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(Salon)   Anyone else have memories of watching classic television with your grandparents?   (salon.com) divider line
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933 clicks; posted to Entertainment » on 08 Feb 2023 at 3:50 AM (6 weeks ago)   |   Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook



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GitOffaMyLawn [TotalFark]
2023-02-07 10:30:47 PM  
Yep, Laurence Welk and Red Skelton.

True fun fact - saw Red Skelton driving north on the 405. I waved. He waved back. I was in 4th grade. It was CAS.

/ parents and I were more Laugh-In and Smothers Brothers
 
Creepy Lurker Guy [TotalFark]
2023-02-07 10:33:34 PM  
I watched Groucho Marx on You Bet Your Life every evening at 6:00 with my Grandmother.
 
fjnorton [TotalFark]
2023-02-07 10:38:34 PM  
Anything music with an oboe big band in it reminds me of watching Lawrence Welk with my grandparents. I didn't care for it then but my grandma was in love with him.
 
Daniel Boone's Farm [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-02-07 10:46:22 PM  
Lawrence Welk ruined plenty of evenings when I was a youngster.  Also the dodgy UHF channel that I watched wrestling on had a show called Polish Chicago, a nightmare collection of Polish news mixed with ads for Polish restaurants and bakeries. They had a segment called Street Scene which featured North side polish people wearing plaid flood pants that we would get yelled at for laughing at.
 
ms_lara_croft [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-02-07 11:05:14 PM  
I used to watch The Twilight Zone and Dark Shadows with my grandmother. They gave me nightmares, but I couldn't get enough. I now write horror.
 
Creepy Lurker Guy [TotalFark]
2023-02-07 11:15:09 PM  

ms_lara_croft: I used to watch The Twilight Zone and Dark Shadows with my grandmother. They gave me nightmares, but I couldn't get enough. I now write horror.


I watched Dark Shadows when it first aired, then about five years ago, re-watched all 1,245 episodes.
 
TelemonianAjax [TotalFark]
2023-02-07 11:35:12 PM  
Are You Being Served? with my grandma.  It was 1989, my parents had divorced quickly and we moved to my mom's hometown and in with grandma and grandpa.  Gram would make microwave popcorn and watch AYBS and I stayed up with her to feel like a special little man.

Thanks for the memory, subby.  It's been a hard day of family fee-fees and I needed that shot of love.
 
Naido [TotalFark]
2023-02-07 11:51:04 PM  
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Breaker Moran [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-02-07 11:59:49 PM  
My mom's parents used to get up and dance   while we watched The Lawrence Welk show after dinner on Sunday.  And my dad's dad was friends with Welk, same super Catholic roots and social milieux.
 
Benevolent Misanthrope [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-02-08 12:03:32 AM  
Count me in as another whose Sunday nights were ruined by Lawrence Welk.

Also, To Tell the Truth and Truth or Consequences on weeknights.  (who the f*ck was Kitty Carlisle, anyway?)
 
Sub Human [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-02-08 12:33:07 AM  
Late night on Fridays I would stay up with my Pap watching Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Sometimes I would fall asleep before it finished, but I loved it.


Baaa dump a dumpity dum pa dum
 
Sub Human [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-02-08 12:35:19 AM  
I was up late when Neil walked on the moon, Pap had to wake me up for that one.
 
Breaker Moran [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-02-08 12:51:37 AM  

Breaker Moran: My mom's parents used to get up and dance   while we watched The Lawrence Welk show after dinner on Sunday.  And my dad's dad was friends with Welk, same super Catholic roots and social milieux.


Saturday nights.  I'm kinda old as they were then.
 
Benevolent Misanthrope [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-02-08 1:13:31 AM  

Sub Human: I was up late when Neil walked on the moon, Pap had to wake me up for that one.


That's my first memory, my Pa-Pa and me in his living room, with him explaining what was happening and why it was important. Also one of my most cherished memories.
 
