# Remember when there were only THREE channels?



## fuzzybuddy (Mar 16, 2019)

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.


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## Aunt Bea (Mar 16, 2019)

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.


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## hollydolly (Mar 16, 2019)

I remember when we only had 2 Channels !!!

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


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## Pappy (Mar 16, 2019)

And I ate my supper, on a tv table, watching Sky King and Sgt. Preston and King.
Our 3 channels were out of Syracuse, Utica and Binghamton, NY.


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## Camper6 (Mar 16, 2019)

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.


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## moviequeen1 (Mar 16, 2019)

Yes,I remember the 3 channels,I still eat dinner to this day with a collapsible TV tray,some things never change


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## Aunt Bea (Mar 16, 2019)

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.layful: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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## JustBonee (Mar 16, 2019)

I remember a lot of wresting programs back in the late 40's/early 50's.  .....  men, women, midgets....every night it seemed. 
And Ed Sullivan on Sunday night. 


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1949–50_United_States_network_television_schedule


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## Tommy (Mar 16, 2019)

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.
> ...


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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## Don M. (Mar 16, 2019)

I remember the days when 1/4th of an hours show wasn't consumed by "Ask your Doctor" prescription drug ads.


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## Camper6 (Mar 16, 2019)

The first t.v. remotes were sound operated by the clicks.   Now they are infrared light.

I used to walk by my sisters house going in and jingle my keys and they would change the channels they were watching.


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## RadishRose (Mar 16, 2019)

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.


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## jujube (Mar 16, 2019)

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!"


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## Ruth n Jersey (Mar 16, 2019)

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.


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## RadishRose (Mar 16, 2019)

Anyone remember UHF channels? That was a seperate antenna, they were always really snowy and I never understood much about them.


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## CeeCee (Mar 16, 2019)

RadishRose said:


> Anyone remember UHF channels? That was a seperate antenna, they were always really snowy and I never understood much about them.



Yes, I remember and still don’t know what they were.


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## RadishRose (Mar 16, 2019)

CeeCee said:


> Yes, I remember and still don’t know what they were.



Ha ha. I looked it up and still don't. Probably cuz I don't really care. layful:


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## C'est Moi (Mar 16, 2019)

I remember my dad glued to "The Cavalcade of Sports."


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## Aunt Bea (Mar 16, 2019)

I remember watching Davey and Goliath on Sunday mornings.


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## RadishRose (Mar 16, 2019)

C'est Moi said:


> I remember my dad glued to "The Cavalcade of Sports."



Holy smokes. I remember that theme song with my dad in front of the tv, too! Gillette blue blades, yes.

But wasn't there another one with the same song, when someone announced: "The Wednesday night fights are on the air!" And there was a loud "BONG"!


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## AZ Jim (Mar 16, 2019)

Our first TV, Hoffman "easy vision television" 13" "the set with the high IQ" 1947.


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## Seeker (Mar 17, 2019)

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.


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## retiredtraveler (Mar 17, 2019)

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!......


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## retiredtraveler (Mar 17, 2019)

CeeCee said:


> Yes, I remember and still don’t know what they were.



[h=3]History's Dumpster: The History of UHF-TV[/h]


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## Sassycakes (Mar 17, 2019)

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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## Pappy (Mar 18, 2019)

This was just like our first tv. I remember it was an RCA 16 inch with a blond metal cabinet. After we got real sophisticated, we got an antenna with a rotor to turn in the direction of the station.


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## norman (Mar 18, 2019)

Do I ever remember this...When I was told we were getting a Televsion I was more exicited than Christmas morning.  While they were installing the antenna we sit in front of it watching what was called snow and the antenna had a motor to turn toward different stations.  It had to be one of the most exciting events ever at our home.  I always stayed up on Friday and Saturday nights untill the stations signed off.  Life was so much simplier then and a lot of water has gone under the _bridge of life _since the black n white set.  I also remember the first time I saw a televison show,  it was on Halloween, a the family let us kids come into their house and watch a show and they served us pop corn.  I can still visually picture that televison and night in my mind.  Wow a good trip down memory lane.......:hug:


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## norman (Mar 18, 2019)

RadishRose said:


> Holy smokes. I remember that theme song with my dad in front of the tv, too! Gillette blue blades, yes.
> 
> But wasn't there another one with the same song, when someone announced: "The Wednesday night fights are on the air!" And there was a loud "BONG"!


