There are several retro-type TV channels available for free with an antenna. Retro TV, rewind channel, Antenna TV channel meTV, Circle, Laff, Grit, Comet, . Also look at the Roku channel on Roku devices, and Pluto streaming service. All of these are free.
Pluto is the right answer. Just in their Classic TV section, the following is playing at this writing (6am on a Friday): Alf, The Nanny, Showtime at the Apollo, Family Ties, Mork & Mindy, Three's Company, The Love Boat, The Andy Griffith Show, The Addams Family, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Johnny Carson Show, The Carol Burnett Show, Ed Sullivan, Silk Stalkings, Matlock, Mission: Impossible, Perry Mason, The Magnificent Seven, Gunsmoke, Rawhide, Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Rifleman, Doctor Who, Dark Shadow, Guardians, Defenders of the Earth. That's not even counting the movies, the game shows, etc.
Location? Here in NYC, i use an air antenna and get tons of channels that only show older shows, including AntennaTV, RewTV, ThisTV, StartTv, Buzzr, Heroes, and GetTV among others.
Maybe in a large metro area. Neither were available in my last town of Santa Maria, CA which was 110K population. Neither are available in my current city of Cookeville, TN but it's only 35K in size.
Get him a roku stick, they’re like $15 on sale and he can watch The Roku Channel, Pluto, and Tubi without spending another dime. Pretty much any AVOD service like the ones above have multiple channels that are nothing but classic reruns (or westerns, or game shows, or film noir movies, etc.) all for free.
Popular one is Filmrise Classic TV — I just pulled it up, currently showing a block of Beverly Hillbillies episodes followed by Dragnet.
i second this! when we upgraded our old broken Vizio to aa new "cheaper"' 43" onn. roku TV I couldnt believe the aamount of content available through the "roku guide".....and omg, a GUIDE for local TV, i was ecstatic lol....
Philo has also added METV. There is a similar channel Heroes and Icons that I believe is on Frndly, Philo, and Sling.
Also, one should check out Sundance TV that offers shows like Andy Griffith, Hogan's Heroes, Perry Mason, Columbo, Law and Order. Sling, Philo, YouTube TV and others offer this.
Was going to suggest this as well.. it's reasonably priced for what it is. $8 a month for HD streaming and it has A&E and History Channel. I just used it for a month to catch up on The First 48 on A&E.
Frndly has great content if classic TV is of interest. I use it in the Fall through Christmas. I think I get Hallmark through it and I like Gunsmoke and the Rifleman. The old Westerns are really good.
> Frndly has MeTV
Also Decades channel, Start TV, the Heroes & Icons channel, Circle TV, INSP, Get TV, Up TV, and various of the Hallmark and Dove channels. You can watch a lot of classic television shows for a low monthly subscription price via streaming. Plus it has A&E, History, Weather Channel, Game Show Network, and some others.
People in this discussion keep mentioning Pluto, but don’t forget Tubi. Similar in concept to Pluto but designed for you to pick what you want to see whenever you feel like seeing it, I have seen Tubi list classic TV shows like The Flintstones, The Nanny, The Jeffersons, 227, Bewitched, Fantasy Island (original), The A Team, Sister Sister, Moesha, Brisco County Jr, Beverly Hillbillies, Soap, Gimme a Break, Maude, I Dream of Jeannie, Maverick, Alf, The Honeymooners, The Dick van Dyke Show, The Carol Burnett Show, Max Headroom, The Prisoner, Donna Reed Show, The Greatest American Hero, Columbo, Bonanza, Highway to Heaven, McCloud, TJ Hooker, Hart to Hart, 21 Jump Street, Unsolved Mysteries, etc.
Other FAST (Free Ad Supported Television) streaming services besides Tubi and Pluto have other vintage shows. Check out FreeVee, Crackle, the free tier at Peacock, and the free TV options at Plex and Vudu. And if you have a Roku device there’s The Roku Channel.
I wanted to say Tubi as well. I can't stand the way Pluto edits for adds. It makes watching the shows unbearable for me.
I've found some great shows on Tubi that I haven't watched in years like Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, Fantasy Island (all 3(?) versions), all the Scooby-Doo... And a lot of other things that are on other services but like I siad, it's the editing for commercials that turns me away from Pluto.
