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TV series set in the Golden Age

Edward

Bartender
Messages
24,788
Location
London, UK
A lot of shows here that ring familiar bells... Some I've never seen but many I have; many of them I remember watching as a kid.

One of which I have very clear memories was a UK children's educational television programme that we used to be shown in school. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_We_Used_To_Live Acording to Wikipedia, it wa series 5 that I was shown (1903-1926); I remember it very clearly. I must have been the first generation of repeats of this one, as I was shown it in the school year 1985-86, my final year in primary school. In those days before home video was especially common (it was only around this time that some of my contemporaries first had VCRs at home; my family didn't have one in the house until Christmas 1989), many educational shows like this would be re-screened year after year and at a time at which they would coincide with school terms and lessons. Back in those days, after breakfast television ended, either two or three of the four channels available would be given over to "Programmes for Schools". I remember one morning a week - I believe it was a Friday - we would be grouped into the school's TV room, at the right time to see the show being broadcast. We loved it. The episodes that particularly stuck in the mind were those dating to WW2. Everyone remembers "Shaking Hands at Christmas", as well as the following episode in which two main characters die in the trenches. I recently chanced across a coupel of episodes on Youtube, and even as an adult it still holds up. I'd love to be able to buy all the series on DVD, but alas the only release they ever have had to date was in 1994/95, when they were made vailable on VHS, intended for schools only. It will be a crying shame if those are never properly commercially available.


Tommy & Tuppence in Partners in Crime. My mod friends and I loved the 1920s fashions when this was first on in the 1980s, I'd watch a show and whip up a dress like hers to wear out the next day. :)

I remember watching those in the early eighties... I think when I was around eight-nine or so? 1982-83ish... Those were the first Agatha Christie characters I ever saw on screen. I particularly remember the one with the murder at the fancy dress party - the newspaper man and the red devil constumes. Tommy and Tuppence went as Holmes and Watson... of course, she was Holmes...

I also enjoyed "The Waltons" and am collecting the DVD seasons as they are released.

I particularly like the way they moved the series through time from the early 1930s to WWII, and tied many of the stories to the events of the day.

My Dad grew up on a farm in the 1920s and 1930s. He really enjoyed this show...I think because it brought him back to his youth.

I was indifferent to it as a kid, but more recently I've seen the odd episode. Wouldn't seek it out but it holds its own nonetheless. I did catch one episode set around 38 featuring a story about German-Jewish refugees which had echoes of the was M*A*S*H used to also deal with socio-political issues like that (I think they were probably made around the same time).

Though an "internet source", I obtained the entire "City of Angels" series on DVD. It is "Rockford Files" set in the 1930's. Very entertaining.

It makes sense it is a lot like Rockford since it was created and written by Rockford creators Stephen J. Cannel and Roy Huggins.

I wish they would do an official release of the series but I heard there is virtually no chance, or interest from the studio, to do it. But yet, you can buy every f*****g season of "Charles in Charge."

lol I adored Charles in Charge when it was screened in the UK circa 1983/4... I'd have been nine or ten when it was on here. I've not seen it since; I suspect it might not have held up well. ;)

As a rule, I'm dead against the idea of buying downloads rather than physical media, but if downloads meant that I could buy a show that would otherwise never be available, and thn burn it onto a disc to watch, it would be a start.

The great thing about the arrival of digital television in the UK a little over a decade ago has been that we have so many 24 7 or close to 24 7 channels desperate for content that a lot of great older series have been revived. Now we just need Hollywood to do some trashy remake so that the originals will be released on DVD to cash in... (it's surprising how often a rubbish remake stimulates the owners of the originals to pump out the DVD that otherwise you' never have been able to find...).
 

Young fogey

One of the Regulars
Messages
276
Location
Eastern US
Somebody else remembers "Goodtime Girls"

That show was called "Goodtime Girls". I thought the females were USO girls.

Sincerely,
The Wolf

At last, somebody else remembers that show: early 1980? Garry Marshall's company (if I recall rightly) did an OK job with it though it was no "Mad Men" stickler for authenticity. Sweet nostalgia show about the home front during World War II (set in 1942) with a "flagrant false advertising" come-on title. (Sorry, boys; no action.) They weren't USO girls; just ladies with various civilian jobs in D.C. (Georgia Engel from "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and the best-looking of the bunch, Lorna Patterson. Lorna: "We called it 'The War Whores.'")

