Of course, we would like to share the joy of watching these classic series with our children. Fortunately, to introduce your kids to classic TV shows is easier than ever, due to the sheer availability of these shows in various media. For example, there are various websites where full episodes of these series can be viewed, most notably the TV Land site, as well as various other TV nostalgia sites. The TV Land cable channel itself remains a good place to watch fondly-remembered TV series, although recent programming changes have led them to focus on more recent shows.

Another way to introduce your kids to classic TV shows is through DVD box sets. You can purchase either full runs of a series, individual seasons or greatest hits collections featuring the best episodes of a series’ run. But you don’t have to spend any money to familiarize your children with the joys of classic TV. Many local stations continue to run episodes of old series on a daily basis on weekdays in order to fill programming gaps. Be warned, however, that many of these episodes may be missing important scenes as the stations cut them down to make time for more commercials.

The innovations introduced in many classic shows also proved key influences to the shows that followed them. For example, M*A*S*H mixed comedy and dramatic plotlines in a form that would eventually become known as the “dramedy”. This sophisticated format would go on to inspire other fondly-remembered series such as St. Elsewhere and Moonlighting and influence the way many series are made today. The optimistic and well thought-out world created by the original Star Trek series paved the way for many more sophisticated science fiction series such as Babylon Five.

But one of the most important reasons why we need to remember the classic shows is the positive values embodied in them. Star Trek, for example, showed people a world where people of various races (and even aliens!) could work together in an atmosphere of harmony and tolerance. Classic situation comedies such as Happy Days and The Brady Bunch may have shown an unrealistically rosy view of family life, but they still stressed the importance of strong family ties. These positive values, which are markedly lacking in many of the popular shows of today, are why classic TV series are still going strong, even with audiences who were not even born when they were first aired.

In a word, extras. Many of these box sets have special features, created especially for the DVD release, that make them invaluable to fans of these shows. These include making-of documentaries, cast and crew commentaries on individual episodes, and even deleted scenes. Many so-called ‘lost episodes,’ which were filmed but never aired or were aired in a substantially different form, are also included in DVD box sets, either on their own or as part of a collected season. And, of course, the episodes have usually been re-mastered so they look much better than the broadcast versions.

But another reason why classic TV show box sets make great gifts is because they allow you to watch episodes at your own pace and of your own choosing. You can watch as many episodes as you like in one sitting, or ration them out one at a time. You can also pick the particular episode you want to watch while ignoring the ones you don’t like. And finally, the shows preserved in these DVD box sets are the ones the creators intended you to see; many times, local stations airing reruns would cut whole scenes from episodes to make room for more commercials. In DVD box sets, you’re sure you’re getting the full version, and with better picture and sound quality to boot.

The impact of classic TV shows on today can also be seen in their influence on the series that followed. For example, the gritty realism and focus on procedural detail pioneered by the 1950s series Dragnet was crucial to the success of subsequent cop shows that followed, from Hill Street Blues and Cagney and Lacey in the 1970s all the way to more recent hits such as Law and Order and CSI. Law and Order’s creator, Dick Wolf, even remade Dragnet in 2003; the updated series, however, was not a success.

But the most notable way the impact of classic TV shows on today can still be seen is in the sheer number of movie remakes they have inspired. Successful movies that have spun off from classic series include the live-action The Flintstones, the Star Trek series of films and The Addams Family movies. In recent years, however, movie remakes of many classic TV shows, including Bewitched, Get Smart, Sgt. Bilko, Leave It to Beaver and McHale’s Navy, were flops, showing that the filmmakers had clearly failed to grasp what drew audiences to these shows in the first place. Fortunately, these series continue to enjoy a healthy after-life in syndicated re-runs and in DVD box sets that are eagerly snapped up by viewers looking to relive their childhood memories.