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Forum » Retro T.V. & Movies » Underrated TV series
Mr Magic
AfterMASH

Like a lot of spin-offs, this one did poorly.



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"Magic can happen to you."

   
echidna64
Every time I see a thread like this, my answer is always the same- The Prisoner (1968).

The Prisoner is a surreal experience that is like a mash-up of James Bond and Lost. 

I would also like to recommend Spaced (1999). Spaced is a fun british comedy which doubles as a timecapsule for the years it was on the air with heavy pop culture references about things like Playstation and there is even an episode where the lead character Simon Pegg goes on a rant about the Phantom Menace. 
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Superman
Gidget (1965) - Despite being a cute sitcom about a popular movie and starring a future Oscar-winning actress, it only lasted a single season.
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eddstarr
echidna64 wrote :

Every time I see a thread like this, my answer is always the same- The Prisoner (1968).

The Prisoner is a surreal experience that is like a mash-up of James Bond and Lost. 

I would also like to recommend Spaced (1999). Spaced is a fun british comedy which doubles as a timecapsule for the years it was on the air with heavy pop culture references about things like Playstation and there is even an episode where the lead character Simon Pegg goes on a rant about the Phantom Menace. 
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No matter where I land on the web I love telling my "Prisoner" story.

It was late Saturday afternoon in August of 1967. I was 10 years old and 1967 still stands as one of the greatest Television seasons of the 20th century, imho. The list of shows was so awesome that I should post a list here at Retro-Daze just for the fun of it.

"The Prisoner" was the icing of the cake.



In true "EddStarr" fashion, I caught the first episode of "The Prisoner" by accident. I was watching television out of habit, expecting yet another old movie on a Saturday afternoon.

Instead I got the opening sequence of a new series that would absolutely blow me away!

Face it, Great Britain was a cultural dynamo  in the 60's. Movies, art, fashion, music and television - the Brits dominated North America's popular entertainment to an extent far beyond even "The Beatles". Imagine the Fab Four topping the charts on the radio while silently in the television background, "Doctor Who" was slowly taking over the World! 

"The Prisoner" takes its place as groundbreaking television. Everyone has their favorite, "Number Two", and by popular acclaim Leo McKern tops the list as most beloved second in charge.

Episode 2 is very popular because it marks the first appearance of Leo McKern as "Number 2". Leo has the perfect voice to pull-off the Number 2 laugh at the end of the intro. 

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shakin steak

Well, I wrote a few paragraphs, then briefly looked at another tab for some research and all I wrote just went away. My phone is lame like that. So now I'll just give a short list of short lived, shows that I liked in the early 90s. Look em up on wikipedia/imdb/youtube if interested.

Nightmare Cafe (surreal adenture)

Dog City (cartoon anthropomorphic crime dramedy)

Fish Police (ditto)

Hi Honey I'm Home (retro satire sitcom)

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eddstarr
shakin steak wrote :

Well, I wrote a few paragraphs, then briefly looked at another tab for some research and all I wrote just went away. My phone is lame like that. So now I'll just give a short list of short lived, shows that I liked in the early 90s. Look em up on wikipedia/imdb/youtube if interested.

Nightmare Cafe (surreal adenture)

Dog City (cartoon anthropomorphic crime dramedy)

Fish Police (ditto)

Hi Honey I'm Home (retro satire sitcom)

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Oh Yeah - I hear you SnS

That happened to me all the time when my computer ran Windows 8.1. Not only did my writing disappear, I would be bumped right out of the website and have to log back in.

It got so bad that I used to do my posts as a Word document first then copy/paste - with all kinds of font issues after that, lol.
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Superman
How about Superman: The Animated Series? It's not as short-lived as anything mentioned before in this thread, but the fact that it doesn't seem to get as much recognition or praise as Batman: The Animated Series makes it a bit underrated if you ask me.
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eddstarr
Superman wrote :

How about Superman: The Animated Series? It's not as short-lived as anything mentioned before in this thread, but the fact that it doesn't seem to get as much recognition or praise as Batman: The Animated Series makes it a bit underrated if you ask me.
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Yep, I'm guilty as charged. 

What a fascinating question. The only answer I can come up with is "Batman" was so good it rewrote the book on animated action series. Plus the TV landscape shifted when you account for the difference in release dates. 

Think about 1992 versus 1996. 

"Batman" cleared the decks in 1992 with wild acclaim from kids and adults alike. "Superman" arrived in 1996 after the animation tsunami was at its deepest and the audience had already "matured". Batman had already set the bar high and Superman didn't leap tall enough. 


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mickyarber

Tales of the Gold Monkey.

It was a seriously fun show in the vein of Indiana Jones, but was conceived before Raiders of the Lost Ark.

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echidna64
On that topic, I do like the Max Fleischer Superman Cartoons



I wish that they would do a period piece 1940's live action Superman movie
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eddstarr
It occurs to me as I look through this thread that "The Prisoner" and "Doctor Who" share something in common.

The Doctor's first episode was in 1963, but most Doctor Who fans know that the first Doctor really goes back ten years earlier, to 1953 and his name is "Quatermass".

In a similar fashion, "The Prisoner" didn't just appear out of thin air. Number 6 is the direct result of Patrick McGoohan's earlier series that made him an international star, "Danger Man".

Since the turn of the century, "Danger Man" fans have worked hard to make the show available online for future fans. 

If you can stomach the black & white filming, lol, you might discover the origins of The Prisoner in the Danger Man episode called, "Colony Three"

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