Your favorite “comfort” tv shows/movies

You may find this thread about comfort movies, from shortly after last year's election, of interest.

Dark Shadows and The Sopranos

In addition, there's this 2023 thread about "comfort movies / television shows".

Midsummer Murders and any Miss Marple.

Doc Martin

Kim's Convenience

As Time Goes By

Escape to the Country

The Repair Shop

Oddly - Major Crimes

Are the Related Thread people on the DL payroll.

Beulah

The highly underrated British sitcom "Star Stories" (2006-2008) which parodies celebrities' biographies.

The Tom Cruise episode is hilarious as hell.

Old episodes of "The Simpsons."

Roseanne. Clips keep coming up on my YT feed.

I'm comforted by remembering how amazing she was, as well as the writing of the show, and how much it truly reflected it's time. This is despite all the scandals that came out about her at the time, what a horror she was to work with, and of course, the present horror she has evolved into.

Law and Order OG -- Seasons 1-16. I queue up four or five episodes and fall asleep with them on.

Nothing else will do.

I know it's probably considered cliche but Golden Girls.

When I was young it was MASH but holy shit that show is awful.

Twilight Zone, Outer Limits,Andy Griffith ,Mission Impossible. Thunderbirds, Dark Shadows. I've regressed to my worry free 8 yo self.

For some reason- The HBO series Girls- It just hits the spot and reminds me of 2010-2021 which was my prime and the beginning of a great 10-12 years (31-42) It has aged well, its timelessly funny, and very underrated- And it holds up to MANY repeated viewings-

The characters are generally vile, but they have aspects that we ALL have-

Woody Allen films for me also feel very comforting-

The film Tar really hits the spot- Just someone who is of questionable ethics and morals getting their very just rewards- but she also has some form of humanity-

The original Lost In Space... Keeping Up Appearances... Are You Being Served... The Burns and Allen Show... McMillan and Wife...

Frasier

Law & Order

Keeping Up Appearances

Desperate Housewives

Murder, She Wrote

Movies:

Hot Fuzz

O Brother, Where Art Thou

Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Classic Universal monster movies

TV:

Twilight Zone

Columbo

Murder, She Wrote

Most of you don't like these shows, but "Friends" and "Big Bang Theory".

R17 Hot Fuzz is mental, great choice.

Seasons 4-8 of The Simpsons

HSN.

Two years ago, Harried-and-Hopeless was watching Family, too, along with others

[quote] Knots Landing, The Mary Tyler Moore Show (earlier seasons), The Bob Newhart Show, Family (ideally the seasons before Quinn Cummings arrives)

I love Big Bang Theory, R18. It's a perfect choice for binge-watching.

Inspector Morse

All Creatures Great & Small (original ONLY)

LAW & ORDER SVU and A PLACE TO CALL HOME. I love Aussie television shows.

The Christmas episodes of the Simpsons

The Christmas episodes of the Golden Girls

Mind-numbingly mawkish Hallmark movies around their Christmas season (From September to March)

Legally Blonde

Pretty much anything with Jennifer Coolidge

Superstore, which got me through the Covid lockdowns: thank God for America’s liking for 24-episode series!

Poirot, but only the series with david Suchet.

Ghosts (UK version)

Jane Austen adaptations, including the nineties BBC Pride and Prejudice series, and mid nineties version of Persuasion, with the swaggering but much-too-old Ciaron Hinds.

BBC comedies called Avoidance and also Two Doors Down

Any of the Philomena Cunk “Cunk on…” mockumentaries.

The German Netflix drama “Over Christmas.

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour is my new jam. Surprise actors, surprise directors. Some episodes are better than others but most are great fun. Old Perry Mason episodes are comforting too.

This will probably sound corny but many episodes of Highway to Heaven are comfort for me. The show wasn't overtly religious. It was more about people being kind to each other. I watched the show as a kid with my grandmother when reran on cable. During the pandemic, I saw it on a streaming service and I started rewatching it.

First season of Perry Mason is genius. Then the main character stopped being devious, or, at least, less than virtuous. The following seasons were as formulaic as they come and much less enjoyable.

I find comfort in rewatching Downton Abbey. It’s pretty campy, after all.

R19

Not a day goes by that I don’t quote from it.

R30, came here to say Perry Mason. I’m currently on a major binge. I also found it comforting at the start of the pandemic. As a kid, it all seemed very dull and I hated Burger and Tragg. Now I see how funny it is and I love Burger and Tragg. I want to be Della Street.

“American Dad!”

Documentaries on YouTube about old movie stars directors and producers and what horrible people they were. Sometimes one will say they were great people and another will say they were horrible people.

What genuinely surprised me was an interview with Robby Benson where he made a movie with Jack lemmon and Jack lemmon was expecting some sort of Oscar nomination or something for it. He had Robby Benson's big scene towards the end of the movie which Benson said his entire characterization was building up towards cut. Lemon was known as a great guy but this was a really horrible thing to do to a young actor. This is Joan Crawford territory.

