Get your fill of nostalgic TV classics on Tubi
LOS ANGELES - More people are watching older TV comedy sitcoms as opposed to newer shows amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic because it makes viewers feel nostalgic, according to Nielsen.
At the onset of the pandemic, millions of people were forced to stay home and take advantage of TV entertainment to keep from going stir crazy — and many of those people resorted to older TV comedies.
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FILE - L-R: American actors Andy Griffith, Don Knotts, and Ron Howard sit on a metal swing, smiling, in a promotional portrait for the television series "The Andy Griffith Show." Knotts wears a small cowboy hat.
"While many Americans gravitated to their funny old favorites in 2020, it wasn’t a blockbuster year for the comedy genre overall. In fact, comedy viewing was down 9% nationally compared with 2019," Nielsen said in a March news release.
Despite the overall drop in interest of comedy TV, Nielsen data shows significant increases in viewership when it came to older comedy shows such as "Friends," which saw a 30% increase between 2019 and 2020, and classics such as "The Andy Griffith Show" which saw a 29% increase in viewership within the same timeframe.
"While the comedy genre is always popular, comedy viewing over the past year highlights a resurgence of nostalgia comedy programming, particularly shows featuring diverse leads and cast members," Nielsen said.
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Amid uncertain times, it makes sense for people to turn to classic TV where they might find comfort in "simpler times."
Tubi offers a curated list of nostalgic TV shows for free that can be viewed on your time. From comedy classics like "The Nanny" and "Bewitched" to cartoons that the whole family can enjoy like "The Flintstones" or "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You," take a trip down memory lane to the good old days.
Here are just a few of the titles the streaming service has to offer:
The Nanny (1993): Starring Fran Drescher, Charles Shaughnessy, Daniel Davis, Lauren Lane and Nicholle Tom
"Fran Drescher stars as a jilted bride from Flushing, Queens who talks her way into becoming a nanny for a wealthy widower’s dysfunctional children."
The Flintstones (1960): Starring Alan Reed, Mel Blanc and Jean Vander Pyl
"Laugh along with the classic misadventures of two modern-day Stone Age families living amongst dinosaurs, doing their best in prehistoric times."
The Andy Griffith Show (1963): Starring Andy Griffith, Don Knotts, Ron Howard, Frances Bavier and George Lindsey
"A kind and thoughtful local sheriff dispenses life advice to his young son and keeps his panicky deputy in check on the quiet streets of Mayberry."
Scooby-Doo Where Are You? (1969): Starring Casey Kasem, Don Messick and Nicole Jaffe
"The classic adventures of the lovable Great Dane and his human companions as they hunt for clues, hungry for a solution to mysteries and a snack."
Bewitched (1964): Starring Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York, Agnes Moorehead, Dick Sargent and Erin Murphy
"The beloved TV series about a beautiful witch who marries an executive and starts a family as a housewife, much to the dismay of her powerful mother."
I Dream of Jeanie (1965): Starring Barbara Eden, Larry Hagman, Bill Daily, Emmaline Henry and Hayden Rorke
"A marooned astronaut finds a strange bottle on an island containing a beautiful Genie whose granted wishes, back at home, don’t quite come out right!"
The Dick Van Dyke Show (1966): Starring Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore, Morey Amsterdam, Rose Marie, Carl Reiner and Richard Deacon
"This beloved, award-winning, classic sitcom follows the lives of a gifted group of TV comedy writers at work and in their lives at home."
To see the entire selection of nostalgic TV offered on Tubi, visit www.tubitv.com.
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Tubi is an ad-supported video-on-demand service with a massive library of 30,000 movies and television shows that are free to stream for viewers. The platform is currently available in the U.S., Canada, Australia and Mexico.
Tubi is available on Android and iOS mobile devices, Amazon Echo Show, Google Nest Hub Max, Comcast Xfinity X1, Cox Contour, and on OTT devices such as Amazon Fire TV, Vizio TVs, Sony TVs, Samsung TVs, Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, Android TV, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X | S, and soon on Hisense TVs globally.
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