Back in the early ’50s when all TV shows were live, Desi Arnaz (Cuban bandleader, husband and co-star of Lucille Ball) created television history with the innovation of shooting I Love Lucy on 35mm movie film with three cameras, thereby creating both reruns (thanks, Desi) and syndication of said reruns. Mind you, this was before the advent of video tape recording (Bing Crosby and Adolf Hitler both played important roles there, but that’s a different story…), so the only lasting record of a broadcast was the kinescope, which was accomplished by filming the video monitor while the show was in progress yielding a very low quality image.

So fast forward five or six decades and not only are reruns still with us, now you can have “reruns on demand,” which despite the derisive moniker, is actually quite awesome. We’re moving toward having nearly every TV show that ever existed available as a download. And in all that digital chaff resides some amazing kernels of tasty television.

For pure kitsch, nearly nothing outdoes ’60s sci-fi oriented TV series like Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, Time Tunnel (worth it for the ’60s pop-art sets alone!), Lost In Space, or Land Of The Giants.

Lost In Space is a particular ’60s favorite of ours. Perhaps you know the story: Space Family Robinson on their way to a planet in the system of Alpha Centauri get blown off course due to the sabotage of stowaway Dr. Smith. Over three seasons of outlandish weekly adventures, they and their robot manage to occupy many different planets (all with breathable air!), get teleported through both time and space numerous times, meet countless memorable alien personalities and visit extra dimensions, but never manage to get to Alpha Centauri (nor all back to Earth). Now mind you, the launch of the Robinson’s Jupiter 2 spacecraft was supposed to be in 1997! Little did sixties Hollywood know that 1969’s moon landing would be pretty much the end of the line for manned planetary exploration…

Now if dystopian future is more your sci-fi cup of antioxidant-rich green tea, then you need to check out Logan’s Run, which made it’s debut in 1977 based on the novel and film of the same name. Don’t want to mandatorily check out at age 30? Then you need leave the City Of Domes and make a run for The Sanctuary.

Another ’70s favorite of ours is the TV series adaption of DC Comic Wonder Woman. The first season was set in the 1940s with the statuesque Lynda Carter in the Nazi-fighting title role. Apparently this was the third attempt to bring the Amazon to the small screen and third time being the charm, Carter and the sophisticated humor of the series was a hit with late seventies audiences.

And speaking of the seventies (dare we?), there were some decent comedies with humor that still holds up: WKRP In Cincinnati, The Dukes Of Hazzard, CHiPs (wait, that wasn’t supposed to be a comedy…), and Welcome Back, Kotter.

Kotter is best known for being the launching pad for the career of the young John Travolta, who was one of the smart-ass “Sweathogs” that populated the classroom of teacher Gabe Kotter. (We all know the film career of Travolta, but did you know he had a couple hit singles, one of which landed in the Top Ten?). With an ensemble of appealing characters and drawing heavily on absurd Marx Brothers style humor, Welcome Back, Kotter was a huge hit that aired for umpteen seasons.

We could go on and on, but that should suffice to give you a small taste of the delicious feast of classic TV available on BitTorrent. Fill up your digital plate and enjoy!

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 at 3:17 pm and is filed under TV. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.