Comfort shows.

What a surprise, OP.

30 Rock Malcom in the Middle Full House

The original seasons of Will & Grace

A DL poster who loves the Golden Girls?

So atypical OP!

I've been watching the old The Simpsons lately on Disney plus. It makes me smile. Which is kind of hard right now.

Barefoot Contessa

We just had a thread on this OP. Take a look:

I like shows with maids. I realize how fucked up that is. But they can be maids of any color.

My go-tos are Mama’s Family and Newhart.

Laugh all ya want, but I love me some Naomi Harper.

Old episodes of Law & Order SVU.

I love it when Dr. Melinda Warner says "no fluids on the victim"; "ligature marks" "Vaginal bruising" "Anal tears" and "the victim was exsanguinated."

Also:

Benson's dykieness

Huang's shit eating grin

And most of all

Stabler's butt! 🍑

I might be channel surfing and come across the show, I'll always watch it to the end.

Designing Women

I have to agree with OP. I don’t understand why it is comforting to watch, but it just is. I feel better after watching it if I’m stressed.

Lucy Liu and Jonny Lee Miller in their cavernous Brooklyn brownstone in Elementary was digital Xanax.

r6 Ina or Ava?

Occasionally I'll watch a "Mr. Rogers Neighborhood," in order to talk me down from the ledge. Lately, it's been "Midsomer Murders."

Same, R13. I don't know why but GG is more than just enjoyable to me, it's actually comforting. I can't explain it.

R9: I'll only allow Mama's Family if it's the NBC series. If it's the syndicated series, then you shall be punished for your insolence.

Watching GG is like spending time with your loving grandmother and her friends. Well, it was like that when I'm a kid. Now I'm old enough to be their kid. Too fast, I'll be the same age as them.

Bonanza

The Andy Griffith Show

R17, I prefer season 2 of the original series. Every episode is so well written and Mama still has a mean streak.

I Love Lucy before she ditched the bun (pre-Connecticut). It always came out right in the end, and the 'do was so [italic]disciplined.[/italic]

R20: Very good. Thelma is actually still the character she was meant to be in that version. The syndicated has her as always on top and no one is really able to effectively battle her. The NBC has Naomi and Fran hold their own. And Buzz was always better looking than Bubba. Sorry Alan Keyser fans.

La Femme Nikita

Faerie Tale Theatre. They instantly take me back to my childhood when everything seemed possible and I felt safe. Sometimes, you need to be reminded of that to get yourself out of a current despair.

Lost In Space

The Tony Randall Show

The Burns and Allen Show

Futurama

What's My Line?

Vicious

r25 "What's your name?"

"Mario Lanza."

"Are you related?"

"To who?"

R26: Paisan!

You people are OLD.

r27 Yo cuz', I'm starvin', wanna' split a pie?

TTRS was one of the funniest sitcoms. I'm sorry there are so few episodes.

R24 "Hello, I'm Shelley Duvall." I still love that show. I got to see it when it played on PBS. I really want to own the series on DVD.

R17 & R22 I understand your points. But what they lost in Rue McClanahan, they gained in Beverly Archer, & Alan Kayser. I watch it all, but the syndicated seasons are by far my favorites.

And I just mentioned it in the thread R7 linked, but I've been really hitting "Rhoda" hard for some time now.

"New York, this is your last chance!"

"WML?" and "TTTT" on BUZZR.

Designing Women

Miss Reubner was my favorite character on the Tony Randall Show. Allyn Ann McLerie was a great actress -and an excellent dancer. She appeared on Broadway in Once Touch of Venus, On the Town, Where's Charley, Miss Liberty, Redhead, and West Side Story.

r33 She was good, you could tell she knew her way around a stage. Excellent timing as well. Didn't she appear in one of the musical numbers with Doris Day, in "Annie Get Your Gun"?

The entire weekday lineup on Antenna TV. Father Knows Beast, Dennis the Menace, Hazel, That Girl, I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched, The Facts of Life.