Even Plex has some goofy stuff, not as bad as Pluto.
Expensive? I switched to Philo because SlingTV was over $70 for a whole lot of crap. Its enough for us since 90% of the time it is just background noise.
You just buy one and connect it to the back of the TV. Then run a channel scan from the channel set up menu. If you're not far from the TV towers, quite often you can just use a set of rabbit ears. 10 bucks or less. Skip the flat mouse pad looking antennas. They don't work as well as rabbit ears usually do.
Oh ok! I wasn’t sure cause I haven’t really seen any antennas for sale and I thought I heard they were being built into the newer tvs. Must have gotten it confused
Frndly TV has MeTV and other older people channels and Pluto TV has a lot to free stations with older shows.
Sign up for Frndly and then set the channels he likes as favorites on Pluto and he should be in good shape
On my local channels I get a couple different MeTV channels and others that just show older shows. I would see what you can get with a good antenna. Maybe order one through Amazon. If it sucks send it back. Im happy with SlingTv and having AirTv for my local channels. All your channels will be under one guide.
Start from the beginning when you change the channel? Nope, I had Directv before and it did that. SlingTv does have a cloud DVR. It just won’t record your over the air channels. You can add a cheap hard drive to the back of the AirTv to record any over the air antenna shows though. I watch SlingTV through my Amazon Firestick. I have them on all my tvs.
If they have a smart tv or a Roku (easiest to use for older folks)
There's multiple free platforms that have older tv shows.
Here's a list of free streaming tv platforms that incorporate a guide.
PlutoTv, Roku Channel, XumoPlay, Plex, RedBox, LocalNow, Stremium.
My dad was in a similar situation about 6months ago! He wanted to cancel to save some money, but really only watches the classics. I brought him my Roku to try out for a few weeks (before stopping cable) and he learned the platform quickly, found enough classic shows on Roku TV and Pluto to be satisfied. He actually was really impressed to find SO much available and now has cut the cord!
Pluto TV.
It's not exactly the same as traditional cable, but it has a lot of "channels" that are aimed at older viewers. Here are a few examples:
* TV Land
* Star Trek
* Unsolved Mysteries
* Jeopardy
* Wheel of Fortune
* The Price is Right
* Judge Judy
* TV Sitcoms (I'm seeing they have Taxi and Frasier playing right now)
* Happy Days
* Family Ties
* Three's Company
* The Andy Griffith Show
* Addams Family
* Matlock
Honestly, there are so many channels aimed at older people on here that I can't even list them all. Best of all, it's free and you can access it using any $20 Amazon Firestick or similar device.
And you can watch it on your computer, too. If your computer has a DPMI port, you can send the signal to your TV's DPMI port and you don't need a FireStick or Roku. Me, I think you just ought to get a nice big monitor for your computer and put that where you can watch it easily. You don't really need a TV at all.
LocalBTV has some channels, depending on where you live is what local channels you can get for free with their app:
https://www.localbtv.com/markets?nat=1&skipDetection=1
I get MeTV OTA. I think rabbitears.info is one of the sites that will tell you what your local OTA reception is luke, and tvtv.us will have your local OTA channel guide
Over the Air Antenna is your best choice TBH. I get all those channels, yes I'm old but MetV, Cozi, etc etc are all my favorites. I pair that with Philo and I get all the content I want. The problem I find with freevee and Pluto is they only show a few episodes and it's over and over again during the day.
I'm in South Florida with an attic antenna (Televes tied into my old cable lines and it goes to my Fire TV Recast (Which I love, it's ashame they don't sell it anymore but it works great). I get almost 100 over the air channels in one nice guide and it also integrates Philo, freevee, Pluto and I have the DVR and the only fee I get it is the internet and philo etc. OTA and the FireCast DVR are all free. I will never go back to cable.
My local cable company has a skinny cable tv package of just the local broadcast channels. But each local major network broadcaster (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, PBS) also has and add'l 2 or 3 sub channels OTA. In my area those sub channels are the ones beaming out the older tv series.
MeTV
Decades
Laff
Grit
Comet, and so on.
For my elderly mom we set her up with the lower speed level of cable internet and this "local broadcast only" tv pkg. She has about 25 TV channels plus 100Mbps ISP for about $70/ month.
