lol i rember when i was a child on saturday morings getting up watching cartoons lonney tunes and smurfs then american banstand and then there was saturday afternoon movies that were on channels that didnot have sports on then there was dance fever and then love boat and lol fantasy island

I think cable was pretty much a standard by the time MTV was firmly established c. 1983 just in terms of most people ordering it. One reason I consider the 1980s to be the first decade that massively appealed to kids was because of so much in pop culture and entertainment to easily choose from. Especially compared to previous decades. The popularization of cable is one big reason for that IMO.

Although I remember people in the early '90s who only had the original thirteen channels.

I still don't even know what cable is..................it's like a wire, right?  :( :-[

I remember when cable first appeared.  A friend had it in his house, I never saw it, but you would put money in a box and you could see a movie. That was back in the very early 70s

lol i rember when i was a child on saturday morings getting up watching cartoons lonney tunes and smurfs then american banstand and then there was saturday afternoon movies that were on channels that didnot have sports on then there was dance fever and then love boat and lol fantasy island
Oooh, and then wrestling would come on.  My Grandma and I used to stay up late to watch it ;D

I remember trying to unscramble WHT and UHF in the very early 80's.

Go to my father's home and you can still see what it's like to not have cable.  ;D

When I visit my dad I go through the channels at least twice before I realize he only has 7 stations.

Go to my father's home and you can still see what it's like to not have cable.   ;D

When I visit my dad I go through the channels at least twice before I realize he only has 7 stations.


I don't have cable.  Whenever I am somewhere where there is cable I notice that I can still flip the channels and not find anything worth watching.  Why pay extra to have nothing to watch?

As the months get on, we find that we are getting less and less channels with are cable service.

I remember we were stuck with the big three ABC, NBC & CBS and a couple of independent channels. I hated it I just didn't know it at the time.  ;)  Being the total addict that I am. I used to watch cartoons Saturday mornings and then watch the family movies Saturday & Sunday afternoons. I saw Chitty Chitty Bang Bang a lot. I remember getting HBO in the late 70s I'm not sure when we started getting 20+ channels it was like a natural progression. they just kept coming. Now I have Directv and I am in heaven!

On terrestrial television during day it is absolute dire, and the cable channels make twice as worse.

I don't have cable.  Whenever I am somewhere where there is cable I notice that I can still flip the channels and not find anything worth watching.  Why pay extra to have nothing to watch?


That's true.  I live in a rural community and I can not pick up any channels, so I have basic cable.  

That's true.  I live in a rural community and I can not pick up any channels, so I have basic cable. 


seriously check out satellite it rocks

I remember it very well, we didn't have cable til I was early-mid teens.

Also, growing up in a single parent home we lived in an apartment complex, that didn't have a roof antenna, so we had to rely on rabbit ears. Always having to readjust them when you changed the channel, which you had to get up and goto the TV to change, no remotes. And of course if someone walked by it messed up the reception. :)

I also remember when we first got cable, and the dirty channels were just scrambled, but if you messed with the TV settings you could get a fuzzy B/W picture to come through. Ahh to be a teenage boy again.  :P

Who can remember when tv was available only in black and white?

i definitely remember life before cable. it had a certain advantage to it because sometimes you’d just get in the mood to “watch t.v.” and you pretty much had to watch what was on. so a lot of times you might end up checking out something sorta quirky and offbeat you’d never see otherwise.

then again, you don’t want to romanticize it too much. then as now, it was mostly crap, and then as now, people complained heartily and then plopped down for hours to watch. heck, i did it too!

I remember the days before Cable.  We had an old Zenith TV that only got 13 channels. 

I miss this TV.  Whenever you'd change the channel, it would fade to black for a split second while it made a "CHHH-KK" sound and the remote was as thick as a VHS tape LOL

I remember the days before Cable.  We had an old Zenith TV that only got 13 channels. 

I miss this TV.  Whenever you'd change the channel, it would fade to black for a split second while it made a "CHHH-KK" sound and the remote was as thick as a VHS tape LOL
We actually had a "zoom" button on our tv  :D.

