Great TV shows that are forgotten

In Search Of. I loved watching reruns of this as a kid in the 90s. I blame it for my lifelong obsession with the unexplained

New Zoo Revue.

The Helen Lawson Programme

The Prisoner, OP! And it's a crying shame! One of the most innovative, awesomely stylized, fantastical, clever, witty, modern and yet "completely of its time" (1960s) shows in all of history.

The Letter People, PBS, 1970s

I loved a show called Wizards and Warriors when I was a kid because it had hot guys, sorcery, and a pre-Newhart Julia Duffy as a spoiled princess. She stole the show, from Jeff Conway, but still, she stole it. Only eight episodes.

Manimal

Nowhere Man. It doesn't seem so fictional now.

SOAP

How about a show that was considered great during it's time that is now unwatchable (for obvious reasons!):

COSBY !!!

[quote] Brothers, a groundbreaking sitcom that aired on Showtime from 1984 to 89. It featured three brothers the youngest of whom was gay.

This show might not have been so forgotten if it had ever made it to home video distribution. Based on a Google search I just did, it's still not clear why it didn't. Someone on YouTube 15 years ago posted digitized videos of VCR recordings of nearly all the shows from the 5-year run. At that time, there was a 10-minute limit on videos uploaded to YouTube, so each episode was posted in three parts. Whoever did all that work deserves a lot of thanks for preserving the show. The fact that those videos have been online for 15 years without a take-down request suggests that even the copyright holders don't care about the show, i.e., they may feel there's no money to be made from them.

R1

Could have written the exact same comment - I loved that show!

Early 90s night time soap: Homefront

Showtime's Beggars and Choosers

The Texas Wheelers

R4, I got to visit the town in Wales that was built for the Prisoner while on a school trip. It was so cool! Didn’t they make a movie version in the 2000s?

The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd

Anything But Love

R17, I came here to say that.

thirtysomething

It Takes Two

Judging Amy

The Trials of Rosie O'Neill

Rubicon

Millennium pre Y2K series, X Files was based on this .

R25 I fucking love Millennium!

Friday Night Lights

[quote] Early 90s night time soap: Homefront

I love this show so much! I wish it was available somewhere for me to rewatch.

Fat Albert

Christy!

Sheriff Lobo

R22 I recall Judging Amy as being aimed squarely at the target demographic of all my middle-aged frau aunts so naturally assumed it was probably going to be stupid.

Sisters (NBC) 90s show

Soap is my absolute favorite. I recently watched the entire series on Youtube. I had forgotten how funny it was. Comedy was so much different then as we weren't near as sensitive as we are today. There were a few things that I winced at and wish they weren't in there but for the most part it was just plain funny.

R31

It wasn't stupid. I may not be the target audience, but this gay man loved it. Writing, acting, casting, and directing was excellent.

And it had Tyne Daly. Who has probably never given a bad performance in anything. Watching her in this show is like a Masterclass in acting.

But, of course, YMMV.

[quote] Millennium pre Y2K series, X Files was based on this .

The X-Files was not based on Millennium. Chris Carter created both shows but The X-Files was several seasons in when Millennium debuted

Cell Block H

R36, Cell Block made such a huge impression on me as a kid. It’s on YouTube. In fact, there is even a version on YouTube that’s been brightened.

She’s The Sheriff

Don Lemon Tonight

The op says great shows not shit r39

GASP

😭 —Don Lemon

Solid Gold

Mafucker! Mafucker!

Tyne Daley's severely arched eyebrows carried Judging Amy.

Mary Hartman! Mary Hartman!

R13 I concur on Homefront, a great show about post WWII America. Only lasted about 1 1/2 seasons, and introduced the handsome Kyle Chandler.

r34 You weren't the only gay man ....

[quote]WILL: Right. So don't worry about it. You'll make it through. You know, your relationship is strong. In fact, it's you two that give me hope that love can weather anything. Well, you and-- and Amy Brenneman.

[quote]LEO: Yeah, you were kinda bawling through that whole TV Guide piece.

[quote]WILL: The woman's a poet. I tell you, this is one gay man who will no longer be judging Amy. Now go call your wife.

Xena, Warrior Princess

Lesbians loved that show r49

r47, It was my all time favorite short-lived show (2 seasons or less). Most of the cast is still with us. I was so hurt when they cancelled it.

Some shows are better off forgotten

China Beach and Northern Exposure were two excellent shows I lived. It is fortunate they became available on DVD and I own them and can watch them again every few years. Homefront is another show that would be great if it were ever released on DVD.

China Beach had one of the best first? summer replacement? seasons when KC was a hooker and not a beautician.

Thank God I watch slabs of 227 every fucking day! Thank God for Mary, Lester, Sandra, Pearl, Brenda and Calvin

My So Called Life

I loved China Beach as a kid but only got to watch about 1/2 the episodes as my dad hated the show. I bot the DVDs as a kid and it sucked. It was like the Vietnam war happened in the 80s. Then I read that the book it was based on, Home Before Morning, was a fictional load of crap. Though it was passed of as nonfiction.

China Bitch was a good show

I'm guessing China Bitch was the one staring Helen Lawson. Wearing some incredibly racist teeth.

Kindred: The Embraced

You Can't Do That on Television

My grandma loved Dr Quinn: Medicine Woman

She also was a huge WWF fan. Ric Flair especially

R61, I’ve never forgotten Alasdair Gillis

"I'll Fly Away." Broadcast in the early '90s for a couple of seasons. Deals with race relations and all sorts of issues. Sorry it's not available online, to my knowledge.