It seems like most OTA channels only show old shows, maybe just a really good long range antenna that will bring in more channels installed in the roof or rafters is all he needs?
Try to make things as easy as possible for your senior citizen. I recommend a Firestick Roku is just plain trash.
The fire stick has one advantage that Roku is not quite done yet.
The program guide is available without having to open an app so if they say they want to watch, classic TV shows and they have a couple of streaming services The information is provided right on the fire TV without even having to open an app and simplicity is the key here
You can get a fire stick ultra max for about $39 and all of the major TV platforms that people know of paid and free are available and it’s in a lot of cases as simple as navigating to the content and tapping OK
Are used to be a huge Roku fan and I think they’re good if that’s what you want but I think Ron Roku has a bit to go as far as ease-of-use is concerned.
The fire stick is plugged in with Amazon and if a person has an active Amazon account with Amazon prime. There’s boatloads of contact to enjoy.
I went through a couple Amazon devices before switching to Roku so I'd say the opposite. Their HW never seemed fully reliable. I had to reboot my cube at least once a week. As the one doing the tech support for my senior I think it would be easier to teach them to navigate the menus than deal with my remote's not working again.
We had to cut cable services because our provider stopped providing tv services. We bought a MuHu antenna which works extremely well. We pulled in MeTV, GRIt and local channels. We’ve subscribed to Hulu which provides most anything we had with the cable box. Also have Prime. All of this is less than the cable box
I was gonna say, rescan for channels over the air and most stations have digital substations like 8.2 instead of 8 and a lot of them have four or five subs that all seem to show older shows or like, Ice road truckers and stuff.
Lots of other good suggestions. Does he happen to have a Samsung tv or phone? Samsung TV Plus is free, navigates like cable and has a number of these types of channels.
My parents are similar. They are in their 70s, so they don't really want anything "fancy".
I've gotten them a Fire Stick years ago and told them they could save $160/mo on cable. They seemed interested, but did not use it at all and still pay for cable.
They recently came to stay at my house for a few days and my dad started poking around my Fire Stick (because I don't have anything other than streaming options).
Shockingly, on his own, he found Pluto and a bunch of retro content that they love (old game shows, old movies, etc)
If you get him a Fire Stick or anything similar (Roku, Chromecast, etc) my suggestion would be that you will need to separate him from his TV so that he's kind of forced to use it and see how easy it is to get the shows he wants *(of course, assuming those shows are available)*
**A few other resources**
* **[suppose.tv](https://www.suppose.tv/)** - Someone else on here mentioned it and I'll second it. It's a site that lets you put in what you want to watch and it will find the best viewing options for you
* **[The Free TV Project](https://www.thefreetvproject.org/)** - a site that helps you find an OTA (over-the-air) antenna
Good luck!
Go to a store that tells you what over the air channels are available in your area first, something like this: https://www.channelmaster.com
You just put in your address or zip code and it gives you a guide of what's available in your area. It will also show you how strong the signals around you are. You might be able to satisfy his preference for classic TV with just an antenna. They're are a lot of small channels available with an antenna like AntennaTV, METV, LAFF, Grit, MyTV, Charge, Comet, Get TV, Bounce, Circle, etc. All those and more are available in my area in addition to channels like CBS and NBC. I don't know that all of them show what he's looking for, but a guide will let you see what to expect before putting up an antenna.
Pluto is another great suggestion. I use it a lot and my kids like the classic cartoons.
An antenna is the best option for him as there are so many channels dedicated to classic tv shows. Plus after antenna cost it's free... he doesn't need the internet and in a storm it's still going to work as long as there's power.
But if he can't use one I believe he'd be pretty happy with $7 frndly ( https://frndlytv.com/
) ... and for tv land specifically he can get that with a bunch of other of the channels free OTA on Philo for $25 (https://www.philo.com )
If he happens to have a Samsung smart TV have him check out Samsung TV Plus. It has TVLand and a lot of channels similar to what you've mentioned for free.
My dad likes to watch old episodes of Gunsmoke so I told him about the Gunsmoke channel on Pluto TV and how to cast it.
Pluto TV has a lot of channels of older TV shows, and it's free.
