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THE SEVENTIES; WAS IT ALL BAD?; Surely Not
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Given that 'Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads' was mostly whingeing and the New Avengers really only rehashed what the 60s Avengers had already gone through, was there owt new? Reggie Perrin and Up Pompeii put a bit of sparkle into TV even if the latter was, shall we say, Carry On terrritory. For me it was the best TV of all decades.
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Yes we had kipper ties and mutton chops came back but we also had some really clever sitcoms that challenged our views and in certain respects where better than the boobs out swear word filled offering we often get now.
Love thy Neighbour- racist some say but it asked questions and answered them very neatly. Plus don't forget that Bill Reynolds (Rudolph Walker) tended to win over his racist gormless neighbour.
Alf Garnet through this smug angry old so in so the youth of the age and the writers could poke fun at the small minded little england brigade and still get them on side at the same time.
And one of my favourites It Ain't Half Hot Mum- mainly off the air because of Michael Bates in blackface so its racist. Bit more complex than that as they couldn't find an Indian actor who could do the role and spoke Urdu etc. at the time at least that is what someone told me years ago. And as one of my uncles was out east during the war it allowed him to laugh sometimes at what had been for him a hell on earth for four years.
There was far more nudity on TV in the '70s than there is now.
Love Thy Neighbour was far from racist as it consistently showed the bigot to be wrong, but it would never be made today.
But when you look back at programmes such as The Sweeney, I, Claudius, Bouquet of Barbed Wire, Dad's Army, Colditz, Secret Army, The World At War, etc, to say the '70s were awful is wrong. Look how many of those programmes are still being shown, or remade, today.
The late seventies for me were all about leaving college, getting a job, getting married and steering through the mortgage queues to buy our first teeny-tiny house. Apparently the country was in chaos, though my only direct memory of this was passing some striking refuse men huddled around a brazier on my way back from picking up my first new car, a Chrysler Horizon - gave 'em a toot and a thumbs-up. It was only in the 1980s that it all started dropping to bits (especially that ruddy car). :mad::D
Back on topic
Fawlty Towers
Last of the Summer Wine when it was [acerbically] funny
Dennis Potter's Blue Remembered Hills and Singing Detective
Huge numbers of leisurely paced BBC classic serials doing justice to the originals
etc, etc, etc
... what's not to love
Not sure you can count LOtSW as seventies since it lasted over 30 years and only started in the 70s. Certainly you wouldn't know from the dress they wore as the characters were all elderly and was set in the countryside..
Especially on Sunday nights when series like Country Matters were being watched for all the wrong reasons and not out of appreciation of the work of H.E.Bates et al.
http://youtu.be/xez4o1ujOPI
Me too and it was one of the best decades of my life. I must admit that musically I have never really left the 70s. Sure, there has been a few decent things since, (not many and all just derivations of 60s and 70s music), but my preferred listening even today is Motown, Folk and Disco and always will be. :cool:
real entertainment (morcambe and wise, generation game, mike yardwood)
great drama (i claudius, poldark, dr who)
great comedy (dads army, monty p, fawlty)
but the fashions and music was pretty crap until punk !
World in Action
Doctor Who
Survivors
Space 1999
Armchair Thriller
Sapphire and Steel (A latecomer, started in 1979)
There was some great action drama shows played simply for entertainment.
The Persuaders, Department S, Jason King, plus others in the genre.
The horror film double bill on BBC2.
People sometimes say that people look at the past with rose tinted glasses and that it was mostly rubbish.
But the 70s really was a great decade for television. Yes of course there was a lot of rubbish on too, there always is, but there was just loads of good television from all sorts of different genres.
Mind you I was looking at things from the perspective of a young child.
But I remember Saturday night scheduling as excellent scheduling. You could watch a series of programmes one after the other and enjoy them all, as opposed to the present day catching one good thing and having to flick through so many channels in the vain hope of finding something else worth watching, which you often don't.
I almost forgot, there was some wonderful children's programmes. Kizzy, and Stig of the Dump to name just two. Back in those days children's television was a bit bolder as it wasn't afraid to scare children. Now and again you'd get these weird and spooky horror dramas...for children...on a Sunday afternoon.
Anyone remember that public information film called 'Dark and Lonely Water'? Terrifying.:D
The theme tunes from 1970s shows simply blow away theme tunes from today. They added a lot to a show's personality and identity.
I loved Secret Army even though it inspired Allo Allo to spoof it. The theme tune was really quite haunting. I also watched the spin off Kessler, anyone else see it?
Things like 'Play for Today', 'Armchair thriller' and even 'Tales of the unexpected'
There was some excellent documentaries too like "The World at War", "The Ascent of man" and "Civilization" - some of them even on ITV:eek:
There was some right cack too though, my dad insisted on watching "The black and white minstrel show", never mind racist, it was boring as heck:(
The Singing Detective definitely wasn't 70's as I watched it as an 11 year old when it was first shown in the mid-80's (1986, I just double checked!). Maybe it wasn't something a kid of my age should've been watching but I was always allowed to watch what I wanted
Yes, the channels were much more open-minded - as were the viewers. They were prepared to try out new ideas and the fear of failure wasn't the dominant factor that it is today. Even with far fewer channels (just 3) than today, there was still more worth watching in those days.
Play for Today - The Spongers about a family who were demonised for being on benefits. A brave story that I doubt the BBC would have the guts to show today.
Sunday Afternoon serials on BBC, introducing classic stories to younger generations.
Flambards
Doctor Who
No one has mentioned Budgie with Adam Faith.
Kenny Everett
Rising Damp
Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin
The Sweeney
TV was of a far higher standard overall in the 70s.