Also, growing up in a single parent home we lived in an apartment complex, that didn't have a roof antenna, so we had to rely on rabbit ears. Always having to readjust them when you changed the channel, which you had to get up and goto the TV to change, no remotes. And of course if someone walked by it messed up the reception. :)





the best part about rabbit ears was all the foil and hangers attached to them to "improve" reception

Who can remember when tv was available only in black and white?


I can.  It was a special treat to go over a neighbors house and watch something in color.  An announcement would always come on that said "coming to you in color".  I notice that they do that with some of the digital shows now.

I remember having under 25 channels to watch. And, I remember just having basic stuff when I'd watch TV elsewhere. Very few people I knew had cable growing up. We were one of the few who did. Most kids today probably have no idea to know how it feels to watch under 12 channels. And nowadays, that's even harder because a lot of those 12 channels repeat the same stuff (i.e. Seinfeld is on at least 3 different non-cable channels, Frasier is on 2 non-cable channels, etc.)

We didn't get cable until the mid '90s, so I can easily remember a time without it. Even in like 1994, we still only had CBS, ABC, and PBS :o

The first thing I remember about cable was when a friend of mine got it and was the talk of the school.  :D She had one of those yellow cable boxes you needed a degree in Calculus to figure out.  :-\\

We didn't get cable until the mid '90s, so I can easily remember a time without it. Even in like 1994, we still only had CBS, ABC, and PBS :o


second

Though I've seen cable tv in other places...

We had to beg mom to get cable, and didn't get it until 1990.

the best part about rabbit ears was all the foil and hangers attached to them to "improve" reception
i sorta think maybe that's what watching t.v. was all about -- stringing up all the aluminum foil and standing on one leg, holding the antenna out like the FTD florist while opening up the window halfway to try and get a decent reception. man, those were the days!

I bought new rabbit ears today  ::)

actually, we don't have cable in our house either. but i dont watch broadcast much, either. i've kinda been keeping track of pro football this season, of all things, and would probably like to watch the occasional game but i imagine my geeky housemates will be too busy tying up the t.v. watching Dr. Who DVDs for the zillionth time. ::) i should maybe get some rabbit ears myself.

Who can remember when tv was available only in black and white?


I was going to say yes, but then remembered that perhaps it just that we only had a black and white set.  When did colour TV start in the UK?

I can still remember coming home from school to find that the set had been changed for a colour set built into a cabinet with folding doors.

And as for life without cable - I'm living it.

I was going to say yes, but then remembered that perhaps it just that we only had a black and white set.  When did colour TV start in the UK?

I can still remember coming home from school to find that the set had been changed for a colour set built into a cabinet with folding doors.

And as for life without cable - I'm living it.
Colour TV came into the UK in the late 60s, but my school still had a black and white set when my class sat down to watch the moon landing in 1969.

My mother had a TV that we use to watch in her bedroom. I believe she got it in 1975 or so, but at some point the knob fell off (I bet a lot of kids today would not believe a TV had "knobs" on it at one time, lol), so they stuck a screwdriver inside and taped it in and would use that to turn the channels. I remember I use to have to get on the booster chair to change the channels - geez, now that I look back on that, I guess TV's were just more pricey to get than they are now. It lasted a long time, though. And, it was actually a "JCPenney" brand. Does JCPenney even make TVs now, lol? 

My mother had a TV that we use to watch in her bedroom. I believe she got it in 1975 or so, but at some point the knob fell off (I bet a lot of kids today would not believe a TV had "knobs" on it at one time, lol), so they stuck a screwdriver inside and taped it in and would use that to turn the channels. I remember I use to have to get on the booster chair to change the channels - geez, now that I look back on that, I guess TV's were just more pricey to get than they are now. It lasted a long time, though. And, it was actually a "JCPenney" brand. Does JCPenney even make TVs now, lol? 
Radios had knobs too.

Radios had knobs too.



And Didn't have digital displays.  :)

And Didn't have digital displays.  :)
Not exactly digital...

http://www.oldtimeradiohome.com/air.jpg

Radios had knobs too.


Yes, and some actually still have them, although very few.

Yes, and some actually still have them, although very few.
Like old radios and televisions?

Like old radios and televisions?


No, actually new ones  :o

I bought a CD player awhile back which sorta mirrored an old style stereo and it had knobs on it.