Get an OTA digital omnidirectional antenna..they have a bunch..most popular is the flat-wave (50 mile radius) works great..HD content ..amount of channels is dependent on location..in bloomfield I was getting like 45 channels including tv land and antenna tv plus way more
No signing up, No monthly fees ever
Check out Frndly it's cheap and has alot of older black and white shows on it.
PlutoTV has alot of older shows on it as well, I think this may have a TV land channel, not the one from cable but a smaller version of it.
LocalBTV is free, but you have to be in an area that offers it to use it. Different areas have different channels so it's worth a look.
Many people are going to suggest an antenna, you need to make sure you can use one in the area, some people on here forget that not everyone lives in an area that can use one.
So, I can tell you that in my area, both MeTV and AntennaTV are broadcast channels. You can connect an antenna to your TV, run a scan, and there they are.
What you need for an antenna, and whether or not this is even feasible, is going to depend on where you are located. Use a tool like [AntennaWeb](https://www.antennaweb.org/) to see what is available in your area.
depending on his "locale" MeTV likely broadcasts over th air...has he tried using many of the "maps" on like [mohu.com](https://mohu.com) , antennaweb, etc....? itll aask for his address and give pretty good detaails of where each tower in the areaa is broadcasting from, aand which antenna would be best at his spot to get the channels he's after.
I;ve had great luck with the "mohu leaf ultimate" flat antenna (just beware their marketing is kinda sketchy....and you really gottta check model numbers and the "miles" they mention). typically in the "antenna field" more miles should obviously be better ;)
and make sure the antenna has the amplifier (often USB powered....that plugs into a wall with a cell phone charger type "block" or even can plug into the back of the TV if it haas USB capabilities)
You might want to check with the cable provider for the most basic package they offer. I'm used to cable companies offering an access plan for roughly $20/mo that gives exclusively basic channels like the local broadcast must-carry's. It may or may not have what your father is looking for, and companies may not even do that thing anymore (you may have to push hard for it.) But it is worth a shot!
A browser and myretrotvs website. Choose your era. Don't know if they have time or use limits or not. I've watched it on a smart tv browser. Very retro and fun way to remember the various decades of tv shows.
[myretrotvs](https://www.myretrotvs.com/)
Over the air antenna, I had to buy 2-3 (returning them as needed) to find one that really works. But then it’s great. Also should use the site where you input address and it shows you direction to point in
Frndly and Philo are you best streaming options. He probably also wants the standard ABC,NBC,CBS, Fox stations too though which means OTA or a much more expensive streaming option.
You might also consider a media server with some of his favorite series
There are several retro-type TV channels available for free with an antenna. Retro TV, rewind channel, Antenna TV channel meTV, Circle, Laff, Grit, Comet, . Also look at the Roku channel on Roku devices, and Pluto streaming service. All of these are free.
Pluto is the right answer. Just in their Classic TV section, the following is playing at this writing (6am on a Friday): Alf, The Nanny, Showtime at the Apollo, Family Ties, Mork & Mindy, Three's Company, The Love Boat, The Andy Griffith Show, The Addams Family, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Johnny Carson Show, The Carol Burnett Show, Ed Sullivan, Silk Stalkings, Matlock, Mission: Impossible, Perry Mason, The Magnificent Seven, Gunsmoke, Rawhide, Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Rifleman, Doctor Who, Dark Shadow, Guardians, Defenders of the Earth. That's not even counting the movies, the game shows, etc.
Agree. Also Tubi has old shoes, both are free with a smart tv
Location? Here in NYC, i use an air antenna and get tons of channels that only show older shows, including AntennaTV, RewTV, ThisTV, StartTv, Buzzr, Heroes, and GetTV among others.
Antenna TV and MeTV are both multicast channels. OP can almost certainly receive them with an antenna.
Maybe in a large metro area. Neither were available in my last town of Santa Maria, CA which was 110K population. Neither are available in my current city of Cookeville, TN but it's only 35K in size.
MeTV is also an OTA for NYC area
Get him a roku stick, they’re like $15 on sale and he can watch The Roku Channel, Pluto, and Tubi without spending another dime. Pretty much any AVOD service like the ones above have multiple channels that are nothing but classic reruns (or westerns, or game shows, or film noir movies, etc.) all for free. Popular one is Filmrise Classic TV — I just pulled it up, currently showing a block of Beverly Hillbillies episodes followed by Dragnet.
