TEEVEE
 

So I was flipping through the channels just now, and got to thinkin. I remember when there were 3 channels, color TV was still a luxury (and a piece of furniture), and if the president gave a speech, that's all there was on TV.

Just now, when scanning the little online guide thingy, I found 4 channels showing reality shows about people who do tattoos.

AT ONCE. Right at this moment. It's unbelievable.

I became instantly overcome with ennui and irony and had to come share that with you.

Just so didn't totally waste your time, though let's start talking about TV memories we remember from back in the day. Favorite episodes, stuff your family watched together, you know. Mr. Ed or Yu-Gi-oh or whoever.

I just remembered that when my granddaddy was alive, and Circus of the Stars came on TV, he would get so outraged at the vulgarity of the suits taht the performers wore that he would huff out of the room and go stomping elsewhere. For like 3 minutes. Then he'd come back and watch some more, till they got him redlining again. And Clint Eastwood -- granddaddy said "i bet he wears lace on his underwear".

Clint Eastwood, no less. I miss my granddaddy.

My mother's nursing home, err ... extended care facility offers television for free. Most nursing homes require residents to bring their own televisions, this one supplies them.

However, it doesn't supply much in the way of content ... just the local broadcast channels.

I expect that from the minute mom gets home she'll be watching Food Channel 24 hours a day. She's been having Barefoot Contessa withdrawal something fierce.

I hate that your mom is in a nursing home, wolf. we jsut went through that thing 3 years ago ourselves (I miss nana, too). I hate that it's finally dulling, cuz she deserved to be remembered in technicolor.

<3 and prayers your way, chick.

Thanks, noodle!

In 1969 we lived in a place called Highland Pines, AZ. Elevation 7,800. Population: 16 (four in my family). Literally the sticks. Dead smack in the middle of a National Forest. School bus stop was about 10 miles down the mountain.

TEEVEE? We had one! Got one channel. Two if we turned the antenna - which was mounted on a 30 foot pole outside a window, in the right direction on a clear day or night.

We could pick up our neighbors CB on our TV's UHF.

We had 3 or 4 channels. Believe it or not, there were times when there were two things on we wanted to watch so I had to sit in front of the TV and turn the station knob back and forth.

Wizard of Oz was a family event every year.

Saturday mornings were ruled by Sid & Marty Kroft.

We actually looked forward to Labor Weekend for the Telethon.

In our area (Bri will get this if she has always lived in this area) you didn't miss Clubhouse 22 after school, with Duffy the Dog, Stan the Man, and the amazing "Pick-a-Box" which was later upgraded to Pick-a-Door. I won a Nerf Frisbee as a 'booby' prize one time.

I first heard of HBO when my friend in JrHi returned from FL and told me about it. I thought she was full of crap. Yeah, right! :right:

It's like one of my earlier threads...I LOVE technology and choices and all that comes with those things, but we've lost something. What? I don't know. A certain innocence?

People with more money had a control in their living room which would actually turn the antenna with a little motor.

LOL...we had one of those. I remember telling a friend that recently and he was teasing me that I was in a rich family. Believe me, we were not. But my dad did like the gadgets, which is why most of my and my brothers' childhood was caught on 8mm and Super8 film.

I can still hear the whirring of the antenna.

[grumpy old man] I remember when we had to get up off our ass to change the channel or adjust the volume. And we watched commercials, goddammit! We had one television for the whole damn family. Cartoons were only on Saturday morning until noon. There were 4 channels (including PBS) until UHF was developed in the mid-sixties, then we got 3 more! Wooped-dee dooo! Finally, we got Wee Willie Weber on weekday afternoons, showing cartoons. We got color TV in 1972, and cable hit our neighborhood in about 1978, but we didn't get it until about 1985! And when we got it, there was this wire that connected the box - not remote control - to the tv.[/grumpy old man]

Wee Willie had some pretty cool shows on, like Speed Racer, Ultra Man, Eighth Man, Prince Planet, Marine Boy, Johnny Cypher in Demension Zero - all Japanese, probably considered anime today.

There were some pretty far-fetched short run comedies. Anybody remember Captain Nice? Mr. Terrific (was that it?)?

Yogi Bear and Boo-Boo, Mighty Mouse, Underdog, Fractured Fairy Tales. All classics! I loved them.

Now they have monster robots, funky animated stills, yuk cartoons, super ugly horror critters and flashing TV screen that cause seizures. TV cartoons suck now - except for Sesame Street and Tele-Tubbies.

The great thing about modern cable/satellite is that pretty much *all* those great old shows are available at one time or other, so you can re-experience the nostalgia should you choose to do so. Granted, we'll probably never see the really obscure ones, 'cause if they didn't make money way back when, they probably won't now, but still...we have lots of choices these days.