 *I still shave...when I shave... with a gillette, now they are triple edge and cost 20 times more. lol  *


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## Gary O' (Mar 18, 2019)

The Hoffman







Mid ‘50s

We may have been the first to have a TV in the old country neighborhood

Bobby Clem’s dad would stop by on the way home to pick up Bobby

He hated TV. Thought it was of the devil.
But stayed fixated to it while Bobby got his things together
My folks would talk to him, but he’d be in some sorta UHF trance

Whatever night the fights were on, my dad was there

Gillette blue blades and Pabst Blue Ribbon
Gene Fullmer vs Spider Web or Carmen Basilio 
Madison Square Garden, or The Cow Palace
Always wondered why they called it that

Here’s me and Dad
He groomed me for my boxing career early on








Anyway, on Saturday night, we watched the dynamic duo of *Have gun will travel*, and *Gunsmoke*, and kept watching everything until the white dot disappeared
Those were the days…the nights
The TV repairman ranked above the doctor
Right up there, next to God
What a satchel of tools
We’d watch his face glow while he did his magic all crouched down behind the Hoffman with the back panel off


The biggest frustration






Amazing how long we would stare at it….waiting

Standing, sitting by


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## Pappy (Mar 18, 2019)

Or this Gary.......


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## Gary O' (Mar 18, 2019)

Pappy said:


> Or this Gary.......
> 
> 
> View attachment 63444



 wonder how often that really was the case


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## Ruth n Jersey (Mar 18, 2019)

I remember The Edge of Night as well. At first it was 15 minutes long and the rest of the half hour was The Secret Storm. Then the Edge of Night went to the full half hour. At one point the main character, Sara died. You would have thought a family member had passed away the way my Mom and I carried on. Dad thought we were crazy. 





Seeker said:


> I remember our first TV..
> 
> Black and white.
> 
> ...


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## jujube (Mar 18, 2019)

We had a tiny little black-and-white that sat on a metal TV tray.  My mom was always afraid one of us would turn it over on us, so we weren't allowed to change the channels or get too near to it.

My grandparents had a huge upright cabinet that had a tiny little oval screen in it.  I've never found out what brand of TV that was, but it broke shortly after they got it, but for some reason, it sat in the living room for years afterward.  When they got a larger black and white TV, grandma put a contraption that looked something like one of those metal Christmas tree color wheels pointed toward the set.  It was supposed to make the black and white set look like a color set.  It didn't.  

I didn't have a color set until 1980 or 1981 when I bought one from a hotel that was selling their old sets.  $50 and it weighed at least a ton.  We were delighted!  Unfortunately, I knocked over a large glass of iced tea that was sitting on top of the set and it all poured down into the innards.  When it dried out a few days later, we had a black and white set, no color.  I was heart-broken.  However, gradually over the next couple of weeks, the color came back and we used that set for many more years.


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## Victor (Mar 18, 2019)

Yes but Chicago had a local channel (9) and public TV---WTTW.
And there was more to watch then, than now.


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## Butterfly (Mar 18, 2019)

Seeker said:


> I remember our first TV..
> 
> Black and white.
> 
> ...



My mother always watched The Edge of Night too.  It was her "program," and if you interrupted her watching it it better be because the house was on fire or you were bleeding profusely.


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## Furryanimal (Mar 24, 2019)

hollydolly said:


> I remember when we only had 2 Channels !!!
> 
> ...and everyone stood up for the national anthem at the end of the evenings broadcast..


yeah-and in some places you needed two aerials to get both BBC and ITV.


