I grew up with constant tv. My mother watched soaps and game shows. Both watched the news and an evening travel show, then the prime time. Columbo and The Waltons, Night Gallery and The Ed Sullivan Show, Carol Burnette. I watched the Saturday cartoons, all the Wonderful World of Disney, and Jacques Cousteau, the Wild Kingdom of Omaha, In Search Of. Charlie Brown specials, and other holiday cartoons. I watched tv while I did my homework. Talked with my friend on the phone while watching Sonny & Cher, then the Donny & Marie show.
In a way, it was all distraction, nothing to take too seriously. That Girl and Mary Tyler Moore, Dick Van Dyke, Lucille Ball, the cultural background. Barney Miller, Welcome Back Kotter, Good Times, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeanie, all the half hour sitcoms. Enjoyable at the time, useful for reference, but not important. Not long term. If reminded, I probably watched about anything on before what the BBC calls the watershed. Nothing racy, until I was allowed to stay up on Saturday for SNL. My parents were very strict about what I could and could not watch. At Aunt Betty & Uncle Norman's, I was left to 'entertain myself' as they played cards. I watched The Avengers there. Once, I saw part of Rosemary's Baby - broadcast version, until my mother noticed and reamed me out for watching it, that I "should know better than that!" Well, I didn't, didn't even know what it was supposed to be, and didn't see anything unsavory, seemed rather dull, actually.
A fair amount of BBC reruns on the CBC, Windsor being a smaller market without much local content. The Beachcombers and the odd Dr. Who.
D has provided us with The Rockford Files, and has gotten way into Columbo. Seeing them with adult eyes is a very different experience. Twilight Zone felt terrifying to me as a kid, merely interesting later on. The list goes on, but becomes tiresome.
Movies were another story entirely. Only taken to G rated films, in the 70s, meant Sun Films goofball 'documentaries' about UFOs and such. Of course, whatever Disney movies came out, Apple Dumpling Gang holds the distinction of being the first movie I ever fell asleep in, and the first one I remember realizing was just bad.
MST3K introduced me to a world of bad movies, mocking all the way. For which I am ever grateful.
I'm glad tv is fading as a broadcast medium. I like being able to pick and choose, decide what time I want to sit and watch, stop and start to our convenience.Not missing half of a series for uncounted years, or forever. I saw most of A Jewel in the Crown, but missed several key points, for decades. Access to stories from around the world, with subtitles. I like never again having to browse a video store, and guessing, to pay for a movie that will likely suck.
And, since we don't have tv as such, I never just turn on the tube to 'see what's on' anymore. I read, check blogs or pick up a book. This really is better, for me anyway.
Watched Stripped, a doc about comic strips. In the end, newspapers may die, but comic strips already have a new home online. Those who see the future will do fine. Those who hold to the old forms, and miss the substance, miss the point. It's not about paper, it never was.
In the end, it is all about the stories we tell. Maybe that is why so many of those tv shows are faded and a bit embarrassing, none of the stories resonated, none truly spoke to me, not as a child. The one that did, All in the Family, elicited only nightmares, and I never watched it, beyond the odd moment between channels quickly changed. That one hit just inside the front door. Archie Bunker was a mild and more intelligent version of my father. The wrong kind of echoes.
The old shows, the older re-runs, are the context of my unsafe childhood. I revisit them only warily. And all in black & white.
My parents only got a color tv after I was in college.
I consider this a small but vital blessing. Seeing the old stuff in color changes the tone.
6 comments:
we were without tv for the better part of 14 years - got rid of ours during renovations, always meaning to replace it and somehow never getting around to it. we have recently gotten a projector and to celebrate i subscribed to netflix (always just watched on our laptop if we fancied something). now it becomes my escape on bad after-work evenings, and i hate how easy it is to escape.
tv in my childhood was always something scorned, looked down upon. my dad watched (and continues to watch) the news religiously, and educational programming. he hates entertainment, especially if there is a laugh track involved, and he made that clear to the point that i simply never got into watching. it was funny that years later he was the one shocked that we lived for so long without a television.
i agree that there is a shift, but along with the fading of classic television programming, there is a resurgence of incredibly well written shows, a sort of golden age of the small screen. i try not to feel too guilty when i watch, but my aesthetic/intellectual/emotional barometer has become so sensitive that i refuse to waste time on something that doesn't interest or inspire. life's too short.
So, you'll think less of me for watching Say Yes to the Dress?
Joking. Sort of. I think less of myself for watching it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Say_Yes_to_the_Dress
Having a service, netflix or hulu or whatever, also gives you access to some of the older shows. I think I learned a lot, although not proportional to the hours spent.
It's fun to hear about what media we watched growing up--thanks!
My family was in-between yours and Polish Chick's--we watched some TV, but my parents thought it was distinctly inferior to movies and especially to books.
I don't think it's inferior (necessarily), but I like media that doesn't go on and on, like TV shows.
However,
I agree there's a new golden age of the small screen, & one of the glories of Netflix is I can watch good shows from beginning to end, in a short amount of time (Took me a couple weeks to watch "The Wire".)
The other night I was really low, and a friend recommended "The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt"--a Netflix production by Tina Fey about a young woman who's been held 15 years by a cult leader.
I watched all 13 episodes (5 hours) and loved it--laughed out loud--and felt much better afterward.
Now I go around singing the theme song, "Females are strong as hell".
Fresca,
Well, you started it.
The only magazine in our home was the TV Guide. A constant reference.
We had TV growing up and occasionally ate supper in front of it. I came a little after you with Cheers, Night Court, Family Ties, Cosby Show, though I did also enjoy slightly earlier ones like Barney Miller and WKRP.
Now we don't really watch TV at all though we have one and do use it for watching sporting events (NHL, NFL, Olympics).
I really liked Night Court. Watched Cheers a lot, Family Ties.
In the mid 80s-90s, I often didn't have a tv at all, so it gets spotty.
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