{"id":189,"date":"2011-03-11T00:47:24","date_gmt":"2011-03-11T00:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2011\/03\/classic-1980.html"},"modified":"2011-03-11T00:47:24","modified_gmt":"2011-03-11T00:47:24","slug":"classic-1980","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2011\/03\/classic-1980.html","title":{"rendered":"1980’s TV revivals are a reminder of a gentler time in the culture + the return of “Strange Herring”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Doogie Howser, M.D.<\/i> is back!<\/b> I’m pleased to find one of the best family shows of the eighties<\/a> airing on the kids network The Hub<\/a> (a partnership of Discovery Communications and Hasbro) where it’s being paired with The Wonder Years<\/i><\/a>, another classic from the era. Both shows were one-camera half-hour comedies of the type that are currently in vogue — with one crucial difference. While funny, they also unabashedly projected gentleness and kindness and weren’t afraid to allow their characters to actually learn positive lessons about life. The balance made for a rewarding viewing experience.<\/p>\n

And The Smurfs<\/i> are back too!<\/a>  <\/b>A new live-action\/CGI-animated feature film based<\/a> on the classic blue characters is due out in August. I used to love the old Saturday morning cartoons<\/a> that aired on NBC (also in the eighties). I didn’t watch them every week. Since they aired opposite Firing Line<\/i><\/a> on PBS, I’d have to make a choice each week on which show to watch based on William Buckley’s guest. It was a tough decision! Anyway, like Doogie<\/i> and The Wonder Years<\/i>, The Smurfs<\/i> managed to balance genuine humor with a gentle spirit and some positive life lessons. I hope the movie, which stars Neil Patrick Harris (yes, Doogie Howser<\/i>!) in a human role, doesn’t screw it up by downplaying the original’s kind tone and\/or overdosing on trendy snark and innuendo.    <\/p>\n

Strange Herring<\/i> is back!<\/b><\/a> Glad also to see my friend Anthony Sacramone is back posting his aberrant cultural observations again on a regular basis. If you’re looking for some good off-beat humor about the world we live in, he’s worth checking out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Doogie Howser, M.D. is back! I’m pleased to find one of the best family shows of the eighties airing on the kids network The Hub (a partnership of Discovery Communications and Hasbro) where it’s being paired with The Wonder Years, another classic from the era. Both shows were one-camera half-hour comedies of the type that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,11,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family-matters","category-internet","category-television"],"yoast_head":"\n1980's TV revivals are a reminder of a gentler time in the culture + the return of "Strange Herring" - Catholics Media and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2011\/03\/classic-1980.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"1980's TV revivals are a reminder of a gentler time in the culture + the return of "Strange Herring" - Catholics Media and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Doogie Howser, M.D. is back! I’m pleased to find one of the best family shows of the eighties airing on the kids network The Hub (a partnership of Discovery Communications and Hasbro) where it’s being paired with The Wonder Years, another classic from the era. Both shows were one-camera half-hour comedies of the type that…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2011\/03\/classic-1980.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholics Media and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-03-11T00:47:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John W. Kennedy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"1980's TV revivals are a reminder of a gentler time in the culture + the return of \"Strange Herring\" - Catholics Media and Culture","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2011\/03\/classic-1980.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"1980's TV revivals are a reminder of a gentler time in the culture + the return of \"Strange Herring\" - Catholics Media and Culture","og_description":"Doogie Howser, M.D. is back! 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Kennedy","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/d80\/d801bc09698c0995d9ae402b4b55ab61x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/d80\/d801bc09698c0995d9ae402b4b55ab61x96.jpg","caption":"John W. Kennedy"},"description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media & Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations & Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}