fav PBS shows?

[fishorama28 2]

We used to be PBS members & watch a lot of shows like Nova, All Creatures, (dr Who?), history & mystery stuff but got out of the habit. We can get 4 PBS stations, but none are on the same schedule as our East Coast family & friends. People would say "you must watch" a given show but we could never find them. Football can get in the way too.

When visiting my sister recently, we got hooked on "Endeavour" prequel mysteries. I'd read the Colin Dexter books years ago & we had watched "Morse" & a few "Lewis" sequels on dvd. We've liked some other Brit mysteries, not sure if they were on PBS, our library had dvds. I also saw a couple episodes of "Vera"(?) that could be fun.

So now we're members again. Any suggestions for good shows we should check out? I think we can get some older shows, maybe up to 20 years ago? Some are now on Brit tv, so not available to us. We need a change from sports & news.

 

[CaptainBarnicles7]

Downtown Abbey is a must-watch in my opinion

 

[Rusty_Shackleford31 146]

Sesame Street

 

[MattW32 147]

Life on Mars was an interesting show

 

[CaptainBarnicles7]

Life on Mars was an interesting show

Ooh yeah! Forgot about that one

 

[gwand31 147]

How about Brit Box channel. Checkout Shetland. Terrific show.

 

[fishorama28 2]

Oh yes, Downton Abbey & Sesame Street! I did a quick search & Life on Mars is a Nova thing so we'd probably like it. I thought it could be a sci fi show & we might have liked that too.

Thanks for the Brit Box suggestion, gwand, I've heard of Shetland. We're just trying out being able to stream any tv for right now. We have cable but no premium channels or Netflix, etc. & no smart tv yet. We stream PBS on my PC.

 

[TwoTankAmin26]

In the 1980s I watched a lot of PBS because they had a number of the UK shows including Dr. Who- I have basically seen every episode of Dr. Who starting with the original film. I also watched Are you Being Served, Benny Hill and one of the shortest and funniest shows ever made- Fawlty Towers.

And then came cable and the BBC channel and that mostly ended my PBS watching. The one exception are some of the live music they do, often a repeat. Most recently that would be Black & White Night for which I have the music CD and the video DVD.


"Roy Orbison & Friends - A Black and White Night" is a legendary 1987 concert special frequently broadcast on PBS [1, 2]. Taped at the Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles, the performance features Orbison singing his classic hits backed by an all-star band including Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, and Bonnie Raitt.

About the Concert
Often featured as a pledge drive special on public television, the program was later remastered and expanded for its 30th anniversary into a re-edited edition known as Black & White Night 30. [1, 2, 3, 4]
The all-star guest lineup includes:

• Jackson Browne
• T Bone Burnett
• Elvis Costello
• k.d. lang
• Bonnie Raitt
• J. D. Souther
• Bruce Springsteen
• Tom Waits
• Jennifer Warnes [1]

(edited for many typos)

 

[CaptainBarnicles7]

Fawlty Towers was hilarious and very British...not safe viewing for those who are easily offended though

 

[gimme30]

not safe viewing for those who are easily offended though

Which is practically everyone these days. I'd love to see Fawlty Towers again that show always had me rolling. I haven't watched anything on PBS for a long time, got tired of the constant begging for money. But for F.T. I'd put up with it again, at least for a little while. Downtown Abbey was good too.

 

[CaptainBarnicles7]

My family have adopted many a quote which we use almost on a daily basis, not just from Fawlty Towers but from Blackadder and The Young Ones...which if you haven't seen I'd highly recommend you do!

 

[TwoTankAmin26]

I have the CD of all the Fawlty episodes. Amazing that it did two short seasons several years apart. John Cleese is one of the funniest people who ever walked the Earth.

 

[fishorama28 2]

Fawlty Towers is an old fav! We couldn't quite get into Black Adder, we didn't see it often enough. Benny Hill was, what do we say, mostly too broad for me? Monty Python was very funny most times, sometimes just odd. I never heard of The Young Ones. Dr Who, I only remember 3 or 4 doctors well; Tom Baker, Jon Pertwee, the All Creatures "Tristan" & Hartnell. My husband remembers a caveman dr but I don't. Now Dr Who has been on some streaming ITV/Brit Box for quite some time.

Some of the Brit dramas were good but we didn't see most enough to get hooked. Some I read the books instead. I'm not sure all of my fav Brit shows were on PBS, but many were.

Last night I remembered why we don't watch movies or long shows very often. After almost an hour of a 90min show, I got too sleepy to understand dialog even with captioning LOL.

 

[TwoTankAmin26]

Start watching them earlier.

I can give you a list of amazing movies from the 30s. 40s. and 50s and even newer. I am a big fan of the B&W film era when movies actually had pots and acting.

But I have also seen all the Marx brothers films as well.

 

[fishorama28 2]

In high school I took a film "history" class & we saw a few Marx Bro movies. It was definitely a blow off "social studies" class, we had "recess" to play outdoor sports on occasion. Also an internation potluck food day in honor foreign films maybe. Ah, the early 70s & a young new "hip" teacher. Very different from your private boys school years earlier I'm betting