Due to a random reference I think @video_game_king made, I've been thinking about All in the Family lately, and how glad I am that I happened to catch a bunch of episodes of it on a cable channel that played a bunch of old syndicated shows. The show was well before my time, but it's cool to see a show that so directly addressed the differences between two generations and their clashing views on race, gender, religion, politics, you name it, while managing to still be lighthearted and not a complete downer. While I'm at it, I should probably get around to catching some episodes of Till Death Us Do Part, which All in the Family was loosely based on.
It always strikes me as sad that only a certain number of shows even qualify for syndication, and even then only the huge megahits garner enough viewers to be worth broadcasting years or decades after they conclude, so there are entire eras of TV that it's somewhat difficult to ever be exposed to through cable. And even on the Internet, you're not going to watch those shows unless you specifically know the name of old shows that you've been told are worth it. Channel surfing has exposed me to a number of great old shows that I don't think I would ever have watched were they just a suggestion that popped up on Netflix, or were a DVD boxed set that I'd never buy, or a torrent that I'd never think to search for.
So what shows have you enjoyed from before your own era?
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