Popular Things You're Just Not Interested In

[kphoger]

Have never been on a cruise, but the appeal to me is that you can visit multiple destinations while sleeping in the same place every night and not having to pack/unpack every time you visit a new destination.

I wonder what the price difference would be between (a) that and (b) booking your own hotel rooms and mailing a whole box full of single-use clothes and toiletries to each hotel ahead of time.

[formulanone]

Cruises

Oh, yeah, totally.  I want to plan my own trip, thank you very much.

Have never been on a cruise, but the appeal to me is that you can visit multiple destinations while sleeping in the same place every night and not having to pack/unpack every time you visit a new destination.

That said, to get me interested in a cruise it's going to have to be very close to an itinerary I'd plan otherwise.

Something like Barcelona-Marseilles-Nice/Monaco-Pisa-Rome would appeal to me.
Also something like USVI-Puerto Rico-Dominican Republic-Turks&Caicos

I think an island-hopping one is probably more understandable; you can't drive to each destination and flying (on top of already flying towards the port) seems to add to the complexity.

[JayhawkCO]

Cruises

Oh, yeah, totally.  I want to plan my own trip, thank you very much.

Have never been on a cruise, but the appeal to me is that you can visit multiple destinations while sleeping in the same place every night and not having to pack/unpack every time you visit a new destination.

That said, to get me interested in a cruise it's going to have to be very close to an itinerary I'd plan otherwise.

Something like Barcelona-Marseilles-Nice/Monaco-Pisa-Rome would appeal to me.
Also something like USVI-Puerto Rico-Dominican Republic-Turks&Caicos

I think an island-hopping one is probably more understandable; you can't drive to each destination and flying (on top of already flying towards the port) seems to add to the complexity.

I guess I fail to see the allure of briefly visiting a whole bunch of islands that look more or less the same and have very similar cultures. It's no different than when I go to Southeast Asia, I get "templed out" very, very quickly.

[SEWIGuy]

Cruises

Oh, yeah, totally.  I want to plan my own trip, thank you very much.

Have never been on a cruise, but the appeal to me is that you can visit multiple destinations while sleeping in the same place every night and not having to pack/unpack every time you visit a new destination.

That said, to get me interested in a cruise it's going to have to be very close to an itinerary I'd plan otherwise.

Something like Barcelona-Marseilles-Nice/Monaco-Pisa-Rome would appeal to me.
Also something like USVI-Puerto Rico-Dominican Republic-Turks&Caicos

I think an island-hopping one is probably more understandable; you can't drive to each destination and flying (on top of already flying towards the port) seems to add to the complexity.

I guess I fail to see the allure of briefly visiting a whole bunch of islands that look more or less the same and have very similar cultures. It's no different than when I go to Southeast Asia, I get "templed out" very, very quickly.

The only cruise I have been on went to five different Caribbean islands - Martinique, Barbados, St. Maarten, Antigua and St. Thomas. While there were obviously some similarities, they are all islands afterall, I was actually surprised at how culturally different they were.

This was 30+ years ago on a pretty small ship compared to what is out there these days. Really the ship wasn't all that interesting, but getting up and pulling to port in the mornings was pretty cool.

[PColumbus73]

Cruises

Oh, yeah, totally.  I want to plan my own trip, thank you very much.

Have never been on a cruise, but the appeal to me is that you can visit multiple destinations while sleeping in the same place every night and not having to pack/unpack every time you visit a new destination.

That said, to get me interested in a cruise it's going to have to be very close to an itinerary I'd plan otherwise.

Something like Barcelona-Marseilles-Nice/Monaco-Pisa-Rome would appeal to me.
Also something like USVI-Puerto Rico-Dominican Republic-Turks&Caicos

I think an island-hopping one is probably more understandable; you can't drive to each destination and flying (on top of already flying towards the port) seems to add to the complexity.

I guess I fail to see the allure of briefly visiting a whole bunch of islands that look more or less the same and have very similar cultures. It's no different than when I go to Southeast Asia, I get "templed out" very, very quickly.

The only cruise I have been on went to five different Caribbean islands - Martinique, Barbados, St. Maarten, Antigua and St. Thomas. While there were obviously some similarities, they are all islands afterall, I was actually surprised at how culturally different they were.

This was 30+ years ago on a pretty small ship compared to what is out there these days. Really the ship wasn't all that interesting, but getting up and pulling to port in the mornings was pretty cool.

I went on a cruise once about 10 years ago. It was good for the experience, but I don't have an interest in going on another. I've compared it to being on a tour bus. It was nice to see a different island every day, but it felt like you couldn't really take your time while on shore, both in the limited time you're at port, and the fear of getting left behind.

