Arguing over what TV show to watch

[bandit957]

In my day, we always argued about what TV show to watch, especially when we had only one TV set for the whole family.

I was very young when this happened, but apparently, ABC expanded 'General Hospital' from a half-hour to an hour at some point. My mom used to watch 'General Hospital' at 3 PM on ABC, then my brother watched Popeye cartoons at 3:30 on another station, and then I watched 'Sesame Street' on PBS at 4 PM. When 'General Hospital' was expanded to an hour, my mom wouldn't let my brother watch Popeye anymore, and he got really mad: "But Tim gets to watch 'Sesame Street'!"

A few years later, 'That's Incredible!' often lost out to sporting events. It seems like college basketball was the big culprit.

I used to watch game shows in the early evening, but one day I relented and let a special about Adam Rich get viewed instead.

Right after that, we buyed an extra TV for the den, but the disagreements didn't stop completely. Sometime later, we got cable for the TV in the living room, and one afternoon, I tried watching my cartoons on the living room set that had cable. I figured that would be easier, since the set in the den didn't have cable, so the reception wasn't as good there. But my brother made so much noise in the living room that I went back to watching it in the den.

We all argued over TV.

[LilianaUwU]

[Big John]

In my day, we always argued about what TV show to watch, especially when we had only one TV set for the whole family.

I was very young when this happened, but apparently, ABC expanded 'General Hospital' from a half-hour to an hour at some point. My mom used to watch 'General Hospital' at 3 PM on ABC, then my brother watched Popeye cartoons at 3:30 on another station, and then I watched 'Sesame Street' on PBS at 4 PM. When 'General Hospital' was expanded to an hour, my mom wouldn't let my brother watch Popeye anymore, and he got really mad: "But Tim gets to watch 'Sesame Street'!"

GH went to 45 minutes in 1976 and 60 minutes in 1978.

[kphoger]

Nowadays, it's the opposite.  Neither my nor I can decide what to watch, because we just don't care enough to have a strong opinion.

[wanderer2575]

[Max Rockatansky]

Nowadays, it's the opposite.  Neither my nor I can decide what to watch, because we just don't care enough to have a strong opinion.

Which the problem I have with streaming services.  Faced with nearly unlimited choices I don't even know what I'd pick to watch.  The TV is generally just background ambiance for me anyways.

[kphoger]

Nowadays, it's the opposite.  Neither my nor I can decide what to watch, because we just don't care enough to have a strong opinion.

Which the problem I have with streaming services.  Faced with nearly unlimited choices I don't even know what I'd pick to watch.  The TV is generally just background ambiance for me anyways.

Then, when we finally settle on a program, we have to remember which streaming service it's even on.  Fortunately, Carrie is much better at that part than I am.

[mgk920]

Gotta love Boomers!   

Mike

[ZLoth]

With a single television in the house, the hierarchy of watching was what my father wanted to watch, followed by my mother, and I was far third. It made Saturday morning cartoons more valuable. We didn't even get a VCR until like 1983.

Of course, if we didn't like watching what was on, the response was "if you don't like whats on, readabookdamnit".

Rewatching the old TV shows through these modern eyes, you get the feeling that much of the shows were stage plays for television.

[Scott5114]

Nowadays, it's the opposite.  Neither my nor I can decide what to watch, because we just don't care enough to have a strong opinion.

Which the problem I have with streaming services.  Faced with nearly unlimited choices I don't even know what I'd pick to watch.  The TV is generally just background ambiance for me anyways.

Then, when we finally settle on a program, we have to remember which streaming service it's even on.  Fortunately, Carrie is much better at that part than I am.

We're in a position where responsible budgeting means we only have one of the streaming services at a given time. So usually in our household that conversation looks like "I've been interested in watching The Dunwitchigans." "That's on Heber, and right now we only have Poob because I'm trying to catch up on There's No Place Like Someplace." "Oh well." (Then when we have Heber again we forget The Dunwitchigans even exists, or else it's become a Smarx exclusive so we still can't watch it.)

I miss when you could just press the 9 button and the Price is Right would come on.

[kurumi]

Don't sleep on the Dunwichigans, even if you think you're not interested in family dramas. When Lavinia Whateley ends up with child, that is quite the scandal! A single mom, trying to survive in the countryside, with twins, no less. Wilbur is quite precocious, an early walker and reader, though remarkably unhandsome. Still there was hope for him; but I don't want to spoil what happens when he tries to steal a rare book from a university library.

As for Wilbur's brother... well, they had to keep him in a barn. We haven't even had a good look at him yet. I'm up to the episode where he escaped. Wonder what hijinks he'll get up to!

(More seriously, in my childhood, I'm astounded at the number of commercials we must have watched.)

