When you were a kid, did your friends go on about a TV show...

[HardyGirl]

...and then you watched it and wondered what all the fuss was about? 3 shows come to mind for me: Benny Hill, Kojak and Police Woman.

Benny Hill was only fun for 2 reasons; it was on WAAAAY past my bedtime, and they swore! But after watching it 2 or 3 times, it lost it's appeal. I really could never get into Brittish comedy anyway. I much preferred The Honeymooners that was on right after anyway.

I would also hear the kids at school talk about Kojak and Police Woman. So I watched both of them during a school break once. I didn't think they were so much. I watched a lot of other cop shows, and I didn't really care for these 2.

What shows were popular w/ the other kids, but just left you cold?

[apes3978]

Not a TV show, but the movie "The Day After"... I seen it way after it aired and didn't see what all the hype was about...

[Goblin19]

Benny Hill also had very occasional nudity that slipped by sensors. Very exciting for a young boy. The show for me that everyone liked was Inspector Gadget. I always hated that show.

[Mikey]

Benny Hill was great.

Back in the day (the mid 70's) we didn't even know who Monty Python was.

Benny was KING

As for what shows kids went on about but I never cared for .......

Charlie's Angels
Baretta
Starsky and Hutch --- i'm only discovering it now
Roots --- thought it was crazy boring back in the day --- but I like it a lot today.
Space 1999 (see Roots)

[johnmiic]

As a kid growing into a teenager I saw shows like Voltron, Robotech and Transformers and thought: what garbage these shows are! They weren't even as good as the watered down stuff I used to watch; Battle of the Planets & Star Blazers from a few years before. Some of that could have been due to the changing rules of kids TV shows.

I liked Benny Hill and still do. Though he did re-use many jokes and punch-lines over again in his shows. At a Doctor Who convention a guy selling Doctor Who promotional photos was asked by a fan if he had any Benny Hill pics and the guy said, "If I did-I would burn them!" The guy explained his point of view to me. He said there are so many more better shows/comedies on British TV than Benny Hill. Benny Hill doesn't command a lot of respect in the UK. He's considered very low-brow tho I still like him.

[SeattleEd]

Yup, Benny Hill was all the rage among the boys. So much so that in 6th grade we had to do an assignment about our favorite things and read it out loud in front of the class. Needless to say, about 85% of boys said Benny Hill was their favorite TV program.
Mrs. McKiver was oblivious to the show and one teacher's pet decided to tell her what it was about, "A man that chases naked women".
Next day notices went out to parents about this and of course that put the kybosh on watching Benny Hill.

[Mikey]

Comparing Benny to Monty, Benny was the perfect British show to bring to America at that time.

A lot of Monty's gags went over a lot of peoples heads at the time.

When you watch Benny with your mom and dad you didn't have to explain why it's clever and funny.

Benny appealed to all.

I remember me and my mom watching The Dead Parrot sketch on PBS lots of years ago.
She said it was stupid, not funny and boring.
On the other hand, she thought Benny was the funniest show on TV (at the time)

[johnmiic]

It all depends Mike. I have heard Monty Python was shown on PBS here in NY before Benny Hill was on commercial TV and had a huge following. So much so in the 80's and`90's the PBS stations all touted it as returning to PBS.

A few years ago they released all the OLD Benny Hill shows in Black & White onto DVD. I have yet to see those. They might be a lot different from the 1970's BH.

Another show that seems a little less impressive now is SOAP. I remember they were trying to ban this show when I was a kid but watching it now it seems pretty inoffensive.

[Mikey]

I never watched Soap (even though I loved Benson) --- weird

[megomania]

Benny Hill also had very occasional nudity that slipped by sensors.

Exactly...I remember my Grandfather sitting in his easy chair watching Benny Hill and I would be on the couch pretending to be asleep. Of course I was facing the TV and peeking my eyes in anticipation.

For me it was Little House on the Prairie....GAWD awful show that I could never wrap my mind around why anyone would enjoy it.

-Chris

[Mikey]

I liked Little House during it's first few seasons but couldn't watch it after that... They changed it too much for my liking.

I stopped watching around the time they brought Albert in.

[LonnieFisher]

Dukes of Hazard.

[kryptosmaster]

Monty Python played on PBS in the mid 70's where I lived. I never heard of Benny Hill until the 80's when I found it playing on late-night tv.
Little House on the Prairie was a Must-See show for me in the 70's but it got a bit tiresome after Mary went blind.
Dukes of Hazzard RULED! (until Coy & Vance)

Rich

[torgospizza]

Space 1999 (see Roots)

Yeah, I thought Space: 1999 was boring, myself, until I got a couple Season One discs off eBay real cheap recently. It's much better than I remember it being.

I remember my friends liking a Saturday morning show called Big John, Little John and not finding it at all amusing.

[rche]

I used to tune in to Benny Hill, not for his humor but because when the station couldn't get the Hill show they would broadcast something from this Australian comedian named Paul who had nude pinups taped to his refrigerator. Guaranteed good times.