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## hollydolly (Mar 24, 2019)

Furryanimal said:


> yeah-and in some places you needed two aerials to get both BBC and ITV.



So true.... 

This is similar to the first TV I remember having, I think I was about 5 years old... 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




My granny had one like this... which I think she got in the early 50's... and she kept it right into about the 70's I think...






..and it used to sit on top of a chest of drawers... 


All Black & White of course ..and we  ( my parents) got our first colour tv in the early 70's.. which looked like this..., by then we had 3 channels... 







Now we have over 500 channels... and barely anything better to watch than when we just had 3 channels... but it's costing us a whole lot more to _not_ watch them...


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## chic (Mar 24, 2019)

And tv was FREE. :love_heart:


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## rgp (Mar 24, 2019)

I remember well.........Remember when cable TV was commercial free?.......Now we pay through the nose for it, AND we get commercials about 25% of the show..........which isn't worth watching in the first damn place.


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## hollydolly (Mar 24, 2019)

chic said:


> And tv was FREE. :love_heart:




Unfortunately TV has never been free to watch in the UK , we pay an annual TV licence to watch TV, and risk imprisonment if we don't have a licence. This is a very real threat, people do go to prison for it.. It's disgraceful, and appalling , but it's the law of the land!!

So..now we pay a TV licence still, but on top of that we have to pay to receive satellite  channels as well... so we get hit twice now...

However, we at least have 3 Channels ( BBC).. which are commercial free.. basically that's what the TV Licence is supposed to pay for as well as radio ..not all the commercial TV  channels. However even if somehow we could choose not to watch the non commercial channels.. we would still have to pay for a TV licence...


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## debbie in seattle (Mar 25, 2019)

Ahh, the old days.....we’d watch tv as a family (only 1 tv in the house), most of the time it was a show my dad wanted to watch, usually Bonanza.    The good old days.


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## Capt Lightning (Mar 26, 2019)

I remember only having 1 channel on our first TV - not long before ITV came along.  In the early days,  at the end of a day's broadcasting, the announcer would say 'Goodnight',  pause a few seconds and then say 'Goodnight' again.  This allegedly was to allow the viewers to say 'Goodnight' too.   Although it's now largely dedicated to TV, the BBC programme listings magazine is still called "Radio Times".

Now, we still only have 1 TV, though on occasions I have watched it on my Laptop. We get about 50? free to view digital channels - mostly rubbish.


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## hollydolly (Mar 26, 2019)

Capt Lightning said:


> I remember only having 1 channel on our first TV - not long before ITV came along.  In the early days,  at the end of a day's broadcasting, the announcer would say 'Goodnight',  pause a few seconds and then say 'Goodnight' again.  This allegedly was to allow the viewers to say 'Goodnight' too.   Although it's now largely dedicated to TV, the BBC programme listings magazine is still called "Radio Times".
> 
> Now, we still only have 1 TV, though on occasions I have watched it on my Laptop. We get about 50? free to view digital channels - mostly rubbish.



we get over 500 channels (with Sky) but of course we have to pay for those in a bundle with our landline and mobile phones .. the freeview channels are just not worth watching ...


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## Sassycakes (Mar 26, 2019)

I just remembered  when I was young and they advertised Bra's on TV. They weren't on a person just a image of a body. Whenever that came on my Dad would get embarrassed and leave the room until the commercial was over. I can't imagine what he would do now with all the ****** commercials on TV today.


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## Fyrefox (Mar 30, 2019)

I remember watching _Captain Kangaroo, Superman, Lassie_, and _The Mickey Mouse Club. _The TV repairman was a frequent visitor, and the worst event was when he couldn't repair the set on site but had to remove the guts of it and take it "to the shop."  That meant no TV for the better part of a week!