[kphoger]

My parents and I were very fortunate one year.  I had made friends with a Polish exchange student in high school, and then my family included Poland on a vacation to Europe the following year.  His mother was a licensed tour guide for all of Poland, and so was he.  So not only did he make all of the travel arrangements, but he also accompanied us everywhere and acted as tour guide for free.  There were a couple of places where only in-house tour guides were allowed but, after a bit of conversation and some cash exchanged under the table, exceptions were made.  So, for example, at no cost to ourselves, we were guided through the Oświęcim (Auschwitz) concentration camp for free by someone who had also guided former inmates of the same camp.

That sounds awesome.

There was one funny thing about it, though.

He surprised us by having bought tickets to the Polish National Opera for our first evening there, to see La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi.  So there we were, with no nicer clothes to change into than khakis and polo shirts, surrounded by people in tuxedos and fancy evening dresses.  And then, of course, we were still jet-lagged... in the dark... with singing in a foreign language... and surtitles in a different foreign language... in comfy chairs... for three hours.  I slept through most of it.

[JayhawkCO]

My parents and I were very fortunate one year.  I had made friends with a Polish exchange student in high school, and then my family included Poland on a vacation to Europe the following year.  His mother was a licensed tour guide for all of Poland, and so was he.  So not only did he make all of the travel arrangements, but he also accompanied us everywhere and acted as tour guide for free.  There were a couple of places where only in-house tour guides were allowed but, after a bit of conversation and some cash exchanged under the table, exceptions were made.  So, for example, at no cost to ourselves, we were guided through the Oświęcim (Auschwitz) concentration camp for free by someone who had also guided former inmates of the same camp.

That sounds awesome.

There was one funny thing about it, though.

He surprised us by having bought tickets to the Polish National Opera for our first evening there, to see La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi.  So there we were, with no nicer clothes to change into than khakis and polo shirts, surrounded by people in tuxedos and fancy evening dresses.  And then, of course, we were still jet-lagged... in the dark... with singing in a foreign language... and surtitles in a different foreign language... in comfy chairs... for three hours.  I slept through most of it.

That reminds me of another Popular Thing I'm Just Not Interested In -- beer/cocktails at a movie theater where the seats recline. So you're telling me that I'm going to be in a dark room, in a prone position, maybe mildly buzzed? To snoozeland I go.

[DTComposer]

And, for most of these "talked about shows", most are quickly forgotten after their original runs have ended.

If a show is still talked about years or decades after their original runs have ended, then it's probably a good show. How many shows were in the top ten in decades past, but we rarely remember them?

The reference to "decades" are for shows like I Love Lucy, Twilight Zone, Dragnet with Jack Webb, Emergency, Adam-12, I Dream Of Jeanie, M*A*S*H, and so on.

So as a thought experiment, I compiled a list of the Nielsen top ten scripted, non-anthology shows (no variety or talk, no reality, no sports, no "movie of the week", etc.) for each year from 1950 to 2010 from this article. 213 unique shows made the list – of those, 56 shows appeared in the top ten at least four times:

Alice Andy Griffith Show, The All in the Family Beverly Hillbillies, The Bewitched Bonanza Cheers Cosby Show, The CSI: Crime Scene Investigation CSI: Miami Dallas Danny Thomas Show, The December Bride Desperate Housewives Different World, A Dragnet Dynasty ER Everybody Loves Raymond Falcon Crest Family Affair Frasier Friends Golden Girls, The Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. Grey's Anatomy Gunsmoke Happy Days Have Gun – Will Travel Hawaii Five-O Here's Lucy Home Improvement I Love Lucy Jeffersons, The Laverne & Shirley Law & Order Life of Riley, The Lucy Show, The M*A*S*H Marcus Welby, M.D. Maude Murder, She Wrote Murphy Brown NCIS NYPD Blue One Day at a Time Roseanne Sanford and Son Seinfeld Three's Company Touched by an Angel Two and a Half Men Wagon Train Who's the Boss? Will & Grace Without a Trace I'm Gen-X, so there were a decent number of these shows from 1960-1975 that were still in regular syndication while I was a television-watching kid. Even so, there was only one show on the list where the title just didn't ring a bell (Family Affair), and only a handful where I couldn't give you at least the genre or the overarching plot. Since the mid-'90s, my non-sports television-watching has been under two hours per week - I didn't even have a television between 1994 and 2003 - yet, I'm familiar with all of the more recent shows on this list because they're just part of the cultural zeitgeist. My point with this: the shows that were truly popular (not just one-season-wonders) are still talked about, and there's a whole bunch of shows that didn't quite make this list that are also regularly talked about: The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Batman, Full House, Miami Vice, Perry Mason, The Love Boat, Lost, Mission: Impossible, Taxi, The West Wing, The X-Files, and more.

