What old media are you watching? - Since new media isn't worth watching

[Ventrue]

"The line most people say they won't cross - it's usually something they've already done when they thought no one was watching."

Profit was a TV show from 1996. Its about a man who is not above using blackmail, bribery, extortion, or worse to reach the top of the corporate ladder, by covertly engineering the ruin of those who stand in his way and/or refuse to assist him, while mostly operating behind the scenes himself.

The co-creator David Greenwalt from Profit who later went on to produce the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off Angel, had the idea of having Adrian Pasdar reprise his role as Jim Profit on Angel. The main villains in Angel were a law firm called Wolfram & Hart, and Profit would have joined the firm. Conflicting working schedules with Pasdar and the difficulties in securing the rights to use the Jim Profit character prevented this from happening before Angel's final season.

All of the 8 episodes are on YouTube.

 

[Glory To Arztotska]

Last year I tried getting into Max Headroom and petered off a couple episodes in. I should fix that. Interesting series.

 

[Pomniman]

Just watched the 1950 adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac. It's on the internet archive.

 

[Pedophobe]

Every October I pick up Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Each year I watch about 10 to 15 episodes during this month. I first discovered this show in 2022 and I love it.

It aired in the late 90s.

Hope you're watching the original 4:3 version and not the crappy remaster.

 

[Chongqing]

Hope you're watching the original 4:3 version and not the crappy remaster.

I'm planning to watch the next episode tomorrow. I'll check that and get back to you.

This year I really got hooked and kept watching after Halloween.

 

[Trigger Me Timbers]

Just re-watched Das Boot. God it’s so Kino (expect for the last 2 mins)

 

[Pina Colada]

its always interesting to see portrayals of "futuristic" technology from that time period and how they compare to today and the more recent past.

I was watching Alien 1979 for spooky season and man the intro and first act is slow. I’ll give it a second chance tonight but they were really trying to show off their special effects like some kind of one-up to Star Wars at the time.

Makes me wonder how Star Wars would be received if it was released today?

I always appreciate seeing how visual effects/styles endured ever since the movies' original release. Alien takes place in the early 22nd century, but obviously, all the tech they had was what was "new" in 1978/79 when they filmed it, and every video game and shitty sequel after Aliens (that's not AvP) has adhered to that design limitation instead of trying to retroactively update it.
That said, both of the first 2 movies have their strengths. Alien is a fantastic suspenseful horror movie, and Aliens is a fantastic action horror movie.

 

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Been watching old Popeye cartoons. Loved that shit as a kid.

I've watched some of these 60's Popeye cartoons, but I just can't get into them. The animation is just so fucking terrible compared to the old stuff..

 

[Captain Syrup]

View attachment 7105483
"The line most people say they won't cross - it's usually something they've already done when they thought no one was watching."

Profit was a TV show from 1996. Its about a man who is not above using blackmail, bribery, extortion, or worse to reach the top of the corporate ladder, by covertly engineering the ruin of those who stand in his way and/or refuse to assist him, while mostly operating behind the scenes himself.

The co-creator David Greenwalt from Profit who later went on to produce the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off Angel, had the idea of having Adrian Pasdar reprise his role as Jim Profit on Angel. The main villains in Angel were a law firm called Wolfram & Hart, and Profit would have joined the firm. Conflicting working schedules with Pasdar and the difficulties in securing the rights to use the Jim Profit character prevented this from happening before Angel's final season.

All of the 8 episodes are on YouTube.

Oh yeah, now that you mention it, I remember Boreanaz slipping into Jim Profit schtick in those last episodes. Had me wondering if the writers were just bored.

Also, fun fact: Keith Szarabajka, who played a character on Profit, later popped up as the big bad in Angel’s third season.

 

[Commander X]

Another old show I've been listening to is not televised, but one of the great Radio Age crime dramas, the CBS cop show Broadway Is My Beat episodes of which can be found on Archive.org and Youtube and various podcasting platforms.

The series ran on CBS Radio from 1949 to 1954, the first three months were produced in NYC, then in July of 1949 it was broadcast from Hollywood with a new cast, veteran radio announcer and actor Larry Thor stepping into the lead role of Det. Danny Clover, NYPD, a homicide investigator who announced in the opening narration

"Broadway is my beat. From Times Square to Columbus Circle -- the gaudiest, the most violent, the lonesomest mile in the world."

Thor as Clover would narrate, with prose that ran from the purple to the surprisingly poignant, often remarking on the contrasts of the big city between day and night time, and how different it is during certain times of the year, and so on, and the stories were procedurals, with a downbeat noirish mood, some moments of levity provided by Charles Calvert as Clover's number two man Sgt. Gino Tartaglia. The episodes would end right after the climax, then be capped off with some final narration from Clover. As an auditory experience, it was greatly enhanced by the three-man sound effects crew who created a lively Manhattan soundscape. One of those shows that did more with the 30-minute radio format than many modern detective shows do with the hour-long TV slot.