My mother had a TV that we use to watch in her bedroom. I believe she got it in 1975 or so, but at some point the knob fell off (I bet a lot of kids today would not believe a TV had "knobs" on it at one time, lol), so they stuck a screwdriver inside and taped it in and would use that to turn the channels. I remember I use to have to get on the booster chair to change the channels - geez, now that I look back on that, I guess TV's were just more pricey to get than they are now. It lasted a long time, though. And, it was actually a "JCPenney" brand. Does JCPenney even make TVs now, lol? 


sounds dangerous keeping a screw driver in an electrical appliance 24/7.  We just kept a pair of pliers on top of the set.

I remember having only 3 channels and no remote.  I sat so close to the tv so I wouldn't have to keep getting up whenever I wanted to switch between the 3 channels.  Reception would cease at around 11 p.m.  The television was heavy and bulky.  We had the rabbit ears decorated with tin foil to enhance our viewing pleasure. 

Reception would cease at around 11 p.m. 


yeah and then the crying Indian (I mean Native American) would come on and tell us that we're killing the planet. then the color bars or test pattern would be on until the announcer came on to begin a new broadcasting day.

Reception would cease at around 11 p.m. 
Closedown with the National Anthem.

sounds dangerous keeping a screw driver in an electrical appliance 24/7.  We just kept a pair of pliers on top of the set.


Maybe we did leave it out, yet it always seemed like it was just "there." It wasn't really "in" the appliance. It was just hanging off the knob portion - it wasn't doing any deep sea fishing, lol  ;D

Closedown with the National Anthem.


Yes, that's pretty much what I am used to seeing. They'd show a lot of americana stuff. I guess now we pretty much have 24/7 TV, where back then it might have done us some good to have channels sign off at a decent hour.

Yes, that's pretty much what I am used to seeing. They'd show a lot of americana stuff. I guess now we pretty much have 24/7 TV, where back then it might have done us some good to have channels sign off at a decent hour.


There was this one independent station that played the Star Spangled Banner with Air Force aircrafts flying in the sky before going off the air.

"It's 12 o'clock. Do you know where your children are?" One station used to play this message at precisely midnight and it scared me a little bit.

There was this one independent station that played the Star Spangled Banner with Air Force aircrafts flying in the sky before going off the air.

"It's 12 o'clock. Do you know where your children are?" One station used to play this message at precisely midnight and it scared me a little bit.


wow you all had a late curfew. We got it at 10 o'clock

wow you all had a late curfew. We got it at 10 o'clock


I was surprised after moving from Ohio to Florida to find they had no curfews down here.

Where I grew up,  15 and under was a 10pm curfew, 16 til 11pm, 17 til midnight or something like that.

although the cops just told you to get home if you were caught out late. :)

or get caught with BB guns behind the middle school.  ::)

We don't have cable now...just an antennae in the backyard that allows us to pick up all of the local channels (about 6 of them). That's about all we need....we watch a lot of movies and TV shows on DVD.

Too many posts to weed through in this thread for myself, a "non regular" visitor, but, I grew up with TV going off the air at about 12AM or 1AM after the late local news broadcast and the daily warning to parents: "It's eleven o-clock, do you know where your children are?" followed by our national anthem with a flag displayed, followed by a "Test Pattern" by which you would adjust the reception / resolution of your picture!
If it (the picture) was bad, Pops would go up on the roof and turn the antenae with his trusty monkey wrench in order to point it in the optimum position for the best reception while we yelled from the "Living Room".... "That that is the spot Dad"!!
Then antenna "Rotors" came into being................

I'm sure that I'm not alone in these old memories....................

We don't have cable now...just an antennae in the backyard that allows us to pick up all of the local channels (about 6 of them). That's about all we need....we watch a lot of movies and TV shows on DVD.

From what I understand, you'll be watching more of those DVDs come the beginning of 2009, because those local channels will be broadcasting in digital, with the analog channels shut off permanently.  I am also told that those old antennas aren't going to be able to bring in a signal clearly enough for set-top digital converters to work ...

But cable systems and satellite will continue to convert the digital stations, so it's only those antenna-based viewers who are in danger of losing broadcast television service.

