Currently, Me-TV shows M*A*S*H, Mary Tyler Moore, and Bob Newhart each weeknight (programs that made up 90 minutes of CBS's famous early 70's Saturday night line-up. If they added All in the Family and the Carol Burnett Show, they'd have the entire night recreated.
They also carry The Odd Couple, The Brady Bunch, and Love American Style (but nowhere near each other on the schedule). Add Room 222 and The Partridge Family, and you have the classic ABC Friday Night from the early 70's.
(They also show Batman, Lost in Space, and Star Trek TOS back to back on Saturday nights, which is classic in it's own way. Wednesday nights were hell in 66', with Batman and Lost in Space airing on different stations at the same time. You'd have to see who the Batman villain was, then check to see the alien of the week on Lost in Space, and decide which to watch.)
By Ed Martin of TV Worth Watching
http://www.tvworthwatching.comIt’s only four years old, and isn’t available everywhere — at least not yet — but the relatively new nostalgia network Me-TV already has done something remarkable. It has made it possible for anyone old enough to remember CBS’s legendary 1973-74 Saturday night comedy lineup to relive three-quarters of that singularly sensational viewing experience Monday thru Friday from 7:30-9:30 p.m. ET.
The trio of shows comprising those three quarters are M*A*S*H (which is telecast at 7 and 7:30 p.m. ET), The Mary Tyler Moore Show (8 p.m.) and The Bob Newhart Show (9 p.m.). The show that interrupts this particular flow is The Dick Van Dyke Show (8:30 p.m.), and while it was not one of CBS’s early Seventies Saturday night comedy classics, it certainly feels right at home with those other fantastic shows.
If Me-TV ran All in the Family in place of The Dick Van Dyke Show it would re-create not only the best two-hour comedy block in television history, but two-thirds of the best night of television ever. (Many of CBS’s various Saturday foursomes, including its 1973-74 season all-stars, were followed at 10 p.m. by The Carol Burnett Show from 1972-77.)
Happily, people who receive Me-TV (a.k.a. Memorable Entertainment Television) and the similarly classic-conscious Antenna TV can actually complete this nightly orgy of nostalgia for Saturday nights, circa 1973-74, by changing the channel at 9:30 p.m. ET and enjoying an episode of All in the Family. (Antenna TV runs two episodes of All in the Family weeknights at 9 and 9:30.)
I have to admit, I don’t often do this, partly because I indulged in so many hours of All in the Family last summer (on Antenna TV and TV Land), and also because there is currently so much first-run TV to see.
But my DVR is in overdrive nevertheless. More often than not, I find myself recording the new stuff and watching it later in the evening, simply because I cannot resist M*A*S*H, Mary and Bob. On Me-TV, they’re followed at 9:30 by another treat: The original single-woman-in-the-city comedy That Girl, which still sparkles all these decades later. With all due respect to the effortless charms of stars Marlo Thomas and Ted Bessell, That Girl would be worth watching just for its occasional location shoots, which lovingly showcase New York City in the late-Sixties.
I have always enjoyed reruns of All in the Family, M*A*S*H, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Bob Newhart Show, but thanks to Me-TV and Antenna TV, I have recently been reminded of how much they enhance each other when savored in one viewing experience. Like many kids and teenagers of my generation, I often stayed home on Saturday nights (or went to friends’ homes) to watch these shows. During the television season, Friday was the night to go out and Saturday was the night to stay in, though once the summer rerun season began, Saturdays were wide open, too.
The long-running M*A*S*H (1972-83) was a part of CBS’s Saturday schedule for only one season. Oddly, the network never found another show that fit so well with All in the Family (which ran on Saturday from 1971-75) and Mary Tyler Moore and Bob Newhart (which stayed on Saturday throughout their runs).
Me-TV has inadvertently come up with a long-elusive answer, plunking The Dick Van Dyke Show in between the latter two. It fits like a glove, and makes for a full hour of entertainment for fans of Ms. Moore.
Seriously, the opportunity to enjoy these shows together again can be hazardous to a television fan’s already packed viewing schedule — but I’m happy to suffer the consequences.
The only thing that would make me happier is if Me-TV could also cobble together the shows that comprised ABC’s 1971-73 Friday night comedy combo, which from where I sit is the second greatest comedy block in television history.
I wouldn’t want Me-TV to dislodge its CBS classics from its weeknight lineup, but it would be wonderful if it turned over its primetime weekend hours to The Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family, Room 222 and The Odd Couple. And if you’re thinking that lineup should be topped off with Love American Style, you aren’t alone.
In fact, Me-TV already offers three of those five shows. So we’re almost there!