The day without color is only six hours old and the restlessness begins to eat at Broadway. The waiting, the longing for the night time begins to grow like hunger, like thirst, because Broadway's night is a banquet, loaded with delicacies. The scarlet wine of neon. The forbidden fruit of a trumpet's scream. The lukewarm stew offered on a tin plate through an alley doorway. But, Broadway's day -- that's the drab time, kid, the empty time. The time of leaning against sun-warmed stalls and waiting. And you wait for the rest of Broadway, because it'll come -- something will come. And it does. You know that, because Broadway nudges you with an elbow, winks and says 'follow me, kid.' The day has turned bright and it's not far away where the day is bright -- on 39th Street just off 7th Avenue in the garment center. The crowd is already there ahead of you, toothpicking its last bite of lunch, digesting the spectacle of a man sprawled on the pavement. There was a scissors in his back.

When October dies, and the river wind takes over, Broadway is arranged in clots of crowds and coldness. There's a new quality on Broadway: shrill, having to do with topcoats and early darkness and frosty sounds. And twilight is brief, a darting ebb of light in the sudden autumn chill. And hurry, hurry, hurry, to this place or that. Home, or to a hotdog stand, or to the neon that winks of promise. Hurry, kid, make a phone call, find somebody, it's night already. And it seems the night comes sooner in the tenement district, or somehow it never quite leaves, in the barrio, in Spanish Harlem. That's why the people gather together sooner, and start their music earlier, in a small nightclub like La Cantina where I was, and where Detective Gomez was, and the man who lead us across the floor...

The carnival scream rises high on Broadway, carried high on plumes of neon light. And it's shape is of many things, the metallic anguish of a trumpet's shriek, the futile beating against closed doors, the laughter bargained for, bought, paid for under the winking girl on the spectacular. Broadway's scream rises, shatters into fragments of glitter, prowls through the city and finally touches you. Wherever you are, it touches you....for me it was a phone call. A girl dying, it said, from a jackknife in a dime-a-dance palace on Broadway. Come to it, Danny, and maybe you can grab yourself a free dance. The welcome committee is out, the pale girls with the scarlet streaked across their mouths...

It's the gathering place of all the sleepless nights, this Broadway, and all the unwept tears. It's a place to come to, to erase what's happened, start all over, make a memory...and try to forget it, if you can...

"In the April night, Broadway echoes with sounds heard only in darkness. The whispers that speckle places where there's no sun. There's a touch on your coat. You turn. There's no one. Nothing. Only the trail of dust on your shoulder. It's Broadway. The gaudiest, the most violent, the lonesomest mile in the world. Broadway...my beat.

 

[Michael_Jordan_Peterson]

How old is "old"? Because I just recently finished watching The Terror which is from 2018. Good stuff despite not being a 1-to-1 adaptation of the novel. Apparently there are two more seasons that have nothing to do with the book but who fucking cares?
Also I ended up watching The Crow some time after the remake came out. It's weirder than I was expecting but not by much. It also keeps you on the edge of your seat watching it; every time there's a gunfight you keep asking yourself "is this the scene where Brandon Lee fucking dies?"

Fuck I loved this show. Started getting into learning about the North Passage and old sailing ship logistics.
Alot of the shit I watch is old but beyond watching some random rifftrax/mst3k I'll rewatch Twin peaks every once in a while.

 

[Neodanthril]

The Dick Van Dyke show and not just because Mary Tyler Moore is probably the hottest woman to ever be on television

 

[Ventrue]

Kindred: The Embraced was a TV show that aired in April 1996. The show was produced by Aaron Spelling who produced other shows such as Beverly Hills, 90210, Melrose Place and later on Charmed. The premise of the show was The Godfather with vampires and is loosely based off of the tabletop game Vampire: The Masquerade. The story is about Frank Kohanek, a cop who is investigating alleged mob boss Julian Luna, who is actually Kindred (Vampire) and is the Ventrue Prince of San Francisco. Julian rules over the other vampire groups which are called Clans, these clans are Ventrue, Brujah, Toreador, Gangrel and Nosferatu.

Julian, in his role as Prince, is shown to be the only force that can stop the clans from breaking the uneasy truce that keeps them from fighting with each other. The vampires survive because of the "Masquerade", disguising themselves as humans, and Julian strictly enforces the laws that govern them to protect their anonymity.

Any vampires who break those rules will have a Blood Hunt (Kill Order) called on them. Vampires are shown to slip into human society rather easily, holding a variety of jobs. The representatives from each clan are called Primogen, who compose the conclave of San Francisco are depicted as wealthy heads of industry and business leaders.

Sadly, on September 24 1996, Mark Frankel the actor who portrayed Julian Luna was killed in a motorcycle accident in London, England. He was 34 years old. Kindred's second season was put on hiatus before they decided to cancel the show out of respect for Mark Frankel as well as the feeling that they couldn't replace him.