Also Robert Preston was doing a play on Broadway with a big movie star and he was getting a lot of laughs. So the movie star wanted his lines cut. I think it was Margaret Sullivan because he was doing a play with her in I think the fifties.

Sullavan!

Kill Bill 1 is my biggest comfort movie. Shows are the sopranos, Golden Girls and Girls

When I freaked out at times during the pandemic, 30 Rock, which I was new to, helped

Cougar Town — criminally underrated

Psych

Parks & Rec

The Good Place

Mad Men

Silicon Valley— also criminally underrated

Agree about Girls. It really does hold up, surprisingly.

I dont usually re-watch shows because the passing of time (since I first watched the show) always gets to me.

How could I forget— I love watching old episodes of Martha Stewart Living. It’s so soothing and I just love her.

I Love Lucy!!

Murder She Wrote. I preferred the Cabot Cove shows.

My favorite "comfort" television is Too Close for Comfort.

The Andy Griffith Show

Fringe Elementary Psych Castle West Wing

It sounds weird, but: Unsolved Mysteries. Specifically the older episodes from the late '80s and early '90s. It reminds me of my childhood and many of the segments have a hazy, surreal vibe to them that, despite some of the creepy subject matter, feels like a warm blanket to me. I will switch the Unsolved Mysteries Pluto TV channel on sometimes and just let the episodes play as background noise while I'm doing things around the house.

The original Twilight Zone

I’m Not somebody who sleeps to tv but I can fall asleep with the unsolved mysteries channel on

I love Reno 911. I wish there were more. Same with Arrested Development.

R47, R45 here--same. I have fallen asleep many times watching the UM channel. I don't exactly know why, but I find it soothing, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense given how scary/dark some of the stories are. Maybe it's something about Robert Stack's narration.

Can't believe I forgot to list these:

Keeping Up Appearances

Inspector Morse

Lewis

Law & Order - Only the Mothership - I can set that up to watch entire seasons (never the Benjamin Bratt or Milena Govich years) and it's one of the few TV shows I can fall asleep to - because I've seen them so many times I know all the dialogue and while listening with my eyes closed knowing all the dialogue I can visualize exactly what's happening on the screen. (It's also great background TV for the same reason.)

R50, I came here to post this, about the OG "L&O"!

My Samsung Smart TV, on the Samsung TV Plus app, has a dedicated channel just for that series, so if I'm lucky I'll get a Lennie Briscoe episode whenever I turn it on!

I watch the Benjamin Bratt episodes because....Lennie! "I've got ties older than you." The one where they all witness an execution is beyond brilliant. And BB is pretty good with Julia Roberts. ☺

R51, to add:

YouTube: The Australian series "Border Security." Oh, brother! The food, drugs, and other contraband people try to take into Australia! Especially Asians not declaring all manner and condition of food!

The regular National Geographic channel counterpart I watch is "To Catch a Smuggler," my favorite destination's being Peru.

Bewitched

Gilligan’s Island

Gunsmoke

The Honeymooners

I Love Lucy

The Munsters

Perry Mason

I fall asleep most nights with old episodes of "Cops" on the TV. There's just something about videos of people making worse life choices than I do (at least most of the time) that allows me to comfortably drift off to sleep.

If I'm really stressed out, I find Bob Ross "The Joy of Painting" or any David Attenborough show on BBC America..

R21 - i love putting on the shopping channel in the background, occasionally mindlessly watching what crap they're hawking. Drives my partner mental.

Before I had premium Youtube I'd reach for series 2-4 of "Blackadder," 1-3 of "Sherlock," and shows and films ranging from a Bonzo Dog Band reunion concert to "Jerry Springer the Opera" (yeah I'm an Anglophile.) On YT it's Ryan George and Mr. Sunday Movies/The Weekly Planet channels and my own playlists of music and comedy sketches. Here's one from Jenny Lorenzo.

[quote] It sounds weird, but: Unsolved Mysteries. Specifically the older episodes from the late '80s and early '90s. It reminds me of my childhood and many of the segments have a hazy, surreal vibe to them that, despite some of the creepy subject matter, feels like a warm blanket to me. I will switch the Unsolved Mysteries Pluto TV channel on sometimes and just let the episodes play as background noise while I'm doing things around the house.

This is also a comfort show for me. I grew up in the 90s and watched the show every Friday night and other kids at my school watched as well. Mondays at school we would talk about the episodes. I rewatch episodes of the show whenever I'm craving 90s nostalgia. Over the past couple of years, I have talked with a few friends who I have known since childhood and they have talked about watching the show again. I work remotely and sometime back I was in a video meeting with colleague who has a ritual watching an episode or two every Friday night.

Downton Abbey

Julia Child's channel on Youtube

Air Disasters

Hear me out. I have seen all 150+ episodes multiple times, so I know how the planes crashed. There is no suspense now. But Bill Ratner as the narrator just lulls me to sleep. Or at least, makes me relax and clear my mind.