RolandTGunner [TotalFark]
2023-02-08 1:23:04 AM  
Grandma loved Lawrence Welk, Ironside, and General Hospital and some other soap. (As the World Turns?)
I had to play outside while she was watching her soaps.
Grandpa liked Red Skelton and Flip Wilson.
Also watched Truth or Consequences and The High Chaparral.
I think Grandma liked Leif Erickson
 
Mithraic_bullshiat
2023-02-08 4:07:30 AM  
Grandma watched Welk, grandpa watched Hee Haw and Benny Hill. Other grandma watched strictly Jeopardy, plus The Sound of Music and The Wizard of Oz when the network (CBS?) would broadcast it every year on holidays.

Parents were Rocky & Bullwinkle, mom liked Green Acres and The Beverly Hillbillies.  Those all had some sight gags but were mainly radio show writers writing for TV. You didn't really have to watch them to enjoy them.

As for myself, my entire psychosocial/sexual development was bookended by Wonder Woman and Manimal.
 
Mithraic_bullshiat
2023-02-08 4:11:17 AM  
Oh, parents also dug the Rod Serling Twilight Zone and Night Gallery. They'd talk about What's My Line & Truth or Consequences, but I don't recall old gameshows being syndicated when I was a kid.
 
Streetwise Hercules
2023-02-08 4:17:39 AM  
Grandma liked the 3 Stooges, while grandpa was a Laurel and Hardy kind of guy. Somehow they made it work.
 
Bob Down
2023-02-08 4:23:19 AM  
My grands didn't have TV. We used to listen to Marconi on the radio though.
 
RoyFokker'sGhost
2023-02-08 4:27:24 AM  
Just Lawrence Welk on my paternal grandparents' TV

/and-a one
//and-a two
///I'd do the requisite family time, then go to the guest room to watch Airwolf, Knight Rider, Dukes of Hazzard, Wizards & Warriors, A-Team, or BJ & the Bear by myself
 
johnphantom
2023-02-08 4:27:38 AM  
I watched MASH, Magnum PI and Cheers with my grandmother. From age 17 till she died a couple years later I drank with her while watching Cheers in the late 1980s.
 
Lorelle [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-02-08 4:36:28 AM  
The only thing on TV I recall watching with my grandparents was the first landing on the moon in 1969.
 
melfunction
2023-02-08 4:36:38 AM  
We went to the grandparents to watch color TV. Sunday night on NBC. Disney and Bonanza.
 
Imaginativescreenname [TotalFark]
2023-02-08 4:47:08 AM  
If my grandfather had the remote, I just remember Hee-Haw and sometimes Benny hill which would quickly be changed if/when it got too blatantly racy.  Grandma binged soap operas, particularly Days of our Lives. Great Grandmother liked Matlock, Perry Mason, Murder She Wrote, that kinda stuff. I wasn't too particularly fond or into any of it (with the possible exception of MSW, even then to me Landsbury was always charming and energetic in her own unique way). but looking back appreciate the diversity of what they exposed me to.
 
devilskware
2023-02-08 4:50:56 AM  
Johhny Carson when I'd go stay with my Granny. Only time I got to stay up that late. Great memories :)
 
holdmybones
2023-02-08 5:04:03 AM  
My grandma and I used to watch Hee Haw and then 227 and Amen. Which is weird because my grandfather was a pretty big racist - but I don't ever recall him being there so he was probably drunk.
 
Hendawg
2023-02-08 5:53:54 AM  
Coronation Street with my grandmother.  For the record, we're Americans.  But she loved it
 
Clash City Farker
2023-02-08 5:57:49 AM  
Mostly I remember watching MASH and All in the Family with them.
 
Ishkur [OhFark]
2023-02-08 6:17:43 AM  
I watched the first couple episodes of Nu Night Court. It was unfunny dreck and the premise of Dan Fielding being a reformed man who left the legal profession, only to be called back to become Defense counsel just struck me as a weak, pulled-punches lost opportunity. Just about the most banal thing you could do for this character -- strip him of everything that made him such a great character. It just sucked sucked sucked.

So on inspiration I grabbed the original Night Court just to compare the two. The one thing the new show is missing is heart. The classic show had a lot of serious third act/moral moments in it, usually Harry turning people's lives around (ie: a runaway teen played by Michael J Fox). He wasn't just a judge, he took an active part in the people's lives in his court, tried to make things better.