[GaryV]

only one show on the list where the title just didn't ring a bell (Family Affair)

Aww, you didn't know about Buffy and Jody?   

I recently completed a training class to be a docent at the Detroit Zoo. I don't remember how it came up but the instructor, a 20-something, had never heard of Captain Kangaroo. There were audible gasps and groans from the few-dozen retirees and near-retirees in the room.

[hotdogPi]

I've only heard of 33 of the 56.

[Big John]

Heard of all except December Bride, Have Gun-Will Travel and Wagon Train.

[ZLoth]

The only cruise I have been on went to five different Caribbean islands - Martinique, Barbados, St. Maarten, Antigua and St. Thomas. While there were obviously some similarities, they are all islands afterall, I was actually surprised at how culturally different they were.

This was 30+ years ago on a pretty small ship compared to what is out there these days. Really the ship wasn't all that interesting, but getting up and pulling to port in the mornings was pretty cool.

I went on a cruise once about 10 years ago. It was good for the experience, but I don't have an interest in going on another. I've compared it to being on a tour bus. It was nice to see a different island every day, but it felt like you couldn't really take your time while on shore, both in the limited time you're at port, and the fear of getting left behind.

As the dissenter here, I have taken two Mexican cruises, two Carribean cruises, and an Alaskan cruise. I enjoyed myself each time as the cruise ship is a floating hotel, and the port stops are a good way to sample the destination for possible future visitations. (Part of the reason I moved to the DFW area was for the potential for foreign travel). It was also fantastic meeting the various people.

Mind you, the cruise line that you select has an effect on the experience. Royal Carribean and Carnival tend towards younger people and families. I prefer to cruise on Celebrity which caters to a more mature audience. The time of year also affects your cruise experience, and I prefer to travel on the off season.

If you only take one cruise, I strongly suggest an Alaskan cruise, as you get to see some unique views of the 49th state. I strongly suggest you cruise out of Vancouver, BC instead of Seattle, WA. Because of the Jones Act, a foreign flagged vessel has to make one foreign port stop on a closed loop cruise, and Vancouver qualifies. Cruises out of Seattle makes an extremely short stop at Victoria Island to fulfil this requirement, and that destination is worthy of a visit in itself.

One thing though... if you do take a cruise, make sure you have a passport in case something goes wrong, and travel insurance not through a cruise line in case of emergency medical evacuation back to the United States.

[DTComposer]

Heard of all except December Bride, Have Gun-Will Travel and Wagon Train.

I admit I only had heard of December Bride because I once went down an internet rabbit hole about Harry Morgan's career.

[kkt]

I'm not interest in Television since the internet.

I also never was interested in in VTRs ( probably because I don't watch TV).

Then Alexa I'm not interested at all.  Or Siri either. Nor the voice activated automobile radio and phone connection in the car.  I still use presets and the knobs to change stations.

Not interested in broadcast or streaming video.  A few things that I really like I get on disc.

But I do use the remote to conrol the disc player

[ZLoth]

December Bride was only successful in it's first four seasons because it followed I Love Lucy. When it got moved to a new time slot in it's fifth season, it's ratings dropped, and the show was cancelled.

It is also, as of this writing, not available on any streaming service.

[Rothman]

Gen Xer here.  Hadn't heard of seven of the shows, by my count.

[Max Rockatansky]

The only one I have no knowledge of is    Have Gun – Will Travel.

[formulanone]

Gen Xer here.  Hadn't heard of seven of the shows, by my count.

About the same...though there's only about a 15-16* of them in which I've watched one than more episode. Could likely recognize a pop-culture moment out of half of the rest, but probably not for prize money..

Seinfeld might have been the most-recent from that list I'd watched likely half the episodes at some point, catching most of them in syndication back when it was still on prime time. Doubtful I've seen more than 3-4 episodes of anything on that list since 2000 (except for Law & Order, caught sporadically until recently). The Simpsons wasn't on the list, but I only caught live episodes perhaps once or twice a year...the quality fell off around the turn of the millennium, but I'll still watch the first 10 seasons on DVD to this day.

* Been forced to watch a few of those CSI/NCIS shows and they're a floating patch of ocean plastic that won't go away.

[JayhawkCO]

Gen Xer here.  Hadn't heard of seven of the shows, by my count.

Same here, for this old millennial (43).

[elsmere241]

Gen Xer here.  Hadn't heard of seven of the shows, by my count.