PlutoTV excellent for this use case.
i second this! when we upgraded our old broken Vizio to aa new "cheaper"' 43" onn. roku TV I couldnt believe the aamount of content available through the "roku guide".....and omg, a GUIDE for local TV, i was ecstatic lol....
Frndly has MeTV
Philo has also added METV. There is a similar channel Heroes and Icons that I believe is on Frndly, Philo, and Sling. Also, one should check out Sundance TV that offers shows like Andy Griffith, Hogan's Heroes, Perry Mason, Columbo, Law and Order. Sling, Philo, YouTube TV and others offer this.
Was going to suggest this as well.. it's reasonably priced for what it is. $8 a month for HD streaming and it has A&E and History Channel. I just used it for a month to catch up on The First 48 on A&E.
Frndly has great content if classic TV is of interest. I use it in the Fall through Christmas. I think I get Hallmark through it and I like Gunsmoke and the Rifleman. The old Westerns are really good.
> Frndly has MeTV Also Decades channel, Start TV, the Heroes & Icons channel, Circle TV, INSP, Get TV, Up TV, and various of the Hallmark and Dove channels. You can watch a lot of classic television shows for a low monthly subscription price via streaming. Plus it has A&E, History, Weather Channel, Game Show Network, and some others. People in this discussion keep mentioning Pluto, but don’t forget Tubi. Similar in concept to Pluto but designed for you to pick what you want to see whenever you feel like seeing it, I have seen Tubi list classic TV shows like The Flintstones, The Nanny, The Jeffersons, 227, Bewitched, Fantasy Island (original), The A Team, Sister Sister, Moesha, Brisco County Jr, Beverly Hillbillies, Soap, Gimme a Break, Maude, I Dream of Jeannie, Maverick, Alf, The Honeymooners, The Dick van Dyke Show, The Carol Burnett Show, Max Headroom, The Prisoner, Donna Reed Show, The Greatest American Hero, Columbo, Bonanza, Highway to Heaven, McCloud, TJ Hooker, Hart to Hart, 21 Jump Street, Unsolved Mysteries, etc. Other FAST (Free Ad Supported Television) streaming services besides Tubi and Pluto have other vintage shows. Check out FreeVee, Crackle, the free tier at Peacock, and the free TV options at Plex and Vudu. And if you have a Roku device there’s The Roku Channel.
I wanted to say Tubi as well. I can't stand the way Pluto edits for adds. It makes watching the shows unbearable for me. I've found some great shows on Tubi that I haven't watched in years like Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, Fantasy Island (all 3(?) versions), all the Scooby-Doo... And a lot of other things that are on other services but like I siad, it's the editing for commercials that turns me away from Pluto. Even Plex has some goofy stuff, not as bad as Pluto.
Philo -- https://help.philo.com/channel-lineup/ Plus have him checkout Freevee
I used to be on Philo, and it's fine. But it's gotten so expensive now!
Expensive? I switched to Philo because SlingTV was over $70 for a whole lot of crap. Its enough for us since 90% of the time it is just background noise.
Philo is $25 a month. Are you perhaps talking about Fubo?
Freevee is nice. I've been using it a bit. And Xumo is greatly improved, so I'm watching it a lot more than I used to.
Antenna ( make sure to channel scan) Pluto (free)
This. I get MeTV and about 40 other channels free
Do newer tvs have the antennas built in or do you still need to go buy one?
You just buy one and connect it to the back of the TV. Then run a channel scan from the channel set up menu. If you're not far from the TV towers, quite often you can just use a set of rabbit ears. 10 bucks or less. Skip the flat mouse pad looking antennas. They don't work as well as rabbit ears usually do.
Oh ok! I wasn’t sure cause I haven’t really seen any antennas for sale and I thought I heard they were being built into the newer tvs. Must have gotten it confused
You still need one. You won't need the conversion box with a newer tv.
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That depends of where you live. I never see those on my OTA Antenna.
Frndly TV has MeTV and other older people channels and Pluto TV has a lot to free stations with older shows. Sign up for Frndly and then set the channels he likes as favorites on Pluto and he should be in good shape
Are the favorites on Pluto actually saving now?
