Amph Retro TV cable channels based on decade in the works

Format similar to SiriusXM's '60s, '70s, '80s, and '90s music channels

What say everybody about it?

You just know the '70s channel will have...

(In best Ernie Anderson voice)

Tonightttt....on the Looooove Booooaaaaaaat....

 

I'm surprised they don't have these already given the hundreds of pointless channels that already exist.

 

There are over-the-air channels that show old TV shows like Retro TV and Antenna TV (I watched WKRP in Cincinnati on a local station a while back one night waiting for The Daily show to come on), but you usually can't get them with a cable or satellite dish.

 

I think we've had a discussion before about the idea of a TCM for television.

 

If the 60s channel could somehow pull off airing Batman, I would sign up immediately.

 

ME-TV, one of the over-air retro channels, currently has 60s Batman, if you can find that locally.

 

It won't last because of network decay.

Case in point: TV Land. TV Land was originally the offshoot of Nick at Nite, Nickelodeon's evening bloc of shows from the 50s and 60s, shows like Bewitched, The Beverly Hillbillies, and I Dream of Jeannie. The bloc was so successful that Viacom decided to spin it off into its own channel....Nickelodeon would be able to broadcast their flagship programs targeted at children and young teens on a 24/7 basis, while TV Land would be the sister network catering to adults.

And it worked initially. TV Land was a huge success. BUT....then came the popularity of reality television. So TV Land launched its own reality TV show called "She's Got The Look", where midde-aged moms go in for makeovers and modeling lessons. That show wound up being cancelled, but TV Land still wanted something new....so they started creating their own programming, with sitcoms starring Fran Drescher, Betty White, and Dennis Nedry.

The old classics have all been replaced by late 90s/early 2000s programming (like "Everybody Loves Raymond"), and don't get played unless someone dies. Andy Griffith got a 4-day marathon....but even then they had the old Andy Griffith Show alternating with freakin Matlock.

Everything that TV Land was designed to be is gone now. It's just another channel.

 

I could watch 80's Saturday Morning Cartoons all day.

 

That's true, but only if they let it happen to them. They need to put executives and a philosophy in place that says, "This is our thing, and there's nothing wrong with that". It's executives like what Bonnie Hammer turned the Sci-Fi Channel into you need to be careful of.

Isn't it kind of funny that TCM is the only cable network that has fought network decay tooth and nail? Probably because they know what they're doing, and any executive there who even suggests doing anything different, like showing movies with commercial breaks and/or edited-for-tv versions are summarily chastised for it.

 

Cox Communications has them, and I believe Verizon airs Antenna TV.

 

I thought that one was renamed already.

 

THUNDERCATS HOOOOOOOOOOOO!

 

Well, Thundercats was late in the afternoon during the week for me. But Thundarr, D&D, Pole Position, Looney Toons, Smurfs, Mighty Orbits, yep.

 

I would dieeeeeee.All in the Family, Miami Vice, Hill Street Blues, Dallas, Dynasty, etc. I am salivating.

 

Also, VH1 and MTV....it's like a race between them to see who can get to the bottom of the barrel first.

Viacom's MTV was a resounding success in the 80s....so naturally Turner Corp. wanted in on the action.
Eventually MTV started ebbing away from music videos in the 90s with reality TV (The Real World) and original programming (Beavis and Butthead, Daria)
BUT....VH1 fired back with their "Music First" campaign. Which was the awesome years of VH1, where they mixed music videos with Behind the Music documentaries.
Unfortunately....Reality Television. MTV switched to all "reality" all the time....and VH1 followed suit.
But the real kicker is that at the same time MTV started MTV2....which was dedicated to music videos.
VH1, perhaps in a bid to definitively prove God doesn't exist, put all their time, effort, and money into Hulk Hogan and Flava Flav, then followed MTV with VH1 Classic, which as far as I know is supposed to be for music videos only, but I don't know for sure because I'm not paying for that ****.
And now MTV2, perhaps in a bid to definitively prove God does exist and that they are allied with his eternal enemy Satan by way of their three-headed hellhound symbol, has switched over to nothing but reality shows.



"I don't want....
I don't want....
I don't want MTV"

 

Originally, that's what Cartoon Network was for (Ted Turner wasn't exactly secretive in his reasons why he bought the Hanna-Barbera library was for this reason), but then they started showing original programs, with the older stuff being put on Boomerang, a spin-off channel not very many cable and satellite companies offer (I don't even have it on my cable). Cartoon Network has had a brief flirtation with live-action programming, but they've come to their senses, it seems like.

Personally, I wish Cartoon Network would just show old cartoons more, and maybe perhaps move the starting time of Adult Swim back to like 10 or 11 P.M. to be honest (Does Family Guy REALLY bring in the ratings that they need to show two episodes back-to-back?).

 

i feel like there's an mtv3. did i imagine that? i dont have a tv

 

It was very short - lived.

 

maybe we shouldn't blame the networks for trying to make money, but the people who apparently watch enough of this horrible crap that it makes money.

 

They do, every weekday at noon or so, an hour block of the classic shorts. But I hear they're edited to heck and back, so your son might as well stick to the DVDs.

(Remembers when a local TV station would show Tom and Jerry and Tex Avery cartoons every afternoon, pretty much unedited.)