Me TV ad with Ben Matlock and Dr. Sloan "watching" their shows
 

Found this rather funny commercial from MeTV advertising Perry Mason, Matlock, Diagnosis Murder by having Ben and Dr. Sloan "watch" their shows on TV. This was actually a real scene from the show, but they superimposed the images on the TV but they did a very good job of getting them centered.

And it's a 25" Sony Trinitron, I'm pretty sure.

Others probably might not, but I love this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsUgU9g4PUY

Just my two cents...

Too bad they did not have Barnaby Jones ,Frank Cannon ,Quincy and Mannix to it.All great crime drama shows when TV was great.

Yup 27" Sony. Probably a KV27S or V series. Not very old,
late 90's apx.

73 Zeno:smoke:
LFOD !

Television programming in the 21st century has gone downhill, in a big way; however, that's why retro TV subchannels like MeTV, Antenna TV, etc. exist today, and why the programs you mention are now available on DVD. I watched all these shows and liked them (still do) when they were new, and I have DVD sets of many of them. In fact, the retro TV channels and my DVDs/VHS video tapes are about all I watch these days. (Channel 3 in Cleveland just recently picked up COZI TV on channel 3.3 from channel 5.2 after the latter's contract with the network expired, and the other two retro channels, on channels 8.2 and 19.2 respectively, have been available OTA in this area for some time.) The only network programs I watch, as a rule, are news broadcasts such as NBC Nightly News and (very rarely) Dateline NBC.

BTW, the roundie RCA TV shown in the PDF attached to VK member TUD1's post bears a very strong resemblance to a 1964 Sears Silvertone roundie I owned in the early '70s. The only differences are the branding and the light-through (my term for illuminated channel knobs) channel selector; other than that and certain differences in the front panel layout, not to mention the set in question being a console (my Silvertone was a table model in a steel cabinet), these sets would have been identical.

I couldn't disagree more strongly with this statement, I think TV has never been better... Between HBO, Netflix and AMC, we're now getting 60 hour long commercial free movies, with full blown high dollar set design and excellent acting, fully embracing the improved presentation of large screens and better sound with Hollywood movie quality filming. TV has really had to step up its game to survive, and it's done so well. Its the big 3 networks which have gone down the tubes, but hey, everything has its day.

That's what I meant. Programming on ABC, CBS and NBC was much better years ago than it is today, and there was no need for content ratings the likes of TV-G, TV-PG, etc. in TV's early years as are shown on American programs nowadays. Television technology, however, has improved by leaps and bounds, to the point where today's TV is, from a technological standpoint, much better than it was before DTV and high definition.

PBS, and the British TV channels on some cable systems (the latter are also available as standalone streaming channels on Roku and possibly other streaming video players), are about the only networks that don't carry garbage programming. Of course, if you want to see older (and in my opinion better) programs, your only recourse is either to watch them on DVD or on the retro DTV channels. The reason most programming on the broadcast networks is such trash is because that is what draws ratings.

We do not live in the world of Leave It to Beaver anymore, and the TV networks know it. Times have changed since the 1950s, and so has American TV, like it or not. If you don't like what you see, you always have the option of changing the channel, turning off the set entirely, or watching alternate programming on DTV subchannels, DVDs, or PBS. But do not expect the broadcast networks to improve their programming any time soon. Television reflects the views and morals of society, and as I said earlier, today's TV shows are the garbage they are simply because that is what today's TV viewers, by and large, want to watch.

Exactly what I did... turned the TV off except occasionally. Most of my radios get a good workout. The network sponsors get HOSED!!!

I agree about network TV. Mostly the only time I watch on any of the 3 network channels are the newscasts. I see the ads for the evening shows, and most of them look like garbage. And of course the silly daytime chat shows. All appealing to the dumbed down masses. I remember just a few years ago, maybe more like 10 I actually did watch some of the shows, but nothing on now looks like it would appeal to me. And I don't recall the last time I saw an evening movie being aired. Remember when networks used to show those?

Usually in the evenings I watch things on YouTube or if I do turn on the TV, it's one of the cable network channels or PBS. And a lot of the stuff on network TV I don't care about either.

I see some of these second sub channels like Me TV will have to find a new home when some channels will go off the air with the new DTV repack.

Ditto.Network TV is crap.Bias news.In the mid 1990's it started to turn into crap.Crappy boring sitcoms.No brainer reality shows.I can add more but I'll be nice.

Yes, I sure do. In the '60s through about the '80s, IIRC, all three major network stations in Cleveland (and, I'm sure, most other cities) had afternoon movies, and of course the TV networks themselves aired movies several nights a week, such as NBC's weeknight films which aired at least five nights a week in color, and ABC and CBS weeknight movie presentations as well. My favorites were, and still are, McCloud, Columbo, Banacek and McMillan and Wife. These were presented each week in a rotating format NBC termed the "Mystery Wheel", with the network showing a different episode every week. I have many of these mystery movies on DVD and enjoy them, as much now as when they were new. These were truly excellent television productions; unfortunately, however, times have changed, and we will never again see such quality programming on the major TV networks. It has as much to do with generational differences as anything else. These movies and other shows, like all TV programming 50+ years ago, reflected the tastes of that generation, and the networks had to keep up with the times, then as now.

The reason TV programming is such trash these days, IMO, is, as I said, because that is what today's generation of TV viewers want to see on their giant flat screens, and the networks are trying their best to accomodate them. I am 61 years old and remember many of the shows I grew up watching, which is why I have so many of them on DVD today and watch them on retro DTV channels like MeTV, Antenna TV and COZI TV. (As I said in my last post, I do not, as a rule, watch the major networks for anything much other than the evening news.) I can't help wondering how many of today's Generation X (or whatever today's generation is called) TV viewers even watch the retro DTV channels, all of which carry shows that were made long before those people were born.

VHS video cassette (and later DVD) rentals, not to mention outright sales of cassettes and DVDs, which began, IIRC, in the 1980s and continue to this day, were very instrumental in killing the TV networks' weeknight movie presentations for all time. By the time DVDs came along, the networks probably, almost certainly, realized that their nightly movie presentations wouldn't be nearly as popular anymore as they once were, say in the 1970s, so they were discontinued on the networks, to be replaced by syndicated talk shows, infomercials, or local programming tailored to the area being served by the TV stations.

Will the nightly TV movie ever make a comeback on American television? I don't think so. As I said, VHS video tape and, nowadays, DVDs killed this once-popular form of television programming, and it isn't going to return any time soon, if ever. Some local stations may run an occasional (I emphasize the word occasional) movie during the networks' inactive periods (if the local station cannot find an infomercial, talk show, etc. to fill the time slot[s]), but I'm sure they will be few and far between. Most TV stations are programmed, by and large, by the networks with which they are affiliated, so the stations have precious little time to air local shows, much less full-length feature films.

It's too bad TV programming has gone downhill as much as it has, but that's the way it is, as the late Walter Cronkite used to say at the end of the CBS Evening News. Like it or not, the times are changing, and the only way older viewers can get their favorite 1950s-'70s shows anymore is on the retro DTV channels or on DVD. We will never again see these older shows on broadcast TV (except, of course, on DTV retro channels, where such channels are available), but again, that's the way it is in the 21st century.