Too many posts to weed through in this thread for myself, a "non regular" visitor, but, I grew up with TV going off the air at about 12AM or 1AM after the late local news broadcast and the daily warning to parents: "It's eleven o-clock, do you know where your children are?" followed by our national anthem with a flag displayed, followed by a "Test Pattern" by which you would adjust the reception / resolution of your picture!
If it (the picture) was bad, Pops would go up on the roof and turn the antenae with his trusty monkey wrench in order to point it in the optimum position for the best reception while we yelled from the "Living Room".... "That that is the spot Dad"!!
Then antenna "Rotors" came into being................

I'm sure that I'm not alone in these old memories....................
no your not or how bout the info mericals with what u see on tv isnt really what it seems to be lol

I remember da day we got cable.

Ah,cartoons EVERY DAY (And good cartoons,not the crap thats on TV now)

The first we had cable the viewing was MTV and some other pop video channel.

Closedown with the National Anthem.


Never seen these days with 24-hour TV...

I suppose we'll get a 'special edition' when Liz croaks...

Back in the day, it was always the last thing broadcast at night...prior to 1972 (when HM Govt relaxed British broadcasting times) there were often several 'closedowns' during the day...

Never seen these days with 24-hour TV...

I suppose we'll get a 'special edition' when Liz croaks...

Back in the day, it was always the last thing broadcast at night...prior to 1972 (when HM Govt relaxed British broadcasting times) there were often several 'closedowns' during the day...
What happened during the "Three Day Week" some tv was shut intermittantly

What happened during the "Three Day Week" some tv was shut intermittantly


To save money (and energy), the TV companies had to curtail their hours, the main channels (if there was no school programming) not opening up until 4pm and closing down at 10:30 or thereabouts...

Of course, that's if you were lucky enough not to have a power-cut in the meantime... ::)

wow you all had a late curfew. We got it at 10 o'clock


They still do that here in Connecticut.  First time I heard it I was like "wtf is that about?"

I think cable was pretty much a standard by the time MTV was firmly established c. 1983 just in terms of most people ordering it. One reason I consider the 1980s to be the first decade that massively appealed to kids was because of so much in pop culture and entertainment to easily choose from. Especially compared to previous decades. The popularization of cable is one big reason for that IMO.

Although I remember people in the early '90s who only had the original thirteen channels.
I didn;t even get outside the basic channels until after Christmas time of 1996 when my Dad bought a Satteilite dish and I was like 17 at the time I think when we got the sattelite dish. I don;t know though it seems like there was alot of quality shows on in the 80's and 90's on Basic TV and now you get a bunch of channels with the sattelite dish and there is nothing on. I don;;t like whats on Basic TV anymore for the most part. It kinda sucks too though now that you get all these channels and my Dad likes the History Channel, my Mom likes the Liftetime Channel and I like too watch football and basketball. Back then my parents had no choice they had to watch Full House, Family Matters, or Who's The Boss with me.

The only thing me and my parents can sit down and watch together is epidodes from the  CSI and Law & Orider franchises, 60 Minutes, and Are You Smarther Than A Fifth Grader? My Mom and I like Don;t Forget The Lyrics by My Dad can;t stand it.

I didn;t even get outside the basic channels until after Christmas time of 1996 when my Dad bought a Satteilite dish and I was like 17 at the time I think when we got the sattelite dish. I don;t know though it seems like there was alot of quality shows on in the 80's and 90's on Basic TV and now you get a bunch of channels with the sattelite dish and there is nothing on. I don;;t like whats on Basic TV anymore for the most part. It kinda sucks too though now that you get all these channels and my Dad likes the History Channel, my Mom likes the Liftetime Channel and I like too watch football and basketball. Back then my parents had no choice they had to watch Full House, Family Matters, or Who's The Boss with me.

The only thing me and my parents can sit down and watch together is epidodes from the  CSI and Law & Orider franchises, 60 Minutes, and Are You Smarther Than A Fifth Grader? My Mom and I like Don;t Forget The Lyrics by My Dad can;t stand it.


Yeah, I sometimes feel like I'm wasting money just on cable when I only watch maybe 2-3 channels on a regular basis, lol.

