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Tinker, tailor, soldier, sandbagger: sometimes TV from the 70s holds up

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Re: Tinker, tailor, soldier, sandbagger: sometimes TV from the 70s holds up

#41

Post by wolco »

owebmaster wrote: post #37
olavk wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well 90% of everything is crap (or is it 95% ?) We just disagree about what 10% is non-crap. Due to the financial structure of TV production, you can be sure the majority of what is produced is considered worth watching by somebody . In any case, we are in a golden age of TV production with more high quality (writing, action, production) TV shows produced than ever. Enjoy it while it last, so you can complain when it…

I think the golden age is already in the past (the Lost trend, 2004-2010, which finished terrible but in the mean time other great shows with world-wide audience were released) and today is already the after-party that nobody wanted to miss, mostly for the late adopters (which is the majority, anyway). But a lot of people are becoming "series"-averse. I myself included.

We are in a new era of netflicks shows like stranger things, sense8, the 100, etc. Someone will look back and say its the golden age of tv for them

Re: Tinker, tailor, soldier, sandbagger: sometimes TV from the 70s holds up

#42

Post by rgacote »

hcayless wrote: post #39
salimmadjd wrote: post #2

I love Smiley's People as well as the BBC version of the Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. It's one of the smartest spy genre movies ever. I'd definitely think about watching this. But, maybe: "This makes me want to quit watching. I’m not sure I have the stomach to know a storyline and its characters are going to be abandoned. That’s one of the two main problems with TV as a medium: that it might end too soon or that it…

Sandbaggers was a great show. Watched it on PBS as a kid. The ending is absolutely gutting. I hadn't realized it was supposed to be a cliffhanger. Emotionally, it works very well.

There's also an episode where they get back the lead's (Marston's) love interest from East Germany. Without providing any spoiler's, the ending of that episode left younger me in shock for days. Still one of the most powerful (fiction) TV moments I've ever seen. I think it was "Special Relationship" season ending in Series 1. But don't watch just that one. Watch them all.

Re: Tinker, tailor, soldier, sandbagger: sometimes TV from the 70s holds up

#43

Post by triplesec »

cerealbad wrote: post #16

The Prisoner (1967-1968) is mesmerising. Le Voyage dans la lune - Georges Méliès 1902 (link provided) holds up after 115 years. Don't be so surprised! Timeless storytelling and design transcends it's delivery medium. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FrdVdKlxUk To the people questioning whether good television is still being made, yes of course it is, it might just take you a few years to find it. True Detective, Farg…

Is there a place here for Blake's Seven, (esp the early episodes) and of course Tom Baker's Dr Who incarnation? Incidentally, for those who didn't know, Douglas Adams wrote some classic episodes and was script editor (head writer) on Dr Who for at least a season or so.

And I think Dad's Army remains a classic, about the Home Guard in WWII, with some of the finest comic actors.

There's even a case to be made for The Sweeney and the Professionals which dealt with grittier more modern reality stories, darker sides of law and intelligence enforcement which is often glossed over in the modern glitzier procedurals.

Aha, and though maybe it was largely in the 80s, how about Minder?

Re: Tinker, tailor, soldier, sandbagger: sometimes TV from the 70s holds up

#44

Post by ghaff »

owebmaster wrote: post #37
olavk wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well 90% of everything is crap (or is it 95% ?) We just disagree about what 10% is non-crap. Due to the financial structure of TV production, you can be sure the majority of what is produced is considered worth watching by somebody . In any case, we are in a golden age of TV production with more high quality (writing, action, production) TV shows produced than ever. Enjoy it while it last, so you can complain when it…

I think the golden age is already in the past (the Lost trend, 2004-2010, which finished terrible but in the mean time other great shows with world-wide audience were released) and today is already the after-party that nobody wanted to miss, mostly for the late adopters (which is the majority, anyway). But a lot of people are becoming "series"-averse. I myself included.

Complex series with ongoing storylines can be great but they also get a bit exhausting after a while. There is a definite limit to how many Game of Thrones or Lost plotlines and character backstories one can keep in one's head when you just want to sit down and watch some TV.

It's fine that there are TV shows that are basically crafted for uber-fans who want to carefully watch every episode multiple times but these shows often aren't for the casual viewer. And there's nothing wrong with being a casual viewer.

Re: Tinker, tailor, soldier, sandbagger: sometimes TV from the 70s holds up

#45

Post by ghaff »

jhbadger wrote: post #28
pmiller2 wrote: post #25

Plenty of shows from the 1970s still hold up today: MASH, Hogan's Heroes, Columbo, The Incredible Hulk, Battlestar Galactica, Sesame Street, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Roots, etc. It was a great decade for TV, especially if you consider shows like All In The Family (which doesn't really hold up anymore, but is basically Married With Children for the 70s), Good Times, Mork and Mindy, etc.

Although M A S H kind of shows the problem from the modern perspective of 1970s TV. At its best, it focused on the grimly humorous aspects of war and surgery (as a modern take on the subject would), but at least half the episodes were just sitcom material. Plus there weren't really story arcs, but they may have been impractical because on broadcast TV where box sets of previous seasons and streaming wasn't available,…

Well, for that matter, VCRs weren't available. Also syndication was an important revenue stream. As a result, outside of miniseries "events," you mostly couldn't do shows that wouldn't work if someone weren't in front of their TV at a particular time slot every week. (There were somewhat exceptions like Dallas but they were rare.)

