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As soon as I saw the photo in this article I fell in love with it. Call it nostalgia, but I miss what it represents even if it may not be real. How many others sat too close to the tv like this little boy? I sure did, lol. The site wouldn't let me copy it, darn . But I included another old photo below this link. Notice the larger families. Tell us your memories of your first tv.
Probably about 1950 in a small town in Southern Ohio. We needed a 30 foot outside antenna tower to bring in a signal from the nearest large city. Remember as a kid watching the kid's show Kukla Fran and Ollie. For some strange reason I still recall watching the old Today show with Dave Garroway and J Fred Muggs. And the news reader Frank Blair with updates on the Korean War.
In the OP's picture . . . the little Chinese guy with the coolie hat and water buckets would be considered racist today. For that matter, so would an all-white family watching an all-white cast.
My household had TV sets going back as far as I can remember, which would be the early 1970s. We also had one of the first commercially available VCRs. Except, it wasn't a VCR, it was a reel-to-reel tape, like one of those computers you'd see in a 1950s sci-fi movie. One time we recorded a police show and a game show, and somehow the two shows ended up on top of each other, with the audio from the game show being superimposed over the picture from the police show. Every time we'd see the police officers burst down the door of the bad guy's hideout, the audience would burst into cheering and applause. Honestly, it couldn't have been more hilarious if we had consciously tried to do this.
We never had cable, so we always depended on over-the-air broadcasts. This is where living in pancake-flat South Florida came in handy. Signals could travel a long way without being blocked by terrain, so our rooftop antenna would bring in the stations from Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach.
I don't think we ever sat that close watching TV. We all sat on the sofa across the room. We did have an old cat that would always lay on top of our little TV, tail swinging back and forth like a windshield wiper cleaning all the dust off the screen. Eventually the static would cause that tail to bush out like Daniel Boone's cap.
In the OP's picture . . . the little Chinese guy with the coolie hat and water buckets would be considered racist today.]
And much of what is on television today would bring out the mobs with pitchforks in the 1950s. After all, that was a time when married couples had to sleep in separate beds. And no one could be pregnant - only 'expecting'. When Leave It To Beaver produced an episode that showed a toilet, the network hemmed and hawed and held up the airing for weeks before finally deciding that, yeah, OK, maybe the American public was grown-up enough to be shown a toilet. And the interracial kiss on Star Trek that stations all over the South refused to air? Need I mention how shows like Seinfeld or Breaking Bad or The Walking Dead would have given network heads heart attacks had they even been pitched? Or the total horror at depicting a normal gay person on television or a happily single career woman or - pass the smelling salts! - a divorced person?
Face it - you can whine all you want about what 'wouldn't be allowed' today, but there's even more that 'wasn't allowed' back in the so-called good old days.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bus man
For that matter, so would an all-white family watching an all-white cast.
Total BS.
Who considers this racist?
Or this?
No one, that's who. You're rolling your eyes at figments of your own imagination.
In other words: "Too many white people in American culture is racist."
You may say that this is just one person's opinion, and you'd be right. But if you think that this is the only person who holds this opinion, you'd be quite mistaken.
Anyway, this is the history forum, not POC, so I'll refrain from further comment on this issue.
As soon as I saw the photo in this article I fell in love with it.
Call it nostalgia, but I miss what it represents even if it may not be real.
My grandmother had a TV set exactly like the one in your picture.
We would visit a lot on Sundays so countless Ed Sullivan Shows were seen there
with the kids laying on the floor. Seeing "The Beatles" from that floor is a strong memory.
Thank you all for your memories. I miss those times when families could sit together, and watch the shows that even children could safely watch without having to send them out of the room. When skits were actually funny, and the comedians didn't have to swear instead of being genuinely creative. So what if they could finally say the F word.
I think we only had about 3 stations, but those 3 kept me busy, lol. I remember watching everything that came on. All the old movies from westerns, to war movies, Fred Astaire, and Ginger Rogers, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, dramas, and the little rascals, Laurel and Hardy, 3 stooges, Abbott and Costello, and yes Ed Sullivan shows were a regular thing. Even bad sci fi movies.
And the sitcoms were great too. I loved Mr Ed, Walt Disney, I dream of Jeannie, early Star Trek (they seemed so realistic), Lost in Space, Outer Limits, Howdy Doody, Get Smart, Carol Burnett, and a whole bunch more. It was a well rounded education, lol. Yes, I did get outside.
I was born in 1948, and barely remember when Dad brought home our first tv. Seemed like it was the early 50's. Had kind of a greenish screen, sort of rounded in a cabinet. Great invention.
I'm not an old timer like some, but I remember TV was certainly different. It was a wood cabinet, with antenna to pick up about 4 or 5 broadcast channels on VHF and UHF, no remote and mechanical dials to change channels. , volume etc. Moderator cut: Leave your racist opinions out of the History forum. I thought shows like Leave It To Beaver and The Dukes of Hazzard and all those funny rural shows were great and don't see any reason you'd ever want to change the format. It did kind of suck when they stop broadcasting at a certain time at night when you're trying to be a night owl though lol.
Last edited by mensaguy; 02-04-2018 at 04:44 AM..
Reason: We're not turning a TV thread into a racist rant.
We didn't get a TV until 1957 and then we only had one channel to watch.
I loved sitting together and watching TV. I don't think anyone ever missed "The Ed Sullivan Show" or "Gunsmoke." A couple others I remember my parents liking were "Soldiers of Fortune," "Palladin," "Playhouse 90" and "Alfred Hitchcock."
On Saturday nights there would be a movie. Dad would go downtown and Mom and I would snuggle up on the davenport with our TV trays set in front of us. When it was time for the movie he'd come home with ice cream and we'd eat in the living room. Such a big deal!
As a teen we'd finally gotten more channels. My favorites were "Hullabaloo," "Bandstand," "Where the Action is," "The Monkees" "The Twilight Zone" and Boris Karloff hosting "Thriller." For some reason I don't remember that was on a night when everybody else had something going on and I'd be home alone. I'd be scared to death by the time they all got home!
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. But I included another old photo below this link. Notice the larger families. Tell us your memories of your first tv.