That's true, there's a higher number of channels available now, but the quality of what was on was much better before the early '00s. I didn't start watching TV until 1991, but I did watch some '80s shows either in reruns or at the tail end of their run (i.e. Growing Pains, Full House). My parents and I both shared stuff like The Simpsons in common.

We disconnected our satellite service over a year ago and don't miss it.  We watch DVDs on TV about four hours a week. Watching television is a waste of time. Get out and enjoy nature and life.

wasn't there a vhf and a UHF witch i think was fox and public access, and you had to turn the nob to what you wanted it on.  Saturday was cartoons,wrestling b movies in the afternoon& does anyone remember kukla,fran& ollie

Yeah, I sometimes feel like I'm wasting money just on cable when I only watch maybe 2-3 channels on a regular basis, lol.

That's true, there's a higher number of channels available now, but the quality of what was on was much better before the early '00s. I didn't start watching TV until 1991, but I did watch some '80s shows either in reruns or at the tail end of their run (i.e. Growing Pains, Full House). My parents and I both shared stuff like The Simpsons in common.
Yeah I watched "Growing Pains" toward the end of its run too or maybe re-runs of the later run of its(early 90's) episodes.

Get out and enjoy nature and life.


some of us are happy with our addiction

i can remember that right around the time we got cable we also got our first used VCR it looked something like this:
http://gardener.nextchurch.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/vcr.gif

well it used to be that when you hooked the cable up through the vcr you still had all these little knobs that you had to use to "tune in" the cable stations so you could record what was on a channel... does anyone else remember this?

i can remember that right around the time we got cable we also got our first used VCR it looked something like this:
http://gardener.nextchurch.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/vcr.gif

well it used to be that when you hooked the cable up through the vcr you still had all these little knobs that you had to use to "tune in" the cable stations so you could record what was on a channel... does anyone else remember this?




A top-loading VCR...I remember those things! The couple that were my mother's best friends in the 80's had one of those. I don't think it was that one in particular, but it did have knobs and a zillion buttons. They also had a Betamax player, also a top-loader, right next to the VCR.

w0w that looks nice!!!

I bet it produced excellent content :)

My parents actually bought a second VCR (which ended up being mine, although I almost never used it) in Christmas 1985 that was a top loader. Although even by then, it was much simpler and more streamlined than the really early ones. I had it up to the early '90s, although I actually have no idea what ended up happening to it once we moved from the house we lived in at the time.

Anybody remember back in the 80s you could subscribe to just HBO? They would come out and install the special antenna on your roof.
That's when HBO was all movies with just 1or 2 shows.

Anybody remember back in the 80s you could subscribe to just HBO? They would come out and install the special antenna on your roof.
That's when HBO was all movies with just 1or 2 shows.


ha i remember that! hey does anyone here know where i can find pictures of the old HBO guide that used to come once a month?

staten island did not get cable till the end of the 80s.
even then, it was only in the north, facing manhattan.
the south shore didn't get it till 90.

that was about when we got staples, kfc and pizza hut.
now it's overhabitated. ew.

but it was ages till my family got cable, which was in...93.

How about these wonderfully large floppy disks? We had one of these machines that would allow us to play games. Someone on here told me what it was, but I've forgotten the name. Ours eventually broke down or replaced by Sega/Nintendo.

http://vocaro.com/trevor/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/big_disk.jpg

I remember when floppy disks were actually floppy!  ;D I would wave them back and forth to get that "floppy" effect. This really made my mother mad, as the majority of floppy disks we owned was for her workplace.

Living in a cable-free household is just part of the routine around here. I didn't have it when I was growing up in the 80's, and aside from a brief encounter with DirectTV, my parents didn't either. Back then, it was a lifestyle choice. For me, now it's a matter of whether I want to have the cash for other things. I like money.  :)

Anybody remember back in the 80s you could subscribe to just HBO? They would come out and install the special antenna on your roof.

Hmmm I dont remember THAT but i do remember them giving us a descrambler box that when you turned it on,it would descramble HBO..... (I think they stopped using it cause they realised it would descramble ANY SCRAMBLED channel when turned on (AH MAN!!))