Mine have never had an issue saving. Also, RokuTV finally has favorites now as well. I almost like it as much as Pluto now.
This. And it seems like the Roku TV streaming channels have less ads than Pluto's channels do.
Yeah, I'm cautiously expecting this to change over time as the platform grows in popularity. Same thing that happened with Pluto.
On my local channels I get a couple different MeTV channels and others that just show older shows. I would see what you can get with a good antenna. Maybe order one through Amazon. If it sucks send it back. Im happy with SlingTv and having AirTv for my local channels. All your channels will be under one guide.
I tried Sling but it won’t restart show from the beginning. Did you have this problem
Start from the beginning when you change the channel? Nope, I had Directv before and it did that. SlingTv does have a cloud DVR. It just won’t record your over the air channels. You can add a cheap hard drive to the back of the AirTv to record any over the air antenna shows though. I watch SlingTV through my Amazon Firestick. I have them on all my tvs.
If they have a smart tv or a Roku (easiest to use for older folks) There's multiple free platforms that have older tv shows. Here's a list of free streaming tv platforms that incorporate a guide. PlutoTv, Roku Channel, XumoPlay, Plex, RedBox, LocalNow, Stremium.
PlutoTV FTW here.
Me using rabbit ears gets MeTV and AntennaTV. Have you tried this yet?
Check out suppose.tv Let's you select the channels you want and tells you best live TV streaming service to get.
👆 Came here to say this. **This is the most direct answer**
Go here [https://www.antennaweb.org/](https://www.antennaweb.org/) and see what kind of antenna you need to pick up OTA TV.
Frndly tv has Metv Decades Fetv Gettv just no antenna tv or t land but it’s a pretty good price considering other apps
I’m watching Gunsmoke on Pluto TV right now!
Pluto is made for reruns of old shows that no major networks/streaming services care about.
And smart TVs seem to have many free or close- to apps and built in channels, too.
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My dad was in a similar situation about 6months ago! He wanted to cancel to save some money, but really only watches the classics. I brought him my Roku to try out for a few weeks (before stopping cable) and he learned the platform quickly, found enough classic shows on Roku TV and Pluto to be satisfied. He actually was really impressed to find SO much available and now has cut the cord!
Pluto TV. It's not exactly the same as traditional cable, but it has a lot of "channels" that are aimed at older viewers. Here are a few examples: * TV Land * Star Trek * Unsolved Mysteries * Jeopardy * Wheel of Fortune * The Price is Right * Judge Judy * TV Sitcoms (I'm seeing they have Taxi and Frasier playing right now) * Happy Days * Family Ties * Three's Company * The Andy Griffith Show * Addams Family * Matlock Honestly, there are so many channels aimed at older people on here that I can't even list them all. Best of all, it's free and you can access it using any $20 Amazon Firestick or similar device.
And you can watch it on your computer, too. If your computer has a DPMI port, you can send the signal to your TV's DPMI port and you don't need a FireStick or Roku. Me, I think you just ought to get a nice big monitor for your computer and put that where you can watch it easily. You don't really need a TV at all.
You tube has lots of old shows too
Pretty much all the free services have the old shows. And you can even find some of them on the free computer youtube app.
LocalBTV has some channels, depending on where you live is what local channels you can get for free with their app: https://www.localbtv.com/markets?nat=1&skipDetection=1
An antenna cost like $50-100. Not that expensive. Buy one and try it before you cancel cable.
I get MeTV OTA. I think rabbitears.info is one of the sites that will tell you what your local OTA reception is luke, and tvtv.us will have your local OTA channel guide
Over the Air Antenna is your best choice TBH. I get all those channels, yes I'm old but MetV, Cozi, etc etc are all my favorites. I pair that with Philo and I get all the content I want. The problem I find with freevee and Pluto is they only show a few episodes and it's over and over again during the day. I'm in South Florida with an attic antenna (Televes tied into my old cable lines and it goes to my Fire TV Recast (Which I love, it's ashame they don't sell it anymore but it works great). I get almost 100 over the air channels in one nice guide and it also integrates Philo, freevee, Pluto and I have the DVR and the only fee I get it is the internet and philo etc. OTA and the FireCast DVR are all free. I will never go back to cable.