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## Nutmegger (Apr 2, 2019)

TV shows were all live.  There was a mystery program on one night when a man was murdered and he lay on a morgue table under a sheet.  Just before the program closed for a commercial off came the sheet and the man got up and walked away.


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## Rosemarie (Apr 2, 2019)

I remember when the BBC was the epitome of British correctness. Now it reflects the general decline in standards in all areas of society. ITV was regarded as the poor relation.


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## Mollypops (Apr 4, 2019)

I was 10 years old and I still screamed when The Beatles performed on The Ed Sullivan show.
I remember watching Walter Cronkite when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon in 1969. I was 15 years old.
I remember watching my favorite TV show The Partridge Family and having a huge crush on David Cassidy when I was around 16-17 years old.


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## fmdog44 (Apr 4, 2019)

TV used to sign off at midnight until six AM CST


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## Mollypops (Apr 4, 2019)

fmdog44 said:


> TV used to sign off at midnight until six AM CST


 I remember the annoucement, This concludes our broadcasting day announcement and then the playing of the National Anthem.


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## fmdog44 (Apr 4, 2019)

We had a 27" Zenith set that broke down about three times a year. So often I remember the repairman's name Eddie Bastic.


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## debbie in seattle (Apr 5, 2019)

Mollypops said:


> I remember the annoucement, This concludes our broadcasting day announcement and then the playing of the National Anthem.



Now that you mention it, I remember that too!


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## Nutmegger (Apr 5, 2019)

We had a 10" RCA and had one channel, channel 6 New Haven.


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## Camper6 (Apr 5, 2019)

Nutmegger said:


> TV shows were all live.  There was a mystery program on one night when a man was murdered and he lay on a morgue table under a sheet.  Just before the program closed for a commercial off came the sheet and the man got up and walked away.



Did they drop the murder charges?


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## Camper6 (Apr 5, 2019)

Nutmegger said:


> We had a 10" RCA and had one channel, channel 6 New Haven.



And I will bet you were quite happy with it.


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## Nutmegger (Apr 5, 2019)

You betcha!!  We were the first in our neighborhood and one of the first in town to have a tv: (my father had a great interest in electronics.)  A neighbor's boy would sit on our front stoop and watch it through the screen door and several of my friends who lived a distance away came over just to see what it was like.


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## Trade (Apr 5, 2019)

We got our first TV when I was 5. So that would have been 1952. It was a 21 inch Zenith. It lasted pretty good. I remember watching Star Trek on it when I was in junior college before it finally koncked out.


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## Camper6 (Apr 6, 2019)

I had friends who would travel to a city 200 miles away and rent a motel room to watch the World zSeries baseball.


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## Tommy (Apr 7, 2019)

Trade said:


> We got our first TV when I was 5. So that would have been 1952. It was a 21 inch Zenith.


You were a lucky kid, Trade!  21 inches was a huge screen in 1952.  :magnify:


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## Trade (Apr 7, 2019)

Tommy said:


> You were a lucky kid, Trade!  21 inches was a huge screen in 1952.  :magnify:



Oh Hellyeah! It was state of the art at the time. We were ridin high in '52. My old man had made a couple of sweet deals in Florida real estate. We had an almost new 1951 Buick that he had paid cash for, a pretty decent house in a middle class neighborhood and I remember my old man bragging about how we had $3,000 bucks in the bank. But things went downhill pretty fast from there on. My old man took to pursuing his favorite activities of drinking gambling and womanizing. By the time his lifestyle caught up with him and he died of a heart attack in 1957 he was living in that 51 Buick and my mom and I were living in a dumpy apartment in Lodi New Jersey where she was supporting us by waiting tables for nickel and dime tips. But we still had that 21 inch Zenith TV.   Damn good TV. Lasted until 1967. They don't make em like that anymore.