But it wasn't very funny either. At least the first season wasn't. They didn't really iron out the kinks until they shuffled some cast members around and rewrote Dan into the lecherous looney tunes character that John Larroquette would eventually win 4 Emmys for. S2 is much better/funnier, but the show didn't hit its stride until they got a permanent Defense counsel in Markie Post in S3.

So maybe the new show should be given more of a lifeline to find its footing, but I don't have the time for Big Bang Theory style comedy and safe, inoffensive jokes. If Dan's gonna be the non-womanizing non-money-and-status obsessed straight man, then what's the point?
 
Puffyshirt
2023-02-08 6:33:08 AM  
I watched Laurel and Hardy's short films with my grandfather. He was starting to lose his hearing but was able to still enjoy their slapstick. Very fond memories for me.
 
Tor_Eckman
2023-02-08 6:38:04 AM  
I worked with my 80-something gramps at his tavern for a while on the 6pm to 2am shift.  He anxiously waited for Benny Hill to come on at 11 every night.  He loved it.

My other grandparents didn't even have a TV.
 
CarnySaur [recently expired TotalFark]
2023-02-08 6:41:22 AM  
Just game shows.
 
randyripoff
2023-02-08 6:50:52 AM  
I was a late child for both of my parents, considerably late for my father who was 18 years my mother's senior. Consequently I never knew my grandparents on his side, although I did know my grandmother on hers..

Anyway, around 1971 I was 6 and we'd moved to a rural area and my dad had retired from the US Postal Service. We moved to a large 12 room farmhouse that was about 2 hours from a major city, and subsequently we were able to tune in their channels.

My dad was quite handy so we usually had at least one working color console TV. The family would gather to watch prime time comedies and dramas, stuff like Wait Until Your Father Gets Home, Laugh-In, Love American Style, plus later classics like All In The Family and Sanford and Son (I learned a ton about race relations in America from the latter two). As my grandmother was living in the same house it wasn't unusual for her to join us.

However, one thing she was a stickler for was live baseball, specifically the Cubs. So there were many afternoons all of us would watch them (mostly lose, of course) together. I'd guess you could call those broadcasts' classic.
 
Rapmaster2000
2023-02-08 6:51:58 AM  
My grandma loved Golden Girls.  We'd always watch that.
 
Rapmaster2000
2023-02-08 6:55:47 AM  

randyripoff: However, one thing she was a stickler for was live baseball, specifically the Cubs. So there were many afternoons all of us would watch them (mostly lose, of course) together. I'd guess you could call those broadcasts' classic.


Harry Caray broadcasting from the bleachers was a total classic.
4.bp.blogspot.comView Full Size
 
The_Sponge [TotalFark]
2023-02-08 6:56:37 AM  
I miss watching "The Golden Girls" with my Grandmother.
 
robertus [TotalFark]
2023-02-08 6:56:52 AM  
Spent a summer bouncing among relatives in New York and fondly recall staying up with grandma to watch DC Follies

/also getting my ass kicked at Scrabble
 
Marcos P
2023-02-08 6:57:26 AM  
I used to watch roadrunner with my grandma. It's classic to me.
 
ms_lara_croft [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-02-08 7:00:31 AM  

Creepy Lurker Guy: ms_lara_croft: I used to watch The Twilight Zone and Dark Shadows with my grandmother. They gave me nightmares, but I couldn't get enough. I now write horror.

I watched Dark Shadows when it first aired, then about five years ago, re-watched all 1,245 episodes.


I don't remember it anymore, although I remember the characters especially Barnabas and Quentin. I have seen The Twilight Zone since then, and it's always been a favorite.
 
damageddude [TotalFark]
2023-02-08 7:29:23 AM  
When Hawaii 5-0 came on that was Grandma time. Otherwise, my grandparents weren't really TV people. I have more of a memory of watching westerns and sci-fi with my dad. Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Superfriends, Twilight Zone, Star Trek and Doctor Who (classic) come on and I can still smell the cigarette smoke.
 
kermit the forg [TotalFark]
2023-02-08 7:30:35 AM  

Puffyshirt: I watched Laurel and Hardy's short films with my grandfather. He was starting to lose his hearing but was able to still enjoy their slapstick. Very fond memories for me.