Brady Bunch

The IT Crowd. I don't know which character I like the best. Maybe Jen. Or Matt Berry's. The giddy goat Moss... George O'Dowd's...

R34, I think you're thinking of Calamity Jane rather than Annie Get Your Gun.

Golden Girls, I Love Lucy, Designing Women, Drag Race, RHONY, RHOBH, Seinfeld all are shows I will turn on in the background as company.

Hazel, Mayberry RFD, and Gunsmoke.

THE LOVE BOAT! I love seeing the stars that were up and coming, popular in the day, and from yesteryear in one show!

Stupid procedurals like Criminal Minds, NCIS or CSI Miami. Predictable plots with familiar characters with a bit of blood, gore and eye candy thrown in. Perfect. I'm not proud...

Do any Brits remember The Professionals from the early 80s? Loved that series.

The old '80s/'90s renditions of Unsolved Mysteries, and That '70s Show for me. Both remind me of simpler times, and both are quality shows.

Fantasy Island

IT Crowd for me too, R37. All of the characters are amazing. Loved that episode where Chris O'Dowd's character is caught using the handicap bathroom and has to pretend he's disabled.

48 hrs on CBS

Rick Steves Europe. There’s something peaceful about it.

The Golden Girls

Mr. Belvedere

Mama,'s Family

What's Happening

Seems like "what are you binge-watching" is a thing now. And I'm always the one who kills the vibe by saying I don't subscribe to any of the streaming services but I am a big fan of the free TV channels that run all the old shows, going back to the 50's. My comfort shows are my favorites from my childhood and HS, Magnum PI and Star Trek: The Next Generation. They're on 5-6 days every week and I can have them on my TV without having to invest too much attention or focus.

R43, yep, Bodie was my first crush, I was about 8-9 years old. I forgot about it for decades. A few years ago, I vaguely remembered the show but couldn't remember the name of the show. Of course, a little Googling did its magic. I was a bit shamed my first crush was the brute Bodie. But if I'm honest, the bad boys are sexy.

Midsomer Murders, Inspector Morse

Robin Byrd

r38 Well, you see one female in buckskins, you seen 'em all. I like Doris Day films, but could never quite get into that one. Have no idea why it doesn't appeal.

Thanks for the correction.

Murder She Wrote, and it's predecessor, Ellery Queen!

Bob's Burgers. It's hilarious and sweet without being coy or maudlin.

My sister is staying with me and her comfort show is Forensic Files, which just makes me anxious.

Are You Being Served ? - although knowing that the entire core cast have been dead for years does make it a bit of a downer now.

Keeping Up Appearances. At least some of the cast are still living including Dame Hyacinth Bucket (and the dishy vicar).

Alice

[quote]R53 Robin Byrd —[italic]Lie back...

OMG, she was my introduction to cable access television when I moved to the big city.

She was so weirdly embarrassing, like she actually had brain damage. I mean, talk about “unscripted”! And I always wondered if she used WhiteOut for nail polish.

In retrospect I feel affection for her, but at the time she seemed like a druggie skank who couldn’t even keep her hair out of her eyes : (

Good Goddess - -

^^ and yet who am I to criticize, who cannot even master formatting??

Frasier. I want to be friends with all of them.

The Mary Tyler Moore show is very comforting to me, especially the Christmas episodes.

The Sopranos, for some reason, is comforting to me.

Cheers can be comforting.

I used to like Mama's Family. I prefer the later seasons with Allan Kayser. Love Naomi & Iola as well. Hilarious.

Any Christmas episode of any show is comforting, actually.

I watch old episodes of Mary Berry's cooking shows, from the 70s on Thames TV. No frou-frou decorations: just ordinary kitchen cooking, and back then, she wasn't using metrics.

Last Tango in Halifax, Downton Abbey

Ditto for "Midsomer Murders." I'm up to Series 14.

I like Mary Berry, R64.

Ina Garten can be comforting but also irritating.

