TV was an ugly experience in the 60's and before. I'm interested in your comments on the"No cable and a 60's set that would'ne die" thread listed in the 1970 area.

...and in the 40's there was no TV...it was nice to watch TV for FREE back in the 50's & 60's....paying for CABLE was to get rid of all those commercials that kept it FREE...ho, ho, ho, now we pay & get to watch all those ads anyway... :o

guess I'll have to go find that thread you speak of, may I suggest, next time, you post the URL here (have seen other's do that when mentioning another thread)

and I mean that in the kindest way

8)

TV was an ugly experience in the 60's and before. I'm interested in your comments on the"No cable and a 60's set that would'ne die" thread listed in the 1970 area.


Yeah. Well  I'm 22 ('83) and I remember some pretty crappy tvs that my parents owned from the 70's...Floor models that looked and served more or less as a dresser/table with no remote and black/white fuzz everywhere. The buttons were disgusting. The more "modern" 80's tv's we had were not much better with rabbit ears that did much of nothing. And I'm no stranger to the aluminum foil for reception trick.....Hell I still use that one. I guess I've just always had crappy tvs.

When my dad's uncle died, he inherited this small house close to the beach that we vacation at, and we still have a ring dial phone and an old fashioned TV with a knob and that bulky wooden frame.  ;D

Growing up poor we sometimes didn't have cable during the 80's and 90's which meant we were limited to one good station a couple other poorer quality.

I didn't grow up poor, but I did have frugal parents. As a result, that meant they didn't spring for the latest gadgets *or* a new TV. When I was a kid in the early 80's, we still had a black and white 20" Zenith console, circa 1969 edition. It worked just fine, but my older sister and I complained loudly to my dad that we were the only family on the block that didn't have a color set. He laughed and told us we'd get a new one once the old clunker gave up the ghost. Unfortunately, that monster was not going anywhere anytime soon. We finally sent it packing to the Salvation Army in '85 and got a 22" Zenith that remained the primary entertainment source in my household until I got a TV of my own in high school.

As for cable, we did without it, but did sign up for DirectTV in the late 90's. I lived a deprived childhood.  ;)  I recall having a conversation with a classmate in the early 90's about this topic. He was astonished that I didn't have an insulated wire piping HBO and MTV into my home;  "Are you guys poor?"  >:(