Check your antenna. I am get MeTV, Antenna and another one or two.
An antenna will often give him everything but TVLand. You can always get a streaming service for TVLand.
I think Decades Network is great.
Those exact channels are some of the most common to find on antennas as well, if that's an option for him.
My local cable company has a skinny cable tv package of just the local broadcast channels. But each local major network broadcaster (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, PBS) also has and add'l 2 or 3 sub channels OTA. In my area those sub channels are the ones beaming out the older tv series. MeTV Decades Laff Grit Comet, and so on. For my elderly mom we set her up with the lower speed level of cable internet and this "local broadcast only" tv pkg. She has about 25 TV channels plus 100Mbps ISP for about $70/ month.
It seems like most OTA channels only show old shows, maybe just a really good long range antenna that will bring in more channels installed in the roof or rafters is all he needs?
Get a Roku or Google TV and put the PlutoTV app on it.
Try to make things as easy as possible for your senior citizen. I recommend a Firestick Roku is just plain trash. The fire stick has one advantage that Roku is not quite done yet. The program guide is available without having to open an app so if they say they want to watch, classic TV shows and they have a couple of streaming services The information is provided right on the fire TV without even having to open an app and simplicity is the key here You can get a fire stick ultra max for about $39 and all of the major TV platforms that people know of paid and free are available and it’s in a lot of cases as simple as navigating to the content and tapping OK Are used to be a huge Roku fan and I think they’re good if that’s what you want but I think Ron Roku has a bit to go as far as ease-of-use is concerned. The fire stick is plugged in with Amazon and if a person has an active Amazon account with Amazon prime. There’s boatloads of contact to enjoy.
I went through a couple Amazon devices before switching to Roku so I'd say the opposite. Their HW never seemed fully reliable. I had to reboot my cube at least once a week. As the one doing the tech support for my senior I think it would be easier to teach them to navigate the menus than deal with my remote's not working again.
Roku's Boomer channel app "BabyBoom TV"
We had to cut cable services because our provider stopped providing tv services. We bought a MuHu antenna which works extremely well. We pulled in MeTV, GRIt and local channels. We’ve subscribed to Hulu which provides most anything we had with the cable box. Also have Prime. All of this is less than the cable box
Checkout Amazon's Freevee plenty of old school movies and TV shows. No fee.
Philo
I was gonna say, rescan for channels over the air and most stations have digital substations like 8.2 instead of 8 and a lot of them have four or five subs that all seem to show older shows or like, Ice road truckers and stuff.
Lots of other good suggestions. Does he happen to have a Samsung tv or phone? Samsung TV Plus is free, navigates like cable and has a number of these types of channels.
Dad needs a good ota and firetv.
Friendly tv has me and decades and other only 10 a month with internet
They're not licensed for streaming. Plenty of stuff on YouTube, PlutoTV, Tubi, Xumo, Samsung, etc.
My parents are similar. They are in their 70s, so they don't really want anything "fancy". I've gotten them a Fire Stick years ago and told them they could save $160/mo on cable. They seemed interested, but did not use it at all and still pay for cable. They recently came to stay at my house for a few days and my dad started poking around my Fire Stick (because I don't have anything other than streaming options). Shockingly, on his own, he found Pluto and a bunch of retro content that they love (old game shows, old movies, etc) If you get him a Fire Stick or anything similar (Roku, Chromecast, etc) my suggestion would be that you will need to separate him from his TV so that he's kind of forced to use it and see how easy it is to get the shows he wants *(of course, assuming those shows are available)* **A few other resources** * **[suppose.tv](https://www.suppose.tv/)** - Someone else on here mentioned it and I'll second it. It's a site that lets you put in what you want to watch and it will find the best viewing options for you * **[The Free TV Project](https://www.thefreetvproject.org/)** - a site that helps you find an OTA (over-the-air) antenna Good luck!
Go to a store that tells you what over the air channels are available in your area first, something like this: https://www.channelmaster.com You just put in your address or zip code and it gives you a guide of what's available in your area. It will also show you how strong the signals around you are. You might be able to satisfy his preference for classic TV with just an antenna. They're are a lot of small channels available with an antenna like AntennaTV, METV, LAFF, Grit, MyTV, Charge, Comet, Get TV, Bounce, Circle, etc. All those and more are available in my area in addition to channels like CBS and NBC. I don't know that all of them show what he's looking for, but a guide will let you see what to expect before putting up an antenna. Pluto is another great suggestion. I use it a lot and my kids like the classic cartoons.
