24 Shows to Save Your Summer

Flash back with the folks

Who better to introduce your curious grade-schooler to some of these classic shows than a grandparent who watched them in their first runs? It's a perfect bonding experience in the making.

The Waltons
Hallmark, 12pm, weekdays
If your parents can't stand the media blitz of drugs, sex, murder and mayhem (and that's just the six o'clock news), then tune the TV to the gentle world of Walton's Mountain, where Grandpa nipping into the Baldwins' "recipe" or Ben borrowing John Boy's car and getting both of them in trouble are the major crises of the day. And, oh yeah, there's that little thing called the Depression, a time when families worked together to keep food on the table and clothes on their back (something many grandparents probably remember). Puts our problems in perspective, doesn't it?

The Dick Van Dyke Show and I Love Lucy
TVLand, 10am, weekdays
Yup, they really don't write comedies like they used to, and these two classics are evidence of that. When's the last time you saw somebody in prime time getting soused while doing a Vitameatavegamin commercial? Or tripping over a footstool as he comes home to his capri-pant-clad wife in New Rochelle every night? Your kids will get a hoot out of just watching their grandparents laugh.

next : That '50s show for Grandpa