Big Brother and Let's Make a Deal to Finally Take the Plunge...

[JayDLewis]

I'm fairly sure Superstation (W)TBS ran B&W Beverly Hillbillies eps in the, late 80s/early 90s I think.

[BrandonFG]

I think Nick at Nite was running Bewitched long before there was a MeTV.

It was. I remember it airing there in the late-80s/early-90s.

Indeed. In fact, they even promoted the fact that they would be showing the B&W seasons (of which there were two, not three, as the promo suggests) that hadn't been seen in years:

Thanks! I definitely remember that promo, mainly the "floating" suitcases coming down the stairs, but I didn't realize it was to promote the B&W seasons. Reading the Wiki page for the show, I also didn't realize that those episodes were generally excluded from the syndication package in the 70s.

And yes Jay, TBS did air The Beverly Hillbillies in the early-90s. IIRC, it came on around 6*, right after The Andy Griffith Show.

*Excuse me.....6:05 ;-P

[Ian Wallis]

Thanks! I definitely remember that promo, mainly the "floating" suitcases coming down the stairs, but I didn't realize it was to promote the B&W seasons. Reading the Wiki page for the show, I also didn't realize that those episodes were generally excluded from the syndication package in the 70s.

I think it all depends on the station.  The B&W episodes definitely WERE syndicated.  The stations in my area that ran the show regularly ran the B&W episodes right up until about 1980 - sometimes they would "skip" a cycle though, or be aired just in the summer months.  After 1980, the next time I remember seeing them was on NaN in 1989.  My guess is it was around the beginning of the '80s that they were taken out of the package, so Nick's statement that they hadn't been seen in a decade was pretty well true.

[aaron sica]

Sometimes these syndicated packages made no sense - I didn't like "My Three Sons" originally when I first heard of it, but got hooked on it when NaN added it...As I would later realize, there were 12 years to the show and they had the rights to Seasons 1-5 (the B&W ABC years) and season 12! It was quite odd to see Mike, Robbie and Chip in good old black and white one day and then in glorious color the next with everyone older (sans "Mike") and more cast members to learn...

[Steve Gavazzi]

Sometimes these syndicated packages made no sense - I didn't like "My Three Sons" originally when I first heard of it, but got hooked on it when NaN added it...As I would later realize, there were 12 years to the show and they had the rights to Seasons 1-5 (the B&W ABC years) and season 12!

And, I believe, the second half of season 11.  Y'know, just to make things extra confusing.

[Jimmy Owen]

To me, My Three Sons and Andy Griffith are two shows that are more enjoyable in the B&W seasons.  One show that I don't recall seeing in syndication in B&W was Petticoat Junction.  I'm assuming Viacom didn't make those available.

[Ian Wallis]

I may be in the minority, but I was never much of a fan of Andy Griffith. I liked My Three Sons though, but the episodes I saw in the '70s were seasons 6-11, so I guess I'm more familiar with those.  I've only seen a handful of B&W episodes.

You are correct about the first two seasons of Petticoat Junction.  For some reason those were never syndicated.  TVLand aired a few of them, and I believe both seasons are available on DVD.

[aaron sica]

To me, My Three Sons and Andy Griffith are two shows that are more enjoyable in the B&W seasons.  One show that I don't recall seeing in syndication in B&W was Petticoat Junction.  I'm assuming Viacom didn't make those available.

I enjoyed the color episodes of M3S much better than the black and white ones, if for the fact that things really started to move (no pun intended i.e. network and locale) once it did make the switch. For the first 5 years the family stayed the same with the exception of Bub being replaced with Uncle Charley in the middle of season 5. Once it moved to CBS, it was almost a tradition for the season opener to kick off with a big event - marriages kicked off seasons 6, 9, and 10 for example and season 8 with Robbie's wife discovering she's pregnant.

Andy Griffith is just the opposite - I *do* enjoy the B&W eps more than the color, as those were the ones with Don Knotts in them.

[TimK2003]

I may be in the minority, but I was never much of a fan of Andy Griffith. I liked My Three Sons though, but the episodes I saw in the '70s were seasons 6-11, so I guess I'm more familiar with those.  I've only seen a handful of B&W episodes.

You are correct about the first two seasons of Petticoat Junction.  For some reason those were never syndicated.  TVLand aired a few of them, and I believe both seasons are available on DVD.

Around the beginning of the year, MeTV obtained the B&W episodes of "Petticoat Junction".  I assume they are now in regular rotation with the rest of the seasons of the show's run.

On the flip side, whenever I saw old reruns of "My Favorite Martian", It was only reruns of the B&W episodes of the first 2 seasons.  I never recall seeing any local or cable channel ever rerunning the color eps of the last season.

[Ian Wallis]

My Favorite Martian had a run on TVLand in the early 2000s.  The color episodes were definitely in the rotation at that time.