Remember when there were only THREE channels?

fuzzybuddy

fuzzybuddy

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Location
Northeast PA. 3 miles from the Pocono race track
Remember when the President was on ALL three channels.
Remember when TV news programs were 15 minutes long.
Remember when TV stations shut down after Johnny Carson.
Remember Saturday morning westerns.
Remember rabbit ears.
Remember waiting for the TV set to "warm up".
Remember when there was such a thing as a TV repairman.
Remember when having kids was the forerunner of channel changing remote.
Remember your father always adjusting the "vertical hold".
Remember when people on TV smoked.
Remember when the Flintstones were #1 TV program.
Now YOU do some remembering.
 

When I was a kid we had appointment TV and only turned the television on to watch certain programs, don't wear it out, don't waste electricity, etc...

I remember getting excited about tuning in to watch Walt Disney on Sunday night.

 
I remember when we only had 2 Channels !!!

...and everyone stood up for the national anthem at the end of the evenings broadcast..:D
 

We only had one channel. Over the air. No cable. We still have just two channels over the air. The others are all cable depending on how much you want to pay.

Now there is a scam going on for people that don't know about television.

They are selling television antennas that pick up 50 channels and you can disconnect your cable.

What they don't tell you is if there are no stations broadcasting in your area within range all you get is snow.

I still have a couple of "TV Trays". Collapsible tables that you set up to watch T.V. while eating TV Dinners.

And the t.v. was tube operated and the corner store sold tubes. There was a machine there where you could test them.
 
There must have been a furniture shortage in the '50s, we spent most of our lives on the floor in front of our old wooden television.:):playful::eek:nthego:

Sometimes in the winter our old cat would disappear behind the television and sleep in the open area behind the speaker cloth where it was warm from the television tubes above.

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fuzzybuddy said:
Remember when the President was on ALL three channels.
Remember when TV news programs were 15 minutes long.
Remember when TV stations shut down after Johnny Carson.
Remember Saturday morning westerns.
Remember rabbit ears.
Remember waiting for the TV set to "warm up".
Remember when there was such a thing as a TV repairman.
Remember when having kids was the forerunner of channel changing remote.
Remember your father always adjusting the "vertical hold".
Remember when people on TV smoked.
Remember when the Flintstones were #1 TV program.
Now YOU do some remembering.
Click to expand...
Oh my! Each of those could almost be a thread unto itself.

We had three channels, all out of Detroit. Local stories were the sole province of the local radio stations and newspapers.

With only 15 minutes, the news programs focused on broadcasting actual news. No big emphasis on telling the viewer what they should THINK about it as is the case today.

My first recollections of the Tonight Show featured Jack Parr as the host. I'm sure some here recall when it was hosted by Steve Allen! That program died for me when Carson left.

On another thread, someone here mentioned having once met William Boyd. His character, Hopalong Cassidy, was my earliest TV cowboy hero. I even had a Hopalong Cassidy bedspread.

Rabbit ears didn't work where I lived. Most houses had an antenna on the roof. The well to do had them on towers.

Waiting for the television to "warm up"? Yup. Haha, I still have to do that with my Panasonic 50" flat screen. So much for progress.

I don't think I ever saw a TV repairman. My dad was good with electronics and was able to troubleshoot and fix any TV problems.

An uncle had one of the first TV remotes. IIRC, it had three buttons that made a "ding" sound when pushed. It used sound to change channels and turn the set on and off.

Yes, it seemed like every adult smoked ... actors, politicians, teachers, doctors, and most kids' parents. Television carried a LOT of advertising for tobacco and alcohol products in those days.

Although I wasn't a big Flintstones fan, those three channels did broadcast a great number of really good programs. Somehow I don't think today's "reality TV" dreck would have fared well back then.
 
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What nostalgia!

Calling a TV a "set"
Stop stomping on the floor, you're loosen the tubes!
My mother fixed the tv with a large mirror reflecting the screen back at her.
4 networks, abc, cbs, nbc and Dumont.

We lived on a hill and pulled in NYC stations too, albeit a bit snowy, wcbd-2, wnbc-4, wnew-5, wabc-7, wwor-9, wpix-11. In bad weather, we'd just get a few.
 
Trips to the drugstore to test the tubes on a machine to see which one was burned out. I always asked to go along because there was always the chance of getting candy.

My dad up on the roof twisting the antenna around, yelling down to my mom "HOW'S THAT?" "STILL FUZZY!" "WELL, HOW'S THAT?" "A LITTLE BETTER!" "HOW'S THAT?" "THAT'S GOOD NOW!!!!"

Watching the Bishop Sheen Hour. I thought he was supposed to be the devil. Well, he looked like the devil with that cape and the widow's peak and those piercing eyes.

"Quick, get the TV warmed up. It's almost time for Milton Berle!"
 
I remember all that has been mentioned here. I was allowed to eat my dinner on a snack tray and watch Howdy Doody on Friday afternoons. We had an antenna on the roof of our house and every once in awhile a storm would come through and knock it down. My Dad would have to climb up and put it back. When something went wrong with out TV my Mom would call in the repairman. My Dad was always relieved when it wasn't the picture tube that went. I guess they were pretty expensive to replace.

On Sunday morning there was a program about keeping pet birds. A lady who couldn't keep her eyes open and slurred her words would try to give advice about pet birds. Then toward the end of the show was party time. The camera would focus on a cage full of parakeets or canaries and you were suppose to bring your bird to the party and set the cage next to the TV. Which I always did,not that they cared. The lady never came back on. I'm sure she was off having another round of drinks.
 
I remember our first TV..

Black and white.

One of my very first memories was me sittin' under the ironing table.

While my moma ironed, watching "The Edge of Night"

After that I remember Red Skelton.
 
The thing is, there aren't more than three channels that have anything besides crappola................

".....57 Channels (And Nothin' On)" is a song written and performed by Bruce Springsteen.....".


So true!......
 
While reading this thread it brought back some memories of mine. My Dad loved watching the life of Riley. Whenever it was on my Dad had to see it. He also loved the movie "Saratoga Trunk". In those days the same movie aired every night for a week.So my Dad would get comfortable and start to watch it. After about 10 minutes he would fall asleep.We didn't want to change the channel because we didn't want to wake him up. He worked very hard and we loved to see him rest. So me, my Mom, and my sister watched it. So the next night the same thing would happen and we did the same thing. Boy were we happy when the week was over and we didn't have to watch it again.
 


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