No one has to tell you about television – you’ve
had one. But both the hardware and the
programming have certainly changed over the years since its 1950s assimilation
into American homes. And it’s about to
go through even more dramatic changes.
Once upon a time, there was no
TV. Try to imagine that for a minute.
The house was quiet. People were
milling around doing stuff. Doing what stuff? How did anyone actually occupy themselves at
home with no TV, computer, cell phones, gameboys, etc? Can you picture it? Well, it’s actually television
that gives us the picture of that time gone by.
If you ever watched reruns of Andy
Griffith, I Love Lucy or The Waltons, then you know that people,
played cards, ate dinner together, went to dances, read books, took walks, and cooked
and cleaned (which took longer back then).
The
TV Generation
I don’t know about back then. I was born in the TV
If you wanted singing, dancing, comedies,
drama, cartoons or news – you only had three channels and you were watching
what everyone else was watching—at the same time they were watching it! In fact, you have to remember that there were no movies in the home – period. No
VCR, Betamax, DVD BlueRay, or Netflix.
This may sound ridiculously
limiting to today’s kids, but it was also amazingly bonding to the other people
at home, school and work. When you went
to school, everyone was talking about last night’s antics of Lucille Ball. There were no reruns except in the summers,
and no cable channels to watch other shows on.
You might have seen old pictures
of a family gathered in the living room watching one TV show together. That’s the way we did it.
Knobs,
Dials, and Picture Tubes
Our TV was a Zenith – “The
quality goes in before the name goes on.”
It was black and white—color cost
too much. It was a console – a large
cabinet that was a regular piece of furniture.
After pulling out the “On” button, I would hear a fuzzy “static” sound, and
then have to wait while some funny sparkles and lines appeared on the screen as
the picture tube warmed up. If we were
lucky, the picture came in clearly; but if the picture was “rolling” or had
lines across it, then someone had to “adjust” knobs in the control panel. That was always annoying because everyone in
the room would be yelling:
“That’s fine. Leave it alone.”
“No, it’s still rolling.”
“Stop! You had it right and you
went too far.”
“Hurry up! We’re missing the whole show!”
In the background you could hear the show you wanted to watch, but
you could see only fuzzy bits and
flashes of it.
Sometimes the picture tube went
out. This was a catastrophe for our
little family, because we were lucky to have a TV at all. Who know when there would be money for a repairman
to come out and fix it?! I remember one
long “drought” without a picture tube.
We “watched” TV every day, but had no picture. We learned to have a good imagination!
A new commentator named Paul
Harvey came on during this period. He always had a fascinating voice, with great intonation,
and he would pause and say, “And now for the rest of the story…” We
listened to him, sight unseen, and judging from his voice I imagined that he
was a large, heavyset man. The day we
got the picture tube fixed, I was very surprised!
The two other dials on the TV
were the Channel knob and that other funny dial that said UHF and VHF. This seemed to be an “idiot” dial. When something went wrong, we turned it
randomly, hoping for a fix. I have never
yet talked to anyone who knew what that dial was for.
In the beginning there were no
remote controllers. People didn’t “surf”
channels. In fact, they often planned
ahead for a show, consulting the “bible” of the TV age—TV Guide—for the time and then arranging their schedule around it.
Someone would shout, “It’s almost on,” as they flicked on the TV and waited for
it to warm up. You could hear the theme
song of the previous show going off the air.
Theme songs were just long enough to grab a snack before the show
started. Everyone settled in, piling
onto the couch and floor, and it got more exciting by the minute.
When Mom or Dad wanted to watch a
different show, they would tell one of the children to: “Go change the channel.” Kids
were also enlisted to adjust the “rabbit ears” on top of the TV set – which was
the antenna that brought in the reception.
No cable. No WiFi. Sometimes one of us would have to stand in a
certain spot to get the best reception. The
family drama surrounding the set was almost as good as the show itself!
Commercials
If we were watching a show that
was on “live,” every few minutes the announcer would say, “And now for a word
from our sponsor.” Either the star would
plug a product, or the camera would switch to another stage where another
announcer would plug a product. Some
shows were actually sponsored by only one product – such as Lawrence Welk –brought
to you by Geritol!
I have never been a fan of “Commercials,”
but in the 50s and 60s they were much better than today’s. They were moral, slower-paced, and didn’t
shoot you with subliminal messages. No
one stripped down to their underwear, or advertised feminine products. And the
jingles still stick in my mind:
“You’ll wonder where the yellow
went, when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent!”
“Double your pleasure, double
your fun, with double good, Doublemint, Doublemint gum.”
Mrs. Olson: “It’s mountain
grown. It’s the richest kind.”
Mr. Whipple: “Please don’t squeeze the Charmin”
“Chock full o’Nuts is that
heavenly coffee; better coffee a millionaire’s money can’t buy.”
“Sure you have a headache, you’re
tense, irritable, but don’t take it out on her.”
Family
Values
Prime time programming, from 7-9
p.m., was family values programming.
There was a censor, I forget his name, but the stations hired him and
they listened to his advice about what was acceptable on television for the
viewing public. There were NO curse words of any kind. There were NO pictures of violent crime.
Using the words of President George HW Bush, we were a “kinder, gentler
nation.”
We looked forward to Saturday morning cartoons all
week. Saturday morning my sister and I would roll
out of bed (on a day we didn’t have
to get up early for school), grab our special blanket and teddy bear, and drag
them down to the couch. We would turn on
the TV and snuggle there while we watched endless hours of Yogi Bear, Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry, The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, and on and on. There were no “ratings” because all shows had
to pass the censor, so all were safe and fun.
The commercials during these cartoons were not inappropriate or violent,
although they did plug children’s commercialism shamelessly.
When hunger overcame our
drowsiness, we would finally scoot to the kitchen to get a bowl of Cheerios or
Puffed Rice, or … NOT! … Kids watching commercials knew to ask for Cocoa Puffs
and Sugar Pops and Frosted Flakes – They’re Grrrreaattt!
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