My favorite ancient TV memories? Winky Dink and Me (you put a plastic cover on your TV and drew on it, making a picture that then became part of a scene in the show), The Banana Splits, Sky King, The original Mickey Mouse show with Annette, Cubby, et al ("Meeska, Mooska, Mousketeer; Mouse Cartoon Time Now is Here!"), Superman with George Reeves as The Man of Steel, The Tonight Show with Steve Allen...and Captain Kangaroo.

I'd use up all of UT's bandwidth if I went on.

When I was a wee lad, there were 3 networks and PBS. B&W, of course. The new local cable co had just started up and offered a deal where you could get a month of cable for free on a trial basis. We signed up, and my Dad told us very matter of factly that the cable would be removed at the end of the month, because he wasn't paying the monthly fee. That month, I think we had 10 channels, including channel 56, all the way from Boston. It showed great kids shows all afternoon. We loved it. Channel 9 was the French language channel, and it would show French movies with some nudity on Friday nights. My parents wouild send us to bed. At the end of the month, my Dad had the cable disconnected as promised. :(

Like Zoom? I so wanted to be a Zoom kid.

"Boston Mass Oh 2 1 3 4...send it to Zoom!"

Clutch!
 

http://www.stcsig.org/oi/hyperviews/...r/001cedg5.gif

Nothing like Synchro-Vox!!!!

The original ZOOM was awesome. The stuff those kids would make! Like the kid who made an AM radio by winding wire around a tin can. then he climbed an enormous tree next to his house to put an antenna wire in it. You'd never see that today.

New Law
 

There should be a law that every American child MUST make a crystal radio before they are 14.:neutral:

I had a friend who built a Heathkit TV. That think lasted forever!

Zoom is an underrated cultural icon for GenXers. The notion of a show made specifically by us for us, represents the DIY builder spark of entrepreneurship that remains in the American soul. Would there be a YouTube if there was not a Zoom?

The Brits and Aussies eyes are glazing over at this point. Maybe we could have a Blue Peter thread?

My parents gave the ZOOM companion book to us kids. They probably got it for making a PBS donation. The book was great. It included a summary of all the projects on the show and basic instructions too. There was the guy who made floating "shoes" out of foam blocks and venetian blinds so he could walk across a pond. Another guy made a raft out of sticks and a tarp. He basically made a birds nest of sticks and wrapped it with a tarp. There was the radio guy. That's all I can remember right now, but I know there was a lot more.

And they got to wear those cool striped shirts.:rolleyes:

My sister was of the ZOOM! generation. I am four years older and was out of the demographic. She is fluent in Ubby-Dubby to this day. I, despite my facility with Pig Latin, never was able to get it, despite having filched the ZOOM! book from her one night and reading through the instructions carefully.

I was exposed to it enough, however, to this day I know the address to send letters to, and have to sing/speak it in cadence.

Attachment 9784

Wow, I remember their faces!

I used to get freaked out when they played the National Anthem at "the end of the broadcast day" and would turn it off before the flag waving in the breeze at the end, because I couldn't face that indian in the test pattern. He just sat there, and that tone, then the static. Then I *knew* I was alone. :shivers:

TV TEST PATTERN
 

You take me back, BigV.

Being up late enough to get to that "end of the broadcast day" part made me feel cool; yeah, a bit scared, but cool. That was the entry into a realm unknown to most kids. Hard to get there if you had parents in the house.:neutral:

Oh. Regarding Zoom. I was lucky to grow up in the Boston area, home of WGBH. The station kept those kids' last names under wraps, lest they get hassled by strangers when they were just trying to be regular kids. One would see a Zoom kid now and again; I recall the dude with the big Jewfro. He was cool.

I haven't seen that in years. That was a not so subtle message that it was way past time for me to get my ass in bed.

More Zoom Crap
 

http://dannymiller.typepad.com/./pho...zoomcards1.jpg

Once I thought of that Zoom kid with the big hair, I had to find him. It was joe, the kid on the right.

The blog I found him on noted this about Joe:

"I once met a guy who went to high school with Joe in Boston and he said that the other kids used to taunt him with the nickname “Zoom-fag!”


He's got a good blog:
http://dannymiller.typepad.com/blog/...onna_teac.html

For a short period of time in ... 4th grade? ... those shirts were THE SHIT. If you didn't have one, you were a loser. I begged my mom to get me one, but by the time she did, it was no longer chic (this was like 2 weeks later). Quite traumatizing.

Nothing worse than last year's "the shit", you big loser! :p

I was a kid when JFK was killed. I still remember being ticked off because the funeral was on Saturday morning and it preempted the cartoons.

In St. Louis, The Flintstones was a prime-time show on Friday nights. wooo.