Re: Tinker, tailor, soldier, sandbagger: sometimes TV from the 70s holds up

#46

Post by fiftyacorn »

salimmadjd wrote: post #2

I love Smiley's People as well as the BBC version of the Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. It's one of the smartest spy genre movies ever. I'd definitely think about watching this. But, maybe: "This makes me want to quit watching. I’m not sure I have the stomach to know a storyline and its characters are going to be abandoned. That’s one of the two main problems with TV as a medium: that it might end too soon or that it…

Did smileys people have alan rickman and patrick stewart in?

Re: Tinker, tailor, soldier, sandbagger: sometimes TV from the 70s holds up

#47

Post by mason55 »

Retric wrote: post #36
coldtea wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The changes to the media landscape make great shows less likely. Companies simply stopped aiming for mass appeal in the same way. Hmmm? The mass appeal shows were not great by any stretch of the imagination precisely because of aiming for "lowest denominator" mass appeal. At best they could be good despite going for mass appeal, but aiming for the more tame and universal themes. By going for smaller audiences the c…

Game of Thrones for example is somewhat popular, but IMO that's mostly because of how bad the average TV show is not how great it is. It's closest 70's show would probably be Dallas which had 350 million people worldwide watch an episode. That's a well done hook even if they could not show nudes etc. As to offending people, M A S*H had men in drag show up regularly which really would offend people. Yet, apparently 60…

> * It's closest 70's show would probably be Dallas which had 350 million people worldwide watch an episode. That's a well done hook even if they could not show nudes etc.*

You can't compare numbers directly like that. Cable was not invented yet (or at least wasn't common) so there was a choice of about 4 channels.

Re: Tinker, tailor, soldier, sandbagger: sometimes TV from the 70s holds up

#48

Post by joezydeco »

pmiller2 wrote: post #25

Plenty of shows from the 1970s still hold up today: MASH, Hogan's Heroes, Columbo, The Incredible Hulk, Battlestar Galactica, Sesame Street, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Roots, etc. It was a great decade for TV, especially if you consider shows like All In The Family (which doesn't really hold up anymore, but is basically Married With Children for the 70s), Good Times, Mork and Mindy, etc.

"All In The Family (which doesn't really hold up anymore, but is basically Married With Children for the 70s)"

No. Absolutely not.

All In the Family tackled subjects and current events that no other sitcom in that era dared to do. The Wikipedia summary is pretty good here:

"The show broke ground in its depiction of issues previously considered unsuitable for a U.S. network television comedy, such as racism, infidelity, homosexuality, women's liberation, rape, religion, miscarriages, abortion, breast cancer, the Vietnam War, menopause, and impotence."

Married with Children was lowball humor for laughs and simulated controversy. There is absolutely no comparison.

Re: Tinker, tailor, soldier, sandbagger: sometimes TV from the 70s holds up

#49

Post by kbart »

mathieuuu wrote: post #33
jimjimjim wrote: post #9

Maybe it's just that people only remember the good tv shows/films/music/things from those years and ignore the boring chaff. Maybe there are just as many good tv shows these days. but in my opinion the vast majority of current tv shows/films/music/webcontent is utter undiluted mind numbing banal drivel and there isn't a circle of hell worthy enough to hold those responsible.

We are more and more nostalgic about everything. But I don't see how people can think TV shows were better in the 70s, 80s or even 90s. Since 2000 we live in the golden age of TV shows. We got The Wire, the Sopranos, Mad Men, the Shield, (Game of thrones?, Westworld?) and a ton of original concepts. I tend to think that nowadays there is more originality and risk taking in TV shows than in the movie industry. This su…

"But I don't see how people can think TV shows were better in the 70s, 80s or even 90s. Since 2000 we live in the golden age of TV shows."

I'm on the same camp. Absolute majority of TV series from pre-Internet times were dull, boring and non distinctive. Sure, there were some amazing exceptions (mostly named throughout this thread), but I personally, find many better TV series in the span of the last 10 years than in previous 30 years or so. What impresses me most that recent series are much more realistic, characters are deep, themes are more muddy not unlike in older series where black&white characters, good vs evil themes, mandatory happy ending etc. was nearly universal. Imagine something like Game of Thrones (not that it's the paramount of our times, but more for its brutality, nudity etc.) being aired on prime time during 70s or 80s..

Re: Tinker, tailor, soldier, sandbagger: sometimes TV from the 70s holds up

#50

Post by cowpewter »

wingerlang wrote: post #34
krylon wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, there is a third season of Twin Peaks currently running (well, it's almost over... the finale will air on Sunday). I think it appeals to David Lynch fans more than Twin Peaks fans, but so far I loved every single episode.

I was pretty glad when I heard they made a third season, but I remember not even finishing S2 due to the mystery of S1 being sold. Do I need to watch S2 to enjoy S3? Or maybe I should even give S2 another chance now that it's been a few years.

You should know how S2 ends at least because S2 ends on a cliffhanger involving Coop that S3 picks up. And maybe give S2 a second chance while fast-forwarding through every scene with James in it, because he has no impact on anything else and eventually just leaves.
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