I'd heard of all of them - I'm a recovering TV addict.  There are 31 I can remember seeing a whole episode of, 32 if you count edited NYPD Blue.  (Core Xer)

[kphoger]

Born in 1981, therefore straddling the line between Gen-X and -Y.  Put me down for seven as well.

Currently watching
Sanford and Son
Seinfeld

Have watched within the last 5 years
Andy Griffith Show, The
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CSI: Miami
Everybody Loves Raymond
Friends
I Love Lucy
Murder, She Wrote
NCIS

Have watched but not recently
All in the Family
Beverly Hillbillies, The
Bewitched
Cheers
Cosby Show, The
ER
Frasier
Grey's Anatomy
Happy Days
Home Improvement *
Jeffersons, The
Laverne & Shirley
M*A*S*H
Murphy Brown
Roseanne
Two and a Half Men

Heard of but never watched
Alice
Bonanza
Dallas
Desperate Housewives
Different World, A
Dragnet
Falcon Crest
Family Affair
Golden Girls, The
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
Gunsmoke
Have Gun – Will Travel
Hawaii Five-O
Law & Order
Lucy Show, The
Maude
NYPD Blue
Three's Company
Touched by an Angel
Wagon Train
Who's the Boss?
Will & Grace
Without a Trace

Never heard of
Danny Thomas Show, The
December Bride
Dynasty
Here's Lucy
Life of Riley, The
Marcus Welby, M.D.
One Day at a Time

* We would be watching this one but, at the time we most recently were looking for a series to start watching as a family in the evenings, it wasn't available for free on any of our streaming services.

[JayhawkCO]

Looks like only 6 I hadn't heard of. I didn't remember Without a Trace was a local show. I know I've seen it advertised on NFL games.

Have Seen (or at least watched my parents see)
Andy Griffith Show
All in the Family
Beverly Hillbillies
Bewitched
Bonanza
Cheers
Cosby Show
CSI
CSI: Miami
Dallas
Desperate Housewives
Different World
Dragnet
Dynasty
ER
Everybody Loves Raymond
Falcon Crest
Frasier
Friends
Golden Girls
Gomer Pyle
Grey's Anatomy
Gunsmoke
Happy Days
Hawaii Five-O
Home Improvement
I Love Lucy
Jefferson's
Laverne & Shirley
Law & Order
M*A*S*H
Murder, She Wrote
Murphy Brown
NCIS
NYPD Blue
Roseanne
Seinfeld
Three's Company
Touched by an Angel
Two and a Half Men
Who's The Boss?
Will & Grace

Have Heard of But Not Seen
Alice
Danny Thomas Show
Here's Lucy
Lucy Show
Marcus Welby, M.D.
Maude
Sanford and Son
Without a Trace

Had Never Heard Of
December Bride
Family Affair
Have Gun - Will Travel
Life of Riley
One Day at a Time
Wagon Train

[Rothman]

Born in 1981, therefore straddling the line between Gen-X and -Y.  Put me down for seven as well.

Currently watching
Sanford and Son
Seinfeld

Have watched within the last 5 years
Andy Griffith Show, The
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CSI: Miami
Everybody Loves Raymond
Friends
I Love Lucy
Murder, She Wrote
NCIS

Have watched but not recently
All in the Family
Beverly Hillbillies, The
Bewitched
Cheers
Cosby Show, The
ER
Frasier
Grey's Anatomy
Happy Days
Home Improvement *
Jeffersons, The
Laverne & Shirley
M*A*S*H
Murphy Brown
Roseanne
Two and a Half Men

Heard of but never watched
Alice
Bonanza
Dallas
Desperate Housewives
Different World, A
Dragnet
Falcon Crest
Family Affair
Golden Girls, The
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
Gunsmoke
Have Gun – Will Travel
Hawaii Five-O
Law & Order
Lucy Show, The
Maude
NYPD Blue
Three's Company
Touched by an Angel
Wagon Train
Who's the Boss?
Will & Grace
Without a Trace

Never heard of
Danny Thomas Show, The
December Bride
Dynasty
Here's Lucy
Life of Riley, The
Marcus Welby, M.D.
One Day at a Time

* We would be watching this one but, at the time we most recently were looking for a series to start watching as a family in the evenings, it wasn't available for free on any of our streaming services.

You not hearing about One Day at a Time doesn't make a lick of sense given the other shows you have seen or heard of.

[kphoger]

You not hearing about One Day at a Time doesn't make a lick of sense given the other shows you have seen or heard of.

Umm...  I'm sorry.  🤷

[Big John]

^^ Especially with the opening in most seasons showing the BGS saying I-70 EAST Indianapolis.