I kinda figured. I couldn't come up with anything at work this morning, but wanted to comment somehow.
Usually any time someone brings up anything "old school" it doesn't surprise me and I think "meh, I could live in that time," but when you mentioned VHS not being a thing back then and having to wait a year for NBC specials, that actually made me go "holy crap, that's right!" Now I still think I'd be ok living in those circumstances, but that's one of the first "old school" things I've seen that is genuinely hard for me to imagine. I've known how big a deal VHS was when it came out for a while, what with my radio/TV classes and general media knowledge, but it's one of those things I take for granted until someone reminds me how screwed you were before that time if you missed a show. And I also now remember that being one of the first things to freak advertisers out. I'm actually impressed the advertising industry is still as strong as it is with DVRs, Netflix and Adblock. To some extent I'm glad it is, because I like having access to TV for free (love Sunday football for instance).
I've seen some recent Simpsons that are not as bad as everyone makes them out to be. Having said that, I'm not sure how they're still on the air, cause I don't think their ratings are that good ... Speaking of their Halloween specials, I liked the newest one and understood all the Kubrick references, but referential humor just doesn't do it for me any more so it fell a bit flat in that segment.
I prefer Family Guy and South Park to Futurama, so we differ there. The main Futurama episode I recall is the one with the woman-dominated planet. King of the Hill never seemed representative of where I live in Texas, but when I went to Garland to sell door-to-door, I thought "holy crap, that show nailed this area!" Pretty sure I met a variation of Cohn in fact! lol By the way, my friend Wes has claimed his dad was the inspiration for the hippie teacher from Beavis and Butthead who I think shows up in a couple King of the Hill episodes.
I used to love Dexter's Lab and like the Powerpuff Girls ok as well. Watched both recently on Netflix, seem to hold up. Watched a couple Samurai Jack episodes there as well (never saw those as a kid), but I wasn't digging the more serious tone. Never heard of Foster's Home.
Disney XD had a Tron cartoon I thought looked cool. Nostalgia Critic and his brother are currently doing reviews of Gravity Falls episodes.
Oh, Nickelodeon put Legend of Korra back on the air for its final few episodes (it's still streaming online as well), but I think it's on Nick Toons or something. Their oddball handling of that amazing show aside, Nick did provide me some cool orange VHS tapes (we didn't have cable, though next door neighbors did) of Rugrats and Aahhh! Real Monsters! in my childhood. Never really watched Keenan and Kel, but had a book inspired by the show. Weird. Know I read it but have completely forgotten it.
