More broadcast stations thinking of the older demographic
When TV Land all but abandoned its original audience by transitioning from “My Three Sons,” “Donna Reed” and “Leave It to Beaver” to “Home Improvement,” “M*A*S*H” and “Happy Days,” and finally to “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “The King of Queens” and original programming, fans of more vintage sitcoms had nowhere to go.
While MeTV has been filling the void for the older demographic audience nicely, more broadcast stations are taking aim at nostalgia fans of all ages. Recently entering the fray are Laff, Decades and Heroes and Icons.
Comcast Channel 206
Without much, if any promotion, WPXI launched Laff TV on substation 11.3 on April 15. It’s a mix of ’80s and ’90s sitcoms and has enhanced its tagline “Laff – you know you want to” by throwing movie comedies into the mix.
Laff’s biggest catch is “Spin City,” with both the Michael J. Fox and Charlie Sheen versions getting air time. “The Drew Carey Show,” “Ellen” “The Bernie Mac Show,” “Empty Nest” and “Grace Under Fire,” along with “Funniest Pets and People” and “Life’s Funniest Moments” round out its schedule. Laff also picked up “Night Court,” although it’s not part of the current lineup.
In addition to the sitcoms, Laff airs a morning, afternoon and evening movie weekdays, with additional hours devoted to films on weekends. These aren’t all obscure, throwaway movies – today’s offerings are “This Is Spinal Tap,” “Betsy” and “Three Men And A Little Lady,” while later this week, “The Ref,” “Operation Dumbo Drop” and “You’ve Got Mail” are on the schedule.
Comcast Channel 195
This broadcast network made its debut here on June 2, although KDKA, its local parent station, gave it scant publicity. It’s a somewhat high-concept idea for packaging old shows as its series change from day to day, depending on that day’s theme. The six-hour package is repeated four times a day. Each day begins with “Through The Decades,” a one-hour documentary on that particular day in history. It’s followed by five hours of shows with a common theme. Last Thursday, for instance, started with “14 Hours,” a drama about an emergency room responding to tropical storm Allison and then episodes of “Naked City,” “Peter Gunn,” “Have Gun Will Travel,” “The Rifleman,” “The Donna Reed Show” and “The Phil Silvers Show” – all series that aired in the summer of 1959.
Today’s schedule begins with a “Decades’ look at events of June 22, followed by the Jack Lemmon-Walter Matthau movie, “The Fortune Cookie” and episodes of “The Big Valley,” “Branded” and “The Lucy Show.”
Weekend are reserved for binge watching, with continuous episodes of a single series airing from Saturday at 1 p.m. through midnight Sunday. This weekend, it’s “Love American Style.” Last weekend was devoted to “The Untouchables.”
Not yet available locally
Focusing on action-adventures series, “Heroes and Icons” has a schedule of shows difficult, if impossible, to find elsewhere, including “Wagon Train,” “Kung Fu,” “Combat,” “Twelve O’Clock High” and “The White Shadow.” It’s 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. slate is currently back-to-back episodes of “Hunter,” “Hill Street Blues” and “NYPD Blue,” which would seem to be a good fit for Western Pennsylvania. But so far, Comcast has no plans to add it.
I didn’t detect any vintage commercials when sampling the stations last week – if I recall correctly, that was one of the highlights of the original TV Land. In most cases, those old commercials were more dated (and sometimes funnier) than the series they once sponsored.