^^^More on I'll Fly Away: "A subtle, quiet gem about race relations in the South during the late 1950s, revolving around a prosecutor, his family and their black housekeeper, who's gradually becoming aware of the civil-rights movement. Amply praised but low-rated, the series lasted less than two seasons on NBC, but PBS later aired a two-hour movie finale that wrapped up story lines and aired repeats of the hourlong episodes."

Blansky’s Beauties!!!

Early-1990s sitcom "The Powers that Be" (starring DL faves David Hyde Pierce and Holland Taylor)

r62, I LOVE Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. During its original broadcast, this show got me through some depressing Saturdays. I still watch it on the FrndlyTV app.

r65, I’ll Fly Away was one of the best dramas that’s ever been on TV. I feel joy whenever Regina Taylor (Lilly Harper) shows up anywhere.

American Dreams

R64 Green slime!

Cop Rock, of course.

R68. Also a young Joey Gordon-Levitt

Pasadena, created by the great Mike White (Enlightened, the White Lotus).

One of my all-time favorite opening themes.

Happy Endings

Sports Night

Candid Camera.

Battle of the Network Stars

Oh god did I love I'll Fly Away. The son was one of my first actor crushes.

Wings was actually decent and fairly clever...they used to air reruns a few years ago somewhere and I got pretty hooked...

[quote]Wings was actually decent and fairly clever

Did you know that the fat guy was in Patti LuPone's class at Julliard?

Sleeper Cell – two seasons

Davey & Goliath

Picket Fences

James at 15

Alias.

Dead Like Me

The Golden Girls

LA Law

Kate & Allie

Kind of a gyilty pleasure but I was super into Ned & Stacey and was so pissed it got cancelled

Becker

Carnivàle

Once and Again-Another Sela Ward show that is forgotten

Pushing Daisies, with Lee Pace, Kristin Chenoweth, Swoosie Kurtz, and Ellen Greene.

Oops, and Anna Friel!

R95 Kristn's Hopelessy Devoted cover on that show was great.

Another one from Bryan Fuller — WONDERFALLS.

Oh and DEAD LIKE ME too

[quote] Did you know that the fat guy was in Patti LuPone's class at Julliard?

How dare he be?! HOW DARE HE!!!

r94, LOVED THAT SHOW! Pretty much anything from Herskovitz and Zwick was superbly written and acted. To this day, I think Sela Ward is one of the most beautiful women there ever was and such a gifted actor. Everyone in that show was good. It was also where Evan Rachel Wood got her big start.

Evan Rachel Wood is excellent. The last time I saw her was on HBO's Westworld which had a wonderful Season One but went off the rails after that.

I really enjoyed the relatively recent "Boss" (2011-2012) starring (DL villain) Kelsey Grammer and (DL frenemy) Jonathan Groff, in which Grammer plays the Chicago mayor with a secret. However, it got cancelled pretty quickly and I never met anyone else who liked or watched it.

r90 this is for you...

"Just when you think there is no one around whose carin'"

"Just when you think you're all by yourself, you're not".

R57, I read that book years ago—it was gut wrenching. The only thing I specifically remember is that as a nurse in a front line base, she had as much authority as a surgeon (because war is chaotic) and that when she returned stateside and had to rein in her aggressiveness and be deferential, it was difficult plus she had horrible PTSD. I’ve not seen any stories that it was fictional, where did you read that?

Okay, now I’ve read the wiki and a few other links. The book was accurate. One of the main detractors worked in a civilian hospital which wasn’t on the front line. Jesus, the Vietnam War was a shit show. Why try to tear down someone who had a different, worse experience because you think it’s unpatriotic.

"The Drew Carey Show." Ran for 9 seasons, 233 episodes. It's been unavailable for streaming until now .... Plex has finally started to offer it.

R102 I remember that show. I liked it, but I think it didn't get much attention because it was on Starz.

There was another Starz show that I liked called Blunt Talk that starred Patrick Stewart as a cable news talk show host. Jackie Weaver was in it and she played one of the main character's producers. It was a pretty funny show. It lasted two seasons and got canned.

Alice

Better Off Ted

Callucci's Department!

The Joe Schmo.show!

Filthy Rich. Delta and Dixie and Ann Wedgeworth!

Omg I LOVE LOVE LOVE Filthy Rich!!! R112

This may sound crazy but I really feel that “Fame” has been forgotten. I haven’t seen it rerun anywhere in years. (I think Ovation ran it for a couple of months about 15 years ago.) Perhaps it’s on streaming somewhere but like many of the other shows mentioned here, it does seem to have fallen completely off the TV radar.

From the 70s and British, so maybe not well known to our North American brethren, but Secret Army. We all talked about it the next day. Later it was spoofed mercilessly in 'Allo 'Allo.

Profit (1996) with Adrian Pasdar was a great show onFox. I don’t think at that time people were ready for a show with a creepy, villainous lead. It was cancelled after 4 episodes.

R16 That is so cool!! I made the pilgrimage to Portmerion in 2017 and spent four nights there. It's pretty amazing when the day visitors leave at 5 pm and you basically get the entire village to yourself and a few other intrepid night visitors. I barely saw another soul in the evenings. I enjoyed pretending that I was Number 6, exploring the Village and wondering how to escape lol. They have a closed-circuit channel on the TV there that is only Prisoner episodes 24/7. But because of human error, it would be left on the titles menu at for a few hours at a time until someone remembered to replay the DVD lol. Other than that? Surreal and magical.

I imagine being a child and getting to visit such a wild and wonderful place would have been incredibly fun and stimulating to one's creativity! Had you seen the show prior to visiting?

Cutter to Houston starring Shelley Hack and Alec Baldwin