I used to watch them with my Baba.  Channel 11 in New York used to show them on Sunday afternoons in the early to mid '80s.  And Shirley Temple movies, which she loved as a kid.

She also liked to watch Donahue, which I think helped make me as liberal as I am today.
 
sensitive yet dangerous
2023-02-08 7:32:35 AM  
"Like sand through an hourglass, these are the Days Of Our Lives."

We'd only visit every so often owing to the fact that we lived about 1000 miles away, so when we were there we'd humor the elderly ladies by sitting quietly while the Stories were on. Then we'd usually do something not TV-centric. Sometimes we'd watch a movie but one of them would usually talk through it, which i hated. You want to talk or watch the movie?

So yeah, not much grandparent/extended family TV time.
 
Zombies ate my neighbors
2023-02-08 7:36:33 AM  
Dallas. Dallas ruined so many evenings.
 
2fardownthread [recently expired TotalFark]
2023-02-08 7:41:48 AM  
OK
Have not seen this yet, so here we go. It was my aunt and uncle. Their upbringings were so different that it was Lawrence Welk and THEN HeeHaw. Pretty sure it was just like that. One right after the other. One would think that no Venn diagram overlap could occur, but there it was. I could not understand the appeal of either one of the shows, but even to 8 year old me, they both seemed so fake and contrived. smiling and happy bubbles and picking and grinning. I got zero jokes. They just put me to sleep. And then to top it all off, my older cousins would be watching Dark Shadows for fun. I had no idea what was going on there.

It was a very weird time with fractured audiences. I was a confused kid. My mom watched Star Trek. My grandfather watched football. None of my other grandparents watched TV as far as I know.

One genre was not tolerated in any household I grew up in: the shows that went straight at making fun of ... country people. Andy Griffith would sometimes get a pass, but the Beverly Hillbillies and Gomer Pyle got switched off immediately. It did not SEEM mean-spirited to many people, but a lot of it is. I would venture that the same kind of "otherism" attracted bigots the way that the Munsters and the Addams Family did later. And then Sanford and Son, Chico and the Man, and Good Times just ran with the "stereotype" formula.
 
Laikabot
2023-02-08 7:52:26 AM  
Gunsmoke and Lawrence Welk every weekend like clockwork.
 
Sawdust and Mildew [TotalFark]
2023-02-08 7:54:20 AM  
Grandparents? No, and that's a long story, but with my parents, sure. It's why I can at least tolerate the old sitcom format much easier than generations that came after me. That's probably as unusual to them as depictions of telegraphy were to us.
 
OtherLittleGuy [BareFark]
2023-02-08 8:02:18 AM  
Lawrence Welk, Gunsmoke. Afternoons with the soaps like All My Children, Somerset, Another World.

And at night, just before bed, Stump the Stars with Deanna Lund and Roger C. Carmel.
 
OtherLittleGuy [BareFark]
2023-02-08 8:05:56 AM  

Creepy Lurker Guy: ms_lara_croft: I used to watch The Twilight Zone and Dark Shadows with my grandmother. They gave me nightmares, but I couldn't get enough. I now write horror.

I watched Dark Shadows when it first aired, then about five years ago, re-watched all 1,245 episodes.


We're watching DS starting from Barnabas' arrive, so we're getting a kick...
 
natazha [BareFark]
2023-02-08 8:24:18 AM  

GitOffaMyLawn: Yep, Laurence Welk and Red Skelton.


That was my dad*. I don't remember if my grandparents even had TV. I doubt my mother's did as her father was a skinflint's tightwad.

But, I'm 71 this month.

*And "Sing along with Mitch"
 
69gnarkill69
2023-02-08 8:26:46 AM  
I remember watching coverage of the Vietnam war and wondering why soldiers were fighting gorillas.
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