BEFORE WE HAD T.V.

I can't duplicate Jack's vault trip, but there are several doors around here that will, if opened incautiously, render a fair imitation of Fibber's closet ....



timber

Well, we didn't have a TV when I was really little (early '50s), but I was too young to remember much about radio then. However, I recently had sent me a journal I kept in 1964, when I was 14, and one of the things that surprised me was how much time I spent listening to the radio. All kinds of music and talk shows, though not the comedy and serials you folks are talking about. I distinctly recall, though, sneaking my transistor radio and earphone into bed to listen to Jean Shepard late at night...

The kids of today will write a thread like this in thirty years and say "Remember when we didn't have instant messenging?"

My Dad has always been a technology freak so we always had good TV's, though the first one I remember was one of those wood cabinet versions. It looked like a dresser.

The technology that has changed TV the most, IMO, is satellite. I have DirecTV and it is so superior to cable it's not even funny. Tons of channels, stuff for everyone, and stunning picture quality. The only drawback vs. cable is that it's harder to have multiple TV's watching different shows, but still possible.

To me, there is no before TV, rather, before satellite. Going back now and watching broadcasts using my roof antenna is almost painful, though I will use it again when I get an HD TV and decoder.

Man, that must have been rough.

I thought it was bad that I could't watch a VCR movie until I was about 7 or so.

Having spent a large portion of my life working as a film/video tape editor in TV, i've seen the technology change vastly and the production skills decline in relation. The call is for instant availability of material. News is on your screen as it happens. Other material, such as entertainment is thrown together in a formulaic manner. Any errors in the way material is shot is masked in a plethora of costly technology. The end rsult, with thousands of TV channels is "never mind the quality, feel the width"
So other than the news channels, when you switch the TV on and look for an audience --= "you can include me out"

I agree that Clayton Moore was not the Lone Ranger. His reedy voice was sick alongside the deep tone of Brace Beemer, who played him on radio throughout most of its run.

The first T.V. I watched was a Sylvania cabinet model. It had a flourescent looking light all around the rim of the picture, I believe to lessen the eye strain. Many shows were boring and repetitive, but we found a number of favorites anyway. I have already mentioned DRAGNET. My Mom loved Lucy, who jumped from MY FAVORITE HUSBAND on radio to the hit t.v. show. The after school shows were my favorites - BEANY AND CECIL, FEARLESS FOSDICK, THE RANGE RIDER, WILD BILL HICKOCK, and the like. Some of my all time favorite shows over the years have been HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL, GUNSMOKE (early half hour shows only), HITCHCOCK PRESENTS, TWILIGHT ZONE, ALL IN THE FAMILY, M*A*S*H*, DISNEYLAND, SIENFELD, THE WESTERNER, COSBY, STEVE ALLEN, THE REAL MCCOYS, PETER GUNN, BANDSTAND. There are others, but that's enough to mention for now.

My Mom's father was skeptical, if not contemptuous of, "Those electric gew-gaws". He and Gramma had a huge old Grundig console radio in their livingroom for many years after we got our first TV. Gramps would't have "One of those things" in his house, but Sunday Dinner at our house was Grampa and Ed Sullivan.


timber

First time I ever heard of television, I immediately thought of seeing movies just like the ones at the theaters on one. I told my Mom, I wish we could have a television. She replied, "Who would want to watch people sit around and talk to each other all day?" About a year later my step father went to San Jose to visit his mother. He came home reporting seeing Hopalong Cassidy on hers. From then on I knew what lay in store some future day.

When you didn't know what you were missing, it wasn't a problem. But more than that, you will never convince me we were better off when we got tv's. I have returned to the habits of my childhood--sure, i play video games at home instead of playing with toy soldiers, but i listen to the radio (which sadly lacks the range of programming it had in the 50's) and i read. I've got a tv--i use it to play console video games with my friends. Watch tv for entertainment? I think not . . .

I take advantage of the modern tech (well, at least most of it) and look forward to buying a hybrid VCR/DVD player so I can watch some of the great stuff now only available on DVD.

But I was a reader before all this, and I still am now. And a book is still my favorite technology...

I spend more time looking for something to watch on t.v. than I do actually paying attention to any specific shows these days. Speaking for myself, I would love it if radio programming of old could be revived - bearing in mind that much of the programming was repetitive and the organ music often played to signal scene changes and such could be irritating.

Everytime I surf the TV and the 100 or so channels I've got, I seem to see nothing but station idents, adverts, QVC or one it's clones. If I find a movie I'd like to watch, it's usualy on a pay per view or already started.
At least I can remember the number of one rolling news channel and the others are right next door. A degree of sanity at least.
Daughter knows where to find MTV and all it's variants, so she's happy. Wife shakes her head in dismay and says she's got better things to do with her time and asks how much it all costs.

I've kind of reached that point myself - I find myself putting the tv on Turner Classic Movies if I want to have it on. The decline of the news channels depresses me and I can hardly stand to watch them. And there are few niche channels that I'm the least bit interested in, though we just got the National Geographic Channel, and it usually has something interesting on. I confess I'm addicted to the NGC geography quiz show "GEO Genius." Thank goodness its only on once a day for thirty minutes.

As for radio, after I saw the hilarious Sarah Vowell on BOOKTV (CSPAN2), I started listening to the This American Life program on NPR on Saturday nights. Its great.

There is one national news program at 5:30 p.m. that tells what is happening on the latest 'reality' series as part of the news reporting. Disgusting.

Thank goodness both my local PBS affiliates carry BBC news several times a day, so I do watch that.

By the by, Larry, if you ever break up with that sweetypie Lauren there, send her my way, willya?

I have Satellite, with a comprehensive Subscription Package. Out of hundreds of available channels, I strongly favor the news and financial outlets, and the various flavors of Discovery and The History Channel. A lot of time is spent on the Music Channels, particularly Classic Rock and Bluegrass. But, ohhhh boy! Nascar kicks off in a couple of weeks ... my weekends will be meaningful again!

I fondly remember, back when The Kitchen Counter and I were about the same height, listening to a raspy-voiced, overly exciteable local announcer calling the dirt-track events from down at The Fairgrounds on Thursday and Saturday nights. We lived close enough to just be able to hear the roar of the engines ... a distant thunder rising and falling in pitch and volume. It was magic.



timber

Does anybody else like the Food Network? My favorite shows are "A Cooks Tour" with Anthony Bourdaine, Jamie Oliver's "Oliver's Twist", Molto Mario, and "The Best Of", because Jill Cordes is just really, rather appetizing.

This is a rather lousy picture of Jill and her co-host Marc:



For a foodie, she's buff.

setanta - Of all the topics in all the knowledge-sharing-communities in all the world, you walk into mine. Bacall is mine I tell ya, she's mine.

hmmmm .... a beautiful freindship in the making? Would they still have Paris? Just what color was that damned dress?



timber