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## norman (Apr 7, 2019)

Our history teacher  (and baseball coach) brought a televison to school and instead of history we watched the World Series, Yankees vs Dodgers.  Girls were allowed to watch or go to study hall, not one girl stayed to watch. That is a day I still remember, I was on the school baseball team and baseball is still my favorite sport.  Mickey Mantle was my favorite player.  Many years later I read a story that said he was an alcoholic and sometimes played while drinking and could be rude to fans..   
Today my cell phone can be my  televison, computer, stereo, I can have a live photo talk to the great grand children.  Sometimes I think to myself, surely I have seen it all.... I HOPE NOT!


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## Trade (Apr 7, 2019)

norman said:


> Our history teacher  (and baseball coach) brought a televison to school and instead of history we watched the World Series, Yankees vs Dodgers.  Girls were allowed to watch or go to study hall, not one girl stayed to watch. That is a day I still remember, I was on the school baseball team and baseball is still my favorite sport.  Mickey Mantle was my favorite player.  Many years later I read a story that said he was an alcoholic and sometimes played while drinking and could be rude to fans..
> Today my cell phone can be my  televison, computer, stereo, I can have a live photo talk to the great grand children.  Sometimes I think to myself, surely I have seen it all.... I HOPE NOT!



I was a Dodger fan. Duke Snider was my favorite player. I hated the Yankees. 

:tongue:


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## fuzzybuddy (Apr 13, 2019)

I was born in a little Massachusetts town of 18,000. So, of course, I am a  Boston Red Sox fan. You have to be, I guess it's something in the water. And, it follows, the NY Yankees are heathens.


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## norman (Apr 13, 2019)

Trade said:


> I was a Dodger fan. Duke Snider was my favorite player. I hated the Yankees.
> 
> :tongue:


   Speaking of the Dogers, I met Carl Erskine and got a autographed  baseball from him.  I think he is still alive, but he must have autographed a ton of these because they are not very valuable.  I still keep it on display, he was one of the most  polite persons I have ever met..


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## fmdog44 (Apr 13, 2019)

My brother was a Yankees fan so we went to Comisky when the Yankees came to town. Watching Mickey Mantle play still sticks in my memory after all these years. He was very special.


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## fmdog44 (Apr 13, 2019)

Didn't some stations start the broadcast day with a prayer? I seem to remember that.


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## norman (Apr 13, 2019)

On a live broadcast, the camera man was scanning the crowd and a couple was sitting close together hugging.  Dizzy Dean was announcing the game and said on live television, "He kisses her on the strikes and she kisses him on the balls,"   He was fired after that broadcast because of the complaints.  lol


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## fmdog44 (Apr 13, 2019)

I just read the original Gunsmoke opening had the marshall and a gunman facing each other and the Marshall shoots him down. Well, the anti-violence types of the 70s protested this as too violent so it was changed to showing only Matt Dillon shooting but not the other guy getting shot. Strange that the antiviolence folks did not object to Miss Kitty being a Madame for a whorehouse.


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## Mollypops (Apr 13, 2019)

norman said:


> Our history teacher  (and baseball coach) brought a televison to school and instead of history we watched the World Series, Yankees vs Dodgers.  Girls were allowed to watch or go to study hall, not one girl stayed to watch. That is a day I still remember, I was on the school baseball team and baseball is still my favorite sport.  Mickey Mantle was my favorite player.  Many years later I read a story that said he was an alcoholic and sometimes played while drinking and could be rude to fans..
> Today my cell phone can be my  televison, computer, stereo, I can have a live photo talk to the great grand children.  Sometimes I think to myself, surely I have seen it all.... I HOPE NOT!


 I would have been one of those girls who elected to go to study hall.


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## Garydavid (Apr 18, 2019)

I do remember those 3 channels. They were the best ever. Wish they were back.


