I’m later than usual with my annual post about my plans for watching television in the new year. The first month of 2021 is already over but I’ve made considerable progress.
Here were my goals for 2020:
- Watch The Rebel (ABC, 1959-1961) Season 2 on Amazon Prime
- Watch Coronet Blue (CBS, 1967) on DVD
- Watch Blondie (NBC, 1957) on DVD
- Watch Surface (NBC, 2005-2006) on DVD
- Watch The Immortal (ABC, 1970-1971) on DVD
What did I accomplish last year? I did watch all 40 episodes of The Rebel Season 2 plus the first 24 episodes of Blondie. I think I got through about a half dozen episodes of Surface during the last few weeks of 2020. I also sampled two episodes of one season wonder On Our Own (CBS, 1977-1978) on Amazon Prime but didn’t enjoy the show enough to keep watching. And I stumbled upon the animated Spider-Woman (ABC, 1979-1980) on Disney Plus and watched all 16 episodes.
However, I didn’t get the chance to start watching either Coronet Blue or The Immortal.
Why? Because I got sidetracked by other TV shows. I rewatched 30 Rock and Star Trek: The Next Generation last year. That ate up a big chunk of time. I watched a lot of The Great British Baking Show on Netflix.
Also, I rewatched recent obscurity Perfect Couples (NBC, 2010-2011) which isn’t streaming or on DVD but is available as a digital download. It’s the only digital download I’ve paid for but I loved the show when it originally aired. It was just as hilarious watching it again a decade later.
What I’ll Be Watching in 2021
So far in 2021, I’ve finished watching Surface and started the final disc of Blondie. I also discovered a handful of episodes of Accidental Family (NBC, 1967-1968) on YouTube and watched four of them so far. It’s too bad the entire series isn’t available.
Next on my list is, of course, Coronet Blue. I’ve owned it on DVD for years and just haven’t found the time to watch it. After that, I’ll watch The Immortal. Or at least that’s the plan. With so many streaming services, plus YouTube and the Internet Archive, there’s always the potential I’ll get sidetracked once again.
What do you plan on watching in 2021? Do you have any TV watching goals? Hit the comments with your thoughts.
I too would like to see Coronet Blue and the Immortal. Also Spider-Woman
Did not know that was on Disney + which we have temporarily have so I will have to seek that out!
My TV watching goals always revolve around what I already own.
Whether it be DVDs, Blu-Rays, VHS or files I have on my computer.
Everything is on a 5-year rotating schedule (including movies)
Nothing too obscure though I do have some series that I wish would be released in a physical format.
I would like to watch these this year but on official DVDs or Blu Rays (YouTube doesn’t count):
Fantastic Journey
Freddy’s Nightmares
Fridays
The Incredibly Strange Film Show
Megaloman
Night Visions
Spectreman
Space Giants
Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends
The Star Lost
Star Maidens
Way Out
These horror/sci-Fi anthology TV series would also be welcome!
(I should probably do more research to see if they are already available)
Great Ghost Tales
Journey to the Unknown
Nightmare Cafe
Out of the Unknown
Out of This World
Quinn Martin’s Tales of the Unexpected
Tales of Mystery
Tales of the Unexpected
Not sure why but I have a strange fascination to see Hot L Baltimore and many other obscure ’60s and ’70’s sitcoms
Hope your having a great year Robert Jay. LOVE your web site!
I did well on my 2020 goals of watching DuMont network shows. I’ve watched 8 episodes of Rocky King Detective (I own 4 of them), the one episode of The Plainclothes Man that showed up on YouTube, a few of the DuMont version of Ellery Queen, plus several of The Goldbergs, which I liked more as a history lesson then as an enjoyable show.
Last summer I bought a poor quality, unofficial set of NBCs 1966 half-hour series T.H.E. Cat, and began to watch it, but somehow got sidetracked. Episodes were grainy, and most of them are in black-and-white, though filmed in color, but I enjoyed them. Great music, handsome mysterious main character, and all the exotic adventure I don’t find in Small Town USA.
When I saw this 2021 Watching Goals blog I unearthed my T.H.E. Cat DVDs and challenged myself to watch all 26 episodes. (Stay-at-home pandemics drain me of all ambition, so sticking a disk into my portable DVD player sometimes seems like too much effort.) When I finish them I may dig out my poor quality unofficial DVD set of Dante — NBCs other 1960s one season half hour show about a handsome mysterious character who hangs out at a nightclub. (Willie Dante owns Dante’s Inferno, so he has a good reason for spending his nights there. T. Hewitt Edward Cat — the T. stands for Tom — spends time at the Casa Del Gato — House of the Cat — because he’s friends with owner Pepe Cordoza.)
I keep my goals low, so two half-hour shows should be enough to plan on watching.
I just reached my goal of watching all 26 episodes of T.H.E. Cat. A fun show, though actually rather violent. When numerous bad guys try to kill Cat one of them often falls off a high roof, or out of a top floor window. You hear a short scream, then that bad guy is never mentioned or seen again. But who knows, perhaps the bad guys survive, for Cat can get shot a couple of times, and then be seen walking around with very little blood loss! All in all I enjoyed the show, for an imagined look at how a financially well-off adventurer lives. Always ready with a witty quip and a few lightening-fast martial arts moves when multiple people are trying to capture or kill him. (But, alas, he keeps falling for the drugged drink trick.)
I feel like I’m constantly trying to catch up, although I’m watching fewer network shows this year than normal. I’m spending too much time watching documentaries and YouTube stuff. I usually do most of my catching up during the summer. What I wanted to do last summer is to go through my archives and find stuff to re-watch (or stuff I didn’t watch) but I never really did. I suspect I’ll be doing that this summer. Although there’s a lot more new stuff coming out during summer now so I don’t know how much time I’ll have for it.
oh still waiting impatiently here for sources of ASSIGNMENT UNDEr WATER and OUR AMERICAN HERITAGE and the GREAT adventure which won severali awards in ijs time as educational sources for students!!!!… as for lightweight stuff ;; HEY LANDLORD AND love on a rooftop… never achieving rerun status even…….
My goal for 2021 has been fulfilled as I watched all 191 (plus 1 episode designated to be the intro episode of “Eleventh Hour”) of “Dr Kildare.” I also watched two seasons of Ben Casey. I’m currently watching the first season of “Eleventh Hour”.
I’m hoping to watch more medical series but they are hard to find.