[vdeane]

Rewatching the old TV shows through these modern eyes, you get the feeling that much of the shows were stage plays for television.

Indeed.  I've noticed that TV shows from the 60s and earlier tend to feel more like plays that were filmed rather than performed in front of an audience than to modern TV.  It makes it hard for me to get into stuff from that era (the exception being Hogan's Heroes, because it's hilarious).  Even the original Star Trek I tend to watch only occasionally compared to the newer shows because the stylistic difference is so jarring (more so than the effects).  Honestly, that's probably a reason why I'm not as prone to rewatching the modern shows either, since there's another stylistic shift somewhere in the 2010s corresponding to "Peak TV" and serialized streaming shows.

[bandit957]

Something similar is when something stupid was scheduled at the same time as your favorite show. I remember one time, my mom made an appointment for us to go to a department store and have a family portrait taken. I almost soiled myself when I discovered it was scheduled for Friday night at 8 PM - the exact same time as 'The Dukes Of Hazzard'. This was 5 years before we had a VCR.

[Scott5114]

my mom made an appointment for us to go to a department store and have a family portrait taken. I almost soiled myself

That probably would have gotten you out of having to have a portrait taken.

[kurumi]

And if you missed a showing, who knew when you'd have another chance:

[kphoger]

I almost soiled myself

That probably would have gotten you out of having to have a portrait taken.

Good, I'm not the only one who thought that.

[ZLoth]

I almost soiled myself when I discovered it was scheduled for Friday night at 8 PM - the exact same time as 'The Dukes Of Hazzard'.

But, were you home in time for Dallas? Or was Dallas a rerun that evening?

[bandit957]

I almost soiled myself when I discovered it was scheduled for Friday night at 8 PM - the exact same time as 'The Dukes Of Hazzard'.

But, were you home in time for Dallas? Or was Dallas a rerun that evening?

We got home right in time for 'Dallas', of course.

[ZLoth]

I almost soiled myself when I discovered it was scheduled for Friday night at 8 PM - the exact same time as 'The Dukes Of Hazzard'.

But, were you home in time for Dallas? Or was Dallas a rerun that evening?

We got home right in time for 'Dallas', of course.

Oh yay... and you found out that afternoon about family portrait time, or did you have a day's warning? And, let me guess, you can afford to miss that episode of Dukes of Hazzard, but heaven forbid if they missed a minute of Dallas.

This, of course, leads to the question if television is now less important in people's lives than it was in the 1970s/1980s. The VCR in the 1980s opened up a avenue of alternative entertainment... some of it no longer edited for broadcast television.

[bandit957]

Oh yay... and you found out that afternoon about family portrait time, or did you have a day's warning? And, let me guess, you can afford to miss that episode of Dukes of Hazzard, but heaven forbid if they missed a minute of Dallas.

I'm not sure when I found out about the portrait, but my mom loved 'Dallas', and she didn't have to miss a single second of it.

[kkt]

Nowadays, it's the opposite.  Neither my nor I can decide what to watch, because we just don't care enough to have a strong opinion.

Which the problem I have with streaming services.  Faced with nearly unlimited choices I don't even know what I'd pick to watch.  The TV is generally just background ambiance for me anyways.

I was staying with a family member for about a week last spring and that was my first encounter with streaming services.  It took about 45 minutes to go through the whole menu of things to watch and by that time I no longer felt like watching TV anymore.

[LilianaUwU]

I rarely ever watch TV with my family. Hell, I rarely ever watch TV... Top Gear is almost always on my TV in my bedroom but I couldn't tell you how the show goes. It's background noise.

[ZLoth]

Which the problem I have with streaming services.  Faced with nearly unlimited choices I don't even know what I'd pick to watch.  The TV is generally just background ambiance for me anyways.

Try these services:

• Just Watch
• Reel Good

The problem I have is that the movies/shows that I want to watch is already in my Plex media library. In a surprise move, the Criterion collection will be releasing both KPop Demon Hunters and Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein onto physical media, although no release date has been set.

[kphoger]

... with streaming services.  It took about 45 minutes to go through the whole menu of things to watch and by that time I no longer felt like watching TV anymore.

As opposed to the old days, when you'd surf through the channels one by one to see what was on, except one-third of them had commercials playing, so you had to surf through them all yet again, and, by the time you finally settled on a show to watch, it was already halfway through the plot line.

[Rothman]

... with streaming services.  It took about 45 minutes to go through the whole menu of things to watch and by that time I no longer felt like watching TV anymore.

As opposed to the old days, when you'd surf through the channels one by one to see what was on, except one-third of them had commercials playing, so you had to surf through them all yet again, and, by the time you finally settled on a show to watch, it was already halfway through the plot line.

*passes kphoger a TV Guide*