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## Garydavid (Apr 18, 2019)

norman said:


> Our history teacher  (and baseball coach) brought a televison to school and instead of history we watched the World Series, Yankees vs Dodgers.  Girls were allowed to watch or go to study hall, not one girl stayed to watch. That is a day I still remember, I was on the school baseball team and baseball is still my favorite sport.  Mickey Mantle was my favorite player.  Many years later I read a story that said he was an alcoholic and sometimes played while drinking and could be rude to fans..
> Today my cell phone can be my  televison, computer, stereo, I can have a live photo talk to the great grand children.  Sometimes I think to myself, surely I have seen it all.... I HOPE NOT!



We have seen.many many changes over the years havent we?


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## Garydavid (Apr 18, 2019)

What town were you born in?


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## Garydavid (Apr 18, 2019)

Those were great baseball years werent they? I recall well loving to watch the red soxs while my brother loved the yankees! Do you think that caused any trouble? Haaaahaa


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## Garydavid (Apr 18, 2019)

No way! Is that right?


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## 1955er (Jul 30, 2019)

RadishRose said:


> Anyone remember UHF channels? That was a seperate antenna, they were always really snowy and I never understood much about them.


UHF here in Indiana.


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## JustBonee (Jul 30, 2019)

Got our first huge box/small screen (9-10") TV in 1949 and all I remember was WRESTLING!! ...  every night ! ... men, women, midgets ...   nothing during the daytime as I recall.    
That's how I  remember it,   but according to the following, there were some programs:   and there were 4 channels.
And Ed Sullivan was on Sunday night even that far back.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948–49_United_States_network_television_schedule


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## Rosemarie (Jul 30, 2019)

I remember The Epilogue and then the National Anthem at the end of the last programme, which ended at about 11pm. Bedtime!


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## Lc jones (Jul 30, 2019)

I was my fathers remote control!


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## Sassycakes (Jul 30, 2019)

Pappy said:


> And I ate my supper, on a tv table, watching Sky King and Sgt. Preston and King.
> Our 3 channels were out of Syracuse, Utica and Binghamton, NY.



I forgot all about Sky King. I watched it all the time. I have to admit I had a crush on the actor that played Sky King.


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## Marie5656 (Jul 30, 2019)

*I can remember when we got our first color TV. I could not quite understand why ALL the shows were not in color, some were still Black and White.  I did not understand the concept that programs that were filmed in black and white would not magically turn color on a color TV.*


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## AnnieA (Jul 30, 2019)

hollydolly said:


> Unfortunately TV has never been free to watch in the UK , we pay an annual TV licence to watch TV, and risk imprisonment if we don't have a licence. This is a very real threat, people do go to prison for it.. It's disgraceful, and appalling , but it's the law of the land!!
> 
> So..now we pay a TV licence still, but on top of that we have to pay to receive satellite  channels as well... so we get hit twice now...
> 
> However, we at least have 3 Channels ( BBC).. which are commercial free.. basically that's what the TV Licence is supposed to pay for as well as radio ..not all the commercial TV  channels. However even if somehow we could choose not to watch the non commercial channels.. we would still have to pay for a TV licence...



Prison! That's nuts!


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## Llynn (Jul 30, 2019)

I grew  up in a logging camp in the Cascade foothills. We received two channels from Seattle. In winter then when snow covered the surrounding mountains, we got a third channel. We got the tv in 1953. Two men from the store where we purchased it drove a van about 60 miles to deliver it. They set the receiver up in the house and spent the rest of the day assembling our new antenna and moving it around the yard for the best signal.  Now days, you can't even get a clerk to help carry a new tv out to your car.


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## Camper6 (Jul 31, 2019)

CeeCee said:


> Yes, I remember and still don’t know what they were.


TV is broadcast on different frequencies allocated to them.

Over the air channels. Low frequencies- Channels 2 to 6.

VHF channels 7 to 13.

UHF which means ultra high frequencies is anything above VHF.

And also the FM frequencies are between channels 6 to 7.

If you want to find out which t.v. stations are in your area, google tvfool.


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## Camper6 (Jul 31, 2019)

I also remember travelling and going to a motel.

The t.v. had a coin box and you had to pay to watch t.v. So if you went out and came back the time was expired. So you had to pay again.

