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Driven to the basement by the intense heat, we kicked the snowshoes and skies out of the way and pulled up to an old sofa.
We only have basic cable in the basement and an old 13" Panasonic TV with a built-in VCR, so we expected to have a limited channel selection. To our surprise, we found a large selection beyond Channels 4, 5, and 7, including more PBS stations than you would ever want.
The real gem is KIRO2 (ch. 117 on Comcast, ch. 7-2 over digital antennae). The "Deuce" as we call it runs off-net syndication, meaning they recycle old TV shows. Off-net syn is the engine of broadcast commerce, but it’s sadly lacking in character or style. How much Seinfeld do you really want to watch?
What KIRO2 has is the cream of '60s, '70s, and '80s action series. These long-lost masterpieces are being brought back to life and you can see the resurrection night after night.
The Deuce opens up at 6 a.m. with back-to-back episodes of McHale’s Navy, featuring the ubiquitous Ernest Borgnine (who also turns up in Airwolf, a neglected wonder). From that early high, the quality dives hard for the next six hours with an endless parade of weeper dramas like Marcus Welby, M.D. and blah comedies like Kate & Allie.
But when the clock rolls over to 1 p.m., wussies better leave the room, because it’s more than 12 hours of broken-bone and booze-soaked mayhem.
Welcome to a place where a hard-living private dick who never seems to know-what’s-good-for-him is repeatedly beat up (Rockford Files). The kind of lineup where a wheelchair bound guy scowls and growls and doesn’t wait for tough guys to shove him down the stairs, instead he shoves them down the stairs using the chair as a WMD (Ironside).
These are the kind of shows where custom-painted Chevy vans carry guys named Mad Dog and Mr. T (A-Team). And it’s the kind of TV where a guy who gets pushed around immediately bulks up and turns green with glowing red eyes (Incredible Hulk).
The cream of '50s and '60s life in the LAPD is here with Adam-12 (long said to be the most realistic cop show ever produced) and Dragnet. Quincy’s in the house and Simon & Simon bring the heat.
Current shows like Rescue Me and The Closer get props for "realistic" emotions and "gritty" language. Horse hockey!
Check out James Garner in Rockford and Bill Bixby in the Hulk. These two actors are packed to the gills with world-weary wisdom and cynical disbelief. For those who remember Bixby in My Favorite Martian and Courtship of Eddie’s Father, it may come as a shock to see his painful loneliness and his endless search for a cure. It’s exactly what Eric Bana and Ed Norton couldn’t seem to muster in the pitiful movie versions.
There are a few sins of omission. Women are underrepresented. The '70s and '80s featured a bevy of hard-living ladies like Charlie’s Angels, Cagney & Lacey, and the incredible Angie Dickinson as Police Woman "Pepper" Anderson. And where’s Streets of San Francisco with two Academy Award winners flying Mustangs over Nob Hill?
People loved these shows, and even now, 20 and 30 years on, they still reward a second look. Peel out, man, 1-Adam 12, 1-Adam 12, see the man on First and Main. There's a Mad Dog on the loose.
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