Mock me if you must, but The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross. His voice and the sounds of the brush are very comforting. And the art is anodyne and unchallenging. I like watching the paintings slowly evolve as Bob dabs away. I often fall asleep to these shows.

R68, Bob Ross is well-known for being relaxing and comforting. Early ASMR.

Leave it to Beaver

I love any TV show and movie before I was born, especially if it’s black and white. So anything before 1970 is usually by go to comfort watch. Even though I like Golden Girls, Sanford and Son, and the Bubba and Iola Years of Mama’s Family.

American here, and I also vote for IT Crowd.

The Andy Griffith Show, but not the episodes with Jim Nabors. He was insufferable.

bump . . . Goober and Gomer were annoying. But otherwise, this show is still fantastic to watch.

Parks & Recreation

Rick Steves travel videos; normally I'd find him annoying, but his goofy optimism cheers me these days

Really, queens?!

The early seasons of Murder She Wrote. Something so warm about the show then. Comforting Jessica Fletcher surrounded by familiar movie and TV actors. So so much the later seasons where the stick Jessica in Hillary Clinton pants suits and surround her with no name actors

Frasier, ILL but not the Lucy/Desi Hour (she aged a lot from ILL), original Will and Grace, AbFab.

GG, Simpsons and KUA with P Routledge

The Comeback, Bob's Burgers, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Columbo

I find British sitcoms comforting much of the time - especially those like Absolutely Fabulous, Keeping Up Appearances, As Time Goes By and more recently, Derry Girls. There's something that makes me so happy watching them, and many of them I still find just as funny now.

My go-to shows for "Sunday Recovery Day" are "Golden Girls", "Designing Women", "The Nanny", "Maude", "Phyllis", "The Mothers-In-Law", "The Five Mrs. Buchannans" and currently "I Love Lucy" which I haven't watched marathons of in years. Yesterday was a full day of Lucy with five season one episodes, a re-visit to the fiasco that is "Mame" and finally "The Celebrity Next Door".

Really, queens?!

—Eddie, Patsy, Saffy & Gram

I did re-watch AbFab & I was kind of troubled how badly Saffy was treated. I'm surprised the writers didn't give the character more opportunities to strike back at Edina & Patsy to keep the character from being too beaten down.

That said, I did love the episode when Edina loses the PR Person of the year award (that she paid for) and gave it some "pea brained hypocritical do-gooder"

Friends...I never watch in during its run but for some reason I love the reruns

[quote]The early seasons of Murder She Wrote. Something so warm about the show then.

Once Tom Bosley died, the show lost a lot of its charm and warmth. He was the unheralded MVP of the show.

The original Beverly Hills, 90210.

Poirot and Miss Marple

R84, that wasn't how it worked. Took me awhile too but the North American addiction to redemption never existed on AbFab. You were either Eddie and Patsy or you weren't.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Perry Mason is the king of comfort shows.

All the black and white sitcoms as mentioned, plus The Odd Couple, MTM, Gilligan's Island, Bewitched and Sanford and Son. I don’t like eighties shows. Discovery ID calms me down, because it puts my own small misfortunes into perspective.

Off topic but I'm finally binging True Detective during to a free HBOMax subscription and for some reason I'm totally crushing on Matt McC in this.

I wouldn't call it comfort though.

r91 The original - yes. The HBO reboot - not so much.

[quote] Father Knows Beast

Was it about a zookeeper?

"Unsolved Mysteries" (Robert Stack era) used to be comforting to me. Especially the episodes where they reunited foster moms with foster children, teachers & students, etc.

Wheel of fortune

I agree with Colombo. Also The Bob Newhart Show.

Bewitched. It's just so cozy.

I can’t stand that old shit

R100, you in danger, girl.

I stopped watching ID Channel. It’s gotten increasingly gory.

The Ovation channel airs Portrait Artist of the Year and Landscape Artist of the Year from the Skyy Network in the UK every so often and they're two of the most relaxing and enjoyable shows I've seen in a long time. Try to catch them if you can.

No one cares R100.