Well I figured out the coin box was on a timer.  So when I went out I would just pull the timer plug out of the wall which would stop it. And then plug it back in when I came back.

If you tell your kids about episodes like that they will laugh at you, thinking you are pulling their leg.


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## DaveA (Jul 31, 2019)

TV's weren't around 'til I was in my middle teens.  I think I was 17 when we got our first set in 1951.  They were pretty basic by later standards but fascinating back then.  The idea of anything (besides an 8 mm. projector) projecting a moving picture in our living room seemed incredible at the time.


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## Kit Kat (Jul 31, 2019)

I remember that and barely being able to get the UHF channel 45 with adjusting the Rabbit Ears. Then I remember much later when Cable first came and the Remote had a wire with it that was attached to the box so you couldn't walk all over the place with it like you can today.


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## Tom Young (Jul 31, 2019)

...Way back... 1948 when I was 12 years old... WBZ TV Boston.  Test pattern only, except for Sunday afternoon when there was an hour show called "Community Auditions".
At the time, I don't think TV's were even sold in stores.
My whole extended family... maybe 18 of us, would go to Uncle Otto's house... third floor.  One room was for his electronics hobby... ( don't think we called it "electronics" then)  we would crowd in taking turns watching his home made TV... a six inch face cathode tube about 12 inches long, on a vacuum tube base.. antenna on the telephone pole in the back yard.  
A real thrill, because none of my friends even got to watch a TV until months later, when some of the downtown stores, would put one in the front window.


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## Butterfly (Aug 1, 2019)

Ruth n Jersey said:


> I remember The Edge of Night as well. At first it was 15 minutes long and the rest of the half hour was The Secret Storm. Then the Edge of Night went to the full half hour. At one point the main character, Sara died. You would have thought a family member had passed away the way my Mom and I carried on. Dad thought we were crazy.



Oops!.


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## Ken N Tx (Aug 30, 2019)




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## ronaldj (Aug 30, 2019)

only three channels and something to watch each night...today a ga-zillion channels and nothing on.


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## Aunt Marg (Jun 19, 2020)

What fun I had going through the pages of this thread!

One thing I vividly remember, is how loud the channel changing dial was on our television, so when one of us kids would go to turn the channel, mom would hear the dial being turned and holler out... "quit playing with the TV"!

Through experimenting, I happened across a method of operating the dial silently, and what a treat that was to sit there in front of the TV, going back and forth through the few channels that we had.


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## JaniceM (Jun 19, 2020)

I remember when there were only 3 channels..  but we only got one!  
NBC was all we had for quite awhile.


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## Gaer (Jun 19, 2020)

I remember holding a wire hanger with tin foil wrapped around it, and waving it around the top of the TV until someone yelled,"That's it, Don't move!"  "We almost have a picture!"
Remember listening to "Checkerboard Square"in the morning while you WATCH the radio?  "My friend Irma" was on after school.  (This might be before your time.)


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## Camper6 (Jun 19, 2020)

Tommy said:


> 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.
> 
> ...


Yes sound operated remotes.  I remember going to my sisters house and jangling my keys outside and it would change the channels and they knew when I was coming.


C'est Moi said:


> I remember my dad glued to "The Cavalcade of Sports."


Do you remember, "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat," playing as an intro and a guy going off the side of the ski jump. ?


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## jerry old (Jun 19, 2020)

Bonnie said wrestles
wrestlers, midgets who growled throughout their match,  the evil Duke Kamuka, who would tear the T-shirt of hapless referee (6ft of skin and bone) Otto Kusa.  Yes, there will be a grudge match next week.
Wrestling was family affair, parent's enthralled, kids-'yea,'...
One tv camera, far, far away


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## LindaB (Jun 19, 2020)

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 when watching TV at night was a family affair?


