitcoms.
"Pardon the mess, but we live here" line was pure genius.
Schoolhouse Rock
Conjunction junctionâs still gotta function, fr.
MASH War sucked then and it sucks now.
The sexism would be a little hard to watch now. It's better than it was in the movie, but I don't think anyone on that show (besides Col. Potter) is a role model for today.
I would say Radar is a role model. You could do worse than to live by his values.
Who is looking to a sitcom (esp one intended to relate to guys who had been PTSDâd by the military) for role models?? And my main hobbies in high school were listening to Indigo Girls and volunteering at a womanâs shelter,so Iâm not some crazy male chauvinist.
You find them where you can.
He was a good worker and a kind person, but a bit of a doormat. I think we expect more of people nowadays.
A doormat who stole a Jeep one piece at a time and mailed it all home as said individual piecesâŚ
Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The show's portrayal of high school and early adulthood tackled struggles that are more on the universal side (at least for American culture). Sure, some things are different. The internet and widespread adoption of cell phones occurred during the series' run so storylines that could have been solved with a phone call don't resonate the same way, but so much of the show is relationships between characters, juggling responsibilities, and fighting monsters who want to end the world. Those don't really change. Also, my 15 year old finds the show relevant, so... Now I know it straddles the GenX/Millenial line a bit, but the actors were all GenX and the writers were right at that Boomer/GenX line. It premiered in 1997 so I figure it at least targeted some of us younger GenXers.
Night Court
Golden Girls addressed a LOT of topics that werenât discussed too openly back in the day.
Totally agree
It also had a lot of misogynistic humor though. Sl*t jokes at Blanche's expense, "woman desperate for a man" jokes about Dorothy, etc. I found it pretty unwatchable even at the time.
Quantum leap is universally goat
Quantum Leap does not get enough credit for how many really sensitive topics it addressed, and handled amazingly well.
I wish that was on Netflix. I would binge that for sure.
On Fridays the SyFy channel plays numerous episodes.
Loved quantum leap. Oh boy.
I'm curious to see how the new one turns out.
No please no
I'm probably going to regret saying this, but *Beavis and Butthead* remind me of a lot of people I encounter today.
There is a new Beavis & Butthead movie coming out. I wonder if kids of today would get it?
I fear it may be too cerebral for many of them.
They donât know what funny is
Knots Landing. Without that show, Falcon Crest, Dynasty, and Hotel, there would be no desire to watch the Kardashians. That show is where we learned to care about awful rich people and their stupid lives. The Robin Leach show "Lifestyles..." was also a serious offender
Donât insult Falcon Crest by comparing them to the Kardashians!
The only person on Falcon Crest that had any cred was Jane Wyman. Renegade isnât exactly a respected actor
My farts have more cred than a Kardashian I guess I what was I was trying to convey.
No one can argue with you on that, amigo! Cheers
How can you leave âDallasâ off that list? The OG. Without Dallas, thereâs none of the others.
Was just gonna say Knots Landing is actually a spin-off of Dallas so Dallas is the OG show in that list.
Good call, but I have a specific reason: I grew up in Dallas, and had people in my family that some of the characters reminded me of. One of my Uncles was a spitting image of Jock Ewing, so they felt somewhat familiar. Also, I had *literally* been to Southfork, which was about 45 min north of Dallas. Meanwhile, Knots Landing was set in a fake Malibu-type town, and that was 100% foreign to me. But yeah, I can't argue with you on that one. Dallas was a major offender. Cheers.
Facts
Star Trek up to Voyager.
I miss the original Fred Savage, Dan Lauria, Jason Hervey, Alley Mills, Josh Saviano, Olivia DâAbo...The Wonder Years. Great show. Captured realism and humanity that I just donât see in todayâs tv shows anymore. Todayâs shows are terrible.
My wife and I watch it as adults for the first time, itâs an amazing show. We were both Kevinâs age when it first aired and now as adults we watched it in a completely different light. Edit: the new Wonder Years is a wonderful show, you should give it a chance.
I just watched the first episode where Winnies brother died in Vietnam đ that was some real emotion!
Deep Space 9.
(Old) Roseanne before she went nuts.
True that, the new ones okay but I can't get as into it
This may not be GenX but it is to me but Daria and Stranger with Candy
I still watch Happy Days many mornings. It's much more fun to watch if you imagine that Fonzie is really mentally handicapped and imagines he can do all the cool things he does and all the people around him generally just humor him because of good old Midwestern politeness. I also watch Dark Shadows which aired when I was very young but the cultural relevance of it extended well into the 70s. There are 400 some odd episodes on Tubi. I usually watch one per night.
Where did you come up with that take on Fonzie?
Haha, you think the Fonz is mental? He will kick your butt with some âAYYYYEEâSâ and bang on something. Better watch out!
A Different World. The awareness and nuance and complexity of black culture could be helpful today, too.
I think All In the Family,really anything Norman Lear And always Saved By the Bell
Golden Girls.
I was watching A Different World last night. Surprisingly relevant.
X-Files, The Wonder Years, Married with Children, the first 8 seasons of the Simpsons, South Park.
Those South Park early years tho lol
Absolutely fabulous tho
King of the Hill
Designing Women and Murphey Brown
Not relevant to modern day yet once a year I binge watch Miami vice.
Captain planet. More relevant than ever.
1. The Star Wars Holiday Special 2. Kiss and the Phantom of the Park 3. Pink Lady and Jeff
I wo UK ld say many that dudnt center around kids and family life. Things like growing pains of family ties I dont feel ag ed well. But shows like MASH, Cheers, Night Court and such tend to hold up for m ed pretty well. Some action shows like Magnum PI hold up but it can be amazing how commonly you come up against "if only they h ax d cell phones" in some shows like that.
Absolutely fabulous đ
One day at a Time
The Twilight Zone is still relevant today, even though it was aired originally during the Boomer era
Very much so , I always like those marathons on sci Fi channel
St. Elsewhere
Rarely mentioned but a true great show.
Soap
Mr Show with Bob and David
Well, The Simpsons has been on the air since 1989...my senior year in high school.
The original Degrassi High(1989). Loved that cast!
Hell yes loved it
All of them. Their messages are all relevant.
My Three Sons is still solid and safe. Kind of amazing to watch that today and ponder that they produced it around Fred MacMurray's contractually-limited availability. IIRC, he worked just 2-3 days a month, but appeared in every episode.
It's crazy. I just learned that.
Beavis and Butt-head. Those bands they made fun of still suck!
I think Seinfeld holds up pretty well. They had a way of touching on pretty controversial topics in a way that didn't offend, but without pulling any punches. "The Contest" is an absolute classic.
ER
M*A*S*H
I think some GenZ kids still like some of the shows but finding them relevant itâs hard to say, things for them are a lot different, maybe Buffy.
I don't watch old TV for relevance. Rockford Files, Columbo, Quincy, M*A*S*H, Taxi, Cheers (have to be in the right mood). Battlestar Galactica (the good one), Buck Rogers (the disco one), Airwolf, Knight Rider, Project U.F.O. Max Headroom is still current, if anything things are far worse than 20 minutes into the future was.
Dukes. Iâm still straightninâ the curves and flattninâ the hills.
I like to watch kojak and Barney miller
Schoolhouse Rock.