Boldly go where you’ve gone before
Streaming services take viewers on a nostalgic trip to simpler times via must-see-again TV
Apparently there was a time before cellphones, laptops and high-definition everything. No, really: We saw it on TV!
While every week introduces a new crop of high-profile, high-quality programs on the various subscription streaming services, sometimes we crave a taste of simpler times.
Fortunately, there’s plenty of vintage television on the big subscription streaming services. You just have to dig a bit to find it.
There are many shiny gems to mine from the 1990s, ’80s and beyond. Here are several old-school favourites.
Star Trek/Star Trek: The Animated Series/Star Trek: The Next Generation (Netflix, CraveTV)
Kirk and Picard were boldly going where no one had gone before, long before we had personal communicators — or smartphones — fused to our hands. The original series pilot is a particular curiosity (no Kirk! Spock!), but Netflix also has the animated series and the entirety of The Next Generation’s run. Watching it all could be a five-year mission.
Family Affair (Amazon Prime Video)
This sitcom about precocious siblings, their bachelor uncle and their very proper butler was a critical hit over its five seasons in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but it’s very much an artifact of its era. Still, it’s fun to hop in the time machine.
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (Netflix)
By the Power of Greyskull, this one takes us back to Saturday mornings spent glued to the TV and inhaling sugary cereal. It’s so cheesy that it somehow travels to the other end of the spectrum and becomes cool. If She-Ra is more your thing, the Princess of Power is also on Netflix.
Married ... With Children (CraveTV)
If you want to measure just how much cultural sensibilities have changed since the ’80s and ’90s, look no further than Al Bundy and his dysfunctional clan. What was merely risqué humour 20 or 30 years ago would be considered so politi- cally incorrect today, it would never make it onto broadcast TV. A comedic time capsule, for sure.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Netflix)
This TV spinoff of a movie nobody really cared about in the first place became, as we all know, a pop culture juggernaut. Its blend of quips and heart holds up well.
Cheers (CraveTV)
Before everyone knew everybody else’s name through social media, we felt like we were friends with Sam, Diane, Frasier and the other denizens of this Boston bar. Cheers feels very much of its time, but it’s a familiar place we like to return to when the world gets too complicated.
Roseanne (Amazon Prime Video)
The larger-than-life working class mom is coming back March 27 in the Roseanne sequel series (wisely ditching that weird dream sequence ending to the ninth season), which is all the more reason to revisit the groundbreaking original. Love her or hate her, there’s no avoiding that laugh.