Programmes that have aged poorly and programmes that have aged well?

[HaveYouHadYourBreak]

What programmes that you loved have surprised you on rewatching?

I've just finished the first series of This Life and was surprised at how well it has aged for the most part (but so much smoking!). It was refreshing to see people with imperfect teeth and pubic hair and wobbly bums living in a grotty house share past their early 20s. I'm re-living my youth with the music too.

But Coupling! Oof! I remember it being really good but some clips I've seen (like making sex videos without consent and the way women are talked about) demonstrate exactly why I've never seen any re-runs.

You have to ignore the fact the story revolves about mostly a group of male doctors and one female nurse.

There were actresses who played nurses from episode 1 to the end who never got much of a story. They might mention grandchildren or their plans but that was about it.

Doug wasn't that great a person.

The great thing about Fawlty Towers was that they didn’t have endless series so all the material was really good. I think each episode was only about half an hour so the whole thing is only six hours.

Porridge is amazing. I can remember the writers saying there would be a lot of swearing in real life but they couldn’t use it on the show so they invented their own swear words which still make me laugh.
I think the stories are universal - the old timer, the first offender, the strict warden and the empathetic one.
It still makes me laugh now when though I’ve been watching it for five decades. My favourite is when Fletch and Lenny decide to have a night in rather than go out.

Eh? Early seasons had somewhat more male than female docs, but as the show went on the balance evened out. Heaps of the main docs were women, including the head of the ER. Doug was portrayed as an absolute dickhead most of the time too.

I loved Drop the Dead Donkey. It was hilarious.

I love Dolly and her Daily Mail musings.
When it was first on I wasn’t much older than Twink.
I am now nearer Jean.
Tony Blair. Puts some posters up in a bus shelter and calls it a University….

I watch The Royle Family at least once a year.
There is no way it would be commissioned now, mostly because of what comes out of Jim’s mouth.
However, I still love it, mainly because of Nana. The Queen of Sheba episode was my favourite.

I love Dads Army and even though ive seen most of the episodes multiple times over the years it never fails to make me laugh. No hidden agendas, no trigger warnings in case it upsets the snowflakes, just pure comedy.
And of course one of the most iconic and unforgettable lines in the history of comedy
"Dont tell him Pike!!" 🤣🤣🤣

'Everybody loves Raymond' H used to love watching this back in the early 2000. Someone gave him the box set a few years back. But even he had to give up on it as it was so sexist, a complete parody of the disney dad /never seemed to work whilst his wife was looking after the kids, overbearing mil who practically lived with them and seemingly in every episode Raymond pestering for sex when his wife Debra was tired or just giving in for a quiet life. Urgh.
We binned it.

Father Ted has aged like a fine wine. I watched it again a few years ago with my kids and it was even better than the first time. The same with Black Books - that mix of whimsy and surrealism, along with the ‘outsidierness’ or oddness of the characters, makes both shows timeless.

i found the opposite! Watched an old series I found in the charity shop, Sam proposes to Diane on a boat and is so angry she rejects him that he threatens he and tells her she needs to either jump off the boat ( into the sea, at night) or he’ll throw her in and then storms towards her so threateningly she does - cue canned laughter at this hilarious scene. Later in the same episode, Frazier is also so violently angry with his partner for rejecting him that he starts to strangle Diane whilst massaging her, as he is triggered. Cue canned laughter. So men’s violent reactions to female rejection is a hilarious joke.

Agree with Porridge! Found DVDs in charity shop and enjoying watching them!

I've just watched Frasier start to finish with my older children. Absolutely brilliant.

Pretty much everything else from my own youth that I've tried to watch with my children has had to be a hard no. Even The Good Life!
I can't remember if The Vicar of Dibley was problematic but it was definitely surprisingly rude.

I was bored one night and decided to watch 2 pints of lager and a packet of crisps on bbc iplayer. It was always shit, but it really made me remember what it was like at that time around the millennium, massive beer and “birds” culture, everyone obsessed with shagging, men expected to act blokey at all times. Glad we’ve moved on from those stereotypes

Porridge is on at the moment on U&Gold. It never fails to make me chuckle but watching it always makes me sad for Richard Beckinsale who was taken so suddenly and so young. I remember hearing the news, it was such a shock 😢

No, not buying that.
At the time Little Britain was on, I was working in a school for children with special needs. We had grown adults as well as teens, making that huh, huh, huh noise that the character Anne makes, whenever we took groups out into the community. Sickening that children were the victims of real life disablism because of that bloody show.
Also racism, just isn't funny.

I tried to rewatch The Good Life recently and gave up after Tom tried to snog Margot in the kitchen while Jerry and Barbara were groping each other in the living room followed by an episode where Tom gratuitously ogled a visiting woman's tits, and nearly peed himself in excitement at her low cut outfit, he was basically panting while his wife sat there taking it - and wifey had a pathetic little cry later, but he bought her a nice dress, so all was well.

I loved that show when I was youngster. God, it was awful.

Spooks is still a great watch, very relevant to at the moment with it's warnings about the US and the power of billionaires.

Third Rock from the Sun was great.

Yes Minister/Prime Minister are still so good and one of the few things I watch and actually put the phone down to concentrate on what’s being said. Very intelligent comedy.

YABU for posting this in AIBU section and for not saying at the start what type of programmes you mean. Didnt expect this to be about TV shows.

Completely agree. And with the pp who said about Jerry quietly being a good husband. I could never stand Tom - it was very funny though.

What did you expect it to be about??

Yes, Babylon 5 was much better (and strangely prophetic about the future). JMS could also write strong women, even if he did do Ivanova dirty!