Favorite shows set in my golden era:

"Crime Story" in 1986 (set in 1963) really got me started; guess my stingy-brim hat and Mike Torello mustache give that away.

The latest gold standard, "Mad Men," which probably started off as "we know better," meaning to celebrate the old America's fall, but inadvertently celebrates the old America. Entertaining soap opera with sexy stars but I watch for style pointers.

Runners-up:

"Operation Petticoat" from '77 to '79; best in the first season with John Astin as Captain Sherman and the very lovely Melinda Naud as nurse Lt. Crandall. Based of course on the '59 Cary Grant/Tony Curtis movie set aboard an American submarine in the Pacific during World War II. Basically a stock service comedy plus hot chicks.

"Baa Baa Black Sheep," the Hollywood-hokum version of Pappy Boyington's war memoir. Why I wear a G-1 leather flight jacket and have a model Corsair hanging from the ceiling. Semper fi.

"Pan Am," basically scab "Mad Men" when there was a production delay and ABC came up with a copycat. Beautiful girls, but again, for me, style pointers (and nitpicking: it wasn't "Mad Men") and being wowed by an Idlewild terminal full of people who look like me. I know that a Fedora Lounge poster was an extra in the first episode.

"American Dreams," dumb and anachronistic in ways (the girl's hair made her look like a time traveler from around 2000; the best friend and the mom were hot) but better a so-so depiction of 1963 than none. Besides, it's set in my city. (Where's the accent?)

"Oliver Beene": "The Wonder Years" played for laughs and set in '62 New York, the Kennedy era, with the lovely Wendy Makkena even lovelier being Laura Petrie-ish.

"Happy Days," which kicked off '50s nostalgia on American TV (second pilot retooled to cash in on American Graffiti) until the viewers and Garry Marshall lost interest in the era. Great its first season ('74; set in '56) and awful ever after, as in "how stupid did he think we are?" It ended up present-day (1980ish) with a few nods to the past like Fonzie. Ditto "Laverne & Shirley."

Who else remembers a show around 1984 set in '62 with Craig T. Nelson as Air Force pilot Raynor Sarnac?

There was the first season of "Wonder Woman," around 1976, not great production values but trying to be in the '40s and to capture the feeling of the comic books (neat transitions from drawings to live action). They moved it to the present day for the second year because a period show cost too much.

I remember "Tales of the Gold Monkey" too; a pretty blatant copycat of Raiders of the Lost Ark with the elegant beauty of Caitlin O'Heaney.

"M*A*S*H" doesn't count. Set in 1951-53, they rarely even tried to depict the period. From the helmet hair on many of the men to the liberal sermonizing: '70s!

Didn't see much of the recent, brief, canceled series "Vegas" set in the good '60s.

Then there was "The Playboy Club," more copycat scab "Mad Men," axed after about four episodes, complete with Eddie Cibrian as a Don Draper look and soundalike. Plots were awkwardly PC (gay rights), I guess because they felt guilty about it being about Playboy bunnies. The pretty female lead was too skinny to be a Playboy chick in '60.
 
Last edited:
Messages
13,376
Location
Orange County, CA
Paper Moon was a series for a half season or so... I think it was the same year as Planet of the Apes.

The HBO Philip Marlowe series in which Powers Boothe made such a good Marlowe was shot in LA and England and then entirely in Toronto. Most of the locations here (T.O) have been torn down or hopelessly remodeled. The show was often so-so, rarely as good as the idea, the theme music or the lead seemed to hint at.

boothe+as+marlowe.jpg

What cracks me up about some of the Marlowe episodes are the British actors attempting an American accent.
 

Two Types

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,456
Location
London, UK
Loads of tv series over here have been set in the, so-called, 'Golden Age'. Here's a few:

Family at War (early 1970s)
Peaky Blinders (2013/2014)
Numerous versions of George Simenon's 'Maigret' books (starred Rupert Davies in the 1950s/1960s, and Michael Gambon in the 1990s?)
Comedies set in wartime like 'Dad's Army' and 'It Ain't Half Hot Mum'

And Australia gave us 'The Sullivans' (which was, if I remember correctly, set in the 30s and 40s - it even included members of the family fighting in Crete in 1941)
 

Stearmen

I'll Lock Up
Messages
7,202
Who else remembers a show around 1984 set in '62 with Craig T. Nelson as Air Force pilot Raynor Sarnac?

