What TV did you watch as a kid?

[rekees4300]

Lassie

 

[Torvy]

13" B&W Zenith. 3 channels if conditions were favorable.

 

[PILOON]

LOL.
Ed Sullivan, Honeymooners and lots of test patterns.
Also globs of steel wool on the rabbet ears.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Wait, What?

TV is not a necessity, though it is nice. I didn't have a TV when I went off to college in '65, and didn't buy one until '77. My wife and I got married in '86, and about '88 rearranged furniture. We couldn't find a good place for the TV, so sold it, and did without until the '92 election. I bought a 12" Wards color set. In '94 we moved to our current home where there is no broadcast TV. I think we finally got a satellite dish about '00, and have had a TV since, but I still go 4 or 5 days at a time without turning it on. We lived with that 12" set on a dresser in the bedroom until '10, when we got a 32" flat panel.

If anything was on between '65 and '77, I didn't see it. The satellite dish was nice, because I got to see reruns of "Northern Exposure." We had the east coast network feeds, so I got to see the WTC attack in real time. I had just gotten out of the shower and was standing about 2' from that 12" screen when the first tower went down. I have a structural background, so knew what had happened before the reporters did. They didn't think a huge building like that could pancake, but I knew it could. My shock was eased a bit when I learned they had gotten most of the people out, and only lost about 3000. I was thinking 5000 in the first building alone.

Sometimes TV is useful. Mostly it's a waste of time. It gives young people a way to avoid reality and old people something to stare at as they wait to die.

 

[WVH1977]

We talk about TV being a waste of time but I rarely watch it anymore and agree. Most shows are not worth looking at. You have 600 channels with all repeats and only watch maybe 5 channels. I don't even have cable/satellite. Have not had it for 13 years.

We are now in the computer era. Now it is computers and watching youtube for me and tractorbynet . Imagine if we did not have computers. OH MY!!! How did we ever get by without them.

Everyone on this site now probably does most of their banking, shopping, bill paying, research and communications on the internet. We are all part of this technology and use it often and the age ranges are probably 20 to 90 years old just on this site.

 

[ultrarunner]

So far never bought a TV for myself...

Of the TV bought they were gifts either to my parents or to shut in seniors.

These days there are weeks where the current tv is never turned on... it's a 65" the sellers left behind...

We just aren't tv people anymore...

 

[Oaktree]

TV was only allowed to be turned on between 8pm and 11pm other than for a major football game.

My parents had a similar rule...no tv until after supper and dishes (and for us kids, homework) done. Other than my father occasionally watching a baseball game, none of us were sports fans.

I didn't watch tv.
I worked, played outdoors. Fished and hunted. Delivered newspapers. Mowed lawns. Planted a garden. Read a lot. Hiked. Rode a bicycle.

We played outside or did chores too, but most of that wasn't practical in the winter. I was more of a radio guy myself, trouble was those old tube TVs wreaked havoc with AM reception.

We talk about TV being a waste of time but I rarely watch it anymore and agree. Most shows are not worth looking at. You have 600 channels with all repeats and only watch maybe 5 channels. I don't even have cable/satellite. Have not had it for 13 years.

We are now in the computer era. Now it is computers and watching youtube for me and tractorbynet . Imagine if we did not have computers. OH MY!!! How did we ever get by without them.

Everyone on this site now probably does most of their banking, shopping, bill paying, research and communications on the internet. We are all part of this technology and use it often and the age ranges are probably 20 to 90 years old just on this site.

Yeah, but when did Newton Minnow declare tv a "vast wasteland", the late 1950s? The same era many here look at as a "golden age". It's always been 90% crap. Thing is which 90%? What's crap to me might be interesting to you & vice versa.

I do some of the above online, but probably less than some. The internet has made life easier in some ways and added more clutter in others, just like most technologies it's a double edge sword.

 

[ultrarunner]

I would say story lines often taught a lesson... especially family programming...

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Our TV "broke" every spring, and didn't get fixed until fall. We were farmers, and Dad said there were better things to do in the summer than sit inside. It wasn't until I was in high school that I learned he was just pulling the fuse out of the back of the set.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I cannot remember the title of the tv series. It was on in the late 60's and came on Saturday. It was a spin off of StarTrec and even copied the floorplan of the USS Enterprise. I was about 11 or so. There were a lot of girls, mini-shirts and cleavage. I knew I liked all that a lot but no idea as to why.

Could that have been "Battle Star Galactia" with Lorne Green? I still remember "Space Cadets", and the phrase: "Aw, go blow your jets!".