2001: A Retro Odyssey

In 1968, people sat in movie theaters filled with a sense of wonder (chemically augmented, in some cases) as they watched “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

Next year, when 2001 actually arrives, people sitting down to watch television may at times feel as if they’ve been transported back to 1968.

OK, so that’s a bit of an exaggeration. Yet after spending a few hours scanning the prime-time schedule of the late ‘60s, then comparing it to current programs as well as the myriad new-series candidates for the upcoming TV season--which begins in October and will run into 2001--it’s hard not to notice how many shows at least sound like something on around the time director Stanley Kubrick took us on that psychedelic ride to Jupiter.

Some of this retro flavor is already here, with biographical movies about “The Brady Bunch,” “The Three Stooges” and Linda McCartney scheduled during the rating sweeps that begin later this month. NBC also follows last year’s miniseries “The ‘60s” with “The ‘70s,” as four great-looking youths navigate the decade in what the network describes as “MTV meets the History Channel,” which, based on response to the earlier trip, runs the risk of becoming “Phnom Penh, 90210.”

It’s in the series arena, however, that axioms about there being only seven stories and about everything old being new again really come to mind.

For starters, “Star Trek” is still with us 32 years later, albeit with a colon and “Voyager” affixed to it. Moreover, it’s struggling again for ratings, though that hasn’t discouraged Paramount from plans to launch a new “Trek” (No. 5, for those keeping score at home) next year.

Next year will bring us the eighth season of “NYPD Blue,” and 1968 brought us the second of another gritty crime drama, “N.Y.P.D.” Long before “The Practice,” defendants sought legal advice from “Judd, for the Defense.”

“I Dream of Jeannie” and “Bewitched” have given way to “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” just as all those comedies about plucky, independent single women can look back at “That Girl” as a predecessor, albeit a ditsy one.

As for the crop of new-series prototypes, one finds numerous kindred spirits to hoary ancestors. Would you believe, for example, that the NBC pilot “H.U.D.” (yes, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which fronts for the elite group) spoofs the secret-agent genre, much the way “Get Smart” did more than 30 years ago?

Other new series hopefuls feature surrogate or single dads (“My Three Sons,” “Family Affair”) or people moving from the big city to a small town, not be confused with “Green Acres.”

A Fox pilot entitled “Night Terrors” aspires to be another “The Twilight Zone,” and CBS is developing “The Fugitive” with Tim Daly in the title role, which would complete a rare journey from TV (where it ran from 1963 through ‘67) to the movies and back to TV again. Fox’s “Don’t Ask,” meanwhile, resembles “The Odd Couple,” albeit with an ‘00s twist: one of the two divorced dads thrown together, played by John Goodman, turns out to be gay.

Local law enforcement could occupy the spotlight in a somewhat more positive manner than it has recently with two shows from crime novelist James Ellroy, Fox’s “L.A. Confidential” and NBC’s developed-for-TV “L.A. Sheriff’s Homicide.” The latter closely hews to the terse cop-talk intonations of “Dragnet,” which joined “Daniel Boone,” “Ironside” and “The Dean Martin Show” on NBC’s Thursday lineup in 1968, a quarter-century before someone coined the phrase “Must-See TV.”

Back then, of course, the average household received a mere handful of channels, versus nearly 60 today. There were no remote controls, no VCRs, no Fox and practically no cable. Not only were options limited, but you actually had to get off the couch if Gomer Pyle became so annoying you felt obliged to switch channels.

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For all the premises similar to those of the past, what you don’t see is also notable. Most glaring is the near-total absence of the variety show and the western. In the late ‘60s, “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” topped the ratings, but it had plenty of company, with 14 other weekly variety series, as Carol Burnett, Ed Sullivan, Red Skelton, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Don Rickles and Jackie Gleason vamped their way through prime time.

There were also 10 westerns--a decided drop from the genre’s peak in the 1950s but still providing plenty of ammunition for viewers of “Bonanza,” “The Big Valley,” “The Wild Wild West” or “The Outcasts,” which boldly explored race relations via two bounty hunters, white and black, in the post-Civil War period.

There are a few sort-of variety programs in the pipeline for next season, including Ellen DeGeneres’ show-within-a-show concept for CBS, ABC’s sketch comedy featuring Wayne Brady of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” and another variety-mixed-with-fiction hybrid, “The Number One Show in America,” being developed at Fox.

Westerns, on the other hand, are essentially nonexistent in the series world (TNT has kept the period alive in terms of movies), which suggests it’s high time for a revival. After all, in just the last eight months a popular format banished for decades--the quiz show--has returned to prime time with a vengeance in the form of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.”

Based on that logic, it might be worth considering whether it’s time to replace a few of those chatty dramas or teen-oriented soap operas that have tanked with “The Rifleman” redux. Granted, westerns are an expensive proposition, but CBS’ failure with a series based on “The Magnificent Seven” a few years back is no reason for putting all oaters out to pasture.

It’s understandable why risk-averse TV executives and producers would pursue this strategy, making like Indiana Jones and sifting through ancient artifacts in pursuit of long-hidden treasure. Given that much of what gets on TV caters to viewers under 35, it’s possible--indeed likely--that the audience they’re chasing won’t even recognize the similarities to what has come (and worked) before.

So everything old really can be new again--assuming, that is, that by 2001 younger audience won’t have discovered some better way to occupy its time, whether it’s surfing the Internet, dabbling in video games or watching fresh “new” shows on cable--perhaps something like “The Brady Bunch” and “The Beverly Hillbillies” on Nick at Nite.

Brian Lowry’s column appears on Tuesdays. He can be reached by e-mail at brian.lowry@latimes.com.