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## Lewkat (Jun 19, 2020)

Good grief, I was 6 yrs. old and we went to the NY World's Fair in 1939 where I saw FDR on TV for the first time.  I thought is was a movie and not too clear.  Then my mom won a T.V. on New Year's day in 1946 from a raffle ticket she bought from the VFW.  Well, it was a large piece of furniture with a small oval screen and I recall the Dumont channel in NY.  There were a couple of others, but not much to see.  Roller Derby, wrestling, Paul Whiteman and orchestra, some brief news and weather.  At best, the screen was often snowy and my parents were doing all that was mentioned above to clear it up.  Grew bored with it very quickly.


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## Lewkat (Jun 19, 2020)

jerry old said:


> Bonnie said wrestles
> wrestlers, midgets who growled throughout their match,  the evil Duke Kamuka, who would tear the T-shirt of hapless referee (6ft of skin and bone) Otto Kusa.  Yes, there will be a grudge match next week.
> Wrestling was family affair, parent's enthralled, kids-'yea,'...
> One tv camera, far, far away


Remember Gorgeous George?  What a hoot.


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## peppermint (Jun 19, 2020)

My Dad was a boxer (fighting in a ring)….So when he was home to see the "fights" as he called them, me and my older brother went to another room cause my Dad had to see the fights....Marciano...(I think)  I cant remember many that my Dad watched...So sometimes I would watch with him...Only because he was hysterical while his arms and hands were making a pounding noise cause he was hurting his 2 hands
The best of all this was my Mom....She was hysterical when Dad put on the fights on (Black and White) TV....Everytime my Dad would start
with his hands my Mom would tell him to stop, You are going to get hurt...(He never got hurt) only when he was a boxer in the real ring)
My Dad was a little guy, but tough....He won some fights but lost some....(I was a little girl, I wasn't allowed to go to  boxing fights)….
Anyway, finally Dad gave up boxing...By the way, my Dad had only 1 good eye....He was also in the National Guard and also took care of
the Armory....Then my young brother came along....Moma Mia....But I love him dearly....He was the only one in our family to go to college
and become a Lawyer....


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## RadishRose (Jun 19, 2020)

Lewkat said:


> Good grief, I was 6 yrs. old and we went to the NY World's Fair in 1939 where I saw FDR on TV for the first time.  I thought is was a movie and not too clear.  Then my mom won a T.V. on New Year's day in 1946 from a raffle ticket she bought from the VFW.  Well, it was a large piece of furniture with a small oval screen and I recall the Dumont channel in NY.  There were a couple of others, but not much to see.  Roller Derby, wrestling, Paul Whiteman and orchestra, some brief news and weather.  At best, the screen was often snowy and my parents were doing all that was mentioned above to clear it up.  Grew bored with it very quickly.


I remember roller derby. That was a hoot!


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## Keesha (Jun 19, 2020)

I remember roller skating at a roller skating rink. 
Three channels I don’t remember except at our neighbours house. They had a party line too.


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## Damaged Goods (Jul 6, 2020)

Three?  I remember two.  Later in that year, 1948, the ABC affiliate was added.


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## Aunt Marg (Jul 6, 2020)

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.
> ...


All the above, PLUS... Walter Cronkite ruled the air!


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## Treacle (Jul 6, 2020)

I remember the Test Card that would be shown when nothing was being broadcast. I think it came up at the end of the night, national anthem was played and then all transmission stopped. We all knew that it was time for   .


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## JaniceM (Jul 6, 2020)

Treacle said:


> I remember the Test Card that would be shown when nothing was being broadcast. I think it came up at the end of the night, national anthem was played and then all transmission stopped. We all knew that it was time for   .


Same here!!!   

I also remember the NBC Peacock-  it was supposed to represent the World of Living Color or something like that, but didn't have the same effects on a black-and-white t.v.!


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## Liberty (Jul 6, 2020)

Hub remembers he and his dad  going down the street to the Muntz TV store to stand outside and watch "Uncle Miltie".  Also to their neighbors as they didn't have a set till much later.


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