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Yes! TGIF Was huge in the 90's. Boy meets world, step by step, family matters. Also the simpsons was basically for the youth for better or worse at inception.
I used to tune in to those. I couldn't drive and there were no Ubers or Lyfts back then. Those shows really were my childhood. We didn't get internet until 2001. MTV, Nickelodeon were starting to hit their peak. TV was everything during the 90s.
I think the cable/VCR era should begin around the early 80s. That’s when they became a disruptive force rather than a novelty item.
The late 1970s are an interesting time that sort of shows elements of both the "Golden" and "Silver" ages, but keep in mind, a lot of shows that premiered then lasted well into the '80s (and even in a few cases, early '90s) premiered then, such as Dallas, Diff'rent Strokes, Knots Landing, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Alice, and Three's Company. Saturday Night Live premiered in October 1975, right at the end of my "Golden Age" that still carries on to this day. Here's Lucy ended towards the end of this era along with What's My Line, a long-running panel show that's part of the essence of classic TV. In fact, just last evening, I found a Betamax recording taped off HBO from June of 1979, including an early music video during the intershow promos that looked like a third-rate Travolta clone with a lame disco beat backed by aerials of NYC. I even found another recording from part of a "Just For Laughs" special from 1977 as well, taped from a rerun in the summer of 1978, with an "NBCUs" promo for one of its upcoming fall shows (an even a disco-themed Trident gum commercial!). Most people didn't get a VCR though until Reagan was in office, and it was all about "The Big 3", with ABC dominating and NBC struggling during that period, with CBS holding its ground. PBS and the independent stations (many future FOX/CW stations here) was sort of the "cable" of the time. Still, in those days, if a network struggled, it dragged down the local station with it, especially involving the late newscast following primetime as well as the access programming preceding it.
Even so, original cable programming didn't seriously start to challenge the networks until Sex and the City and The Sopranos launched in the late '90s, which is another factor that divides Silver vs. Bronze that I forgot to list.
BTW, those late '70s recordings I found were taped off Phoenix-area stations, which at the time was the #33 DMA, the same ranking that Hartford is today. It's #11 ranking today was the same as what Pittsburgh was 40 years ago.
Last edited by Borntoolate85; 12-03-2019 at 06:44 AM..
I'd say "peak MTV" was roughly 1983 (after Michael Jackson's "Thriller") until around 1995 (Headbangers' Ball cancelled, the alt.mtv-sucks group on Google Groups active, and Beavis & Butthead/The Real World now the channel's most popular shows). MTV as a brand was still popular for awhile afterwards into the TRL era, but it just wasn't the same as Gen X's MTV that was music-focused.
Still, the Internet boom (especially the Web 2.0 boom of the mid-aughts) was a big blow to traditional TV's relevance.
And TV was absolutely dominant in the '70s and '80s, especially outside of the summer. The Cosby Show in 1986-87 had over 36% of all homes with a TV tuned in, and the rating/share ratio was a lot smaller back then, meaning that likely around 80% were tuned into something during primetime hours, whether it was another network, cable channel, or later on when VCRs came popular, watching something they taped previously. Older people back then would watch PBS for their big band/documentary/fine art fix, as well as hit syndicated reruns of older shows and movies.
But generally speaking in terms of TV eras:
Golden Age: 1951 (I Love Lucy premieres)-1975 (the first VCR hits the market and cable TV like HBO starts to show early signs of popularity)
Silver Age: 1976 (Dawn of the VCR/cable age)-1999 (Digital cable and the Internet starts to become ubiquitous)
Bronze Age: 2000 (Survivor kickstarts reality TV craze along with HD taking off)-c. 2010 (Hulu and Netflix Launch, ER ends, smartphones become popular, and cord cutters start to take off)
Copper Age: 2011-present (Streaming and smartphone use as well as Internet services dominant, traditional TV tends to turn nostalgic with reboots and live performance specials).
Another big one that hurt TV's power: video games. Since Boomers and early Gen Xers didn't grow up with them, they're more act to just stick to the tube since that's what they're familiar with the most. There are just too many options in life, dominated by smartphone activity of course that have really diminished TV's power. I still watch Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, and The Price Is Right religiously since I have been doing when I a little kid in the late 1980s though. People also want to be more frugal by not needing to shell out hundreds and hundreds a year just to have TV and would feel that the Internet/phone is good enough for them.
I used to tune in to those. I couldn't drive and there were no Ubers or Lyfts back then. Those shows really were my childhood. We didn't get internet until 2001. MTV, Nickelodeon were starting to hit their peak. TV was everything during the 90s.
Yeah, TV was huge in the 90's and I"d say until the mid 2000's. The late 2000's is where streaming began to grow, along with the advanced websites on the internet (YouTube, Facebook etc). Somewhere between 2005 and 2009, the internet began beating TV for eyes and minds
I used to tune in to those. I couldn't drive and there were no Ubers or Lyfts back then. Those shows really were my childhood. We didn't get internet until 2001. MTV, Nickelodeon were starting to hit their peak. TV was everything during the 90s.
I'm guessing you're around my age. This was true for me too, but I was also a PC gamer so I started being on the computer a lot more in my early teen years, playing Counterstrike or Unreal Tournament or Starcraft.
Social media changed everything though. So glad I deleted mine.
I'm guessing you're around my age. This was true for me too, but I was also a PC gamer so I started being on the computer a lot more in my early teen years, playing Counterstrike or Unreal Tournament or Starcraft.
Social media changed everything though. So glad I deleted mine.
I deleted mine too...very toxic mentally unstable people passing as family and friends...I decline. Social media, smart phones, the recession, and reality tv becoming mainstream had significant impacts. No one except my parent's generation waits for tv programs to come on. The quirky, upbeat tv sitcoms and family shows are not relatable to young people now. Teens are in mom jeans and clear-rimmed glasses or Kardashian makeup and spandex not caring or waiting for their boyfriends to text.
Please keep this thread about just Nielsen media markets. If you would like to continue discussing TV shows or cable networks, please go to the TV forum here at city-data:
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its - possession
it's - contraction of it is
your - possession
you're - contraction of you are
their - possession
they're - contraction of they are
there - referring to a place
loose - opposite of tight
lose - opposite of win
who's - contraction of who is
whose - possession
alot - NOT A WORD
The Nielsen media markets are still important because media markets still have tv stations. They use this info to set their rates. That said, there could be an argument that cities that skew younger might be losing some numbers here. But as long as local tv stations exist, (and I don't think they are going away anytime soon), this list will be important.
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