The timing of this show was impeccable as the following year Buffy The Vampire Slayer premiered and went on to produce 7 seasons and a spin-off. Brian Thompson who played Eddie Fiori the Brujah Primogen and Julian's rival, had a small part in Buffy. He played Luke in the first 2 episodes in the first season. I believe had Mark been alive the show would have continued with at least a few more seasons.

All 8 episodes are on YouTube.

 

[Achtung Bitter]

I watched Woman Between Wolf and Dog, a surprisingly good film about wwii Belgium and the effects of war on people.

 

[Commander X]

My forays into "old time radio" over the years made me aware of the early radio career of Jack Webb. Before he was the star of Dragnet on the radio and then television, he had roles in a couple of other shows, notably Pat Novak for Hire. Novak began in 1946 as a West Coast regional on the San Francisco radio station KGO with Webb for the first 13 episodes, then after Webb and his writing partner Richard Breen left over "creative differences" Ben Morris as the title character and ran about a year. It went coast to coast in February 1949 on ABC with Jack Webb again as Novak and this version lasted only until June of that year, but that version is far more memorable.

Novak operated out of a small office on San Francisco’s “Pier 19” where he rented boats and moonlighted as a sort of freelance troubleshooter. He was a hard-boiled character, who got mixed up with dangerous people, dubious women and his old foil, Police Inspector Hellman (voiced at least early in the series by Raymond Burr). Novak is miles away from his later famous role as Sgt. Joe Friday, that's for certain.

It's full of lines, where every character, including our narrator, often talk like something straight out of the pages of Black Mask or other crime/detective pulp magazines.

“I began to think about the .32-caliber pistol. It’s a woman’s weapon–well, that doesn’t prove anything. So’s a bread knife if she’s in a bad mood.”

“I looked up the only honest guy I know, an ex-doctor and a boozer by the name of Jocko Madigan–a good guy, but to him a hangover is the price of being sober.”

“It was pretty dark, so when I bumped into her, all I got was a vague outline...She had a good-looking vague outline.”

And episodes can be found at the Internet Archive.

 

[Captain Syrup]

True Grit (1969)

Much is made of John Wayne’s understated acting, but after sitting through a string of his films, I’m pretty sure he’s just a big guy who manages not to trip over the scenery.

It's hard not to compare it to the remake. The real standout is Kim Darby as Mattie, making her steeliness feel earned rather than preordained. (It's a shame Hollywood largely stuck her in TV movie purgatory afterward.) The film also leans more on religion, with Mattie’s objections to Cogburn rooted not just in business pragmatism but in moral outrage (her father was murdered because of his generosity). Duke declared her the worst actress he ever worked with—a sentiment the audience of the time seemed to co-sign. Without the Duke’s celebrity fogging things up, it's easier to tolerate Mattie’s barbs.

Glen Campbell is...technically present.

 

[Alan Grant]

Martin Scorsese's old documentary - Italianamerican.

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

japanese dub south park

 

[Commander X]

Another project from Jack Webb, first as a summer replacement show on NBC radio, that ran concurrent with Dragnet, a labor of love on Webb's part. Pete Kelly's Blues. It ran for 13 episodes, seven of which survived. Though there was a book that collected all 13 of the original scripts. Webb played Pete Kelly, a cornet player who was the frontman for a Kansas City speakeasy's in-house jazz combo, the "Big 7" during the 1920s. The join was owned by a Mr. Lupo, often mentioned but never heard from, and who pays off the local Prohibition agents in exchange for only having to deal with one perfunctory police raid a year.

Kansas City had gained the nickname "the Paris of the Plains" in the early 1900s on account of it's boulevards, jazz scene and nightlife but it was also a hotbed of organized crime and political corruption, especially during Prohibition, and Kelly reluctantly gets involved in the problems of cops, robbers, kidnappers, underworld goons through the run, it's very downbeat and noir. The music was a key part, and Webb was a jazz aficionado, who had an extensive collection of jazz albums and during his time as a radio disc jockey spun jazz records late at night.

This was one of those shows where Webb's perfectionist tendencies made themselves known, to quote from another website:

Jack Webb was a life-long perfectionist. His Pete Kelly’s Blues project was no exception. Webb obtained the talents of the finest jazz performers available to assemble his “Big 7” Jazz Band for the series. Brothers Ray and Moe Schneider joined famed cornetist Dick Cathcart, Nick Fatool, Matty Matlock and Bill Newman to form the core of the group. Their performances during each of the thirteen episodes of the radio program were as eagerly anticipated as the drama itself.

The project did not end with the radio show, in 1959 there was a short-lived TV series, with Webb producing behind the scenes, and a 1955 film, which I've watched time and again, featuring Webb, Edmund O'Brien, Janet Leigh, Lee Marvin, the singer/actress Peggy Lee and a cameo by Ella Fitzgerald.

 

[urr13 account]

Its about a man who is not above using blackmail, bribery, extortion, or worse to reach the top of the corporate ladder, by covertly engineering the ruin of those who stand in his way and/or refuse to assist him, while mostly operating behind the scenes himself.

Wow. He's literally me. I may give this a watch tonight.