R60- OMG. Me too. And True Crime. I follow Dark Curiosities on Youtube and the narrator's lovely Irish lilt also makes me feel comforted despite the horrific stories

Mad Men. There is something very calming about the show despite its dark subject matter. I love how slowly the show moves.

I also love watching old A&E Biography documentaries about old movie stars, musicians, etc. There is something comforting about them. Reminds me of my childhood when cable TV actually made decent documentaries before everything got taken over by shitty reality shows.

Sure, r60 and r61. I know we all watch "Air Disasters" to see Greg Feith!

R63- He was on tv all of the time when I was in college in the late nineties due to all of the plane crashes back then. He was very handsome in his prime- He is quite old now and has a channel with a few other men on YT

I have had Knots Landing on a continuous loop for a year.

Random assortment includes:

Futurama

Frasier

Allo Allo

Original Star Trek

When I was a kid I LOVED these WW2 documentaries and would watch them all weekend often falling asleep to them. One of them was called Victory at sea. In my teens I stopped watching those

The episodes of A&E's true crime City Confidential from 1998-2004 is sort of a comfort show for me. 1998-2004 episodes were narrated by the late actor Paul Winfield. He was a great narrator. The show would feature historical/cultural details about the cities were the murder cases took place. I've been watching episodes here and there on Tubi for the past several months.

I Love Lucy

I've been watching a lot of the Judge Judy channel on Pluto. I don't know why I consider it comforting.

Looney Toons clips which I subscribe to on my FB reels. I've always been a huge Bugs Bunny fan, and watching a half hour of BB on these feeds - especially the 'musical' episodes - every night before I go to bed. I need the laughs to end my day after watching the depressing news on MSNBC.

The clips go back to the 50s, and the humor was more for adults than kids - never realized it until now.

Fuck her. Once I learned she’s all in on Trump 2.0, I loathe her.

R72 I used to be a fan of hers years ago, but stopped after kept supporting Trump.

In her last year (age 91) my mother was hooked on "Hardcore Pawn." She loved shows that had a raucous element (she videotaped Jerry Springer!).

After the election i started watching “only murders in the building”. Silly and pleasing distraction. But I only got through three seasons.

R74 here. Didn't mean to "Harold Roll"!

Let's try Wikipedia:

WTH?!

I give up.

“Gilmore Girls” was a very cozy watch, especially the early seasons. I dud not start watching regularly until it was almost all on DVD but anytime an episode was on TV, it was so easy just to get into it.

I forgot to mention “Bkackish.” It’s even more hilarious on re-watch.

It’s basically a very funny update of “The Jeffersons,” which I also adore.

In my early 20s I loved watching Maury. Unfortunately the more I went out into the word I began to meet people who’s lives were like an episode and it became depressing

Movie: Shelter (2007)

Television: The Nanny

Love Actually

BEWITCHED was my favorite show growing up (I used to go to 'morning kindergarten' and my local station aired reruns in the late 60s at 11:30 am, just when I got home - I was glued to the TV). To this day, it's still one of my all-time favorites and the comfort show for me.

[quote]Roseanne. Clips keep coming up on my YT feed.

[quote] I'm comforted by remembering how amazing she was, as well as the writing of the show, and how much it truly reflected it's time. This is despite all the scandals that came out about her at the time, what a horror she was to work with, and of course, the present horror she has evolved into.

The original Roseanne sitcom is a comfort show for me in part because I watched the show as a kid and could relate to it because my family went through some rough financial times. I also loved the episodes that featured Nana Mary. When I went away to college in 2003, Nick at Nite or TV Land started airing the show and a few friends and I would watch in the dorms because we had related to the show when we were young. After college, a couple of friends and I would have marathon of the Halloween episodes in October where we would meet at one of our homes order pizza or takeout and would watch the episodes. It was tradition for five or six years until I moved for a job transfer and then the next year another friend moved.

I kept in regular contact with the friends via social media, calls, and texts and a couple of visits a year. One of my friends is physician's assistant and she went through a very rough time in 2020 because of covid. We talked on the phone that summer and she said that Roseanne and others 90s shows were comfort shows for her. That October, we set up an online meet up on Microsoft Teams where all watched the Roseanne Halloween episodes together. It was a fun bright spot during rough period. But, it was also awkward because we all knew that Roseanne Barr is a batshit Trumpster.

Grace and Frankie

It was so beloved when the show started. Now you never hear about it any more.

R85, I agree about Nana Mary. My favorite episode is the Mother’s Day barbecue episode from season three where we first meet Nana Mary. It’s an episode with very little in the way of story but it’s just a perfect feel good episode.

And then Bonnie sings!

The movie “White Christmas”. The train scenes, the set with the inn. Just lovely and cozy.

R87 That was one of my favorite episodes. The singing scene.

The Trouble With Angels