Does anyone know the location of "Judith's House" in Episode 1 & Episode 2 of Season Five of Last Tango in Halifax?

It appears to be an old house with a completely remodeled very modern interior.

I love this house.

Thanks heavens OP started a thread about GOLDEN GIRLS. It's been almost 48 hours since a GOLDEN GIRLS thread was generated.

You have to get it on dvds (I get it from the library), but try Detective Montalbano from RAI. He's a baldy who solves crimes in a small Sicilian beach town.

Absolutely Fabulous, Let Them Eat Cake, Gimme Gimme Gimme, the Golden Girls, Will and Grace.

CSI: Miami, Flea Market Flip, Forensic Files, older Criminal Minds.

Golden Girls, Murder She Wrote, Absolutely Fabulous, Vicar of Dibley, Midsomer Murders, Showtime's Queer As Folk, The Amazing Race: Canada seasons, The Simpsons, Bob Burgers, Jem & the Holograms, Dungeons & Dragons, Beverly Hills Teens, Kim Possible, American Dragon: Jake Long, Gravity Falls.

That's just the ones popping into my head right now. I'm sure there are loads more.

R107, there is a spin-off, Young Montalbano.

Gilmore Girls

Absolutely Fabulous

and the show I've watched the most often, MAD MEN. I have seen every episode at least twice, some maybe more.

Murder, She Wrote, Columbo, The Golden Girls, Midsomer Murders, Poirot, Marple, Morse

Last of the Summer Wine. Old people causing trouble.

I find episodes of 𝐌𝐜𝐌𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐧 & 𝐖𝐢𝐟𝐞, 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐨, and 𝐌𝐜𝐂𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐝 to be quite comforting. Also,

anything 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫 𝐓𝐫𝐞𝐤

𝐋𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐒𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐞

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐫

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐋𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐬

𝐓𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐙𝐨𝐧𝐞

𝐀𝐝𝐚𝐦-𝟏𝟐

𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐛𝐲, 𝐌𝐃 (but it's been years since I've seen it being aired)

Maybe five or six years ago, I became interested in 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬, an untypical choice for me (it had 'Trek' alumni in it - Mark Lenard and Robert Brown), as well as 𝐈𝐫𝐨𝐧 𝐇𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞. But the interest faded.

The Closer

I know many of you hate this show, but Friends is a comfort show for me.

I'm on my third time through Derry Girls and still laughing.

As the World Turns through the "Lisa sues John" storyline. Then those bitches from ABC came and took a huge diarrheaic shit all over Oakdale, and watching it was a source of discomfort ever after.

I look at cocks and men’s feet online to comfort myself.

I thought OP meant "Comfort shows" - like when you go for comfort, it shoes on your body and clothes.

Nevermind.

Frasier

The Nanny

Golden Girls

any Law and Order but especially the mothership

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

It Crowd

Antiques Road Show

The Great British Baking Show. I’m so glad they spared us some new zoom version. It feels like pre-2020. And if it wasn’t for my COVID weight gain, I‘d fucking bake a Battenburg cake.

Golden showers

I've been enjoying The New Adventures of Old Christine lately. Julia Louis-Dreyfus is hilarious in anything and her relationship with her brother with the incest overtones seriously has me laughing out loud. It sounds creepy as hell but it's played for laughs. Wanda Sykes is just the icing on the cake as best friend Barb.

Dionne Warwick on YouTube

30 Rock, Supernatural, Sherlock, Batman with Adam West and Burt Ward

Zane Grey Theatre

My Welsh soap, "Pobol y Cwm" (People of the Valley).

Probably because I like to escape to a village in the south of Wales.

Allyn Ann McLerie is in my favorite comfort show, The Days and Night of Molly Dodd. (Which I just re-watched.)

I have been re-watching St. Elsewhere...which also featured Allyn Ann McLerie as Peter's first rape victim!

Pushing Daisies is a great comfort show as is Wonderfalls. (No, I am not obsessed with Lee Pace.)