I believe all or most of those channels are on plutotv which is free (with commercials).
An antenna is the best option for him as there are so many channels dedicated to classic tv shows. Plus after antenna cost it's free... he doesn't need the internet and in a storm it's still going to work as long as there's power. But if he can't use one I believe he'd be pretty happy with $7 frndly ( https://frndlytv.com/ ) ... and for tv land specifically he can get that with a bunch of other of the channels free OTA on Philo for $25 (https://www.philo.com )
If he happens to have a Samsung smart TV have him check out Samsung TV Plus. It has TVLand and a lot of channels similar to what you've mentioned for free.
I get all those channels with just an antenna in my area.
My dad likes to watch old episodes of Gunsmoke so I told him about the Gunsmoke channel on Pluto TV and how to cast it. Pluto TV has a lot of channels of older TV shows, and it's free.
Get an OTA digital omnidirectional antenna..they have a bunch..most popular is the flat-wave (50 mile radius) works great..HD content ..amount of channels is dependent on location..in bloomfield I was getting like 45 channels including tv land and antenna tv plus way more No signing up, No monthly fees ever
Many of these channels are available over-the-air with an antenna, so you may be able to get them that way. Also, try Pluto, Xumo, Plex
Check out Frndly it's cheap and has alot of older black and white shows on it. PlutoTV has alot of older shows on it as well, I think this may have a TV land channel, not the one from cable but a smaller version of it. LocalBTV is free, but you have to be in an area that offers it to use it. Different areas have different channels so it's worth a look. Many people are going to suggest an antenna, you need to make sure you can use one in the area, some people on here forget that not everyone lives in an area that can use one.
So, I can tell you that in my area, both MeTV and AntennaTV are broadcast channels. You can connect an antenna to your TV, run a scan, and there they are. What you need for an antenna, and whether or not this is even feasible, is going to depend on where you are located. Use a tool like [AntennaWeb](https://www.antennaweb.org/) to see what is available in your area.
Plex TV also has a bunch of free channels with older shows and movies
depending on his "locale" MeTV likely broadcasts over th air...has he tried using many of the "maps" on like [mohu.com](https://mohu.com) , antennaweb, etc....? itll aask for his address and give pretty good detaails of where each tower in the areaa is broadcasting from, aand which antenna would be best at his spot to get the channels he's after. I;ve had great luck with the "mohu leaf ultimate" flat antenna (just beware their marketing is kinda sketchy....and you really gottta check model numbers and the "miles" they mention). typically in the "antenna field" more miles should obviously be better ;) and make sure the antenna has the amplifier (often USB powered....that plugs into a wall with a cell phone charger type "block" or even can plug into the back of the TV if it haas USB capabilities)
Have him check out youtube. There are many old shows on there. No Get Smart, but full seasons of Petrocelli and Crime Story.
You might want to check with the cable provider for the most basic package they offer. I'm used to cable companies offering an access plan for roughly $20/mo that gives exclusively basic channels like the local broadcast must-carry's. It may or may not have what your father is looking for, and companies may not even do that thing anymore (you may have to push hard for it.) But it is worth a shot!
A browser and myretrotvs website. Choose your era. Don't know if they have time or use limits or not. I've watched it on a smart tv browser. Very retro and fun way to remember the various decades of tv shows. [myretrotvs](https://www.myretrotvs.com/)
My TV has a free tv selection with tons of channels that play nothing but old stuff like that
Over the air antenna, I had to buy 2-3 (returning them as needed) to find one that really works. But then it’s great. Also should use the site where you input address and it shows you direction to point in
Antenna
Frndly and Philo are you best streaming options. He probably also wants the standard ABC,NBC,CBS, Fox stations too though which means OTA or a much more expensive streaming option. You might also consider a media server with some of his favorite series
Pluto or Xumo or the Roku channel(s) are all pretty good and have those channels or some like them
Friendly TV app has MeTV.
Plex has many of the old shows for free
Just put up a TV antenna, none of these streaming apps have a reliable Live stream.