Yes, I remember Call to Glory, 1984-85! It was imposable to fallow, because the network kept bouncing it around the weekly schedule! My favorite character was Keenan Wynn, since he flew a Stearman biplane.
 

Stearmen

I'll Lock Up
Messages
7,202
any one else remember the very short lived comedy, Roll Out, 1973-74? Loosely based on the real life Red Ball Express, resupply unit, mainly manned by African American truck drivers and crews. [video=youtube;ZwjMg8XPSdc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwjMg8XPSdc[/video]
 

nihil

One of the Regulars
Messages
206
Location
Copenhagen
I've complied a list of the shows I've watched myself. I do not like all of them, but they are still included on the list as others might enjoy them.

It's 1920s to 1950s.

Please let me know if you know of other shows, that I haven't included, as I'd like to watch them :)


Blandings
Boardwalk Empire
Bomb Girls
Brideshead Revisited
Cambridge Spies
Campion
Carnivale
Downton Abbey
Duchess of Duke Street
Endeavour
Foyle's War
House of Elliott
Il commissario De Luca
Inspector Alleyn Mysteries
Jeeves & Wooster
Lord Peter Whimsey
Maigret
Mapp & Lucia
Miss Fishers Murder Mysteries
Miss Marple
Mob City
Poirot
You Rang M'lord
Tales of The Golden Monkey
The Hour
The World of Wooster
Wodehouse Playhouse
 

Dennis Young

A-List Customer
Messages
439
Location
Alabama
Theres a couple of tv series out now that are set during the Cold War/ end of WW2 that I like. Manhattan is about when we developed the Bomb.
th



And my favorite right now is called Granite Flats. Its on the BYU channel and is set during the late 50s/early 60s I guess. Lots of great costumes, interesting plots about spies, the cold war, a little of the UFO hysteria of the time. J
th
 
Messages
16,867
Location
New York City
Dennis, "Manhattan" is IMHO possibly the most underrated show on TV today. The first year was outstanding - the stories are engaging, the dialogue crisp, the characters well developed and the period clothes, set, cars, architecture are fantastic - but I hardly heard anything about it. Frank Winter is an awesome hero / anti-hero.
 

MisterCairo

I'll Lock Up
Messages
7,005
Location
Gads Hill, Ontario
So many choices, most have been mentioned.

Darling Buds of May (Catherine Zeta Jones in an early role) is one of my favourites if we can extend the era into the 50s.
 

Inkstainedwretch

One Too Many
Messages
1,037
Location
United States
There have been two seasons of "The Bletchley Circle," about a group of women who worked as codebreakers at Bletchley Park. It is set a few years after the war. The women are forbidden by the Official Secrets Act to speak of their war work and even their husbands think they were just secretaries instead of doing what was arguably the most important work of the war. Bored and at loose ends they devote themselves to solving baffling crimes, using their wartime skills. Attention to detail is impeccable. Even years after the war, grim wartime conditions still prevail: rationing, shortages, etc. It's like the war is still going on, just without the bombs falling on London.
 
Messages
16,867
Location
New York City
There have been two seasons of "The Bletchley Circle," about a group of women who worked as codebreakers at Bletchley Park. It is set a few years after the war. The women are forbidden by the Official Secrets Act to speak of their war work and even their husbands think they were just secretaries instead of doing what was arguably the most important work of the war. Bored and at loose ends they devote themselves to solving baffling crimes, using their wartime skills. Attention to detail is impeccable. Even years after the war, grim wartime conditions still prevail: rationing, shortages, etc. It's like the war is still going on, just without the bombs falling on London.

Really enjoyed this show - was disappointed when it was cancelled. And, yes, the period details are amazing.
 

emigran

Practically Family
Messages
719
Location
USA NEW JERSEY
not TV series but rather Movie Series that were a lot of fun watching even though rather thin on acting and plot...
Torchey Blane
Maisie (goes to wherever...)
Charlie Chan
Bulldog Drummond
 

Benzadmiral

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,815
Location
The Swamp
There was a short-lived series -- on NBC, I think -- around 1972 called "Banyon." Robert Forster, the Robert Forster who's come back in a big way in Jackie Brown and as Tim Allen's TV dad, played a 1930s LA private eye. According to imdb, Joan Blondell was in about half of the episodes.
 

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