[quote]As the World Turns through the "Lisa sues John" storyline. Then those bitches from ABC came and took a huge diarrheaic shit all over Oakdale, and watching it was a source of discomfort ever after.

How did ABC have any effect on a show that aired on CBS?

r131, P&G hired those bitches from ABC, Mary Ann Dwyer Dobbin (MADD or Mickey Against Daytime Drama) and Felicia Minei-Behr as Executive in Charge of Production and Executive Producer, respectively. They did everything they could to destroy ATWT: replacing Alyson Rice-Taylor with Susan Batten as Connor Walsh, sidelining Andy Dixon, and turning the show into As the World Turns around Carly Tenney. It became a shitshow. Not even having Luke Grimaldi Snyder be gay could save it (they really fucked that in the ass, but I think MADD and FMB were gone by then).

The show was never really the same after Douglas Marland died, with the "Lisa sues John" storyline the only exception. It was truly compelling, but after that, the show died.

Person of Interest - I've binged it four times over the past few years. Netflix just dropped it, so now I'm trying the Blacklist.

Soaps were the king of this for me. You could miss months or even years and jump back in -- and it was just like going home again. You could be feeling lonely at college and call mom and forget all your troubles ranting to her about what an entitled selfish bitch Lily was being.

Days is the only soap left that has this effect on me, but in a very very reduced way compared to the P&G shows at their prime.

Kath & Kim (AU)

I’m surprised at all the mentions of The IT Crowd. I did binge watch the entire series and found it mostly hilarious but I wouldn’t call it comforting.

I’m surprised at all the mentions of The IT Crowd. I did binge watch the entire series and found it mostly hilarious but I wouldn’t call it comforting.

Mom

Frasier

Beat Bobby Flay

Sanford and Son

Barney Miller

CHiPs

Cop/Detective Shows from the 1970s: Cannon, Barnaby Jones, Hawaii Five-0

"The Golden Girls!!"

"The Golden Girls!!"

Has anyone mentioned "The Golden Girls" yet?!

Squeeeeeeee!!

Gilligan's Island.

Brady Bunch

MTM, Good Times, The Jeffersons.

Golden Girls is the best for this. Also Good Times, The Jeffersons, Sanford And Son, Burns And Allen, Dennis The Menace

What these shows have in common is that they all mostly take place in a living room and have laugh tracks, both of which are comforting to watch/hear

I love watching Frasier.

I love watching QVC.

Quantum Leap. Every episode, all five seasons.

I love the Brit murder mysteries. Poirot, Miss Marple and Midsomer.

Also, the American Cold Case can be a real tear jerker but a comfort as well. Several well done gay themed episodes BTW.

DALLAS ca. 1982

R136 - There is a cheesy Brit murder mystery series “Rosemary & Thyme.” Two women solving landscape challenges, mid-life crisis, and of course, linking one of the episodes characters to the body in the well. Something about that show seems comforting.

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Frasier

Freaks and Geeks

Central Park West

Beverly Hills 90210

Bette

The Windsors

The Young Ones

Yes, Minister/Yes, Prime Minister

The New Statesman

Gimme Gimme Gimme

Sex and the City, in the past, but no longer

Would love to re-watch Dallas 2012 but cannot find it online anywhere

Married with Children.

GG, Keeping Up Appearences, Soap, Allo Allo

Downton Abbey & The Brady Bunch

French police/law series Spiral (original French title Engrenages). Brilliantly written and acted. All the characters have flaws that get them into trouble of their own making. It’s set in Paris, and shows the reality away from the tourist attractions.

I watch an Italian crime drama called Suburra: Blood on Rome. It is set in Rome and very beautifully filmed. One character, Eduardo Valdarnini as Lele, is one of the most beautiful actors I have ever seen. Watch the video from 2:00.

I know it’s cornball, but Lark Rise to Candleford is my one weakness. Wisdom, comedy, costumes, and a touch of spirituality, what’s not to like?

Watch MeTV. If I wanted to live in another era, I'd leave this channel on 24/7.

R155 - I love love Lark Rise to Candleford too!