On Argentine television there is a phenomenon that is repeated with unexpected force: retro series. In times where platforms dominate cultural conversation and local production fighting, air channels found in the classics a hearing and identity refuge. The result surprises: programs produced more than half a century that not only resist, but also impose themselves in the rating and transform into masters of time slots that seemed lost.
Indelible stamp. The most emblematic case is “The fox”. With just 78 original episodes filmed between 1957 and 1959, the series starring Guy Williams has still been, for years, a success in the thirteen. Aired from Monday to Friday at 12:30, Average an average of 4.5 rating pointsfigure that many current productions would envy. The Espadachín hero who fights for injustice in Spanish California became a daily ritual for several generations of Argentines.
His permanence also has a cultural explanation, Guy Williams settled in Buenos Aires in the 1970s, lived in Recoleta and was adopted by the local public with a love that was renewed even after his death in 1989, when Miles dismissed him in Chacarita as if he were a neighbor. Each attempt from the channel to get it out of the grid failed in the face of the pressure of viewers of all ages.
But the phenomenon is not exhausted there. Telefe bet on another regional classic and recovered “El Chavo del 8” and “El Chapulín Colorado”the creations of Roberto Gómez Bolaños. The return, at morning morning hours, reached about 5 rating points and showed that the naive and endearing humor of the neighborhood continues to work strongly.
The same happens with the iconic series “THE THREE CHIFLADOS”where Moe’s physical humor, Larry and Curly overflows by scene. Here time goes back more, since it is a series that premiered in 1923. In the ball channel, its rating, which ranges between 1 and 2 points, is received with honors, due to the low cost that generates it to the air.
The series also emerges from the souvenir drawer “The Ingalls family”that the thirteen transmitted again on Saturdays in the morning, adding it to the repositions that work well at a time where the competition is lower, but the pulse of the classic public is noticeable. On Saturday, September 13, by case, the novel starring Michael Landon ended among the ten most viewed programs of the day.
Retro culture. “The Supergent 86” It is also part of this group. The parody of spies that played with the cold war returned to television open in the hope of brightening its sponsors almost without cost. Although their numbers in America do not reach the figures of their competitors, they are not so far from the general average signal.
To this list you have to add the paradigmatic case of “The Simpsons”. While it is not a classic in black and white, its validity on Argentine television makes it a unique phenomenon. For 34 years, Telefe broadcasts marathons from the Yellow Family as an infallible ratings. In March of this year, its four -hour block reached 4.1 points, being the second most of that Saturday. Unlike other retro fictions, “the Simpsons” does not appeal only to nostalgia but also to their ability to continue reading today with irony and, in some cases, doing futurology.
The success of these series does not respond solely to affective memory. For channels, they are low -cost and high performance products, already bent, with accessible rights and proven in the public’s taste. But there is something even deeper. In a country with recurring crises and an uncertain present, these fictions offer an emotional refuge where the feeling of “all past time was better.
Argentine open television found in the classics a formula that combines business and emotion. They are not only series that fill empty schedules, but also cultural and ritual anchors where different generations converge.
