That brought to my mind my best friend (& she's still my best friend) and I being on the phone together, watching Rhoda's wedding.
Do you think TV watching was better with only three networks, or now with 100 channels?
- Thread starter fuzzybuddy
- Start date
I have 2 TV sets in the same room.
A larger (40") one and a small (19") one.
Occasionally I'll have them both on different channels, watch one and monitor the other.
When a commercial comes on one, I mute it and watch the other.
I mainly just do it during the nightly news so I can know what's being reported while watching a show.
If something interesting comes on the news, I turn it up enough to hear it.
Picture-in-picture.
I had one in the 90's, but you had to have a VCR hooked up to act as the 2nd TV receiver.
I would imagine the new, more advanced and expensive flat screens have them too, but with two receivers in the same set.
Butterfly
SF VIP
- Location
- Albuquerque, New Mexico USA
I cut the cable years ago; there's seldom anything on over the air TV that I have any interest in, and I HATE commercials. I stream what I want to watch through Roku.
Furryanimal
Y gath o Gymru
- Location
- Wales
We get to see more these days-even if we have to pay for some channels.
We did have three channels over here,which became four,then five before multi channel TV took over.Even freeview and freesat have multiple channels.
And using a VPN can get you free channels from other countries..And then there are the not strictly legal streaming services which allows you to bypass the likes of Netflix..
I think I am good at picking out the good stuff -and much of that would have passed me by without multi channel TV.
prefer it.
We did have three channels over here,which became four,then five before multi channel TV took over.Even freeview and freesat have multiple channels.
And using a VPN can get you free channels from other countries..And then there are the not strictly legal streaming services which allows you to bypass the likes of Netflix..
I think I am good at picking out the good stuff -and much of that would have passed me by without multi channel TV.
prefer it.
Camper6
Well-known Member
- Location
- Northwestern Ontario Canada
Actually if you use over the air reception turning the antenna to fine tune is still valid. You don't have to holler if you have cell phones.
Packerjohn
Packerjohn
- Location
- Canada
I have always felt that no matter how huge the screen has become, no matter how many pixels they squeeze in, no matter how many channels are offered, for me, it's the quality of the show. The older shows didn't have any fancy graphic or technical whiz but they had some excellent acting & some very powerful stories. If I don't like the show, all the fancy technical improvements in the TV world don't impress me. If I am constantly bombarded with way too many commercials, then I just get turned off from watching. This is a reason why I love my ROKU & also I love ordering DVDs from Amazon. When I put on "The Streets Of San Francisco" with Karl Maldan (excellent actor) & Michael Douglas or Kojak with Teddy Savalos, I know I can enjoy 50 minutes of a great show without all those terrible commercials. Therefore, for me, it's well worth the $35 - $40 Canadian for a full year of the show which might amount to 24 shows. Since I wearing hearing aid, the CC or the subtitles are a big deal for me so that I can really enjoy the show. Some of my favourite Westerns like Gunsmoke, Rifleman & Rawhide has subtitles but not all other shows. I don't spend any time watching TV during the day. Too busy but do enjoy the 2.5 hours in the evening before bedtime. With ROKU I have enjoyed some truly great entertainment with "Britbox" & "Acorn" showing some great British shows but there are thousands of other stations/shows available.
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I think that in the days of three or at least fewer channels, there was more anticipation of viewing what would be on. Back then there was no capacity to record shows, so you had to view them as they were broadcast, planning your evening around them...it was simply a bigger deal for which families might gather. Far more television was also "live" then, which added something as the unexpected might happen. There was little need to worry in the earlier days of television over "inappropriate content," which today includes graphic violence, gutter language, and sexual situations. That being said, I do prefer the far greater choices available on television today...
jujube
SF VIP
The anticipation of getting the tv "warmed up"; "Hurry! It's almost time for Milton Berle!" First just the dark screen, then a line of white, then VOILA! Iike magic, the picture!
My great-grandmother always had to have her hair combed and her shoes on before the tv was turned on because she wasn't absolutely convinced "they" weren't watching her through the screen.
My great-grandmother always had to have her hair combed and her shoes on before the tv was turned on because she wasn't absolutely convinced "they" weren't watching her through the screen.
Random Retirement guy
New Member
When I was young, we could go to school on Monday and say" wasn't that guy with the spinning plates great?" and everybody knew what you were talking about. We all saw Elvis, or the Beatles. Now everyone is alone on their little "niche" channel, learning about dung beetles or face cream. The world is a much more lonely place. We have so little communal memories to tie us together. The strength of our society is greatly diminished. Perhaps, fatally.
Amen to that.
My view is that the great irony with regard to television is that, now we've got these amazing TV sets with their ultra high resolution pictures as big as a movie theater screen and they hang on the wall like a painting.... but with all the technological improvements, the programming has mostly turned into unwatchable crap.
That said, the old shows weren't always perfect either.
Many of them had simplistic characters, holes in the plots you could drive a truck through, illogical behavior by certain characters merely to facilitate the direction of the plot, etc, etc.
But I don't even care if I've seen the oldies several times and know the endings. I'd still rather watch them than the fashion model clones of today's shows engaging in constant, gratuitous sex and graphic violence.
Many if not most of the old classic shows I'm only seeing for the first time now.
I hardly ever watched them back when they were in production.
Oh, and I enjoy many of the Brit shows, too.
I get them mostly on PBS and online, though.
TCM is cable/satellite, so I don't get it.
I do get a broadcast channel called Movies! that plays a lot of the old movies.
Every Sunday night they do a thing called Sunday Night Noir.
Lot of great old 40's, 50's and 60's flicks.
